Trizmaris by Carlos "Zíngaro", João Madeira, Sofia Borges

"Figura muito presente na cena lisboeta nos últimos tempos, o contrabaixista João Madeira tem-se afirmado como instrumentista e improvisador, mas também como promotor e impulsionador; ao leme da editora 4DaRecord, já publicou discos marcantes como “Trips and Findings” de Sofia Borges, “Da Erosão” de Bruno Parrinha, “Glossolalia” d’A Favola da Medusa e “Multiple Visions of the Now” do quarteto Pink Monads (Edith Steyer, Céline Voccia, Marialuisa Capurso e Sofia Borges). E desde junho deste ano vem organizando o ciclo de concertos Acasos ao Ocaso na Oficina das Artes (na zona da Ajuda, em Lisboa), sempre ao domingo, ao final do dia. Na mais recente proposta da 4DaRecord, “Trizmaris”, assistimos ao encontro musical de João Madeira e Sofia Borges com Carlos “Zíngaro”. O veterano “Zíngaro” é figura muito regular aqui na jazz.pt não só por se tratar de um pioneiro da improvisação livre europeia, mas sobretudo porque continua, hoje em dia, a ser dos mais brilhantes e imaginativos improvisadores da atualidade, hábil na composição em tempo real, além de uma fenomenal capacidade reativa à construção sonora dos seus parceiros. O histórico violinista entra aqui em jogo com João Madeira, no contrabaixo, e Sofia Borges, na bateria e percussão. Dividido em quatro peças (entre os 7 e os 17 minutos), este registo documenta uma atuação do trio no espaço BOTA, em Lisboa, a 16 de março de 2023. “Zíngaro”, Madeira e Borges tratam de desenvolver a composição em tempo real, pela interação entre si. Se o violino de “Zíngaro” é muito ativo a dar ideias e ir alicerçando o caminho, o contrabaixo de Madeira não para de reagir e dialogar; a percussão de Borges está muito atenta, não só reativa, mas também ativa a propor ideias, apontando muitos caminhos. Violino, contrabaixo e percussão trabalham uma interação musical muito dialogante, num encontro feliz."
Nuno Catarino, Jazz.pt

"A very present figure on the Lisbon scene in recent times, bassist João Madeira has made a name for himself as an instrumentalist and improviser, but also as a promoter and promoter. At the helm of the 4DaRecord label, he has already published outstanding discs such as ‘Trips and Findings’ by Sofia Borges, ‘Da Erosão’ by Bruno Parrinha, ‘Glossolalia’ by A Favola da Medusa and ‘Multiple Visions of the Now’ by the Pink Monads quartet (Edith Steyer, Céline Voccia, Marialuisa Capurso and Sofia Borges). And since June of this year he has been organising the cycle of concerts Acasos ao Ocaso at Oficina das Artes (in the Ajuda area of Lisbon), always on Sundays at the end of the day. In 4DaRecord's most recent programme, ‘Trizmaris’, João Madeira and Sofia Borges met Carlos ‘Zíngaro’. The veteran ‘Zíngaro’ is a regular here at jazz.pt, not only because he is a pioneer of European free improvisation, but above all because he continues to be one of the most brilliant and imaginative improvisers today, adept at composing in real time, as well as having a phenomenal ability to react to the sound construction of his partners. The historic violinist is joined here by João Madeira on double bass and Sofia Borges on drums and percussion. Divided into four pieces (between 7 and 17 minutes), this recording documents a performance by the trio at the BOTA space in Lisbon on 16 March 2023. ‘Zíngaro’, Madeira and Borges try to develop the composition in real time, by interacting with each other. If the violin of ‘Zíngaro’ is very active in giving ideas and paving the way, Madeira's double bass never stops reacting and engaging in dialogue; Borges' percussion is very attentive, not only reactive, but also active in proposing ideas, pointing out many paths. Violin, double bass and percussion work in a musical interaction that is very dialogic, in a happy encounter." Nuno Catarino, Jazz.pt

