From the beginning the plan was to do a record with me and Cage Cabbarett. Initially a simple disc with 3 songs as originally was planned was rapidly expanded to a full long play cd. I didn´t play guitar for the first time in this project which is quite strange from one perspective and quite refreshing on another.

I made all the record with a Monome (40h) emulator, and that is basically it. The tracks were improvised to tape and latter on spliced mixed & mastered by me a few days before the exibit premiere.

I must say that i am very happy with the results in both perspectives(the exibit and the record). Regarding the cd; i think that we achieved a very abstract and ethereal record, but at the same time a very rhythmically driven one; with lot´s of stylistic recognizable references but that somehow defies categorization.

Hope that you enjoy it as much as i did making it! You can listen to it at the Shop .

And by the way: i want to thank Nico Verino, André, Rubina,  João Faustino, Vanessa Éffe, João Henriques and João Paulo Barrinha for this fantastic collaborative experience and outstanding creativity and professionalism ; the first of many more to come i am shure.

Visit: http://www.faccaocanalha.com

The first thing that pops-out it’s how unique and fresh is compositions sound. There is a strong “scent” of rock music in them somehow; but not in a very orthodox kind of way. The integration of the rock elements in these tunes is very interesting and peculiar and it gives them a very fresh “perspective” in what modern jazz is or might be .

The rythm section provides a solid foundations for both Ploug and Turner to explore the harmonic corners of the tunes, nevertheless there is a very distinctive amount of space that can be felt in the music witch makes it very “elegant”  and modern to my ears.

The Mark Turner contribution to these sessions is excelent as one would expect from a Saxophone player and composer of his caliber. Is lines blend very well on the harmonic structure of the themes and is incredible harmonic vocabulary emphasizes the delicacy of the tunes :  Overall two very good records from a very promising guitarist and group.

There is considerable number of jazz artists these days trapped inside a “Neo-Bop” “cliché” that leads them and they’re careers nowhere. Like as if they were lost inside a time warp trying to emulate days gone by. And  instead of paying homage to the music they love they are in fact destroying it. But that is another human “cliché” that everyone should know by now: Humans have a bizarre tendency to destroy the things they love..

Visit: http://www.mikkelploug.com/

It might seam hard to classify Kurt’s music in a single genre as himself acknowledged  in several interviews last year regarding the release of is latest record  “The Remedy – Live at The VIllage Vanguard” ; although for several obvious reasons is classified  and labelled as “Jazz”.

And it´s Jazz allright; modern, fresh, eclectic, and above all creative…

The public seams to love Kurt, and it’s been this way for a while now; but there are some curious aspects about him that i want to write about.

But what is that makes him stand apart from other contemporary jazz guitarists?: Well, it is undeniable that no one sounds like him, but that per se doest explain kurt´s success; but however points in an interesting direction, and that direction is what he plays in a pure musical and technical perspective.

Although deeply rooted in the Jazz tradition his approach is significantly different from his contemporaries. His solos sound unmistakably unique and immediately identifiable. He has a profound knowledge of the vocabulary and the history associated with the instrument but that’s not what comes out.

What comes out as a mesmerizing quality to it, a dreamy and sensitive quality that sometimes seems to came from another world or another time, and leaves you wondering what else there is out there for you to discover and that you didn’t know about, search new things and new experiences, new horizons…yes, its that powerful… and inspiring to.

From a musical point of view his unique approach to triadic superimposition and triads over bass notes in voice leading seams to be what distinguishes him from the rest. He does it masterfully and that enables him to improvise with extraordinary results.

Kurt as just finished a residence at the Village Vanguard in New York, and the first night was broadcasted live by WBGO. Both sets are available for stream or download at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98982233

Grab them while their still there…

Visit: http://www.kurtrosenwinkel.com/

I think the first time that i heard him was in the Weather Report album “I  Sing The Body Electric” two or three years previously (he makes a guest appearance in the second track ”The Moors” with is unique 12-string style); but really didn´t ring a bell for me at the time.

Not to long after that i saw him live in Lisbon at the Aula Magna. I was not familiar with is repertoire at all; and i only remember two of the compositions that he played that night: “Nimbus” and “Le Douzzilles“. I have never seen anybody play a guitar with such an authority and command; but also delicacy and expression at the same time.

It was a magical experience; that changed my life and not necessarily for the better because i was studying classical guitar at the time and that concert really put me in a “what can i do after that?” frame of mind.

And then one by one i started to buy all is albums: solo, collaborations; and with Oregon. And my passion for is playing and compositions began to grow, and grow and grow… Eventually i began to play his material as transcriptions of the recorded pieces began to surface on the web; and i learn a ton from this extremely difficult material.

