FatJazz präsentiert: LUIS VICENTE 4TET House in the Valley

• Jazz, Blues, Swing & Chanson

Luís Vicente – tr (PT)

John Dikeman – ts (US)

Luke Stewart – b (US)

Onno Govaert – dr (NL)

This international quartet first stepped on a stage in July 2021, on a tour supported by the Portuguese Foundation GDA that allow them to perform in seven cities in Portugal.

The Portuguese trumpeter LUIS VICENTE finally had by his side: the North American bassist, LUKE STEWART, highlighted by Downbeat magazine as “one of the 25 most influential jazz musicians of his generation”, that collaborated with “Irreversible Entanglements”, “Moor Mother”, Rob Mazurek’s “Exploding Star or Jaimie Branch; JOHN DIKEMAN, a renowned North American saxophonist residing in Amsterdam, with whom Vicent has built a fruitful relationship joined by William Parker and Hamid Drake; and ONNO GOVAERT, an outstanding Dutch drummer and a recurring figure on the stages in Europe.

The sound of House in the Valley sends us to Vicente’s pandemic routine, with the presence of his daughter Luísa, who names one of the most festive and daring works of the album “Luisa’s Laugh’’. It is a contemporary creation, free and open in its interpretation. The music in this album is inspired by childhood times, spent at the house of Luis’ maternal grandparents, in a rural environment between meadows and valleys. The album sounds like a ritualistic ceremony, an invitation to dive into the present moment and into a communion of each person with themselves and with their surroundings.

“House in the Valley“ has a contemporary edge and a free, exploratory, intriguing and attractive Central European music ambiency. The compositions break the conventional canons of AABA structure or ABA solo and repetition of that same structure. There are several influences present here: the insistent and constant presence of the sea, the urban sounds, where a whole sound palette can be felt. The compositional inspiration largely comes from Ornette Coleman’s harmolodics concept, where harmony, sound movement and melody share the same value. The overall effect is that this music achieves an immediately open expression, unconstrained by tonal limitations, rhythmic predetermination, or harmonic rules.