A leading figure in national jazz and beyond, Sei Miguel passed away this week, aged 64. The musician, for whom everything “seemed to work by detour and lightness”, leaves behind a body of work of incalculable value, starting with “Breaker”, going through projects such as O Carro de Fogo by Sei Miguel or his most recent work, “Panorama” (2024), with Daniel Levin and his lifelong companion, Fala Mariam. In 1988, his first album took him to the cover of the then BLITZ newspaper, on the ride of an interview conducted by António Pires, who also left this year.
When a rare and strange object is placed in our hands — a piece of amber that holds sparkling, ancient insects, an old poem by Rilke lost in dusty attics, a flower that has survived many winters in the center of Lisbon — it is not the obfuscation of the discovery or the revelation that terrifies. It is the immediate vision that our trembling and emotional fingers will not be able to retain for long. That the dizziness and gravity are incomparably stronger. And all we can do is leave him momentarily, carefully, by our side. Look at it sideways, think for a long time about the best way to handle it, protect it from greedy advances. Then, only then, can you hold it back and learn to love it. “Breaker”, the first LP by trumpeter Sei Miguel, performed by seven musicians and published by Ama Romanta, is one of those objects, fragile to the touch, foreign at first glance, ready to be passionately guarded.