snobb Astral Spirits label started in 2014 as extravaganza of sort offering obscure left-field avant-garde/free improve artists music in a form of old-fashioned audio cassettes. It looked more like a hipster dream than real world idea to listen music which usually requires especially high quality sound from something what never was a synonym of "quality sound" or quality in general.

Still,five years after, they are alive and kicking with wide catalogue and more renown names in there. Becoming more earthy they started offering vinyl and CDs besides of cassettes as well.

On one of their newest releases one can find quite a regular free jazz recorded by duo of Rodrigo Amado and Chris Corsano. Reeds player Rodrigo Amado (using exclusively tenor sax on this record)is one of the main faces of very active Portuguese avant-garde jazz of last two decades. American drummer Chris Corsano played with Bjork on her "Volta" and collaborated with Evan Parker, Thurston Moore and Nels Cline among many others.

Reedist-drummer free form music, recorded in Lisbon studio five years ago is groovy, soulful and even bluesy in moments. As many other better Amado works, there are lot of tunes and emotions besides of big doze of energy. Rodrigo never loses his way of controlled improvisation and as a result songs sound quite accessible, almost memorable.

There are lot of straight-in-your-face flowing pieces, and some slower ones, but altogether the album (of cassette size, not too long - and I really like it more and more)works pretty well. The energy is more positive and optimistic then destroying, and some songs are almost free jazz ballads. Changing each other, the collection of musical pieces sound surprisingly orthodox, almost traditional in good sense(within such a nontraditional music as free jazz is)

Another strong work of one of better European jazz sax player. Portuguese jazz from "hot" switches to "mature" and stays one among most interesting scenes in Europe.

snobb Portuguese sax player Rodrigo Amado last year's release "Wire Quartet"(on Cleanfeed) made him one among year's jazz heroes. Full-Portuguese quartet with unique Derek Bailey-influenced guitarist Manuel Mota (who is known in Portugal more like free-improvs musician,not an jazz artist) demonstrated excellent internal communication,original sound and in all perfect kind of modern European jazz.

Amado's as first class jazz reedist story started some years before though (in fact, Wire Quartet's material was recorded in 2011 and only released in 2014).At the end of the first new millennium decade (and after few domestically released albums as leader)Amado switched from free-form improvisational music towards avant-garde jazz with quite positive results from very first recordings. "Searching For Adam" is his first ever international release and he plays with world class jazz musicians on it.John Hebert is one of the most interesting American bassist of younger generation, Gerald Cleaver - busiest drummer around all US and cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum is regular Anthony Braxton collaborator, among many others.

To be honest, "Searching For Adam" isn't such a great result as one could expect from musicians of that level. Recorded in 2008, it is still seriously influenced by Amado earlier free form improvisational techniques. Besides of some really well-played moments,it contains lot of extended free improvs,some of them doesn't sound useful or logical at all. Released two years after it was recorded, it obviously came on the wave of growing Amado's newest music popularity.Being a mixed bag in all senses,it contains 21+minutes long composition and five shorter (but still up to 13-minutes long)ones, and generally is too long and bulky. After serious editing recorded material could still give a birth to better-than-average "old-fashioned size"(up to 40 minutes) album. Three years later same Polish Not Two label will release Amado's next studio album with trombonist Jeb Bishop as guest ("The Flame Alphabet"). More or less of similar quality, it could be counted only as prelude to "Wire Quartet" success. From other hand, Rodrigo's most current to time "Live In Lisbon"(2014,NoBusiness) album ,recorded with trumpeter Peter Evans as guest,is his another highlight.

snobb Reeds player, photographer and Clean Feed label founder Rodrigo Amado is with no doubt one of the brightest artists in the really active Portuguese modern jazz scene. He has played with cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, drummer Gerald Cleaver, bassist John Hébert, drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and trumpeter Peter Evans among others,but even more importantly, he is one of the leaders and a moving force in the experimental domestic jazz scene.

Usually associated with his Motion Trio, (with cellist Miguel Mira and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini), on his new release, Rodrigo presents his new band - Wire Quartet. Half of this new project consists of another excellent Portuguese collective - Red Trio's rhythm section (drummer Gabriel Ferrandini and bassist Hernani Faustino). The fourth member, guitarist Manuel Mota, is probably the most responsible for the quartet's specific sound.

Just three compositions, including a 28-minutes long opener "Abandon Yourself", all are muscular, but airy with lots of free form improvs. Manuel Mota's guitar sounds similar to an early Derek Bailey incarnation and its relation with Rodrigo's tenor sax is telepathic. The rhythm section builds quirky and almost touchable frames around a finishing solid, intelligent and even graceful musical texture.

The great thing is that this quartet being a high-energy unit, doesn't sound aggressive at all - a rare example when high-octane fueled free form music stays intelligent and perfectly acts without attacking the listeners' ears and soul.

Portuguese adventurous jazz at its best, another great Clean Feed release.