Chris Speed & Lama - Lamaçal (2013)

The exquisite, chamber-like, electro-acoustic jazz played by the Luso-Canadian trio Lama caught attentions with its debut release (“Oneiros”) last year. Now, double bassist and bandleader Gonçalo Almeida, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and drummer Greg Smith are back for more lyrical, but abstract, music with a very special guest: New York tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Chris Speed. The combination couldn’t be more natural: Speed is a master architect of the quiet zone of sound organization, as shown by projects like the exotic Claudia Quintet. His introspective, Warne Marsh-like approach matches very well with Santos Silva’s sometimes melancholic trumpet and flugelhorn. “Lamaçal” isn’t mainstream or avant-garde, but something else. Namely, and more than ever (in a kind of “beginning of a new millennium” syndrome), it puts into practice the perception that creating music, today, is a simultaneous compromise with the future and the past, demanding new equations between an exploratory focus and the use of an accessible language. Music can be deep and light: here’s an excellent example…

Tracklist:

1. Overture For A Wandering Fish
2. Lamaçal
3. Moby Dick
4. Cachalote
5. Pair Of Dice
6. Anémona
7. Manta

Personnel:

Chris Speed - Tenor Sax., Clarinet;
Susana Santos Silva - Trumpet, Flugelhorn;
Gonçalo Almeida - doublebass, effects and loops;
Greg Smith - drums and electronics.