Xose Miguelez - Ontology

Xose Miguelez and his modern jazz quartet take inspiration from traditional Galician music for their new album, 'Ontology'.

While looking through songbooks of traditional Galician music, Spanish saxophonist Xose Miguelez happened upon a recording by the ethnic musicologist Dorothe Schubart of a ballad, sung by his own Great-Aunt Amparo almost 40 years ago in Cerdedelo-Laza, a beautiful village hidden in the Galician hills. All of the compositions on Ontology come from a four-note motif at the beginning of that ballad. The idea came from Kansas City saxophonist Matt Otto, a friend and mentor to Xose and the producer of this recording. Though through the sounds of this dynamic, modern jazz quartet it may be difficult to discern the four-note motif, it is the very root and inspiration of this work. Listen to the end to hear Great-Aunt Amparo sing her song.

Xose Miguelez' creativity, his sensibility, his openness, and his fearlessness have been a constant source of joy for me. He has a flawless sense of melody and storytelling, and his sound is beautiful and conveys a vast range of feelings and emotions - rare thing these days... - Jean-Michel Pilc