Accepting the paradox of rejecting the sensationalist football jargon of the phrase ‘promising young talent’ – for its emptiness and fallacy – whilst at the same time invoking it, we shall make use of this cliché to assert that Bernardo Tinoco has long been a fixture on the contemporary Portuguese jazz scene. A key member of GARFO – a group that includes some of the most influential musicians in the jazz scene of his generation, such as João Almeida, João Fragoso and João Sousa – Tinoco has been developing a musical language – primarily on the saxophone – which is receiving the recognition it deserves in real time. His work on the Clean Feed and Robalo labels bears this out, through a beautiful album with pianist Tom Maciel – on which Tinoco also demonstrates his skill on the flute and the duduk – and DAYA, alongside Marta Rodrigues and João Hasselberg. Presenting here a new international line-up, Creature Close Up, featuring Malina Midera on piano, Minki Cho on double bass and Patrycja Wybrańczyk on drums, Tinoco continues this process of unfolding one or several increasingly expansive and personal visions, where jazz moves with elegance through a contemplative and deeply lyrical space, yet one that remains open to countless interplay and subtle harmonic disruptions, always with purpose.

BS

José Lencastre is a Portuguese saxophonist and composer whose artistic practice centres on contemporary jazz and free improvisation. His musical language is characterised by an intense and detailed approach to sound, exploring the relationship between composition and improvisation, as well as the construction of musical narratives in real time.

As a leader and co-leader of various projects, he has developed a consistent body of work within the field of creative music, with numerous recordings and collaborations with musicians from the national and international scenes. His career includes performances in various European countries, featuring at festivals, concert series and venues dedicated to improvised music.

In the context of solo performance, he released Inner Voices on the US label Burning Ambulance Music, a work for overlapping saxophones comprising eight compositions and two improvisations, exploring different sonic layers, densities and expressive possibilities of the instrument. He also recorded a solo concert in São Paulo for the BIPE programme, subsequently released by Radio Veneno as part of the BIPE Recs series.

Beyond his performance work, his practice reflects an ongoing interest in timbral exploration, collective interaction and the expansion of the saxophone’s expressive possibilities within the context of contemporary music.