Colyalcolor is a pan-European free jazz quintet featuring Portuguese, Gehnet-based bassist, composer, and bandleader Francisco Morato, American, Amsterdam-based tenor sax player John Dikeman, Portuguese, Rotterdam-based alto sax player Hugo Costa, Belgian guitarist Julien Tassin, and Serbian drummer Aleksandar Škorić. Tebogo is Colyalcolor’s sophomore album, following the self-titled debut album from 2025, and is dedicated and titled after the second birth name of the late great South African drummer Louis Moholo, who passed away in June 2025, meaning gratitude or we are thankful in the South African language, Sesotho. The same title, with a different spelling, was used for the live album of Evan Parker, double bass player Paul Rogers, and Moholo from 1992, released after Moholo’s death (Tebugo, Jazz in Britain, 2025).
Colyalcolor places itself in the lineage of pioneer free jazz musicians and elder free improvisers, and Morato included a long list of influential musicians that begins with Albert Ayler and John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, continues with Peter Brötzmann, John Zorn, Joe McPhee, Milford Graves, William Parker, and ends with Derek Bailey and Thurston Moore. Colyalcolor’s music is also framed with a spiritual, politically motivated aesthetic. The debut album quoted beat writer Jack Kerouac (from his book, The Dharma Bums). Tebogo offers a quote from the book of Timothy: «Let the elders ruling well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those laboring in the word and the teaching».
Obviously, Colyalcolor is well-versed in the fiery and ecstatic free jazz legacy of the late 1960s and 1970s, and sounds like a working band, with powerful and tight dynamics. But this quintet also shines when it covers the traditional Portuguese folk song «Quando Eu Era Pequenina», cementing Moholo’s musical essence, of the fusion of cultures and the transposition of musical elements of different natures. The brief «Silly March» celebrates the seminal jubilant sound of South African ancestors of free jazz, Chris McGregor’s Blue Notes, and the Brotherhood of Breath; in both bands, Moholo plays drums. «One for Louis» captures Moholo’s uplifting drumming drive and boundless force. Colyalcolor’s collective improvisation, «فلسطين» (Palestine), channels the rage over the genocide happening in the Gaza Strip and the plight of the Palestinian people, stressing that free jazz is a musical language of resistance against all forms of violence, a language that calls for freedom, diversity, and love.
Fellow Portuguese drummer (and visual artist) João Svayam (of Uivo Debra) concludes in his liner notes that «Colyalcolor comes to bring the color our days so desperately need. The color of the heart, the color of blood, of resistance, resilience, and courage. And, yes, contrary to common belief, free jazz is very much alive and kicking, relevant and intense as ever».
Eyal Hareuveni
Francisco Morato (electric bass), John Dikeman (tenor saxophone), Hugo Costa (alto saxophone), Julien Tassin (electric guitar), Aleksandar Škorić (drums)
