Mario Adnet & Phillippe Baden Powell – AfroSambaJazz

Truth is told: Had the great Billy Strayhorn been even mildly interested in courting recognition for his contribution to Duke Ellington’s music, he would have occupied a much more rarified place in the pantheon of composers and arrangers – and even pianists – in the modern history of music. His reticence, even diffidence, was all encompasing. Mario Adnet could very possibly be the same kind of personality. AfroSambaJazz (Adventure Music 2009) is just another example of this. Adnet has made a magnificent record musically honoring Tom Jobim, shepherded three spectacular projects in homage of the great Moacir Santos – not to mention a superb period piece, Samba Meets Boogie Woogie… Now he’s at the center of this highly polished revue of the music of legendary guitarist, Baden Powell. The fact that he is joined by Phillippe Baden Powell, son of the late master, who provides great insights into his father’s music and sensative arrangements on many tracks and spectacular piano, when called for, puts the proverbial cherry on the cake.

Baden Powell was a sublime artist, who took his instrument well beyond the possibilities of the guitar. He played with complete command of every idiom in classical music and Afro-Brasilian music – whether it was folk or popular music. He was associated with the legendary Moacir Santos as a student of advanced harmony. Santos also taught him Greek modes, but must surely above all else, opened his mind to further loving the music and poetry of the earth, and expressing himself without restraint, even if it meant colliding with multiple sources of cultural stimulii. There is a track on this record – “Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday)” that speaks to this aspect of Baden Powell’s music. It is a piece through which the soul of God flows, bringing with it the music of Heitor Villa Lobos, Redamés Gnattali, not to mention primal fervor and transcendent spirituality in the warmth and reverence of the song. Moreover, in less than 4 minutes of music Baden Powell is elevated to beatification as he praises the scantity of Palm Sunday.

Mario Adnet may now have much to do with this elevation to beatification. Nothing must be, nor is anything being taken away from the sublime nature of the original music composed by Baden Powell. However, Adnet has recreated the soundscape with memorable shape shifting. To begin at the beginning, Adnet is a musician of unbridled genius. As he composed and arranged for larger groups his palette came to be one from which he was able to extract a myriad shades of tonal color and timbral textures. His use of reeds and woodwinds and brass has the hallmark of a master–one with an ear so astute that he can – with but the insertion of a note on alto flute – alter the mood of a piece from bright to sombre. He arranges great leaps of a whole orchestra from a minor mode of a chord sequence to a major mode in another chord sequence and brings celebratory resolution to a lament. His work on Baden Powell’s “Lamento de Exú″ bears this testimony out.

Adnet writes, arranges and conducts from a proverbial majesterium. He knows when to employ Teco Cardoso’s baritone saxophone and how forcefully it should be played just for “Canto de Ossanha,” but then how softly and sad it should sound on “Lamento de Preto Velho.” His clarinets and bass clarinets; his saxophones and flutes and trumpets and flugelhorns are so perfectly scored that it appears he knows just the right amount of breath that Eduardo Neves may require to use for a particular phrase, or how Jesse Sadoc manipulates his embouchure, or when Cristiano Alves will employ a breaking glissando. He writes a cello part to be mournful on “Nhem Nhem Nhem,” authoritative on “Sermão” and jubiliant on “Domingo de Ramos.”

That is how Mario Adnet has transformed the music of Baden Powell. Now with the assistance of the maestro’s son, Phillippe Baden Powell as well. The younger Baden Powell embodies the spirit of his father and has that same dynamic touch for interpreting the tonal values of all sound when he sits down to play the piano. He has also learned well how to score for larger ensembles and his apprenticeship on this unforgettable record would no doubt complete his tutelage under the majesterial Adnet, who, it seems, was chosen as teacher to the young boy in much the same way that the elder Baden Powell was akin to Moacir Santos.

Santos’ ghost is all over this music here. Because not only Baden Powell and Santos were kindred spirits after all, but because Mario Adnet knew that, the umbilical connection had to be kept sacred. Employing the full riches of his ensemble – especially drummer Jurim Moreira, percussion colorist, Armando Marçal and bassist, Jorge Helder – Adnet has also revitalized Baden Powell’s penchant for synthesizing Afro-Brasilian forms such as candomble, umbanda and capoeira with the urban samba of Rio de Janeiro. “Canto de Yemanjá″ and “Yansan Suite” are sublime examples of this synthesis.

There may be many more tributes to the Brasilian icon, Baden Powell and some may already be in the can, so to speak. It will be a tall order for anyone following in the wake of this one by Mario Adnet and Phillippe Baden Powell to make one with as much reverence and love and affinity for the maestro who passed away almost nine years ago.

Tracks: 1. Canto de Xangô (Song for Xangô); 2. Ritmo Afro (Afro Rhythm); 3. Caxangá de Oxalá (Oxalá’s Game); 4. Nhem Nhem Nhem; 5. Lamento de Exú (Lament for Exú); 6. Canto de Ossanha (Song for Ossanha); 7. Lamento de Preto Velho (Lament for an Old Man); 8. Sermão (Sermon); 9. Canto de Yemanjá (Song for Yemanjá); 10. Pai (Father); 11. Alodé (Mermaid’s Lament); 12. Berimbau; 13. Yansan Suite; 14. Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday).

