At last year’s Festa Do Jazz in Lisbon percussionist Iúri Oliveira stood out in Duarte Ventura’s ensemble, arguably the best group of the three-day event. A composer and arranger in his own right, Oliveira is no less impressive on this highly imaginative album, which adds to the lineage of virtuoso performances of solo drums in black music.

First and foremost the immensely wide sonic range of the material reflects the orchestral dimension of African rhythms by dint of the variety of instruments deployed, from the lowest bass to the highest soprano and enchanting tuned percussion in the mid range. Oliveira is particularly adept at evoking specific environments, be it the bottom of a well or the hollow of a tree, and his use of space and silence in relation to a carefully chosen conga phrase, jangle of shells, distant bird whistle or starkly reverberating bell is superb. The tracks on the album are vividly cinematic, occasionally interspersed with short monologues, but they also become highly danceable as soon as Oliveira introduces a sensual, side-winding 6/8. When Max Roach declared that the drum also waltzes in the 1950s he hailed the sophistication of rhythm beyond timekeeping that was prevalent in jazz, African and Afro-Brazilian music.

Oliveira stands in that heritage, along with luminaries such as Nana Vasconceles, Airto Moreira, Trilok Gurtu, Doudou Ndiaye Rose and Guem insofar as he is able to create complex narratives that are as non-metrical as they are metrical, tumbling into abstraction and metaphor as much as they settle into pulsating groove. Manifesto is indeed a statement of artistic intent, but Oliveira’s ambitious, wide-ranging music also turns a revelatory spotlight on Afro-Portugese culture.