Karl Silveira: A Porta Aperta
Karl Silveira
Three years before the arrival of his self-released debut album, trombonist Karl Silveira delivered his University of Toronto Graduating Master's Recital in a programme featuring originals and tunes by Monk, Strayhorn, and Shorter. While that might suggest a developmental path that progressed linearly from educational training to professional practice, Silveira's story isn't quite so simple. His A Porta Aperta arrives after a decade-and-a-half as a freelance trombonist and years spent playing with highly respected jazz artists such as Ingrid Jensen, Kevin Turcotte, Christine Jensen, Clark Terry, and Pat Labarbara. And long before attending university, Silveira grew up in Portugal listening to his grandfather play Portuguese folk songs and then, having completed a Bachelor of Music, toured Eastern Europe in bands that performed Romani and Ukrainian Folk music.
All such experiences naturally fed into A Porta Aperta, laid down over two days in July 2021 and featuring Silveira alongside alto saxophonist Allison Au (who performed with him in that Master's Recital), tenor saxophonist David French, pianist Chris Pruden, bassist Dan Fortin, and drummer Nico Dann (for the record, the saxophonists play separately on seven of the nine tracks). Anyone keeping tabs on Toronto's current jazz community will recognize those names and likely will have heard them play in multiple other contexts.
Echoes of Shorter, Hancock, Tristano, and others arise as the album unfolds, but Silveira uses his influences well. None of the tunes sounds overly derivative or as if he's aping another's style. Instead, the impression left is of a dedicated student who's absorbed the music of others in the service of building his own sound. Opening the set promisingly, “Nymark Plaza” blows in like the smoothest of breezes, with Fortin and Dann establishing a solid base for Au and Silveira and Pruden up first in the soloing department. As the music gains in velocity, a hint of Spanish flavour seeps into the performance, and Silveira executes the first of what will be many arresting album solos, his attack full-throated and assertive yet also refined. As much as he applies a controlling hand to the writing, a track such as “Perimeter” shows he's also willing to let abstraction and exploration enter into the process. As a soloist, Silveira definitely makes his formidable presence felt, but he's also a generous host. Pruden and Fortin get moments in the spotlight (see the latter's unaccompanied intro to the nostalgia-tinged “Far”), and Au and French also leave their mark on the music; hear, for example, her rousing contribution to “Trip the Light, Fantastic” and his sultry turn on the boppish “Shimmy.”
Silveira's considered approach results in a style of jazz that's often chamber-like in its sophistication. While there's no shortage of energy to the performances, A Porta Aperta is no incendiary blowing session. The tracks are compact statements that never overstay their welcome, and the focus is on refined ensemble playing with solo spots judiciously woven into the writing. It's a recording, in other words, where polyphony, counterpoint, and ensemble colour are as important as individual expression. Interestingly, the album title accommodates two diametrically opposed meanings: in Latin, it means “the open door,” in Portuguese, “the door squeezes.” Despite the fact that Portuguese is Silveira's first language, it's the Latin definition that applies most when A Porta Aperta registers as the sound of a musical career and identity opening wide.April 2022