Live in Coimbra is the second solo album of Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente, following Maré (cipsela, 2020). Like the debut solo album, it was recorded live at Museu Nacional Machado de Castro in Coimbra during the Jazz ao Centro Festival in October 2020. The beautiful cover artwork is by Vicente’s daughter, Luísa Vicente, and the design is by Vicente’s partner, Ana Sofia Esteves.
Vicente performs this intimate solo set with a commanding, poetic beauty and captivating elegance. As Stef Gijssels (of the Free Jazz Collective, who wrote the liner notes) observed, Vicente knows how to play with opposing forces – perfect control, including the usage of extended breathing techniques, versus abandon and total freedom, abstract, lyrical beauty versus the physical exploration of fleeting timbres, the intimacy of exposing vulnerable feelings versus the attempt to articulate a universal and spiritual statement. Furthermore, Vicente wisely uses the national monument’s unique reverberating acoustics, with some of its buildings dating back to the 11th or 12th centuries, as an essential element of this sonic journey.
The five-movement, free improvised set is experienced as a nuanced, complex narrative that invites the attentive audience to follow Vicente’s strong-minded voice, join in an exploratory, risk-taking journey into uncharted territories and mysterious sonorities. Vicente performs this tasking journey with passionate urgency, emotional power, and poetic depth, totally possessed by the transformative magic of the art of the moment.
Eyal Hareuveni
Luís Vicente (trumpet)
