Júlio Resende Fado Jazz Ensemble

• World Music

Júlio Resende is a jazz pianist, but he also loves the beautiful, melancholic sounds of fado. So he created his very own genre: »fado jazz«. He is admired in the homeland of fado and further afield for »his profound ability to reinvent Portugal’s trademark, deep, emotional music on the piano« (Songlines). With his well-attuned quartet – in which it is predominantly the small, lute-like guitarra portuguesa that produces the classic fado timbre – Resende now presents his latest album »Sons of Revolution«.

Júlio Resende has dedicated the album to Portugal’s Carnation Revolution. The peaceful putsch of 1974 brought António de Oliveira Salazar’s regime – a 40-year dictatorship – to an end. Not only did the revolution pave the way for democracy in Portugal, it also ended Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique and Angola.

»Without the Carnation Revolution, I wouldn’t be here,« says Resende. »After the revolution, my father emigrated from Angola to Portugal, where he got to know my mother. It means a lot to me to have the freedom to express what I think and feel. And that is also what’s most important in jazz: the only constant in this music is the idea of freedom.« With that in mind, Resende composed wonderfully powerful melodies for »Sons of Revolution« – melodies that combine an optimistic mood, the spirit of fado and the independence of jazz.

PERFORMERS

Júlio Resende Fado Jazz Ensemble jazz ensemble

Júlio Resende piano

Bruno Chaveiro Portuguese guitar

André Rosinha bass

Alexandre Frazão drums

PROGRAM

»Sons of Revolution«