Listening to Tone Stories is worth it alone for Portuguese guitarist Ricardo Pinheiro’s version of Jimmy Rowles’s seminal ballad The Peacocks. The achingly beautiful soprano sax of Chris Cheek, who plays like a homesick father far from home, is warmly embraced by Pinheiro’s volume-control effects, which echo the vibration of the human voice – something of the lovely and poignant voice of the kid daughter that dad is hearing in his expatriate dreams. Pinheiro’s lines are simultaneously angular and lyrical, often intriguingly placed at spots where one least expects them.
Apart from Cheek and Pinheiro – who is at the vanguard of the Lisbon scene and worked in various progressive and mainstream settings with, among others, David Liebman, singer Theo Bleckmann and drummer Eric Ineke – the group consists of bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Jorge Rossy. It’s a formidable unit that creates an organic sound from an interesting set of standards, a practice that Pinheiro, as he says in his recent interview with JJ (taking nothing away from contemporary jazz’s crossover sovereignty), values as indispensable.
The Peacocks is impossible to beat but there’s nothing wrong with Pinheiro’s other ballad renditions, notably If You Could See Me Now and Blame It On My Youth, gaining from original arrangements and playful give and take between Pinheiro and Cheek. The seldom played De Dah by pianist Elmo Hope is a nice surprise and typical of the quartet’s fluent hard-bop groove, showcasing Cheek’s gutsy but flexible tenor. That also gracefully leads Weaver Of Dreams and When You Wish Upon A Star to logical conclusions. Expressive splattering of musical colours marks Rossy’s style and lifts Tone Stories to a higher level, not least on Ornette Coleman’s When Will The Blues Leave, succinctly free-within-limits.
Reportedly, Pinheiro’s group recorded enough material for another album. Tone Stories Volume 2 then? At any rate, eagerly awaited.
Discography
When You Wish Upon A Star; De Dah; The Peacocks; Fried Bananas; Weaver Of Dreams; When Will The Blues Leave; If You Could See Me Now; Soul Eyes; Blame It On My Youth; There Is No Greater Love (47.54)
Pinheiro (g); Chris Cheek (ts, ss); Michael Formanek (b); Jorge Rossy (d). Lisbon, 2023.
Fresh Sound Records 5131
