A name we have been meeting more and more often in the flow of the movements that matter most in the interstices of jazz, improvisation, composition, looser rock and unheard proposals, Pedro Melo Alves joins ZDB to breathe new life into his cycle Conundrum started in 2018, continued in 2019 and since then on hiatus. In these two years, and in countercurrent with the pandemic dormancy and speculative tension, Melo Alves has picked up the trail and has devised new forms and languages that had a particularly striking moment with the performance of his magnanimous Omniae Large Ensemble. Moving forward through 2022, Melo Alves returns to this personal mystery that is Conundrum, a wild proposal that puts the drummer in duo with someone he admires and with whom he has never performed before, in a total of six encounters. The new cycle happens in July with Sara Serpa, in September with Ignaz Schick, and in November with Audrey Chen. Without any previous plan or strategy, the silence is broken with music born organically and open to countless possibilities, glimpsing the infinite.
Continuing the spirit of constant search and on several fronts in this cycle, Conundrum continues with its first foray into vocal territory at ZDB. The field of percussion and voice duo is a little untrodden one, even in the territories of free improvisation and jazz, which leaves frankly high expectations in the air given the company of Melo Alves. Vocalist, composer and improviser with more than established credits in this panorama, Sara Serpa has been widely awarded and praised by spheres of interest that include Downbeat, NPR and the New York Times, gracefully inhabiting a limbo between mainstream jazz and more exploratory tendencies, a synthesis of technique, lyricism, bravery and an ability to evoke emotional or sensorial states without resorting to words or performative melismas. Purity and knowledge. BS