"“Trizmaris” é um portento do expressionismo pelo qual voga uma boa parte da improvisação livre dos nossos dias, e nisso deriva da influência do free jazz. É inevitável verificar as coincidências com o que nos forneceu o Revolutionary Ensemble de Leroy Jenkins, Sirone e Jerome Cooper, no gesto largo, na expressão, na entrega, no drive. Também na incorporação do ruído nas tessituras musicais e numa certa gestão da raiva, do conflito, da dissonância, do lixo sonoro. Nesse aspecto, o “Zíngaro” deste álbum agreste e intenso lembra-nos o violinista na década de 1970: é o “Zíngaro” contestatário, em corte epistemológico com a música clássica da sua formação, um Carlos “Zíngaro” inquieto, disruptivo e argumentativo. Essa carga é a sua “motion”, a sua deslocação pelo movimento da música, e transmite-se para um João Madeira em permanente desconstrução situacional, especialmente percussivo na forma como entende o col legno do contrabaixo, e para uma Sofia Borges que sobrepõe texturas a outras texturas, tecendo com a sua bateria “extendida” redes que fazem mais do que suportar o que globalmente acontece: dão-lhes instabilidade, factor criativo por excelência, e balanço condutor. Resulta uma música que avança, que se transporta, em múltiplas ocasiões que se eleva, transcendendo-se." Rui Eduardo Paes, passosnafloresta.pt

"‘Trizmaris’ is a portent of the expressionism for which much of today's free improvisation is based, and in this it derives from the influence of free jazz. It's inevitable to see the coincidences with the Revolutionary Ensemble of Leroy Jenkins, Sirone and Jerome Cooper, in the wide gesture, the expression, the delivery, the drive. Also in the incorporation of noise into the musical tessituras and in a certain management of anger, conflict, dissonance and sound rubbish. In this respect, the ‘Zíngaro’ of this harsh and intense album reminds us of the violinist in the 1970s: he's the ‘Zíngaro’ who contests, in an epistemological break with the classical music of his upbringing, a restless, disruptive and argumentative Carlos ‘Zíngaro’. This charge is his ‘motion’, his displacement by the movement of the music, and it is transmitted to a João Madeira in permanent situational deconstruction, especially percussive in the way he understands the col legno of the double bass, and to a Sofia Borges who superimposes textures on other textures, weaving networks with her ‘extended’ drums that do more than support what happens globally: they give them instability, a creative factor par excellence, and a guiding balance. The result is music that moves forward, that transports itself, on multiple occasions that rises up, transcending itself." Rui Eduardo Paes, passosnafloresta.pt

"Three generations of Portuguese improvisers make expressive, subtle and energetic music. Percussionist Sofia Borges also defines herself as a composer of contemporary music, using everyday objects, work tools, musical boxes and toys. She has published an interesting panorama of her work on the double CD Trips and Findings released by 4DA Records, a label with an expanding catalogue headed by double bassist João Madeira. Madeira is proving himself to be a major artist, collaborating actively with Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, Bruno Parrinha, Hernani Faustino and others... In other words, the Creative Sources galaxy and, of course, violinist Carlos Zingaro, the doyen of this lively Portuguese scene, whom we meet again in this Trizmaris, where the two string players, violin and bass, give of their best, with the subtle work, the very delicacy and the sense of sound dynamics of the percussionist leaving the field free for the spontaneity of their improvisations.
Carlos Zingaro's playing has a specific microtonal character that immediately identifies him or, in other words, he makes minimal alterations, accentuating the intervals between the notes of the scale that are his personal trademark. One can visualise the movements of his bow creating spirals and convolutions that evoke the flight of birds in a luminous sky. His double bass colleague offers a dynamic and creative counterpart that is powerful, elegant and often daring in its balance of forces, blithely going beyond the ‘support’ role assigned to the double bass in more conventional music. There is an orchestral dimension to his work, with successive changes of register and approach, creating shifting forms in phase with his two comparses. A very sure sense of initiative.
Over the course of four long improvisations (I II III and IV) lasting 13'48‘’, 7'38‘’, 17'45‘’ and 9'31‘’, the trio explores a variety of soundscapes, each one a veritable instant composition with its own logic and distinct sensibility. For sensitivity and sonic refinement are the watchwords here, combined with the primal energy of atavistic free-music. Their interactivity and their listening work with different modus vivendi, João Madeira working his double bass with the same bow as Carlos Zingaro. Sofia Borges' expressive skills on percussion emerge best in III, where Zingaro takes us on an irresistible sottovoce flight and the trio extends its weft into extensible, phantasmatic ramifications. A special mention to João Madeira: over the years, he has become one of his country's leading creative improvisers, and his 4DA records label, with its growing catalogue, holds a special place among the other Portuguese labels dedicated to the music we love."
Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, orynx-improvandsounds.blogspot.com

