Carlos Bica
Matéria-Prima
2010
Clean Feed Records: CF180 
https://www.cleanfeed-records.com/disco2.asp?intID=315

* Carlos Bica: double bass
* João Lobo: drums
* João Paulo: piano, keyboards and accordion
* Mário Delgado: guitar
* Matthias Schriefl: trumpet, flugelhorn and melodica

Homepage: 
https://www.carlosbica.com/

“Carlos Bica + Prima Matéria” confirms Bica as one of Portugal’s most important
jazz musicians and reaffirms his key role in the development of new perspectives
for Portuguese jazz. The CD is packed with songs recorded at three memorable
concerts in three memorable locations, Culturgest, Casa da Música, and the
Orient Museum.

In this project, one of the most challenging of his career, Bica gives rein to
his enormous talent as an arranger and songwriter, achieving a remarkable
balance between folk elements and a unique vision for modern jazz. In eight
original songs and two covers — one from Marc Ribot and a Ry Cooder classic,
“Paris Texas” — all conceived as launching pads for improvisation, “Carlos Bica
+ Prima Matéria” is a kaleidoscope of strong emotions and is a brilliant
document of unique events.

For these concerts Bica, who is an established jazz bassist in Portugal and
Berlin (he splits his time between these two locations), recruited three
versatile Portuguese musicians, pianist João Paulo, guitarist Mário Delgado, and
drummer João Lobo. To that stew he mixed in the young trumpeter Matthias
Shriefl,a rising presence in the new German jazz. Together they expand Bica’s
extraordinary musical universe, a constellation that spans jazz, blues, rock,
pop and ambient music. This original sound world moves the listener through the
landscapes of the great spaces, evoking artists as diverse as Ry Cooder, Michael
Nyman, Radiohead, Carla Bley, Bill Frisell, and Tom Waits. With a discography
punctuated by such standout recordings as “Azul” (considered by many to be the
“great” album of Portuguese jazz), “Believer” and “Single” (exceptional solo
bass recording), Bica continues to innovate and surprise.

Here he continues a multifaceted career that has led him to collaborate with
artists such as Maria João, Carlos do Carmo, José Mário Branco, Camané, Pedro
Caldeira Cabral, Janita Salomé, Ray Anderson, Kenny Wheeler, Aki Takase, Lee
Konitz, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Albert Mangelsdorf, Joey Baron, Matthias
Schubert, John Zorn, Paolo Fresu, and Markus Stockhausen, among many
others. What surprises him more than their individual qualities as musicians, he
says, “is the emotional intelligence that distinguishes the different ways of
telling a story through the raw material that sound is.


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Português: 
https://www.culturgest.pt/actual/carlosbica.html