reviews / 2024

GARUDA TRIO + RODRIGO PINHEIRO - Tongues Of Flames

Name: GARUDA TRIO + RODRIGO PINHEIRO – Tongues Of Flames
Item: Tongues Of Flames
Rating: 7
Author: Roberto Mandolini

2024 (New wave of jazz)

jazz

by Roberto Mandolini

Saxophonist Hugo Costa returns to release music on the Belgian label A New Wave of Jazz, joined by fellow Portuguese musicians Hernâni Faustino (double bass), João Valinho (drums) and Rodrigo Pinheiro (piano), a shining light of Portugal's unmissable free jazz scene.

The three improvisations on “Tongues Of Flames” were recorded in July 2022 in Lisbon (Namouche Studios) and released on CD in early 2024 by Dirk Serries's label (in the usual edition of 200 copies, with cover artwork by Rutger Zuydervelt).

The eighteen minutes of the opening track, “Raw”, capture the essence of the quartet's sound, both liquid and explosive: the double bass slowly sketches a lunar groove, and for nearly six minutes saxophone, piano and drums chisel soft notes in harmony with the instrument's timbres; then a steady acceleration brings the instruments to the fore, giving life to a long coda that catches fire like David Murray's sidereal blues.

The magic repeats itself on the shorter, self-titled “Tongues Of Flames”, where Costa and Pinheiro trade two solos that reveal a rapport worth hearing, moving across volumes and multidimensional spaces. Blues accents again open the fifteen minutes of “If We Dance”, where the dialogue among the four musicians becomes so fluid that, in the propulsive finale, it sounds like a single voice.

Ride the wave of great music

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08/04/2024

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Roberto Mandolini, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition