Dennis González / João Paulo - So Soft Yet (Clean Feed 2012)

After the success of the first encounter between the Texan trumpeter and the Portuguese pianist, “Scapegrace”, here is the second volume of a partnership able to continue to surprise us. There are more instruments involved, with Dennis González also using a cornet and João Paulo Esteves da Silva adding an accordion and a Fender Rhodes to the Grand Piano, in this way opening up the timbral spectrum of this music. And yet, if “Scapegrace” was a solar work, this one – as González points out in his liner notes – contains winter music, full of shadows and in some way reflecting the falling rain. João Paulo gives free hand to an old obsession about his Sefardic heritage, and he signals that, at the time of the recording, he was reading Byron’s collection of poems and songs “Hebrew Melodies”. Natural was that Dennis also based himself in his own Latin, Moor and Jewish roots. The resulting music is astonishing, full of soul and with an imagetic quality that makes us dream and introspect. Who could tell such different musicians and individuals could reach a close understanding as this? The word “beauty” gains an extra significance in these pieces, meaning that we are one in spirit, like once John Coltrane believed. (Clean Feed)