Dear readers, in case you are wondering about the focus on Clean Feed this
week, let me briefly explain. Earlier this year, we were shocked to see a
message from Clean Feed head Pedro Costa announcing that after over 20 years
it was likely that the label would be shutting down at the end of the year.
Contemplating this bleak news, we felt we needed to do something.
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David Cristol:
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Paul Acquaro:
My introduction to Clean Feed occurred many years ago (in 2010), when
I came across a review by Stef of an album by Portuguese bassist
Carlos Barretto. Labirintos by Barretto's Lokomotiv
quartet had just the right combination of rock and avant-garde
leanings to really capture my early developing interest in
experimental music. I was coming from a steady diet of main-stream
jazz, fusion (ohh, way too much of it), and rock, and Lokomotiv hit
all the right notes. Going back and listening to this album and the
earlier self-titled Lokomotiv is a nice marker for me
of how different my listening habits are now, and also just how good
this music still sounds.
.
Another album that caught my ear, a little later, was the post-rock /
out-jazz quartet of Lawnmower featuring the duel guitars of Geoff Farina
and Dan Littleton, the gritty saxophone of Jim Hobbs, and the drumming
of Luthar Gray. The group spun ambient textures that were new to my
ears, and along with t11he moments of explosive energy, really served to
expand how I was hearing music. I let go a little more of my need for
obvious structures and allowed alternatives to fill their function.
Then, just two years later (2012), I am a fully fledged member of the
Free Jazz Blog and have 'drunk the (experimental music) Kool-Aid,' as
they say. On guitarist, woodwindist and above all, composer, Elliot
Sharp's trio outing Aggregat, the melodic strands are strong
and captivating, but its the diffuse interlocking of the rhythm section
that really worms it way into my brain. Upright bassist Brad Jones and
drummer Ches Smith keep the music flowing so well - tightly connected
but loosely affiliated - that when Sharp unstraps himself from the forms
that he has established, he never tumbles into pure chaos. For me,
guitar and bass clarinet are instant attractions and the music
on Aggregat supports this bias handily.
Now, taking a leap in time to 2020 ... a year that we all want to
collectively try to forget ... I had the good fortune to travel to
Lisbon for the "Jazz 2020" festival. It was between lockdowns and
travel was difficult and risky, which meant that for a weekend I had
Lisbon basically to myself as a tourist, and it was great. Adding to
that euphoria, I also got to hear The Selva for the first time. In a
sense, the music from the trio of cellist Ricardo Jacinto, bassist
Gonçalo Almeida and drummer Nuno Morão was a culmination of a journey
of musical openness for me. I heard their minimalist groove and the
electronic colorations in a new generous way and found myself simply
transfixed by their set. They have a series of album on Clean Feed,
starting with the eponymous 2017 release through last
year's Camarão-Girafa. Each album has captured the group
at new stages of evolution and each one is equally enjoyable. Thinking
about it in this way, I would also venture that my own musical
evolution is far from complete - phew!
Last mention that I'd like to make is the Humanization 4Tet from
Lisbon guitarist Luis Lopes. This groups taps into my deep-seated need
for robust musical expression. Yes, I have learned to appreciate
textural and nuanced atmospherics in music, I have let go of obvious
musical structures of chord changes, and set aside a need for purty
diatonic melodies and congruent rhythms, but I still like them. My
first introduction to this group with, in addition to Lopes,
saxophonist Rodrigo Amado and the rhythm section of brothers Aaron and
Stefan González (bass and drums) has all of those components in some
shape and unexpected form. It was their last album, 2020's Believe, Believe that spent months in my car stereo and never grew stale. It
contains Free Jazz, but Amado steers clear of the atonal abyss, Lopes
modulates - from quick melodic bursts to explosive textures, and the
two brothers keep the pieces connected with solid, but flexible, time.
There are many other albums that I could mention, but I'll leave it
this for now. My simple hope is that Clean Feed finds a way to
continue, their contribution to my musical growth and enjoyment has
certainly benefited, and I suppose that is true for many others as
well.
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