HASLAM / MADEIRA / RUA / LOPES - Ajuda
SLAMCD 5100
George Haslam, tárogató; João Madeira, double bass; Mário Rua, drums; Pedro Castello Lopes, percussions
Live recording at Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal, 18 September 2019
George Haslam tells us that on a short visit to Lisbon to meet with the Portuguese poet Miguel Martins, he had arranged to meet an old friend, Mário Rua, with whom he met another former acquaintance, Pedro Castello Lopes and a new friend, João Madeira. This album is the outcome of those meetings and Haslam confirms that every take from the ensuing recording session is on this disc.
One might think that the title of the album and the first track, Ajuda, which in English translates as ‘Help’, is the meaning intended, but this is not the case and it suggests that we shouldn’t translate the title anyway. It is in fact the name of one of the oldest districts in Lisbon, to be found on the side of one of the seven hills of the city and where these recordings took place. That story, I think, sets the ambience for the music we can now hear.
Haslam is highly thought of in Portugal, along with other prodigious British innovators of the Free Improv genre, such as Lindsay Cooper (bassoonist of Henry Cow fame) Lol Coxhill, Phil Minton, Evan Parker and Paul Rutherford. He has been collaborating since 2008 with Miguel Martins and the purpose of his visit last autumn was to continue their researches in music and poetry.
The CD starts off with the title track, Ajuda, and this is purely Free Jazz, probably as close to that as anything Haslam has ever played. Incessant improvisation and the dice are cast, but not reluctantly. Almost 70 minutes of inexorable invention, fluid dynamics, powered throughout and characterized by the harsh, insistent, and discordant sounds of the tárogató’s challenges to the double bass. There may very well be some structure in the percussion’s framework to the opening of the final piece, which results in its seeming more focused, more intense. That makes it all sound so much richer, so much larger, and justifies the journey by which this end is achieved.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
SLAMCD 5100
George Haslam, tárogató; João Madeira, double bass; Mário Rua, drums; Pedro Castello Lopes, percussions
Live recording at Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal, 18 September 2019
George Haslam tells us that on a short visit to Lisbon to meet with the Portuguese poet Miguel Martins, he had arranged to meet an old friend, Mário Rua, with whom he met another former acquaintance, Pedro Castello Lopes and a new friend, João Madeira. This album is the outcome of those meetings and Haslam confirms that every take from the ensuing recording session is on this disc.
One might think that the title of the album and the first track, Ajuda, which in English translates as ‘Help’, is the meaning intended, but this is not the case and it suggests that we shouldn’t translate the title anyway. It is in fact the name of one of the oldest districts in Lisbon, to be found on the side of one of the seven hills of the city and where these recordings took place. That story, I think, sets the ambience for the music we can now hear.
Haslam is highly thought of in Portugal, along with other prodigious British innovators of the Free Improv genre, such as Lindsay Cooper (bassoonist of Henry Cow fame) Lol Coxhill, Phil Minton, Evan Parker and Paul Rutherford. He has been collaborating since 2008 with Miguel Martins and the purpose of his visit last autumn was to continue their researches in music and poetry.
The CD starts off with the title track, Ajuda, and this is purely Free Jazz, probably as close to that as anything Haslam has ever played. Incessant improvisation and the dice are cast, but not reluctantly. Almost 70 minutes of inexorable invention, fluid dynamics, powered throughout and characterized by the harsh, insistent, and discordant sounds of the tárogató’s challenges to the double bass. There may very well be some structure in the percussion’s framework to the opening of the final piece, which results in its seeming more focused, more intense. That makes it all sound so much richer, so much larger, and justifies the journey by which this end is achieved.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