"Portuguese double bass player, composer, and improviser João Madeira is known for his long-time work with the free-improvising ensembles of violist Ernesto Rodrigues (the head of the Creative Sources label). But since Madeira founded his own label, 4DaRecord, he has been exploring new processes of creating and composing music and new concepts of musical performance.
Trizmaris documents the very first meeting of the free improvising trio of Madeira, featuring veteran violinist Carlos "Zíngaro", one of the pioneers of the European free improvisation scene and one of the most influential figures in the Portuguese free scene (who has recorded four months later another free improvised EP with Madeira and guitarist Guillaume Gargaud, N’Bandi, 4DaRecord), and young drummer-percussionist Sofia Borges (who recorded before with Medeira and cellist Helena Espvall the free improvised album Five Sneaky Leaf Tales, 4DaRecord, 2022). This trio was recorded at BOTA ((Base Organizada da Toca Das Artes) in Lisbon in March 2023.
The word Trizmaris was invented to phonetically illustrate the music and the nuances that this trio brought out during the performance. This trio sees the practice of free improvisation as a means of instant, real-time composition. The four pieces demonstrate these imaginative qualities of this trio as “Zingaro”, Madeira, and Borges engage in intense yet nuanced and attentive conversations, immediately translating each other’s ideas and gestures into loose structures, fast-shifting rhythmic patterns, and tension-filled narratives. All while maintaining democratic dynamics and without losing the organic flow of this performance.
There are echoes of free jazz and chamber jazz throughout this inspired 50-minute performance. But without knowing beforehand that this is the trio's first-ever performance or about its free spirit, an innocent listener would assume that its natural, respectful flow is the outcome of methodical rehearsals of its compositional themes. There is no better way to describe the beauty of free improvisation, obviously, when it works so well." Eyal Hareuveni, www.percorsimusicali.eu

Portuguese bassist João Madeira is one of the most used bassists in his home country. He has been involved in a number of excellent releases, several of which have been reviewed here on salt peanuts* , including his solo release Aqui, Dentro from 2023. He runs the record label 4DaRecords, one of the growing and most exciting record labels in Portugal, and he collaborates with many of the most exciting musicians from the region.
Violinist Carlos "Zíngaro" is a pioneer of free, European improvisational music, but above all he is one of the most brilliant and imaginative improvising musicians of our time, while Sofia Borges is one of the most exciting European drummers and percussionists right now. In 2023 she released the fine solo album Trips & Findings , and she can be heard in a number of more or less spontaneous improvisational projects with musicians from all over Europe.
On this album we get into four freely improvised sequences, recorded at BOTA in Lisbon, on March 16, 2023. Initially, I had trouble imagining the energetic and creative drummer and percussionist Borges in collaboration with a violinist and bassist, and I was especially excited about the interaction between her and the violinist. But right from the start, you notice that these are three musicians who complement each other in an excellent way throughout these four sections (which have been given the titles "I", "II", "III", "IV"). And all the way through, this is freely improvised music that demands a lot, both from the musicians and the listeners. Because this is not "background music" or music you listen to just to relax between beats. Concentration is required here.
In such music, it is easy to "fall off the wagon" and start thinking about things other than what is flowing out of the speakers. It is often much easier to experience such musical encounters in concert situations, where one can follow the communication, the glances and the hints from the individual musician as it is created.
But you quickly notice that these are excellent musicians who meet. The violin playing of "Zíngaro" is close to the more North African and Arabic way of playing. Something that is most noticeable in the sound of the instrument. The bass playing of Madeira is heavy and nice, with a tone in the landscape of Charlie Haden, but with considerably more ongoing playing than what Haden showed. He brings a number of nice ideas to the stage, and with the loose, but at the same time "tight" drumming of Borges in the background, this becomes extremely exciting and creative improvisation and free-flowing music that fascinates." Jan Granlie, salt-peanuts.eu

