L.U.M.E. - Las Californias (2021)

Marco Barroso’s LUME (“fire” in English, but in truth the acronym of Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble) comes back with a reformulated alignment of musicians and a new collection of compositions challenging the jazz big band format with a chamber ensemble feeling and lots of funk-rock grooves. The coordinates are the same as before in this third opus, but they come in “Las Californias” both refreshed and matured. It seems a paradox, but as the most Anarchist of proverbs declare: paradoxes are liberating. Time and experience solidify an idea and it’s simultaneously the condition to make something new with old ingredients. Barroso renews the jazz orchestral patterns introducing classical materials and urban popular flavors on it: that’s what LUME made a difference at the start. Now he also renews his own formulas, taking the resulting music to other destinies, opening its paths from where they seemed to end. Doing that, he manages to create mind puzzling pieces that also invite you to dance, which is an achievement in itself.