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1.
Ajuda (Help) 12:16
2.
3.
Who Are You? 22:28
4.

about

"I was in Lisbon for a short series with poet/author/musician Miguel Martins, an association we've had since 2008, exploring more poetry and music. On the free day I had arranged to meet another old friend there, Mário Rua whom I had met through Miguel some years earlier; we had in fact recorded duo CD in 2014 'Maresia'(SLAMCD331). We met up with Pedro Castello Lopes, whom I had briefly met at MIA Festival in 2017 and a new friend, bassist João Madeira. I slowly realised my 'free day' was to include this most enjoyable recording session - every take we played in on the disc - "warts and all", as they say. Hopefully there were not too many 'warts'!" George Haslam

Reviews:

GEORGE HASLAM / JOAO MADEIRA / PEDRO CATELLO LOPES / MARIO RUA - Ajuda (Slam 5100; UK) Featuring George Haslam on taragato, Joao Madeira on double bass, Pedro Castello Lopes on percussion and Mario Rua on drums. World traveling UK reeds player, George Haslam, runs the Slam label and has found a number of creative collaborators in South America: Argentina & Cuba, the UK and in Europe: Italy, Finland & Portugal. For this disc, Mr. Haslam recorded with three Portuguese musicians, one of whom he has a duo CD released previously: Mario Rua. Aside from his main axe: the baritone sax, Mr. Haslam concentrates on the taragato, an Eastern European reed instrument that looks like an over-sized clarinet and which can be seen in the hands of Peter Brotzmann and NYU virtuoso/professor Esther Lamneck.
The quartet was recorded live in September of 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal. Commencing with the title piece, “Ajuda (Help)”, the quartet is flying high and freely yet sound connected. Haslam’s taragato playing sounds like a soprano sax in a lower range, playing those Trane-like spinning lines at a moderate pace. The quartet never sound too busy yet play tightly in a controlled frenzy. Drummer, Mario Rua, is in especially fine form throughout, navigating the rapids and more tranquil currents as well as revving things up from time to time. The quartet calms down for “Nice to Meet You”, which features some strong buzzing bowed contrabass in the first section building organically through sections. Contrabassist Joao Madeira (who recorded a duo double-bass disc with RED Trio’s Hernani Faustino), takes an extraordinary solo midway through this long piece. I like that the quartet sounds relaxed even though they are traveling into some spacious, free-wheeling curves and currents. This quartet sounds like they are soaring through the Spirit Jazz World, everything organic, flowing just right, ghost-like, 60’s ancient spirit sounds… - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG


"George Haslam tells us that on a short visit to Lisbon to meet with the Portuguese poet Miguel Martins, he had arranged to meet an old friend, Mário Rua, with whom he met another former acquaintance, Pedro Castello Lopes and a new friend, João Madeira. This album is the outcome of those meetings and Haslam confirms that every take from the ensuing recording session is on this disc.

One might think that the title of the album and the first track, Ajuda, which in English translates as ‘Help’, is the meaning intended, but this is not the case and it suggests that we shouldn’t translate the title anyway. It is in fact the name of one of the oldest districts in Lisbon, to be found on the side of one of the seven hills of the city and where these recordings took place. That story, I think, sets the ambience for the music we can now hear.

Haslam is highly thought of in Portugal, along with other prodigious British innovators of the Free Improv genre, such as Lindsay Cooper (bassoonist of Henry Cow fame) Lol Coxhill, Phil Minton, Evan Parker and Paul Rutherford. He has been collaborating since 2008 with Miguel Martins and the purpose of his visit last autumn was to continue their researches in music and poetry.

The CD starts off with the title track, Ajuda, and this is purely Free Jazz, probably as close to that as anything Haslam has ever played. Incessant improvisation and the dice are cast, but not reluctantly. Almost 70 minutes of inexorable invention, fluid dynamics, powered throughout and characterized by the harsh, insistent, and discordant sounds of the tárogató’s challenges to the double bass. There may very well be some structure in the percussion’s framework to the opening of the final piece, which results in its seeming more focused, more intense. That makes it all sound so much richer, so much larger, and justifies the journey by which this end is achieved. "

Reviewed by Ken Cheetham www.jazzviews.net/haslam--madeira--rua--lopes---ajuda.html


"Four pieces recorded in concert in Portugal by George Haslam on the Romanian tarogato (similar to a clarinet), Joao Madeira on bass, percussionist Pedro Castello Lopes and drummer Mario Rua create free flowing moods in songs ranging from 12 to 22 minutes. Haslam delivers a Middle Eastern mystique as he sears around Madeira’s throbbing bass on "Ajuda (Help)" and flails in a declaratory cry over the brooding bassist on "Nice To Meet You". Rumbling and rambling percussion along with scratchy tones on "Who Are You" conflict and contrast with the pizzicato’d stummings while rustling in the leaves with hand sounds and mouth percussion sound like things that go bump in the night, requiring a flashlight on "Pleasures and Needs". Spontaneous implosions."
www.jazzweekly.com/2020/09/slam-for-septemberviola-falb-bernd-satzinger-mark-holub-a-room-for-you-breadcrumb-trio-breadcrumb-trio-haslam-madeira-rua-lopes-ajuda-stephanos-shytiris-nikolas-skordas-invisible-war/ George Harris

