Free Celebration offers Portuguese prolific drummer-composer João Lencastre’s irreverent celebration of the compositions of three most influential, always inspiring and fearless musicians-composers who defined, each in his own unique way, the shape of jazz to come in the 20th century – Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), Herbie Nichols (1919-1963) and Ornette Coleman (1930-2015), plus two short collective improvisations of Lencastre’s sextet.
Lencastre leads a sextet with two drummers – himself and João Lopes Pereira, alto sax player Ricardo Toscano (who hosts Pereira in his trio), guitarist Pedro Branco, double bass player Nelson Cascais (who plays in Lencastre’s Communion), and keyboards and synths player João Bernardo. Free Celebration was recorded at Louva-a-Deus studio in Lisbon in March 2024.
Lencastre is well-versed in the works of Nichols, Monk and Coleman, and, obviously, acknowledges their seminal influence, but he did not try to replicate their compositions. He wanted to offer a fresh, 21st-century take on these compositions while respecting their true, hard-swinging identity, but leaving total freedom for his sextet’s musicians to express their strong-minded personalities.
The old, iconic pieces – Monk’s «Skippy», «Shuffle Boil» and «Humph», Nichols’ «The Third World» and «The Gig», Coleman’s «Giggin», «Congeniality», «Kathelyn Gray», «Toy Dance» and «Forerunner» – are dressed in new, mischievous and colorful clothes. The new arrangements and rhythmic patterns are not overshadowed by the intense brilliant burden of history, but flow, dance and cuddle with an uplifting, sometimes funky and at other times openly emotional, but always with commanding, organic rhythmic energy. This is not a nostalgic walk through the jazz canon but thoughtful and respectful, ross-generational and cross-Atalntic conversation between distant members of a great musical tribe.
Free Celebration is an album that once you finish listening to it, you are sent to listen again to the original recordings of Monk, Nichols, and Coleman and, again, to Lencastre’s sextet brilliant interpretations. When the world seems to go mad, it may be one of the most gratifying ways to pass another day through the global madness.
Eyal Hareuveni
Ricardo Toscano (alto saxophone), Pedro Branco (guitar), João Bernardo (keyboards, synthesizers), Nelson Cascais (bass), João Pereira (drums), João Lencastre (drums)
