Jazz em Agosto 2024 (Part 1/3)

By Paul Acquaro

The frogs were agitated. Behind the stage of the outdoor amphitheater, from beyond the illuminated tree-lined pond in central Lisbon's lush Gulbenkian garden, the insistent croaking could be heard between the quiet moments in the music, not that there were that many. On the stage, James Brandon Lewis' Red Lily Quartet was deep into an upbeat and buoyant arrangement of the spiritual "Wade in the Water."

James Brandon Lewis' Red Lily Quartet -  by Vera Marmelo / Gulbenkian Música

Tenor saxophonist Lewis and cornetist Kirk Knuffke were dueting, soloing, and playing with and around each other, showing off a long-established musical relationship. Cellist Tomeka Reid, bassist Silvia Bolognesi and drummer Chad Taylor, meanwhile, made up the supportive and driving rhythm section. Reid and Bolognesi swapped bass-line duties, sometimes overlapping, sometimes working counter to each other, while Taylor provided the thrust and restraint that allowed the music to move so well. This piece featured a particularly prickly bass solo from Bolognesi before leading back to the snaking melody.

The group was playing songs from their 2023 AUM Fidelity release For Mahalia, With Love. Although the album had a somewhat different line up, the music flowed unfettered. The rearranged spirituals that were a key part of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson's repertoire were given a new jazz infused life, underscoring the deep appreciation for the music that had been passed down to Lewis from his grandmother. Drawing on elements of jazz, from blues to avant-garde, the music was at once deeply traditional and at the same time charting a new outlet of expression.

The arrangements, bridging the traditional and the modern, along with the enthusiastic and tuneful playing, made for a perfect opening show to Jazz em Agosto 2024. The frogs, meanwhile, had made their statement.

--

Espvall da Rocha Lobo - by Vera Marmelo / Gulbenkian Música

Sometimes sounds are perceived as colors, sometimes they are described as having shapes, and sometimes they seem to be ghosts. The understated music of Helena Espvall (cello and electronics), Maria da Rocha (violin and electronics) and Norberto Lobo (guitar, zither and electronics) fit the later category. The trio's music was haunting from the start and was always just slightly removed from the corporeal world.

 

The zither, too, is somewhat of a magical creature, certainly in the jazz world, and in Lobo's hands, it created swirls of sound, ephemeral arpeggios and fragmented chords. Espvall accentuated the zither's tone with her guitar, which she played briefly before switching to cello. Meanwhile da Rocha was sprinkling notes like fine dust particles into the air. Picking apart each member's sound however is a rather futile activity -- the atmospheric music of this trio is entirely collective.

 

Dreamy tones and electronic pulsations unfolded in entropic waves. New sounds, perceivable perhaps by electromagnetic field detectors, as well as the little hairs on the back of neck, faded in and out of the periphery. The music often lay in the tensions between the sounds and the appearance of a repeated theme offered the most concrete moments of the set, hinting at what may have been there all along. 

 

Mendoza Hoff Revels - By Vera Marmelo / Gulbenkian Música

The next set manifested once again in the outdoor amphitheater, and in contrast to the mystical energies of the earlier concert, this one featured the entirely corporeal Mendoza Hoff Revels, a co-lead effort between guitarist Ava Mendoza and bassist Dev Hoff with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and drummer Ches Smith. From the first notes, it was a sonic assault with stark, deliberate bass lines and powerful chords from the guitar. The intensity, however, was best captured by Lewis whose saxophone screamed like it was being played by a completely different person than on the first night.  

 

The group released a hard hitting musical statement, Echolocation, on AUM Fidelity last year, chock full of music swinging between metal and jazz. Mendoza's 'Diablada,' which was as perfect a statement as any of the band's virtuosity and musical affinity, began with a winding riff and chunky chords. Smith did not hold back, delivering heavy grooves spliced neatly into fractional denominations. A later composition broke up the intensity a bit as Mendoza took a turn with a blues based solo with a high desert twang. Soon, Hoff interjected a throbbing bass-line and Lewis cut through the amassing sound with a slow starting melody that quickly led to an ecstatic level of over-blowing. As the set progressed, each musician took a solo turn, and Hoff's bass solo was a compact masterwork that featured moments where they played the instrument as if it were somehow a classical guitar. 

--

 

Sylvie Courvoisier and Corey Smythe - By Vera Marmelo / Gulbenkian Música

Saturday's concerts began in the Gulbenkian's grand auditorium. Against the backdrop of the floor to ceiling windows leading out to the gardens, Sylvie Courvoisier and Corey Smythe's two grand pianos were fit snugly, ying-yang like, center stage. The duo were performing their Pyroclastic Records recording The Rite of Spring - Spectre d'un songe, in which Courvoisier and Smythe performed Stravinsky's duo piano version of the 'The Rite of Spring' along with Courvoisier's re-working of the music. Both pianists are comfortable in the classical world as well as improvisational one, from new music to avantgarde, and possessed a terrific sense of drama. This, bundled with a sensitivity and lightness, simply fit the music.

