Rodrigo Amado's "Searching for Adam," Important New Improv Set

Rodrigo Amado needs to be heard by all those into the free thing. He's poised, filled with good improv ideas, and his new album, Searching for Adam (Not Two 837-2) shows it all off in a very good light. The band is an impressive lineup of New York's finest--Taylor Ho Bynam on cornet & flugelhorn, John Hebert, bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums. The rhythm team has bold fire and dynamic energy to spare; Bynum is a stick of dynamite. He crackles, sizzles and sears his way through the set, truly on fire.

And Rodrigo? First off I love his old-school tenor sound. He channels Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster and he channels early Archie Shepp's channeling of same. But the notes and phrases are Rodrigo's and they work together potently. On baritone the sound of Serge Chaloff comes to mind--gutsy or expressively tender from moment to moment. RODRIGO's notes, again, not a string of bop cliches. The BIG sax sound is not something many jazz departments out there seem to be teaching, so Rodrigo's sound is all the more rare these days, but all the more welcome. Sound is not something you can easily teach I guess, nor is the logic of a way of phrasing, sound and note-wise. So Rodrigo is doubly valuable in that he excels at both aspects.

The band has a clear direction and they go there. It's simply one of the best free ensemble disks so far this year. OK, the year is rather new, I'll grant, but I suspect I'll be saying the same thing come December.

Those who don't know Rodrigo Amado's music are missing out. This one is a great place to begin. Track it down and get down with the tracks. You'll be happy you did, I think.

Rodrigo Amado, Portuguese Tenor in Good Form on "The Abstract Truth"

Rodrigo Amado shows once again that he is an important new voice in the free-er stratosphere of improvisation with an excellent album The Abstract Truth (European Echoes). He is joined by two first-rate improvisers, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. Both sidemen have made their marks in the past decade or so, Kessler as the solid bassist with Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble and others following Russell's death; Norwegian Paal Nilssen-Love with Didrik Ingvaldsen, Frode Gerstad and Chris Potter.

This is a focused improvisational romp. Amado plays great sounding tenor and baritone here, with a sure conceptualization of what notes to play when. The rhythm team stays right with him for results that catapult this session to the high levels of some of the best free trio dates I've heard of late.

Amado has a mature approach and we can only expect him to get even better as he progresses. He is someone you need to hear if you have an interest in the improv music of today.

Rodrigo Amado's Tenor Sax in Free Flight

Rodrigo Amado came to my attention via a recent Dennis Gonzalez recording I reviewed on these pages (see September 30th posting). I'm sure I should have come across him sooner, but what I heard on that recording impressed me mightily for his sound, his inventive spontaneous lexicon, and his fabulous feel.

Mr. Amado read the review and very kindly forwarded me a few of his recent CDs, which I'll be reviewing on these pages.

First up is his latest, Motion Trio (European Echoes), which features Miguel Mira on cello and Gabriel Ferrandini on the drums. What I liked about his playing on the Gonzalez record is present in abundance on this one. The tone and phrasing hit me right out of the box. They seem so naturally idiomatic, like he could play "The Farmer in the Dell" and it would be hip. It is a sound that is bright, with a hint of Rollins perhaps, and has real poise in the matter and manner of attack and release.

This is a free date with the emphasis on linear momentum. Mira and Ferrandini have a pungent, pointed collective role on these sides and they help things pop. Ferrandini's drum set has interesting sound qualities and he makes full use of them in interesting ways. Mira's cello crystallizes and projects where the standard upright might boom and this helps accentuate the percussive attack that Rodrigo capitalizes on with short, stabbing phrases and longer lines.

Motion Trio is a study in contrasts of soul and abstraction. It manages to make the rarefied sound comfortably communicative. That's quite an achievement. Most of all it shows that Rodrigo Amado has remarkable sensibility and musical throughput. I would have to say he charts in the top handful of new free tenors I have heard lately. Take a listen to Motion Trio and see if you don't agree.