SEI MIGUEL – (Five) Stories Untold – CD – CF374CD

A new record by the «best kept secret of Portuguese creative music», as one British critic once wrote about trumpeter extraordinaire Sei Miguel. Specifically, a collection of “stories untold” with different line-ups, from a duo with Fala Mariam to a sextet with Mariam, Nuno Torres, Rodrigo Amado, José Bruno Parrinha and Paulo Curado, including the participation of other musicians like Carlos Santos, Hernâni Faustino, Luís Desirat and Moz Carrapa. This is how jazz sounds when inspired by John Cage and Alvin Lucier, each piece creating its own world, either reminiscent of Greek and Balkan chants, based on a Raksin-Mercer song, “Laura”, dedicated to the guitarist of the free rock band Caveira or having the same notion of space Miguel finds in both Gil Evans and Keith Rowe. A veteran of the Portuguese scene, active since the Eighties, revered by some and misunderstood by others, Sei Miguel refuses to be considered an “institution” by always renewing his concepts and his playing, facing each project simultaneously as the first and the last one, letting himself to be surprised and at the same time dealing with it as a definitive statement. The consequence: a shining diamond, for you to take and cherish…

Clean Feed Records