Released in July of last year by the increasingly active Phonogram Unit, ‘Thoughts Are Things’, an album that brought together José Lencastre’s Nau Quartet and percussionist Pedro Carneiro, had not yet had the honors of performing in a public space. A gap has now finally been filled with this appearance in the Aquarius. Angry. Piece of accurate movements on the board of classical and contemporary composition – guest soloist in several orchestras, monograph by Xenakis recordings at ECM, artistic director and conductor of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, a CV of respect – Carneiro has been getting involved in recent times. more and more often in fields related to jazz – ‘Kinetic Études’ with Rodrigo Pinheiro or ‘Bad Company’ with Pedro Melo Alves – bringing all his mastery of the marimba to the free and fluid speech of the quartet.
Led by saxophonist José Lencastre, the Nau Quartet has already had a few years of discreet but courageous shooting, with four albums in existence and more or less irregular appearances given the busy lives of its members. All hardened people in the plots of jazz and improvisation. Hernâni Faustino is a recurring presence on this stage and with good reason: a reference bass player to understand what is going on in these fields. Rodrigo Pinheiro is a longtime companion of the latter in the late(?) RED Trio and has applied a growing sensitivity and vision to the piano both in openly jazzy contexts and in the unfathomable intricacies of Creative Sources. The Lencastre brotherhood has been a driving force on several fronts, with each brother following his path undisturbed and having a common shelter here, of family communion between the alto saxophone of leader José and the always expressive drums of João. they expand and resolve in the same progression, between classicism, liberation and the constant expectation that jazz can, and must, still have. BS
Source: https://zedosbois.org/programa/nau-quartet-pedro-carneiro/