Eva Scow + Dusty Brough – Sharon of the Sea (Adventure Music)

There is something in the music of Eva Scow that is so unique that the only two other musicians who come to mind when she is playing are Joni Mitchell and perhaps Bela Fleck. And here is why: As a composer and arranger, she hears music in the same playful, unvarnished and guileless manner that Joni Mitchell does. Yet like Mitchell, she is a sublime harmonic colorist and has a lyrical sophistication – whether in her phrasing and musical syntax, or the hidden rhythms (rhymes in Mitchell’s case) – that literally gives new meaning to the term. And of course, she is a virtuoso who can soar conceptually on a rather difficult instrument as only Bela Fleck can.

Sharon By The Sea will be one of the years’ most celebrated releases, for sure. On this record, Scow shares the marquee with guitarist Dusty Brough. What an inspired duo. True this record is choro, but it is the reading of the moods and the swirling emotions that emerge from great choro that haunts each song here. And there is such a delightful and memorable sense of playfulness that only Hermeto Pascoal brought time and time again to music.

First off, there are the titles of the songs themselves… these provide a contrapuntal elegance to the depth and richness of the music itself. The songs are quite naked because the emotion that runs like an underground river throughout each song is replete with elemental sadness in sketches, “Rodolfo,” “Sharon By The Sea” and best of all on “Sketches of Terry”. The harmonies are slanted, oblique and Monkish. “Sketches of Terry,” is especially novel with the addition of the tabla to the conventional choro percussion. This is a bold step. It broadens the textural palate of choro immediately with the deep melodic resonance – not quite like a surdo, which perhaps is a good thing – and makes it even more universal. Brasil sharing, once again, with the world…

And on the final track there is, again a stroke of genius – the addition of the Fender Rhodes, not because an electronic keyboard was absolutely necessary, but because the fey tones of the Rhodes would add a certain emotional vulnerability to the character’s emotions. Also the exquisite bass solo that comes out of nowhere to dazzle while a lazy dialogue in the background sets up the fade away… an end to a perfect weekend session… This is what makes this a record of considerable achievement.

And that recalls what Machito is known to have said apropos of clave. It is the emotion that makes the rhythm authentic, not necessarily the actual clacking of the clave.

Tracks Listing: Bird With Beastlike Qualities; Theoretically Speaking; Utah; Rodolfo; Pica Pica; Best in Show; Sharon of the Sea; Gypsy Wagon CRASH; Sketches of Terry; Gateway Chronicles; Saturday.

Personnel: Eva Scow: mandolin, electric mandolin, violin, Fender Rhodes; Dusty Brough: nylon string guitar, electric guitar, acoustic bass, cumbus; John Martin III; percussion (1, 3-9); Adam Scow: violin (2, 4, 7); Brian Rice: pandeiro, tan tan, tamborim, cuica, tabla (2, 4, 8); Mark Summer: cello (4, 7, 8); Javon Davis: keyboard (7, 9); Kevin Davis: upright bass (10); Brian Hamada: drums (10).

Eva Scow on the web: www.myspace.com/evascow

Review written by: Raul da Gama

Grupo Falso Baiano – Viajando Choro e Jazz (Independent 2008)

Of the many non-Brasilian ensembles in the United States besotted with “choro,” the music of Brasil and, not simply drawn to it, but actually performing it, Grupo Falso Baiano may very possibly be the finest. The quartet of Jesse Appelman (mandolin), Zack Pitt-Smith (woodwinds), Brian Moran (guitars and cavaquinho) and Ami Molinelli (pandeiro and percussion) focus their attention on Brasilian “choro,” on Viajando: Choro e Jazz, a record that consists of 13 tracks sweeping across a hundred years of “choro.”

What is remarkable about this record is the consistently fabulous and contemporary treatment of “choro”. Some of the older “choro,” in fact, such as “De Coração a Coração” and on “Carioquinho” and other Waldir Azevedo compositions, as on Bonfiglio de Oliveira’s “Alzira,” as on Jacob do Bandolim’s “Biruta” and others, the classical music played with bare feet and calloused hands truly comes to life. Remarkably the music also sounds fresh as the “choro” written by more recent masters -Hermeto, Baden Powell and Hamilton de Hollanda.

There is a wonderful synergy between Appelman, Moran, Pitt-Smith and Molinelli. This is what drives the music in the truest tradition of Brasilian lament. Not only are the string players virtuoso instrumentalists just as Zack Pitt-Smith is with his horns, but they appear to dance around each other in a fabulous interplay that is worthy of the best “choro” bands put together by Hermeto and de Hollanda. Molinelli can slap the pandeiro as well as the finest percussionists. On Baden Powell’s “Canto de Ossanha” she holds her own with Michael Spiro, who also guests on conga.

Here, too, the classic rondo form of the “choro” gets its finest showcase. This is true of all the tracks on the record, but Baden Powell’s composition, just as Hermeto’s “Viajando Pelo Brasil” before that are the highlights of the art of “choro” of today. The AABBACCA form and changing keys are superbly highlighted, as is the form on “Arrasta-Pé,” Azevedo’s offering with which Grupo Baiano close the set. But while the documentary nature of the record gives it considerable weight, the joie de vivre of the musicians and their virtuosity of the highest order is what makes this a first class record. If this were the group’s debut, the sophomore offering would be even more eagerly awaited.

Track Listing:

De Ben com e Vida; Carioquinha; Beliscando; Irmãos Super Mario; Samba de Lua; Biruta; De Coração a Coração; Aquarela na Quixaba; Alzira; Viajando pelo Brasil; Conversa de Baiana; Canto de Ossanha; Arrasta-Pé.

Personnel:

Zack Pitt-Smith: woodwinds; Jesse Appelman: mandolin (except tracks 9 & 10); Brian Moran: steel and nylon string guitars, cavaquinho; Ami Molinelli: pandeiro, zabumba, percussion. With Guests: Jovino Santos Neto: accordion (10, 13), melodica: (4); Mike Marshall: mandolin (7); Eva Scow: mandolin (7, 9, 10); Jorge Alabe: percussion (8); Michael Spiro: congas, percussion, birdcalls (4, 8, 12); Brian Rice: tamborim (4).

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Grupo Falso Baiano on the web: www.grupofalsobaiano.com

Review written by: Raul da Gama