Vicente/Dikeman/Parker/Drake

Portugal/Netherlands/United States of America

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There are many reasons to fall in love with jazz: dexterity, challenge, harmony, lyricism, surprise, freedom, all are qualities inherent to the greater art of improvised music.

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The surrender to the construction of the moment, through a universal language where individual and collective dialogue, value each other and transform themselves in the overcoming of themselves and of previously defined music, is in itself a revolution that has transformed the music around them, but also the mentalities.

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Free jazz, in its radicalism of the affirmation of freedom was therefore, together with funk, the soundtrack and formal materialization of the political discourse of affirmation of black consciousness and black power in the face of racism and segregation in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, and William Parker is one of its greatest references today. Born in the Bronx in 1952, he made his debut with Cecil Taylor after studying with Jimmy Garrison of John Coltrane's quartet or with Richard Davis, and became a legend alongside another free jazz giant, David Sware. In recent years he has created with drummer and percussionist Hamid Drake one of the most definitive rhythmic doubles of the best in current jazz.

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That's why the appearance of these 2 biggest names in the most recent album of trumpeter Luís Vicente is a sign of respect and maturity of the Portuguese musician - and a guarantee of great music from the freest side of the Planet jazz.

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The result of a live meeting that took place in Aldeias de Xisto, which was joined by the American saxophonist John Dikeman, is now edited with the Portuguese label JACC Records with the title "Goes Without Saying, But It's Got To Be Said", a record that confirms Luís Vicente as one of the most inspired and adventurous jazz and improvised musicians in Portugal.

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And if this is a truth that has to be said, it must above all be heard, even if it requires our willingness to discover it until it is allowed to breathe. (Tiago Santos, 2020)