Portuguese tenor sax hero Rodrigo Amado and American drummer Chris Corsano recorded their debut duo album No Place to Fall (Astral Spirits, 2019) at  Namouche Studios in Lisbon in July 2014, and continued to work with Amado’s This Is Our Language quartet (with Joe McPhee and Kent Kessler).

The second duo album of Amado and Corsano, The Healing, is the first release of archival recordings of Amado that, for one reason or another, were left behind. It captures a legendary (Amado’s description), live performance of Amado and Corsano at Lisbon’s mighty ZDB from September 2016. It is released by Amado’s European Echoes. The cover painting, «Telepath III», by Rui Moreira, informs the spirit of the music.  This duo continued

It was indeed a legendary, potent performance. Amado and Corsano burst immediately with raw, manic, and unpredictable energy on the opening, 24-minute «The Healing Day», with Amado’s urgent and restless, singing melodic solos propelled by Corsano’s rolling, percolating drumming, but the duo also instantly-shifting into gentle, openly emotional, deeply lyrical dynamics, that cement the deep camaraderie of these gifted, resourceful improvisers. In such stimulating pushing-forward dynamics, there is no place to fall, but keep soaring higher and higher and trust your fast and sharp instincts. This uplifting, powerful piece fills the ZDB gallery with its healing, life-affirming vibrations.

The following pieces are shorter. «The Cry» develops patiently from fragmented bird calls and cries, and sparse bell sounds and drumming into massive, muscular dance. Corsano begins «Griot» with a futurist, tribal rhythmic pattern, and when Amado joins, he intensifies its spiritual vibe, all the way towards its cathartic coda. This great performance ends with the short, playful, and ecstatic «Release Is In The Mind», exhausting the commanding. energetic voices of Amado and Corsano

Eyal Hareuveni

Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone), Chris Corsano (drums)