Each piece is like a compositional microcosm: You can see that sometimes it began with a very simple idea and that the rest of material is derived form the first idea; embellished, transposed, inverted, etc. And they are beautiful; very rhythmically driven but also very melodically driven at the same time, full of colors and counterpoint, in sort; all the great qualities that good music should have.

And there is an interesting thing about Ralph: is composition are so strong that completely overshadows the fact that he as an incredible technique. He is undoubtedly for me one of the most interesting composers and performer on the Classical and 12-String guitar, with a unique sound and compositional approach.

I have never been a great admirer of the tradition associated with the classical guitar; but in the hands of Towner, the path was opened in a completely new way; and still to this day no one as even got close to his shoes; or should i say nails?

Visit: http://www.ralphtowner.com/

The Esbjörn Svensson Trio recorded 12 albums since they inception in 1993 and have made several significant landmarks in the universe of jazz and improvised music. Although they were not a stricktly improvised group per se; this was the element that unified the influences on their music.

And their music was really something fresh. A blend of Pop, Rock; Classical, Jazz, and Eletronica unified by a jazz aesthetic; that never ceased to amaze the ones who luckily saw them in concert. To understand the magnitude of their success is important to say that their were fully booked for concerts to the end of 2010!; witch is something you have to think about for a second.

But i think that the secret of their success is the fact that they worked as a single unit, and this is a “rare” thing. This might seem something difficult to understand for people who are not musicians but it happens all the time. And it happen for various reasons. The main one is ego; but there are others, as lack of conscience, lack of attention, and the inability to “ear” the other musicians.

It seems almost impossible to conceive or imagine but it is the plain truth: there are musicians that don´t listen to what the other ones are doing;  and i am not referring this at a amateur level; but at a professional one.

Listening is undoubtedly one of the most important qualities in a musician; and the absence of it one of the worst, but this is not always perceived by the public in general; because it is a very subtle nuance. A group of musician can perform without barely listening to each other, and might pass along unnoticed by the public; but when they do; the music projects itself immediately for another plateau: the plateau of excellence; and it “resonates” along with the universe.

Esbjörn Svensson on piano, Dan Berglund on double bass and Magnus Öström on drums functioned as a unique organism. The communication was almost telepathic and it showed for everyone to see at their concerts.

Rest in peace wherever you might be.

Discography:

• E.S.T. Live ’95
• EST plays Monk (1996)
• Winter in Venice (1997)
• From Gagarin’s Point of View (1999)
• Good Morning Susie Soho (2000)
• Strange Place for Snow (2002)
• Seven Days of Falling (2003)
• Live in Stockholm (2003, DVD, recorded December 10, 2000 including videos, an interviews and more)
• Viaticum (2005)
• Tuesday Wonderland (2006)
• Live in Hamburg (2007, recorded november 22, 2006)
• Leucocyte (2008)

Visit: http://www.est-music.com/

Well some people might find it strange but really it isn´t. It’s just a normal human behavior and necessity just like any other, and we can resume it in one simple word: communication. Its that simple, and its that complex at the same time.

And why is that?, may you ask. Well, because communication is one of the most important parts of being a human; but it is one of the most misunderstood, manipulated and misinterpreted activity since the early dawns of mankind.  Communication is not  “literal” in a sense that the words (vehicle) of the individual who uses them might be completely understood by the receptor and very often are not.

And they are misinterpreted because it´s at the same time a intellectual activity; but also a emotional one. And emotions are not logical. So communication is ruled by two opposite principles;  we are faced with a dualitty; and a duallity projects itself as ambiguity . Thousand of books, texts, essays, movies, songs, were written about this subject, and many more will and are being written about it in this precise moment, because that is really what this is all about: communication!.

We are like sponges that absorb everything that might caught our attention but there is a paradox attached to it: we also absorb lots of information about the things that we don’t like; maybe as a subconscious attempt to balance and validate the things that we like. So we are formed by the things we cherish and love in the first place; and for things we don´t like in second.

And it is exactly the interception between these two points that keep evolving and are in permanent mutation that intrigues me the most. From my experience, a successful creative process (applied to music) is the one o doesn’t question or try to shape beforehand these two specific points, but instead gladly accepts the outcome that is possible at that specific period in time.

But this is viewed as a wrong practice, because people in general ”think” by applying “tags” or “labels” to their language and thoughts , and therefore have great dificulty in dealling with mixtures of things that apparently are not related to one another.

