SLAMCD5100 George Haslam, João Madeira, Pedro Castello Lopes & Mário Rua – Ajuda

Saxophonist, composer and SLAM Productions founder George Haslam was in Lisbon for a short series of performances with poet/author/musician Miguel Martins, an association he’s had since 2008, exploring poetry and music. On a free day he recorded this session with drummer Mario Rua, percussionist Pedro Castello Lopes and bassist João Madeira.

“My ‘free day’ was to include this most enjoyable recording session – every take we played is on the disc – “warts and all”, as they say. Hopefully there were not too many ‘warts’! – George Haslam

George Haslam: tarogato
João Madeira: double bass
Pedro Castello Lopes: percussion
Mário Rua: drums

“Long recognised as one of the most experienced and widely travelled musicians on what is loosely known as the free-music scene, Haslam established his estimable SLAM label in 1989 and has subsequently done a great deal to document and help develop free playing, particularly with regard to British musicians…SLAM has long cast its net far beyond British shores and this latest release, featuring Haslam and a trio of excellent Portuguese free improvisers, is as good an example as any of the label’s open-minded internationalism…there is so much to enjoy in the fluid, dynamically vivid interactive field conjured by mobile (often arco) bass, drums and percussion, with Haslam sometimes essaying a folk-like sequence of phrases, sometimes digging deep and flying high into more unclassifiable realms.” – Michael Tucker, Jazz Journal

“The CD starts off with the title track, Ajuda, and this is purely Free Jazz, probably as close to that as anything Haslam has ever played. Incessant improvisation and the dice are cast, but not reluctantly. Almost 70 minutes of inexorable invention, fluid dynamics, powered throughout and characterized by the harsh, insistent, and discordant sounds of the tárogató’s challenges to the double bass. There may very well be some structure in the percussion’s framework to the opening of the final piece, which results in its seeming more focused, more intense. That makes it all sound so much richer, so much larger, and justifies the journey by which this end is achieved.” – Ken Cheetham, Jazz Views

“Haslam delivers a Middle Eastern mystique as he sears around Madeira’s throbbing bass on “Ajuda” and flails in a declaratory cry over the brooding bassist on “Nice To Meet You”. Rumbling and rambling percussion along with scratchy tones on “Who Are You” conflict and contrast with the pizzicato’d stummings while rustling in the leaves with hand sounds and mouth percussion sound like things that go bump in the night, requiring a flashlight on “Pleasures and Needs”. Spontaneous implosions.” – George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly

ll compositions by Castello Lopes, Haslam, Madeira, Rua
Live recording at Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal, 18 September 2019
Recording and mastering by João Madeira

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