TGB - III

2019 release

At their third album, Portuguese band TGB can’t be defined anymore by the unnusual instrumentation of a tuba, a guitar and a drum set. An idiosyncratic music comes with it, «without frontiers and unconquerable», as Sérgio Carolino, Mário Delgado and Alexandre Frazão say themselves. They mixed jazz, rock, folk, country and more in ways impossible to categorize like “fusion”. TGB expanded it so much, and with such unique results, that they blew the label in question, inventing their own «space of interception between contemporary creativity and critical thought».

And they do make a point with that: in “III” there’s an explicit revisitation of the «hidden universe» of the Seventies rock, jazz, jazz-rock and rock-jazz bands, which is also an analyze of their own identities, individually and as a group. The consequences are marvelous, taking the TGB concept many steps further. No, it doesn’t sound as a psychotherapy session – there’s only some psychedelic moments.

The music communicates with us easily, full of good rhythmic and melodic arguments, the kind you can even sing in the bath. If there was a deconstruction of materials and an evaluation of references in the process, the trio assembled their conclusions in consistent and coherent ways. Carolino’s tuba multiphonics are a wonder, Delgado’s guitar pyrotechnics don’t cease to surprise and Frazão’s drumming motions keep us wanting for more. An inevitable question arises: what the f***k is happening in Portugal, explaining such incredible music?