SEI MIGUEL – Esfíngico: Suite For A Jazz Combo – CD – CF170CD

The international specialized press already presented Sei Miguel as the “best well kept secret” of the Portuguese creative music scene. It begins not to be true: the refined sound art of this idiosincratic trumpeter already circulates in the four corners of the world, and this puzzling but beautiful CD is another contribution to make him a wider justice. Positioned in the fringes of the Lisbon jazz scene because of his very personal approach (John Cage being such an important reference to Sei Miguel as those of black jazz trompeters), we hear him in “Esfíngico” working with a classical music format, the suite. And we sure do feel each piece, or movement, as the part of a global compositional concept. Again with Sei Miguel we find Rafael Toral, more known and celebrated outside Portugal, specifically in the experimental and electronic music circuits, but always a confessed admiror of his fellow musician. The other members of the band are Miguel’s usual partners: the very fluent Fala Mariam (alto trombone), the sober yet lyrical Pedro Lourenço (bass guitar), and the essentialist César Burago (percussion). It’s clear that the score was created for these performers and not for their instruments, like Duke Ellington did in his time. And that means this is music with an incredible human dimension, cooperative, participated and, most importantly, felt.

Clean Feed Records