Double Bassist ANDRÉ CARVALHO Presents THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS

Double Bassist and composer André Carvalho, originally from Lisbon, Portugal and residing in NYC since 2014, is proud to present his third recording as a leader, The Garden Of Earthly Delights, to be released on May 17, and featuring his band of internationally acclaimed musicians, saxophonists Jeremy Powell and Eitam Gofman, trumpeter Oskar Stenmark, guitarist André Matos and drummer Rodrigo Recabarren.

His first two albums, Hajime and Memória de Amiba showed Carvalho's highly personal perspective in music featuring an original blend of contemporary jazz with elements from Portuguese music. Both projects received rave reviews from Portuguese and International critics. Carvalho was awarded the "Carlos Paredes" prize in 2012, a prestigious honor that recognizes Portuguese music projects, as well as a "Best Group" recognition in the Bucharest International Jazz Competition.

Now, with The Garden Of Earthly Delights, the double bassist and composer presents an inspired aural universe, inspired by the enigmatic work of the artist Hieronymus Bosch, particularly one of his most famous paintings - "The Garden of Earthly Delights" (1490-1510, housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid). Carvalho wrote a suite of music that serves as an invitation for a journey. Shifting between softness and harshness, simplicity and complexity, harmony and conflict, the music flows between soundscapes inspired by the triptych.

AllAboutJazz has asserted that Carvalho's compositions are, "impressively well-structured", and that, "his writing offers scope for different textures and layers of sound that often give the sensation of a much larger ensemble, but he's not afraid to give space to just one or two players at a time, creating some memorable performances as a result." Indeed, on The Garden Of Earthly Delights, Carvalho's "attractive compositional voice well founded in the modern trends of jazz" (JazzTrail), gives us a dark, brooding landscape, full orchestral textures with just a sextet, polyphony worthy of New Orleans, a dose of avant-garde and the drama of Fado; all of this on the first track, "Prelude".  

As to the genesis of the work, André said: "I always wanted to write a larger piece, with several movements, connected by a common concept. By mere chance, when revisiting Bosch's works, I was urged to express his singularity through music." The Suite wanders between antagonistic dichotomies such as improvised vs. composed music, between the influence of jazz and contemporary music. Unlike André Carvalho's previous works, The Garden Of Earthly Delights is an exploratory piece, leaning towards a different direction, showing the evolution of his creativity, imagination and prodigiousness with his composer's pen and his bass.

André Carvalho's credits are in abundance, his pedigree unassailable, having worked with Chris Cheek, Will Vinson, Ian Froman, Colin Stranahan, André Matos, Tommy Crane, Vinnie Sperrazza, Mário Laginha, Billy Mintz, Maria João, Gilberto Gil, European Movement Jazz Orchestra, among many others. The Fulbright grantee (with a Master of Music in jazz performance at the Manhattan School of Music) has also worked extensively outside the jazz world with the Ibero-American Orchestra (under Gustavo Dudamel), Anton Webern Orchestra (under Franz Welser-Most and Heinrich Schiff), Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (under Michael Zilm), among others, as well as contemporary ensembles such as Octothorpe. His interest in Fado, Portugal's traditional music, led him to perform with important names of this genre, such as Carlos do Carmo and Cristina Branco.

In recent years, Carvalho has also been performing intensely around Europe, performing as a bandleader and sideman in Portugal, Spain, Austria, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, England, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, as well as in the U.S. and Egypt.

The Garden Of Earthly Delights - Track listing:

1. Prelude

2. The Fools of Venus

3. The Fountain

4. Dracaena Draco

5. Of Mermaids and Mermen

6. Cherries, Brambles and Strawberries

7. The Towers of Eden

8. Evil Parade

9. The Thinker in the Tavern

10. The Forlorn Mill

11. Phowa

The recording sessions for The Garden Of Earthly Delights took place in April 2018 at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, NY. The album was mixed by the amazing producer, engineer and pianist Pete Rende, and mastered by the musical polymath Nate Wood.