Rodrigo Amado

Rodrigo Amado - a guest at BRAND! PT with his Motion Trio and again a year later in nona with his This Is Our Language Quartet with legend Joe McPhee - has become one of Europe's leading improvisers over the past twenty years.

In this quartet, which caused a furor at the most recent Berlin jazz festival, he gathers three of his greatest influences, three leaders in their own fields. German master pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach is one of the architects of free jazz in Europe. Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten once created a furor with The Thing, but has since been active in numerous projects. Legendary American drummer Gerry Hemingway was once part of the legendary Anthony Braxton Quartet and wields an unreal, personal language.

For Amado, this new band means a deep dive into his own roots, something he has been focusing on more and more in recent years. With results, as his recently released album Refraction Solo (Trost Records, 2022) is a wonderful document that illustrates his personal stamp. With these three guns at his side, he has the ideal context to explore the material that he considers the foundation of his journey as a musician, an impulse that is partly himself and partly history. As the American critic Stuart Broomer wrote, "Amado is an emerging master of a great tradition, one that becomes clearer with each new recording or performance."

The name of this quartet is a direct homage to Sonny Rollins, but at the same time it is a bridge between different languages, backgrounds and generations, all united by improvisation.