Quetzal Tirado is a Hungarian, young, and prolific reed player-vocalist-composer-producer who has released 24 albums on his own label since 2019, who is fascinated with the Aztec equivalent of Hell, Mictlan. Quetzalcoatl is an Aztec deity related to wind, Venus, Sun, merchants, arts, crafts, knowledge, and learning.
Tirado leads the Unit, an ad-hoc free jazz meets free improvisation outfit with a changing lineup. The Fat Is Back is the second album of the Unit, following Camardarie (Night Collectors Crew, 2023), shrinking it from a sextet into a quartet that features Leeds-based, Hong Kong-Japanese drummer Teruki Chan and British alto sax player Harvey Parkin-Christie (both played on Camardarie) and double bass player Harry Souter (who recorded a duo album with Tirado (Men With Hair, Night Collectors Crew, 2024). The album was recorded live at Tirado’s favorite performance place, the Grand Café in Szeged, Hungary, in November 2024. The cover artwork is by Marie McAuliffe (of the death metal band Mesa and Hypomanic Daydream), who did before other artworks for Tirado.
The Fat Is Back opens with the seven-part guided improvisation «Jamais Vu» that pays respect to Anthony Braxton’s complex, conceptual musical systems but adpats Tirado’s system into the raw, immediate and unpredictable aesthetics of Peter Brötzmann, with Tirado’s baritone sax playing reflects the seminal sound of Mats Gustafsson (with a few references to other singular, American sax players such as Jemeel Moondoc and Chrles Gayle). This guided improvisation leaves enough space for individual solos, and constantly swings between abrasive European-style free jazz, abstract timbral explorations of free improvisation, and tight interplay.
The following four pieces are free improvisations that are more open, playful, and conversational, and explore more timbral possibilities, but still, are quite adventurous. The Unit calls them «occasional out-of-body and out-of-mind freakouts». Tirado’s bass clarinet conversations with the ever-inventive and most original Chan are some of the highlights of these improvisations.
Eyal Hareuveni
Quetzal Tirado (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, voice), Harvey Parkin-Christie (alto saxophone), Harry Souter (double bass), Teruki Chan (drums, percussion, Jew’s harp)
