So is the fact that you have lyrics for themes?
AF: I do not know, "engine" is different from "cube" because the formations are different and the artists are different. Maybe what differece this from the other there is these songs in the classic term mixed with other that are not traditional in that sense and freedom of interpretation that is natural in jazz in a general sense. Since it is not jazz, it is a record of any fusion. The term fusion is associated with something very specific, began in the '70s, which was to blend concepts of jazz with rock beats and swing, but nowadays I think when you talk about mergers, there is talk of almost everything and jazz currently has influences of the music of the east, the Americans, but it is not a style, but is a mixture of many things.
As this is an album with themes that have lyrics, you felt some difficulty in this process?
AF: I did not even proposed me to write the lyrics, I knew the theme by the way of the melodies and the way I wrote it, with the guitar and voice, would have to be sung and many lent themselves to have a lyric. But I do not write lyrics, I do not have this skill. Therefore, from the outset it was not a hardship for me, I took this weight myself and asked a good friend in New York, a Japanese girl who is Akiko Pavolka whom I worked with over the years, I asked her if she liked the tunes, if she like it to write a few lyrics and she did.
And in sending emails and skype process was easy this dialogue?
AF: Yes, I recorded demos at home in my studio, alone. I recorded everything, bass, guitar, drums and sang, did almost a model for her to hear. The musical part was all outlined and she was amazing with all that, she took all the nuances, I was not expecting, nor was it necessary that she had done it, but anyway she adapted completely to the lyrics. Embedded it in a natural way, but I knew she would be able to do this, it is her talent.
Even being young have a remarkable career.
AF: I was younger! But, yeah (laughs) ...
You recorded all your albuns, there is some work that demonstrates your essence and represents you as a musician?
AF: I think all of them in one way or another represent what I was at the time when I recorded them. I see the albuns as a picture of what I was doing at that timeline, the music that I was playing with musicians who'd been playing that time and decided to make it a record. Were the pictures of that process. I feel proud at all, but I also know that it is an evolution and maturation of what I do, my style. For me the most hard off the deck is the "engine", the last before this, is best to do justice to what I do.
In accordance with the national Jazz panorama, looking back, do you think there was an evolution? The public already sees you differently?
AF: In terms of audience, I think there has always been. What is behind in terms of organizations jazz is not always that supports or promotes the taste that people could have more active. This is seen outside urban centers. The medium has changed a lot in the last ten years from quantity and quality. The proportion of younger musicians rose suddenly, because there were courses in jazz music and a lot of people playing very well, that is good and positive and helps stimulate artistic creation in Portugal.
Is there a future for Portuguese musicians?
AF: There is a future. The musicians have to make music because they like it, and not because they will make money and be famous. The rest of course is what we want to happen, but it cannot be the reason to do so. And so I think there is always room for musicians, while there are people with music in their head and they decide to put it out here, it makes sense. Of course, it is a small country with so many musicians there is less regularity, there is so much space and opportunity to work, but this may force the internationalization of Portuguese musicians that start to believe that their scenarios are not only here but around the world.