"The presence of Carlos Zíngaro, the glorious Portuguese violinist, now aged seventy-six, who was revealed in Italy some forty years ago by his militancy in Andrea Centazzo's Mitteleuropa Orchestra, undoubtedly illuminates this work of free improvisation, without prejudice to the absolutely equal contribution offered by his two younger colleagues. The interfacing of the two strings, to which the percussive element provides a discreet yet absolutely centred (and central) backdrop, often played on metal and in any case around a sound that is more acuminate, vertical, rather than rounded, permeating, enveloping (and precisely for this reason all the more pertinent), is perhaps the CD's trump card, also in that it accentuates the differences in pitch between violin and double bass, in a dialogue that is at times more dense, not infrequently nervous, at other times more calm, airy, almost elusive.
There are four episodes that follow one another (simply from I to IV), varying from seven and a half minutes in the second to almost eighteen in the third, with absolutely palpable geometries (and thus a global architecture), in the successful search for a form that is gradually solid and skilful, in the sign of an experimentalism (sonorous but also gestural, we might say) that is never arbitrary or snooty, but always at the service of an interplay that is tenaciously sought and happily found." Alberto Bazzurro, Musica Jazz Italia

"João Madeira is often found in projects that show us a lively and present musical scene in Portugal, capable of making new proposals that are received beyond the borders. Together with fellow countryman violinist Carlos Zingaro, a veteran of European improvisation who has often played in Europe and Italy, and Sofia Borges on percussion and drums, he puts together a cultured trio in a live performance at the BOTA space in Lisbon.
We realized we had in our hands a recording of excellent quality, with the musicians truly inspired and interacting in perfect harmony, exchanging ideas and continuously, grabbing melodies or fragments of them to develop an engaging conversation, which envelops the listener, in this way recalling a historic trio, the Revolutionary Ensemble of Leroy Jenkins, but here without revolutionary titles to the performances, there are four, each indicated with a number.
The expressionist music of the trio is welcome, also to be highlighted the work in the studio of João Madeira, who has brought out the right moments of the concert for this recording.
Recommended." Vittorio Loconte, kathodic.org

