Staub Quartet - House Full of Colors

House Full of Colors
Staub Quartet
JACC Records

Miguel Mira - cello
Zingaro - violin
Hernani Faustino - double bass
Marcelo dos Reis - acoustic guitar, prepared guitar

The musicians who make up the collective known as the Staub Quartet are part of a vital Portuguese improvised music scene and have been featured in many combinations. Hernani Faustino is part of the amazing RED Trio, while Miguel Mira is one-third of the Motion Trio with Rodrigo Amado and Gabriel Ferrandini. Marcelo dos Reis is one of the principals of Cipsela Records, which has a small yet distinguished output, including a solo album from Zingaro.

The six tracks comprising House Full of Colors are fully improvised, and I actually approached this with some initial hesitancy. There are a lot of free improv recordings getting released these days, and I find myself with less of an appetite for abstract explorations of timbre and texture, with seeming little interest in forward momentum.

Given the quality of the musicians in the Staub Quartet, I should have expected that they would provide something of value, and they do. The members are adept at moving in one direction and supporting each other, so the music seems to have a composed element to it. dos Reis occasionally introduces repeating figures from his guitar, giving those tracks a unique blend of chamber music with an almost folk influence.

There continues to be a lot of quality jazz and jazz-influenced music coming from Portugal, and House Full of Colors is a worthy addition.

RED Trio & Mattias Ståhl - North And The Red Stream

RED Trio & Mattias Ståhl

North And The Red Stream

NoBusiness Records

Rodrigo Pinheiro - Piano

Hernani Faustino - Double bass

Gabriel Ferrandini - Drums

Mattias Ståhl - Vibraphone

I have to admit its taken me a while to fully warm up to the RED Trio. What I had heard of their previous releases, particularly those with guest artists John Butcher and Nate Wooley, had seemed a little too “pointillist” for my tastes. But I liked what I heard from individual members’ contributions to records such as Clocks & Clouds with Luis Vicente, and now the Trio has released a fabulous recording of a 2013 live concert with vibist Mattias Stahl.

What I’ve come to appreciate about the RED Trio is this great sense of architecture they bring to what they create in the moment. The performance as released consists of three pieces ranging from 16 to 20 minutes each, and it’s fascinating to hear how each develops. One moment the group will be engaged in intense interplay, then turn on a dime to sparse sections with what sounds like prepared piano and percussive interjections from Ferrandini. For a small group, they create an impressive set of textures. 

The more intense sections of this performance remind me of The Feel Trio. Pinheiro’s playing has some of Cecil Taylor’s markers, but he’s developed his own vocabulary that contains more use of space and silence than any of Taylor’s work, along with the way he dampens his strings to generate percussive effects. Guest Stahl fits right in with a metallic flavor to his vibes, and sounds like a permanent member of the group.

The RED Trio is known for their democratic interaction, and they don’t disappoint here. As I write this, I realize it’s somewhat useless to single out any one member’s contributions, as one might when listening to a traditional piano trio. Every time I listen to North, and no matter how hard I try to focus on one member at a time, I end up perceiving the totality of the performance. There are a lot of trios that emphasize “leaderless” group interaction, but the RED Trio takes this to another, unique level.

You can now officially count me as a fan. Now to catch up with all their previous output…(sigh)

Rodrigo Amado - Wire Quartet

Rodrigo Amado

Wire Quartet 

Clean Feed

Rodigo Amado – Tenor saxophone

Manuel Mota – Guitar

Hernani Faustino – Double bass

Gabriel Ferrandini - Drums

Rodrigo Amado is a free jazz musician whose sound harks back to the classic saxophonists of the jazz tradition. His thick tone, bluesy in quieter moments and containing an R&B edge, brings to mind players like Gene Ammons and Lockjaw Davis. When things get heated, his tone takes on a grainy quality that reminds me of a young Gato Barbieri. 

His Wire Quartet is composed of bassist Faustino and drummer Ferrandini of the RED Trio; Ferrandini is also part of Amado’s Motion Trio with cellist Miguel Mira. Guitarist Manuel Mota completes the group.

The initial and longest track, Abandon Yourself, alternates between sections where everyone plays nice with each other, in sort of a free jazz version of a ballad session, and moments when things come to a full boil. Probably the most fascinating part of this track, and the record overall, is the tension of the interaction between Amado and Mota, where Amado’s rational explorations of thematic elements are juxtaposed with Mota’s frenzied finger-picking and bursts of noise.

The two shorter tracks that follow are even more compelling than the first, each providing a clearer arc of tension and release with a little more economy of expression.

You would expect the bassist and drummer of the RED Trio to be hand-in-glove, and they are, but this is Amado’s and Mota’s show. This round is a draw, and it’ll be interesting to see how things settle out should they tangle again.

Here's a video from 2007 of the group in concert, with Peter Bastiaan in place of Ferrandini.

Luis Vicente/Rodrigo Pinheiro/Hernani Faustino/Marco Franco - Clocks and Clouds

Luis Vicente/Rodrigo Pinheiro/Hernani Faustino/Marco Franco

Clocks and Clouds

FMR Records

Luis Vicente – Trumpet

Rodrigo Pinheiro – Piano

Hernani Faustino – Bass

Marco Franco - Drums

On Clocks and Clouds, Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente is joined by two-thirds of the RED Trio, pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro and bassist Hernani Faustino. Marco Franco, who started out drumming in metal bands, takes the place of Gabriel Ferrandini.

Clocks and Clouds refers to Ligeti’s composition of the same name, which itself was a reference to philosopher Karl Raimund Popper’s essay “On Clocks and Clouds.” Popper wrote of natural processes that can be measured exactly (“Clocks”) and those that are indefinite and can only be described in approximation (“Clouds”).

Based on my limited experience with the RED Trio’s music, I thought Clocks and Clouds was going to be a minimal, lower-case affair. Boy was I wrong, but gladly so, because this is a free improv record that has some muscle. 

Vincente does a nice job expressing himself through both traditional and extended techniques, with the open horn and with a mute. Pinheiro sounds like two piano players at times, exploring the extremes of both the lower and upper registers of his instrument. The RED Trio is a group that’s never really clicked for me for some reason, but with Franco in the driver’s seat things really take flight. The whole group engages in lightening quick reactions to each other, and sounds animated and more assertive than I expected. Now I need to go back and reassess RED Trio’s catalog, especially their recording with Nate Wooley, Stem.

Based on Popper’s definitions, Clocks and Clouds is probably more “Clouds”, an indefinite, in-the-moment process, but the structures the group creates in the moment work. If you’re looking for free improv that’s not afraid to get boisterous at the proper times, Clouds and Clouds is for you.