 

The duo began playing, at first, inside their pianos. It felt like a tuning of the room, getting the conditions right to then introduce the gentle, revered opening melody. While 101 years after its debut, The Rite of Spring is hardly a controversial piece any longer, its forward thinking use of jarring rhythmic figures and dissonance, the piece becomes a creative springboard for Courvoisier's curious musical mind. For the duo, the second part of the concert was a re-thinking of the compositions fused with improvisational components. Pendulous harmonic figures and angular melodies flowed like divergent streams that never wandered far from each other. Sometimes, the two engaged in delicate interplay and at other times, Courvoisier let herself slip into deep vortexes of intensity, playing syncopated figures in the lower registers while Smythe hammered out sharp, rhythmic chords. 

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet - By Vera Marmelo / Gulbenkian Música

Later that evening at the amphitheater, another re-imagining of sorts took place. Guitarist Bill Orcutt's Music for Four Guitars, created by overdubbing himself, had been transcribed by guitarist Shane Parish in order to be played by four actual guitarists. The guitar quartet of Bill Orcutt, Shane Parish, Ava Mendoza and Wendy Eisenberg took the stage with their presentation of Orcutt's original pieces, along then with their own improvisations and interpretations. Maybe the music is something not yet as well known as Stravinsky, but in a 101 years, who can say?

So, the four electric guitars - a mix of Telecasters, Jaguars and what not - and four silverface amps facing the audience were poised to make some noise (please note, this is just an impression of the set-up and not a detailed equipment list). The group sat in a slight semi-circle, all essentially facing Orcutt, who, along with Parish, provide the riff that the others would pick up on, layer something new onto, and add some rhythmic fervor. The first half of the set seemed to be the short compositions that had appeared on the original album, and the music came across wonderfully like a descendant of the John Fahey school of American primitive fingerstyle guitar propelled by updated driving rhythms. An interesting fact is that Orcutt uses a unique set up of guitars with four strings - missing the two lower middle registers, the A and D strings. Having one lower string note and three higher ones is a restriction that seemed to offer the guitarist an innovative creative outlet. With the set up, unusual voicings and treble tones figure dominantly.

Partway through the set, Orcutt announced a dilemma: his original album was only 30 minutes long, but their set was at least 60. From this point onward, the musicians turned away from the shorter pieces that they had been playing and into improvisational territory. Each musician had a solo turn that was exemplary - all at times explored the Americana theme but then added their own flavor - Eisenberg had a particularly experimental moment with a lot of whammy bar commotion, while Mendoza and Parish engaged playfully. The set was capped by Orcutt performing his solo piece, 'The World Without Me in It," his final notes blending with the sound of a passing airplane.

--

The festival's first weekend came to a close with two very different shows. The first, the duo of Ava Mendoza (in her third appearance) with violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul, and then later, a tentet led by Swiss percussionist Lucas Niggli. 

 

AM/FM - By Vera Marmelo / Gulbenkian Música

 

Mendoza and Fluke-Mogul (their duo cleverly called AM/FM) played in the smaller auditorium. Lit up glowingly in blue and red hues, the two engaged in one of the most exciting sets of the festival so far - not because of volume and intensity, but rather of imagery and intimacy. It would seem that Mendoza and Fluke-Mogul's origins, California and Florida, respectively, have somehow led them musically to the austere majesty of Monument Valley and swirling red rock canyons. Starting with a few long tones from the violin, Mendoza dove right in with a gunslinging attitude and a defiant blues. The two engaged in a bristling exchange of musical motives that kicked up the dust on the main street and flung the double swinging saloon doors wide open.

Over the set's near hour, there were moments of interconnectedness as well as diverging tensions. Two solo turns featured the musicians using electronics and extended techniques to augment their playing. Fluke-Mogul slid through double-stops and at times crushed her bow against the strings. Mendoza used loops to create sonic tapestry over which she unraveled a metallic melodic thread. After pieces that evoked crime noir and a bluesy folk tune, the duo ended their set on a sonic journey, shucking off the fetters of melody and harmony, and embracing a soaring abstract expressionism.  

 

Lucas Niggli Tentet - By Vera Marmelo / Gulbenkian Música

 

The final set by the Lucas Niggli Tentet took place under the cloudless sky at the amphitheater. A pleasant warm breeze blew as the audience filed in and the musicians took the stage. Niggli introduced the group, the Sound of Serendipity, and explained that the music required audience interaction. A series of rules were laid out, which involved sets of cards and musical roles based on random drawings of the cards. "The first movement will have a conductor - we don't know who it will be yet, and a soloist - we don't know who it will be yet," explained the percussionist. Audience members were asked to pick and distribute the cards. There were many more rules but understanding card games was never one of my strong suits.

How it really began was with vibraphonist and percussionist João Carlos Pacheco generating a general clatter while saxophonist Silke Strahl played a circular phrase and tubist Marc Unternährer added low thrumming tones. A theme emerged from bassist Christian Weber, to which Niggli responded with a light straight ahead beat. Accordionist Tizia Zimmermann altered the pattern with light wheezing tones and the emphasis again shifted.

Roles shifted too, for example vocalist and electronics player Joana Maria Aderi was the conductor for the first movement and played a much different role in the next piece when Weber took over the conductor duties. The music continued to morph as it went on, a third conductor, flutist Marina Tantanozi, took a much less kinetic approach and prog-rock ready Dominik Blum delivered gut punches with the Hammond Organ. 

The music came to a final rest as Tantanozi herself slumped slowly to the ground, and the ten musicians filed off the stage towards where the frogs had been at the start of the renowned jazz festival.

##

Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3