So these ”tags” are purelly simbolic and represent ideas, situations, points of view and opinions, abstract notions, and physical things to; nevertheless they are simply that: representations; and people in general are unable to “think” outside this representative forms, or to use them as the basis for all kinds of extrapolations outside the realm of trivial human behaviour.

But there is another way of view this things; well at least for me!.

I think that everything is connected, and for me the biggest mistake of all is to separate them, or trying to separate them. You don’t; and you shouldn´t for the sake of your own integrity. Music is for me one of the most mesterious ”criations” of the human race. It´s like a parallel dimension that exists in simultaneous with our universe, were millions of notes exist at the same time. Imagine it like this: the instruments are the doors, and we are the keys to open it; and then they begin to enter our universe.

But music in the present is more than ever labeled and perceived as a product; and people are unable to visualize the existence of music outside a “veicule” or a frameork like the media for example (tv, radio, press). For the majority of people this is the only realm were the existence of these things are possible, and if it isn´t there,  pure and simply doesn´t exist (for them!); or it means that in one way or another it isn´t there because it lacks quality and this is generally the most common way of seeing it .

There is a very interesting experience about this that was conducted by the Washington Post that proves exactly my point: ”Pearls Before Breakfast by Gene Weingarten“.

Well but here we are, at the beginning of a new beginning…again..and again…

I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my personal guitar studies, and felt a enormous “creative” blocking; and buying the synth was the first step to solve this situation. It was always very clear from the start that i didn´t want to abandon the guitar; and that is really easy to happen these days with all the electronic ”gadgets” and ”toys” available to us. This enabled me to continue to play it but my approach that is still the same to this day was “not” to use it as a “guitar” at all.

My goal was to play the “sound” with no pre-conceived limitations, only the ones imposed by my imagination and my musical abilities; and to be able to play “everything” that i wanted to (Double-basses, Fender Rhodes, Organs, Orchestral Sounds, various types of Percussion, and a lot of abstract patches as well). The majority of guitarists that use a guitar synth, tend to use it as a complement to their main guitar sound; mixed at a lower level; and that was definitely something that i didn´t want to do.

It is important to say that the sounds i produce are a blend of audio and midi. I have a “double” rig with a audio and a midi path. Everything is played between these to paths and sometimes i am playing three different sound sources at the same time; and these sounds are looped, tweaked, and processed through effects at a later stage, but all in real time.

Playing an instrument is really a demanding “adventure” dare i to say; and something that changes all your existence in a multitude of subtle ways; and i don´t say this as a positive thing. You have to dedicate yourself to the instrument, and to the music; but eventually down the road you will arrive to the conclusion that the more you think you “know” means exactly that “you still have so much to learn”, or that you are “permanently” folding to the begining. It never end´s.

Music and the creation of it is one of my longest passions; and one of the most gratifying things in my life; but at the same time one of the hardest. Sometimes is wonderful, sometimes is frustrating, sometimes is pure bliss; and yet another times it can be as horrible as an horrible thing can be!. Well: very much like everything else in real life actually!.

After some time playing with the synth i bought a Repeater from Electrix (a company that sadly is no longer with us); and this became my main looping and mangling unit to this day. A short time after that in a summer sunday afternoon, we played a session in my house. Everything worked so well that we decided to form Platform.

Some week´s later we made our first rehearsals in a space were Rui used to work, called the Black Box; “pictures here” in preparation for the first concert in Guarda.”see gallery” – In a week we developed the bases of the material  that we played and improvise with in our concerts; and those concert recordings were latter used to assemble the Test Tube release “Templates”

Stay tunned for the next episodes…

With the help of our friend Paulo Carocinho (almost our official technician and photographer!;-),) I am installing a Roland GK3 Divided Pickup on a brand new Hagstrom Super Swede, bought to replace my hold and beloved Pearl Export Custom that after all these years of usage is in need of a severe rebuilt.

I have chosen this guitar for several reasons, but the main ones were its acoustic properties (a huge bottom end, almost as if the guitar was a semi-hollow) and obviously the vintage influenced Les Paul retro look.

I personally dislike modern guitars, and I’m not too fond on the million Fender guitar influenced designs that exist today either. My preference goes to archtoped shaped guitars with hambuckers, solid-bodys or semi-hollows.

In this particular case, I had to chose a solid-body because I am going to install the midi pickup, and it seems to me that it works better on solid-bodys.

I installed the first midi pickup some years ago, and since then assumed that the sonic characteristics of the instrument were not important when translated to midi, but I couldnt` be further from the truh. They really do, and the better the instrument resonates and is in tune, the better will be the sound delivered by the GK3.

And now, let’s hope that I will be able to play it properly in the concert without to much re-adjustment.

photos by: Paulo Carocinho