adEIdJ – Associazione delle Etichette Indipendenti di Jazz

João Lencastre's Comm was formed in 2005 and recorded two albums for Fresh Sound Records and one for TOAP Records. “What is this all about?”, released for AUAND Records is their fourth album and the title refers to the endless unanswered questions we all have. Just start looking around and try to understand life and this world where we live. From the human behavior to the power of nature, how the world has been evolving over hundreds and hundreds of years and everything else we can imagine. When we think about it we always end asking “What is this all about?”.

Comm is basically a sextet with Phil Grenadier on trumpet, David Binney on alto sax, Andre Matos on guitar, Jacob Sacks on piano and Thomas Morgan on double bass. Lencastre adds: “This record is actually the one that I have written more music for and the one more produced as I added the voices of Sara Serpa and Tiago Bettencourt (famous Portuguese singer songwriter that I play with), Ary (from great alternative Portuguese band Blasted Mechanism) on modular synth on couple tracks, and Benny Lackner on Wurlitzer in one tune where I also play a prophet synth keyboard. I was hearing "things big" and I wanted some of the melodies to be epic or more dramatic. The process of writing for this record was a slow and natural process. Usually I don't have anything in mind when I'm writing a tune, I just start playing and see what comes out. At times I would sit at the piano or keyboards and my fingers would just move automatically, by instinct and some idea for a tune would come out. It was like having my subconscious talking through my fingers, I didn't know what was coming out, I had nothing planned, and just let my fingers tell me what I had to say. That's how I write most of the tunes. Anyway I always leave space for interpretation, for the musicians input, specially on the solo sections. Every time we play the same tune we can go on any direction in order to keep the freshness. I like the feeling of not knowing what's gonna happen on the improvisation part, just playing the moment and let it flow, and that happens naturally with this guys.”

 

SHORT BIO

João Lencastre is a drummer/composer born in Lisbon. Started playing the drums at the age of 13 and he is now one of the most active and creative musicians on the Portuguese musical scene. He has played all different kinds of music, from avant garde jazz to mainstream, alternative rock, afro beat, reggae, metal, world music, electronic/dance, etc. His interest in jazz started when he first joined the Hot Club Jazz School in 1995 where he studied with drummer Bruno Pedroso. Apart from Portugal, he has also played in different venues around the world, including New York, Czech Republic, England, Poland, Germany, Spain and Panama. He has played and/or recorded with David Binney, Bill Carrothers, Andre Fernandes, Mario Franco, Thomas Morgan, Jacob Sacks, Afonso Pais, Carlos Martins, Carlos Barreto, Phil Grenadier, Andre Matos, Demian Cabaud, Leo Genovese, Johannes Krieger, Peter Bernstein, Masa Kamaguchi, Benny Lackner, Nelson Cascais, Spill, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Vojtech Porchaska, David Doruzka, Noah Preminger, Russ Johnson, Sean Conly, Randy Ingram, Demian Cabaud, Jeremy Stratton, Tiago Bettencourt & Mantha, Blasted Mechanism, Cacique 97, Philharmonic Weed, among many others.