Amado & Serries — Jazzblazzt
Jazzblazzt original appeared back in 2019 as a cassette release on London based Raw Tonk- who focuses on releasing free jazz, improvised music &, noise. It was ltd to 100 copies, finding a pro-dubbed cassette coming in a recycled lino printed sleeve. This new version, as far I can gather isn’t as ltd, though I can’t imagine it's a huge pressing. It’s presented in a simply-yet-effective grey coloured digipak- which features a cut-up collage of stacks of newspapers on its front cover.
Both players here are respected members of the euro improv scene- there’s Lisbon based Rodrigo Amado on Tenor Sax, and Antwerp based Dirk Serries on electric/ acoustic guitar. The CD takes its name from the Dutch venue of the same name, where the pair recorded the two tracks on offer here in 2018.
The tracks are simply entitled set 1 and set 2- and the first track is the longer of the two at thirty-three minutes. It opens in great jerky & manic fashion with Serries batting out a rapid selection of struts & darts, as Amado horn violently flutters & darts like a trapped bird. As we move on we find chiming & twanging neck play been met by more hazed-at-points almost harmonic sax trails. But by the midway point, we’re returned to darting ‘n’ angular playfulness once more. Surprisingly around the twenty-minute mark things start to simmer down in a wonderful sinister manner- as Serriers feds out slowly pitch shift strums mixed with subtle creepy & wondering honks- before the pair switch to a finale of baying & bouncing honks, and scraping neck rubs ‘n’ saws.
"Set 2" comes in at twenty-two minutes, and here we open with a spaced out selection of horn darts & sudden neck slice. As we move on both the horn & guitar elements lengthen slightly creating a nice feeling of twisting ‘n’ turning fight- with the guitar taking on a more galloping-to-scrubbing feel, and the horn been more boisterous yet clipped & darting in its attack, with slight moments of curled harmonic smokiness occurring. By around the midway point, we’ve moved onto wondering sax drifts and tolling almost industrial neck noise-making & fiddles.
Jazzblazzt is a rewardingly shifting & darting record- with both players bouncing off each other extremely well. If you like you're improv unpredictable, and often firey this is most certainly for you.