"Next is Portuguese double bassist João Madeira returning with a new trio, Trizmaris (recorded live in Lisbon in March 2023), featuring violinist Carlos "Zíngaro" & percussionist Sofia Borges. Madeira releases were quite frequent here for a while, but with a bit of a pause (& now an older recording...), it may be time to trace chronologies: Most recently reviewed here was actually the quartet Free to Open with Ernesto Rodrigues & Carlos Bechegas (both recorded & reviewed in April 2024), preceded by having noted his 4Da Record trio release N'Bandi (recorded in July 2023, so after Trizmaris...) — an EP already with Zingaro (& guitarist Guillaume Gargaud), said to be heralding more... — & more recently by release of his duo album with vocalist Margarida Mestre, Voz Debaixo (recorded back in 2022...), exploring textual space between singing & speaking.... Of course the more recent pairing with Rodrigues & Bechegas for Free to Open (along with Monsieur Trinité again there...) recalls parallels here that may be worth noting explicitly as well: I'd reviewed Madeira's & Rodrigues's different trio albums (with different cellists...) with Bechegas in November 2023 — & e.g. Rodrigues just released his own trio with Zingaro (& Bechegas again!) too, Spleen (recorded only this September...), a sort of "opposite" trio interaction focused on high textures, exploratory & often skittering, sliding, hocketing.... Trizmaris, however, emphasizes the rhythm team at various moments, e.g. with metallic anticipation, but also via deep resonance of wood & skins (& consequently often with a less pointed sonic presence...). And then this is the first mention of Borges here for me, although she also just appeared with the all-female quintet SORBD & their release Wild Peacock in Transit (with unknown recording date...) from Relative Pitch: Apparently that group has been around since 2019, while Borges is again joined by Edith Steyer — herself most recently appearing here with quintet Echoes in a further range, reviewed March 2022... — in Pink Monads for their album Multiple Visions of the Now (from last year on 4Da Record), a more open & exploratory quartet (vs. the jazzier, compositional orientation of SORBD), both featuring piano as well.... And further, Borges has appeared with Madeira before, including on Five Sneaky Leaf Tales (recorded in 2022), a free jazz-esque "cello trio" featuring Helena Espvall in aggressively contoured (even frenetic at times) performance: Borges' contribution is notably more sophisticated for Trizmaris, though (but then so is Espvall's for e.g. her new trio album Illuminations, recorded this past May with Rodrigues & previously unknown-to-me drummer Tracy Lisk...). Part of that sophistication may arise from playing with Zingaro then, as sometimes the violinist does leave the rhythm duo to their own interaction, basically accenting them, coming to the fore subsequently himself... in basically a "free jazz" format where everyone gets a chance to solo (& all duos are explored too...). So there's a strong egalitarian vibe overall, even as various reductions occur for various passages. And again in opposition to e.g. Spleen (which is also more rhetorical in its stance, pace e.g. the sometimes more traditionally expressive or even "primitivist" interaction on Trizmaris...), there's a considerable range of pitch explored here, also opening a rich & resonant bass range (& Madeira always does seem to bring rich textural details...), suggesting an open spaciousness at times too (such that e.g. we hear an object clatter to the floor mid-track #3, reminding as well that this is a live production...). Indeed the center of the texture is often left to Borges.... And the general restlessness & agitation do evoke (classic) free jazz at various points (pace less aggression, perhaps...), even as some passages are more slowly shifting in layers.... Trizmaris may thus be less novel in its developments than many releases featured here, but its senses of balancing various extremes can be both invigorating & satisfying." Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts, http://www.medieval.org/music/jazz/

"Amazing Carlos Zíngaro is back with a wonderful trio with a strong double bass support of João Madeira, and absolutely incredible drumming of Sofia Borges. The set was recorded live at Bota in Lisbon. It contains a suite "Trizmaris" in four movements "I-IV". The central elements of the music consist in magnificent dialogues between the strings: Carlos' violin and João's double bass, frequently bowed, but played also with the finger picking techniques. But, the dialogues would much less valuable without the breath taking drums and percussion lines of Sofia. My favorite part is "III", lasting nearly 18 minutes, but the whole set is amazing.
77 years old Carlos with the impressive João Madeira and Sofia Borges prove again that they belong to the world's elite on their respective instruments. Another fantastic album from 4DaRECORD." Maciej Lewenstein

"Recorded at Lisbon’s BOTA cultural center, Trizmaris makes a solid case for Zingaro’s standing in the full narrative of European improvised music, and his status as eminence grise among Portuguese improvisers. There is a cohesion throughout the four improvisations that suggest the trio is a going concern. Zingaro nimbly skitters, saws, and soars as the music swells and recedes. He and Madiera repeatedly meld textures, which Borges instantly highlights with just the right sound from her kit and auxiliary percussion. In the process, the trio cultivates a middle ground between assertion and reflection, an in-between space that is engaging on a moment-by-moment basis."
–Bill Shoemaker, pointofdeparture.org

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.
Soundcloud upload with constant activity! Follow!
“A Fábrica de Nada”, 2005, and “A Máquina Hamlet”, 2020 - “Parece que o Mundo”, 2018, (contemporary dance).

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