João Guimarães Grupo - Um (2020)

Here is the “Um”, this time with a septet in which we find Herman Mehari on trumpet, Travis Reuter on electric guitar, Eduardo Cardinho on vibraphone, Óscar Marcelino da Graça on piano and synthesizer, Francisco Brito on contrabass and Marcos Cavaleiro on drums . The musical personality of the saxophonist and composer is the same, albeit more mature and experienced, but the framework is different: instead of the “groove” inspired by Miles from the electric period (an even more free Miles) that came on that previous record we now have a jazz with lyrical packages, elegant in the contours, but vibrant in the contents, with the simplicity of the formulations to be balanced by the affirmation of instrumental performances, both in collective terms and in solos. Special features are those of the leader in the alto saxophone and those of Cardinho, always delicious.

It is a dance, balanced music, which is proposed here, with Guimarães generally placing itself at the service of the group, in conjunction with the other breath that not only introduce the themes but define at the beginning a specific type of sound, that that comes to us from the whole history of pairings, in jazz, from a saxophone with a trumpet. Rock and funk are still present, but they appear more nuanced and diluted. The melodic factor gained affirmation, and they look good with the post-cool style, à la Konitz and à la Desmond, from this bull from Porto. This aspect, as well as all the harmonic elaboration that supports it, includes this title in addition to the list of those who have marked the existence of Portuguese jazz (despite the two actors from abroad, Mehari and Reuter), so called because everything distinguishes it of the other European jazzes. João Guimarães is here to stay ...