Axes ”Hexagon”
Spotlight on Portugal
- Thursday 31.10. at 19.00
- Klubi
- Free admission
”As the bassist and drummer maintained the groove, the reed connections were sophisticated enough to be both foot-tapping and fruitfully inventive.”
– Ken Waxman, JazzWord, 2024
”As the bassist and drummer maintained the groove, the reed connections were sophisticated enough to be both foot-tapping and fruitfully inventive.”
The biggest Portuguese band in Thursday’s theme evening is Axes, a sextet founded by the saxophonist and composer João Mortágua (born in 1987). Six is an appropriate number, because the band’s second album is named Hexagon (2023).
But this is not just a convenient play on words. Geometry structures the six-part – of course – work interpreted by the sextet and led by Mortágua from the beginning to the end, as one can assume from the names of the compositions. They are Line, Angle, Triangle, Square, Pentagon and Hexagon.
Different geometrical shapes can also be easily converted into music, thanks above all to inventive musical instrumentation and complementary and intertwined instruments. Basically, Axes is a quartet of four saxophonists – like Rova Saxophone Quartet or World Saxophone Quartet that earlier appeared in Jazz Happening – but now with rhythm accompaniment provided by a bassist and a drummer.
PHOTO © Axes
