Rodrigo Amado - The Bridge

Nominated, for the eighth consecutive year, by El Intruso International Critics Poll (more than 50 critics from 18 countries) as one of the top 5 active tenor saxophonists, and widely considered as one of the most important European improvisers currently on the scene, Rodrigo Amado introduces an exciting new project. In The Bridge Amado gathers three of his strongest longtime influences, three leaders in their own right: German master pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, Norwegian double bass wizard Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and legendary American drummer Gerry Hemingway.

For Amado, as happened in the past with his highly celebrated This Is Our Language Quartet (with Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Chris Corsano), this new band represents a deep dive into his own formative roots, something he has been dealing with, more and more, in these last few years. With Schlippenbach, Håker Flaten and Hemingway by his side, Amado will have the perfect context to explore the classic materials that he considers the basis of his journey as a musician, an impulse that is part him and part history. As North-American critic Stuart Broomer wrote: "Amado is an emerging master of a great tradition, more apparent with each new recording or performance."

This is a quartet whose name really represents, aside from a direct homage to Sonny Rollins, a bridge between different languages, backgrounds and generations, all united through improvisation.