Personnel:
Ricardo Pinheiro (g), Chris Cheek (ss, ts), Michael Formanek (b), Jorge Rossy (d)
Reference: FSRCD 5139
Bar code: 8427328651394
Versatility is one of the main strengths of Ricardo Pinheiro. Though steeped in modern jazz, the guitarist from Lisbon, Portugal has not only been adept at playing, composing and recording straight-ahead jazz but also music on the crossroads of fusion, acoustic folk, Brazilian style, free improv, ambient and jazz and poetry. He cooperated with a diversity of artists including saxophonist Dave Liebman, composer Ivan Lins, pianists Aaron Parks and Mário Laginha, bassist Massimo Cavalli, drummers Eric Ineke and Peter Erskine, percussionist Jorge Moniz and singers Luciana Souza, Mônica Salmaso, Theo Bleckmann and Maria João.
For all his eclecticism, it is a special mix of lyricism and angularity that is a continuous force in a style that owes much to the revisionist class acts that came up in the early 1990’s, notably Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Brad Meldhau, Ben Monder and Jorge Rossy. Pinheiro gives his own spin to the contemporary art of composition and improvisation. Firstly, there’s his idiosyncratic, reverberant tone. Secondly, it is hard to separate the melancholic aspect of his playing and composing from his Portuguese background, particularly the fado. Finally, his delicate use of effects, such as volume control and delay, is rather striking.
Songs of Longing, already Pinheiro’s fifth album on Fresh Sound, has been a gratifying experience for Pinheiro.He has consistently worked in his career with Chris Cheek and Lisbon resident and bassist Michael Formanek. His cooperation with drummer Jorge Rossy was something Pinheiro had been looking forward to a long time. This trio also took part in Pinheiro’s Tone Stories album. Pinheiro: “Chris and Michael have incredible tones. Jorge aswell. He’s a painter on the skins and cymbals. He’s one of my favorite drummers of all time, period. So, Songs of Longing was a dream come true.”
Songs of Longing presents original compositions by Ricardo and two standards. It eloquently speaks for itself. Regardless, I’d briefly like to add a few comments. The four members of Pinheiro’s international quartet have great ears, underpinning each other’s story lines with emphatic and stimulating ideas, comprising an exceptionally organic outfit. To boot, the group sound is gorgeous. Mellow like the wind that blows through fields of sunflowers. Solid and warm like a brother’s embrace.
Bittersweet might be the best description of Pinheiro and Cheek’s inspired playing on Be Longing, underscored by Rossy’s typically, oh-so-subtle, ‘loose’ style. Formanek’s flexible bass intermezzo is at the heart of an intriguing interpretation of I Hear A Rhapsody. The bassist goes on to introduce the ephemeral Tenho Tantas Saudades, somewhat the musical equivalent of a walk on misty mountain trails. Pinheiro: “This is an arrangement of a song by the Portuguese classical composer Francisco de Lacerda. ‘Saudade’ means nostalgia and has to do with longing. Hence Songs of Longing and my composition Be Longing. Here, in Portugal, we are very nostalgic people and I think that my music also has that component of nostalgia.
‘Longing’ has an aspect of expecting or wishing something, reaching for something that balances the difficulties with the comfort in our existence. So, there’s two components, one of nostalgia and one of wishing.”
Avô is dedicated to Pinheiro’s grandfather, who was a fan of bossa nova and jazz. Despedida de Lisboa—which translates as ‘farewell to Lisbon’ —refers to a stay of his grandparents at the islands of Azores. Whether personal or created in his own image, every song has something going for it, stirring the imagination, making Songs of Longing a very enjoyablemust-have.
—François van de Linde
