Vitor Pereira Quintet – Doors
(F-IRECD 47. CD Review by Chris Parker)

Guitarist Vitor Pereira moved to London from his native Portugal in 2004 (to study jazz under Stuart Hall, Mike Outram et al. at Middlesex University), and his band on this, his first album as a leader, contains some of the capital’s most celebrated contemporary players: Led Bib’s Chris Williams (alto), Fraud/Golden Age of Steam’s James Allsopp (tenor), bassist Ryan Trebilcock and drummer Eddie Hick.

Pereira’s music (all eight tracks are his compositions) is a heady mix of immediately accessible jazz, hard-hitting rock (admirers of the MoonJune label’s output will love this CD) and hints of so-called ‘world’ music, all summed up in the album’s title, which (like Jim Morrison’s band’s Huxley-inspired name) refers to mental doors, opened to admit a myriad of such influences.

Punchy and vibrant though most of Pereira’s music is (and the band has an extremely effective habit of suddenly throwing in loud, grungy sequences to punctuate the more discursive jazz-based playing), it does have its quieter moments, where it takes on a softer quality, occasionally even approaching the mellowness associated with label-mates Oriole.

For the most part, however, Doors rocks and swings hard, both saxophonists tellingly featured in both straightahead mode and the odd freer passage, and Pereira himself decorating the vigorous band sound with intelligent, cleanly articulated solos. An auspicious debut.

F-IRE