Personnel: Mario Adnet: guitar (1-3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13); Antonia Adnet: seven-string guitar (4); Marcel Powell: guitar (14); Marcos Nimrichter: piano (1-3, 67, 9, 10, 13), accordion (7, 9, 14); Phillippe Baden Powell: piano (4, 5, 8, 11, 12); Jorge Helder: bass; Jurim Moreira: drums (1-13); Armando Marçal: percussion (1-13); Ricardo Silveira: electric guitar (1, 2, 5, 11); Cristiano Alves: clarinet 3, 4, 7, 8, 14), bass clarinet (4, 5, 8, 14); Joana Adnet: clarinet (5); Henrique Band: alto saxophone (1, 5, 6, 10); Eduardo Neves: tenor saxophone (1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11-13), flute (3, 7, 14); Teco Cardoso: baritone saxophone (1, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13), alto flute (9); Andrea Ernest Dias: alto flute (2, 7, 14), flute (8); Jessé Sadoc: trumpet (1, 6, 10), flugelhorn (2); Aquiles Moraes: trumpet (5); Everson Moraes: trombone (1 -6, 8); Vittor Santos: trombone (2, 9, 13); Philip Doyle: French Horn (1, 6, 9, 10); Hugo Pilger: cello (3, 4, 8, 14); Mônica Salmaso: vocal (9), vocal for Litany (13); Carlos Negreiros (7); Maucha Adnet : vocal song (13); Joana Adnet, Mario Adnet, Antonia Adnet, Phillippe Baden Powell, Janaina Linhares: hand clapping (3).

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Mario Adnet on the web: www.myspace.com/marioadnet

Review written by: Raul da Gama

Samba Meets Boogie Woogie (Adventure Music 2008)

This is a truly remarkable recording and features fifteen tracks that make for a stellar tribute bossa nova, before it became the Bossa Nova. These fifteen tracks were all written and most of them were performed during the 1940s and 1950s. There have been many recordings that purport to pay tribute to various historic periods in music, but none have been so exquisitely rendered in the modern context and performed with such panache. Although credit for this Samba Meets Boogie Woogie must go largely to Mario Adnet for the arrangements and musical direction, and also to Alfredo del-Penho for the repertoire research, every performer here also deserves to be credited for his or her contributions. For in the end it is not just this remarkable music that is the highlight of this record, but also the musicians who have pulled it off.

The title of the recording suggests a collision of cultures. This is an explosion between the musical folk art of Brazil and American – and by inference, European – popular song and dance music. But this suggestion is only ironic, even misleading. What is more acceptable is to hear how the music of Brazil reacted and responded to the “invasion” of the popular music of the United States and Europe. Here is the evidence: A roistering extravaganza of the music of Haroldo Barbosa, Denis Brean, Janet de Almeida, Heitor dos Prazeres, Gordurinha, Jackson do Pandeiro and others tongues firmly in cheek as they reacted with typical Brazilian “alegria” to American song.

It is a sort of gentle cutting contest where musicians of the 40s and 50s between the samba that infused all of Brazilian life and the affectations of rock and roll. In “Chiclete com Banana,” for instance, Almira Castilho wrote, “I’ll only put bebop in my samba/when I see Uncle Sam playing the tamborim/If he picks up a pandeiro and a drum…” The irony contained in this song is something that echoes throughout the record. It is a gentle sort of irony that sets the record straight. It is almost as if the musicians of the Brazilian 1940s and 1950s were saying that this bossa nova begat the boogie woogie. The gentle irony of Castilho’s song is echoed in the words – not to mention the music – of the other tracks as well. “Baiana no Harlem,” and “Boogie Woogie na Favela” are other fine examples of the music that will certainly go a long way into making this record one of the most significant documents of Latin American music in 2008.

It is impossible to single out any specific performances on the record, or any one or two musicians who make this record stand out from the many that were released in that year. This is because the record is an ensemble cast recording. Everyone contributes in some way shape or form – whether it is vocally or instrumentally. But deserving of special mention are Rodrigo Campello, who plays seven-string guitar, Marcos Nimrichter, on accordion, trombonist Vittor Santos, Hamilton de Holanda on mandolin and Nicolas Krassik on violin. They keep the instrumental voices fresh. And their brief soloing is imaginative yet all too brief. Also Mario Adnet and Alfredo del-Penho have undertaken a task that is not based on a well-known period in Brazil’s musical history and turned it into a spectacular affair. They have succeeded in bringing to life a rare and little-known period in Latin American music one that may actually grow to become a very popular one, the more this record is played. And for this they deserve a huge round of applause.

Tracks: Adeus America (Farewell America); Boogie Woogie do Rate (The Rat Boogie Woogie); Eu Sambo Mesmo (I Samba); Baiana no Harlem (Baiana in Harlem); Conversa de Samba (Samba Talk); Tintim por Tintim (Bit by Bit); Boogie Woogie na Favela (Shanty Town Boogie Woogie); Eu Quero um Samba (I Want a Samba); Morena Faceira (Naughty Brunette); Nada de Rock Rock (No More Rock Rock); Pra que Discutir com Madame (Why Argue with a Madam); Malandro em Paris (Rascal in Paris); O Trombone do Tribuza (Tribuza’s Trombone); Chiclete com Banana (Chewing Gum with Banana); Brasil Pandeiro (Brazilian Pandeiro).

Personnel: Monica Salmaso; Roberta Sa; Maucha Adnet; Mario Adnet; Alfredo Del-Penho; Ze Renato
Featuring: Hamilton de Holanda; Cristovao Bastos; Jovino Santos Neto; Armando Marcal; Vittor Santos; Jesse Sadoc; Jorge Helder, Ze Luis Maia; and many others.

Samba Meets Boogie Woogie on the web: www.adventure-music.com

Review written by: Raul da Gama