Heitor Alvelos writes: “This cassette has been a long time coming: 35 years to the day, to be exact. It is the”other” Blaine and Steven concert in Portugal from back in 1989, recorded two days after the Lisbon gig immortalised many moons ago as the “One Hundred Years of Music” CD on Crépuscule. “Live in Porto, 24 November 1989” is undoubtedly the better of the two gigs (just listen to “Iberia”!…), but the occasional distortion and hum present on the recording deemed it unsuitable for release at the time.
The story of how the concerts came to be is itself a bit of an epic. Tuxedomoon had gained a loyal following in Portugal throughout the second half of the 1980s, largely thanks to re-releases of their classic discography on Crammed, a series of articles and interviews in the music newspaper Blitz and, for those unable to foot the price tag of import LPs, the ever-present circle of tape dubbing. The Blaine and Steven gigs happened due to the foresight of famed record store Contraverso, then somewhat of a pilgrimage site for avant-garde imports in the hip Bairro Alto neighborhood in Lisbon, and Becas, a nightlife entrepreneur and guru who remains fully active on the Porto scene to this day.
In parallel to Tuxedomoon, Blaine and Steven performed occasionally as a duo, discreetly developing a more classical/jazz-oriented aesthetic which, in truth, had always been present in the band but was by now fully and autonomously refined after their move to Europe and their ventures with Maurice Béjart among others. These gigs in Portugal were one-offs, largely presenting this”other side of Tuxedomoon” to an avid audience for the first time. And expectant we were.
The setlist was made up of a repertoire that reinvented Tuxedomoon classics, revisited piano and violin duets from the early 80s and premièred various other pieces. The 90-minute recital gradually expanded to include synths, saxes, clarinet and vocals. By set’s end the atmosphere was charged, the audience overjoyed, the musicians visibly happy.
I had been in touch with Steven for a couple of years, having interviewed him in 1987 and was invited to hang out after the gig, witnessing further magic that now resides only in the memory of a few, such as Blaine’s late wife J.J. LaRue performing an exquisite improv dance onstage as Blaine himself improvised on the piano.
The day after, Steven asked me to show him around Porto. Steven, Blaine, J.J., sound engineer Stephan Kramer and myself all converged downtown at the Imperial Café (now a McDonalds – what a surprise…) A dinner with Becas followed, but not before Steven generously allowed me to dub my own copy of the gig recording, one which I have listened to countless times to this day. A terrible dub on my cheap boombox, it was all hiss and distortion, but the magic still shone through unblemished.
The time came of the Lisbon CD a few months later, and, having gotten used to the Porto recording in all its details, I was slightly disappointed. Somehow Lisbon felt like a rehearsal for the Porto gig, where the duo’s dynamics were clearly more consistent. This disappointment was compounded by the fact that the release truncated the gig and actually altered its sequence. To this day I wonder who decided to exclude the superlative”Ghost Sonata” from the CD release, and why…
All of this brings us to the present edition. Being in touch on and off with Steven, and then with Blaine as well, throughout the years, I would occasionally mention the brilliance of the Porto gig and how I regarded it as essential. Steven didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic, but truth was they were unsure of the whereabouts of the original DAT, misplaced as the decades had gone by.
One day, a few years ago, I received an email from Steven: he had found the Porto DAT in his archives. The bad news was the aforementioned sound issues, which had him believe a release was out of the question. But time and patience ended up being kind to my ambitions for this recording… That and AI-based audio repair software, the cassette-based label run by Philip Marshall and the good grace of studio wizard Alex FX all converged in this edition, a fine listening experience of the full Blaine and Steven recital at Teatro Carlos Alberto, Porto, all the way back on 24 November 1989. On a personal level it feels like the culmination of a long journey, one that began as Steven handed me the recording on 25 November 1989. Then I wished the world could listen.
And guess what? 35 years later, the world can. I hope you derive as much enjoyment as I have throughout. It’s still magic.
With special thanks to Steven for graciously enduring my pleas for release throughout the years, Blaine for promptly and enthusiastically agreeing, Philip for the unwavering support and Alex for the sound wizardry. And as ever, Isabelle for hosting this conspiracy of mine throughout.” – Heitor Alvelos, Porto, 10 November 2024
