What does Tetterapadequ mean? Is it an obscure Italian or Portuguese term that reflects this ensemble's mix of two Italian and two Portuguese musicians? No it is not. It's an anagram of “De Patter Quartet, ” which was named after the De Pater jazz club in Haia, The Netherlands. The club — one of the favorite venues for Gonçalo Almeida, Giovanni di Domenico, João Lobo, and Daniele Martini when they were ?attending the local conservatory — was where the project Tetterapadequ was born and began to develop. But something is missing from the anagram: it shoud have one more “r,” hence the CD's title. R or no R, what you'll find in the music extends far beyond what is taught in European jazz courses. At De Pater the quartet explored the possibilities of a shared musical language developed through collective ?improvisation. It is clearly jazz, which is the root of the musical language used here, but there's much more to it than typical jazz-like rhythmic patterns and harmonic constructions. The four young musicians call their new musical lingo “confusionism" because their structured improvisations and spontaneous compositions surprise the listener, and often the musicians themselves, with unexpected and even bizarre outcomes. |