"Il sassofonista inglese George Haslam, qui al tarogato si è trovato a Lisbona insieme al poeta e musicista Miguel Martins, con cui lavora insieme dal 2008. In un giorno libero è andato ad incontrare il batterista Mario Rua ed il percussionista Pedro Castello Lopes, con cui si era incontrato brevemente ad un festival nel 2017, a cui si è aggiunto il contrabbassista João Madeira. A quel punto si è deciso di registrare in uno studio piuttosto informale da parte di un quartetto che non era mai stato insieme. Qui sono presentati quattro lunghi brani di questo incontro, in cui i musicisti si ascoltano e reagiscono trovando il piacere di una nuova musica in questa esperienza. È un dialogo fitto di idee, realizzato anche all’esperienza di Haslam, che fa sembrare il tutto compatto, come se la band avesse un lungo passato alle spalle. Il suo tarogato trascina i portoghesi, appena incontrati, fra questi il contrabbassista si rivela uno strumentista ricco di idee e di tecnica, che suoni in pizzicato o con l’archetto. L’avanguardia è ovunque, basta avere il giusto feeling e la possibilità di registrare, sembrano dire i quattro, che alla fine forniscono un risultato di tutto rispetto. Fra assoli e momenti in collettivo si procede con disinvoltura fino a che ci si è resi conto che la musica meritava di essere messa su disco."
Vittorio lo Conte www.musiczoom.it?p=31962#.X0PX9MhKi1t

GOOGLE TRANSLATE:
"The English saxophonist George Haslam, here at the tarogato, found himself in Lisbon together with the poet and musician Miguel Martins, with whom he has been working together since 2008. On a free day he went to meet the drummer Mario Rua and the percussionist Pedro Castello Lopes, with whom he met briefly at a festival in 2017, joined by double bass player João Madeira. At that point it was decided to record in a rather informal studio by a quartet that had never been together. Here are four long passages from this meeting, in which the musicians listen to each other and react by finding the pleasure of a new music in this Between solos and collective moments we proceed with ease until we realize that the music deserved to be put on record.experience. It is a dialogue full of ideas, also brought about by Haslam's experience, which makes everything seem compact, as if the band had a long past behind it. His tarogato draws the Portuguese, just met, among them the double bass player turns out to be an instrumentalist rich in ideas and technique, who plays in pizzicato or with the bow. The avant-garde is everywhere, you just need to have the right feeling and the ability to record, the four seem to say, which in the end provide a respectable result."

"The title of this album (and its first theme) comes with English translation, ′′ Help ", but it's not a request or offer of help - it's alludes to the Lisbon neighbourhood where it was recorded, Ajuda. The alfacinha reference makes perfect sense, as here is documented the latest coming of the baritone saxophonist (here only in tarogato, wind instrument similar to the clarinet - albeit strident - and originating in Hungary) to our country and our capital. He who is one of the great pioneers of free improvisation in London, alongside giants like Lol Coxhill, Evan Parker and Paul Rutherford, has been collaborating since 2008 with Portuguese poet Miguel Martins and his arrival in September 2019 went for a music and poetry session with the author and declamer. The day he was free here was the one where Mário Rua (drummer with whom he recorded the album in duo ′′ Maresia ", from 2014), Pedro Castello Lopes (percussionist he met at MIA in 2017 ) and bassist João Madeira took him to the studio. The result is here, edited by Haslam's own publishing house, Slam Records.

The first jam, ′′ Help ", couldn't be closer to the free jazz matrix that George Haslam comes from, coming to look like something that might have come out of the New York loft generation. Already ′′Nice to Meet You′′ (probably directed to Madeira, which has solo honours on the track and is introduced as a "new friend") enters full of impromptu music domains, spraying himself over 18 minutes of deconstructions of motives, always with tarogato and bass combinations as action vortices. "Who Are You?" is taken by Portuguese musicians to even more abstract grounds, but Haslam wanders in the middle with a melodic and accentuously bluesy approach, as if in a game of recognition and oblivion. "Pleasures and Need", the zipper, is a more concentrated piece, and it would be said that with a previously established structure (at least for what happens in the first few minutes), in it being highlighted Castello's work percussive Lopes. A CD that, in these difficult times of definement, works like a ′′ Haslam, come back, we're waiting for you for another one " Rui Eduardo Paes Jazz.pt

credits

released April 20, 2020

Live Recording, 18 september 2019 at Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal.
Recording and Master by João Madeira, in "Ajuda Studios".
Cover Photographs by Pedro Cabral
Design by Francisco Rua

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João Madeira Lisbon, Portugal

Musician, Composer.

João Madeira has been totally committed to discovering new processes of creating and composing music, whilst, at the same time, exploring new concepts of musical performance.
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“A Fábrica de Nada”, 2005, and “A Máquina Hamlet”, 2020 - “Parece que o Mundo”, 2018, (contemporary dance).
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