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Moacir Santos
Ouro Negro-Black Gold
Claudia Villela & Ricardo Peixoto
Inverse Universe
Orquestra Popular de C�mara
Orquestra Popular de C�mara
All titles Adventure Music (www.adventure-music.com)
Despite those who say there is no such thing as Brazilian jazz, a capacity for improvisation and an openness to mixing novel sounds is nothing new in that part of the world. Whatever one may think about the jazz-samba encounter and bossa nova's influence on global sonorities, Brazilian musicians have been sampling and crossing musical boundaries for a long while.
Recent evidence comes from septuagenarian composer-arranger Moacir Santos, who began engraving his northeastern sensibilities on Brazilian popular music (MPB) in the 1950s, with arrangements for radio broadcast and scores for films like the Carlos Diegues classic Ganga Zumba. Santos moved on in 1967 to Los Angeles, remaining in the United States to record on Blue Note, lending his talents to S�rgio Mendes, while teaching and continuing to compose soundtracks. Santos's many students have included the incomparable guitarist Baden Powell, among those paying tribute on this release are noted vocal talents Joyce, Muiza Adnet, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Jo�o Bosco, Djavan, and Ed Motta (plus Santos himself), along with pianist-guitarist Jo�o Donato.
There's no mistaking the uniquely Brazilian character of the Pernambuco native's original arrangements on Ouro Negro, an expansive two-disc studio session conceived, produced and led by saxophonist-clarinetist Z� Nogueira and guitarist M�rio Adnet, in a core ensemble rounded out by trombone, piano, bass, drums and percussion, plus a score of guests. The sound is nouveau big band, with a Mingus-like lyricism throughout. There's not a throwaway track among the 28 compositions most from the 1960s and 1970s, but retro this is not; indeed, several have new lyrics by Nei Lopes. The producers bring an orchestral perspective to the project, teasing out the subtle textures of Santos arrangements using the full range of time signatures and blended timbres at their disposal. The melodies and changes linger; there's an elegant wistfulness and moody grace here, the ineluctable quality Brazilians know as saudade. Evidence of the esteem in which Santos is held by his musical collaborators, students and public alike, this one is a keeper.
Rio native Claudia Villela represents a younger generation of Brazilian singers, marked as much by her classical and jazz training at conservatory as by the ubiquitous strains of street samba, Macumba spirit possession songs and a host of popular sounds. In the mid-1980s, Villela moved to the United States, dividing time between the northern California jazz scene and study at the Manhattan School of Music (with Sheila Jordan) and the Metropolitan Opera. Inverse Universe, her collaboration with Ricardo Peixoto (six, seven and twelve-string guitars, electric guitar, tenor banjo and cavaquinho) won critical praise and a loyal audience with its local Bay Area release in 2001, and is now reissued.
With Casio Duarte on percussion, and comprising all original material, the album includes guest spots by harmonica ace Toots Thielemans, and an array of solid session players on accordion, piano, keyboards, saxes, clarinets, trumpet, trombone and percussion. Villela, who penned all the lyrics, has chops to spare, uncorking a five-octave range, singing and scatting circles around anything she touches (hear her workout on "Caravana" and the title track). The sound is unambiguously Brazilian, but Peixoto's reach and artistry give Villela plenty of room to improvise, and her lyricism surprises at every turn, marking her as a singer with whom to reckon.
In a more folkloric vein, but with an intrepid jazz-like disposition, is Orquestra Popular de C�mara. A dozen Brazilian artists, plus guest percussionist Nan� Vasconcellos, they undertake a grand experimental blend of urban popular forms with the rural sounds of the Northeast and indigenous Brazil, and discriminate use of international influences. Their recording debut is a bright synthesis that takes Brazilian sounds into new territory, weaving the complementary sonorities of flute, bamboo flute, saxophone, piano, accordion, bandolim, cello, viola caipira, bass and a plethora of percussion.
M�nica Salmaso finds her true m�tier in this setting, her expressive voice a tonal instrument the equal of any other in the ensemble. For those who think of Brazilian jazz as easy-listening purgatory, this breakthrough title changes the rules. Consider "Suite para pular cama (e ver o Brasil)" (wake up and see Brazil), an exquisite, pulsing 16-minute meld of choro, forro, samba, wordless vocals, and indigenous whistles and percussion, invoking a land whose potential, the artists insist, Brazilians have yet to set eyes (and ears) upon. - Michael Stone
For further aventures, read Michael Stone's overview of some recent global jazz trends around the world.
All titles are available from cdRoots
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