Carlos “Zingaro” & Pedro Carneiro - Elogio das Sombras (2021) [Hi-Res]

The return of the master violinist Carlos “Zingaro” to the Clean Feed catalogue is something to applaude, as it is the continuation of the label’s attention to the improvising side of the also Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro, one of the top marimba players of contemporary classical music worldwide (performing on a custom made marimba with a damper pedal on this recording!), after the release of his duo with Pedro Melo Alves. The recording of “Elogio das Sombras” dates back from 2012 and such marvel of sounds and musical ideas risked to remain forever inside a drawer. The combination of a marimba and a violin is rare in any context, but we can state with little margin of error that this is the first time ever it happens in the creative jazz/free improvised music field. Of course, there’s classical resonances all along, because that’s where these incredible musicians come from, but the inventiveness of the improvisations reunited in this opus (with its title translatable as “Eulogy of the Shadows”) have the cutting edge of the most “off-off” free jazz ever played (and what to expect differently from “Zingaro”?). It would be a crime, not to have this at the reach of public ear.