Garfo - Garfo (2021)

If you were still uncertain about the relevance and the freshness of Portugal’s contributions to the worldwide jazz and improvised music circuits, this is for you: Garfo (Fork in English) is a band formed by four of the youngest generation of musicians active in the city of Lisbon. Lead by saxophonist Bernardo Tinoco, but with all members composing its repertoire, they play a empathic music with mind-puzzling structures and crossed time signatures, with lots of free improvisation to open up the frames. Coming from a family with strong ties with classical and jazz music, Bernardo has a sweet tenor sax sound rather unnusual in these domains. A former pupil of trumpeter Peter Evans, João Almeida’s sonic constructions give the maximum effect to his minimalist approach: just a few motives are enough to make a blast. Bassist João Fragoso and drummer João Sousa keep the motion with an energy that never dissolves. And that’s it: jazz turned again a music made by twenty-something years old innovators, with urgency but also a very surprising maturity. And they’re conquering the local scene, obliging the older musicians to keep the pace. It’s predictable that a new Portuguese jazz boom will come from this.