Among the still young musicians that assume with dignity and spirit the continuity and advance in the movement – that one wants to be continuously breathing and alive, without settling down on the already established credits of their certainties – around improvised music and jazz, João Almeida has been one of its bravest figures. A trumpet player with schooling and a broad view over music, his own and others, he has been in the last years working continuously in several fronts, starting from jazz but reaching a more expansive field that, continuously, allows him to get more and more into his own language. Member of PEACHFUZZ, LUMP, Chão Maior, or Ricardo Jacinto’s Medusa Unit, Almeida reappears again on stage at ZDB – and his recurrent presence here demonstrates his relevance – as the head of POCUS, alongside Gonçalo Almeida and João Lobo. These are slightly older figures, easily recognizable from these meanderings, and also important in their vitality, in a European network of more or less lasting relationships that multiplies and solidifies, unshakably. With Almeida composing pieces specifically with the double bass of the other Almeida and the drums of Lobo in mind, a piece of unhurried music rises, far from the free or rocker turns – something already experienced in other fields by the three – where the melodic rigor of the composition blends naturally with the timbre exploration and the use of extended techniques, in a structure with as much of suspension as of precision. Another affirmative step. BS