A Porta Aperta by Karl Silveira
“A porta apera” translates from Italian as “open door” and the phrase makes for an apt title to the debut by Toronto trombonist Karl Silveira and the sextet he helms. A Porta Aperta's nine pieces open doors to angular, cerebral melodies beholden in roughly equal measure to jazz’s ‘50s cool school and the intellectual rigor of the original cadre of ECM Records artists. No two pieces sound similar, though without the breaks placed between them, the album could nearly sound as it were one continuous piece, with, perhaps, minor tweaks.
Tenor and alto sax solos and harmonization with Silveira’s instrument create textures at times on the razor’s edge of abrasiveness and elsewhere majestically sonorous. The cumulative result doesn’t so much sway as much as it glides, and even then, Aperta’s motion negotiates glass shards and patches of sand. Silveira’s is an auspicious debut boding promisingly for him and his ensemble as well as his city’s creative music community.
