Latin Jazz Network Radio – Jukebox – December 2010 Playlist
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Jovino Santos Neto – Veja o Som/See the Sound (Adventure Music)
There comes a time in the life of a pianist, when the lure of a solo project is strong and he or she inevitably gives in. Having thus satisfied the yearning the musician is struck by an even more daunting task: the thought of a duo program, made even more alluring when there is an opportunity to duet with more than one musician and instrumentalist. Such an extravagance is rarely passed up so it is no surprise to find the wonderful world of pianist Jovino Santos Neto illuminated and festooned with duets with no less than twenty musicians as he makes this extraordinary album, Veja o Som (See the Sound), so named when the remarkable Airto Moreira let it slip after the spectacular duet take made it to the album. To be accorded the privilege of playing with practically anyone he wished to play with is rare indeed for any musician and says a lot about his or her relationship with the record label. And Adventure Music once again lived up to its name as well, by going the distance with Santos Neto this time. So what did the pianist do with this privilege?
First off, the program meanders into a maze of great music, with surprises at every turn. It is almost as if Santos Neto hopped onto a futuristic craft and began his journey through ether, suddenly encountering music and musicians with whom to play it. The surprises are breathtaking and the fact that it took two CDs to realize the dream is indicative of the fact that Jovino Santos Neto chose to choke the listening audience with gold in a bejewelled ornament of a double CD. The second remarkable aspect of the program is the outstanding playing of Santos Neto. His ability to switch from soloist to a supportive role is remarkable. That he is a fine soloist is beyond doubt. His palette is awash with the soft hues of many colors. He plays with great sensitivity, with phrases and lines that flow in whorls and ever widening circles. His approach to song is holistic, seemingly one that emerges from a beguiling place where he hears all music in the totality of the soundscape where it exists as if in an entirely fluid state.
Some of these turn the melodies inside out—Jobim’s “Insensatez,” a duet with the ethereal voice of Gretchen Parlato is one such. He can be puckish and play also with a wry, bouncy sense of humour: The breezy track, “Santa Morena,” played with mandolin wizard, Mike Marshall and Hermeto Pascoal’s spectacular; “February 1” with Anat Cohen is another. Frequently he reinvent melodies by diving in to a magical space and emerging with ideas that seemed impossible until now: Two fine examples of this are “Aquelas Coisas Todas,” with the deep brooding and yet sensuous tenor saxophone of David Sanchez and Moacir Santos’ classic, “April Child,” which is bravely and completely re-imagined with the impossibly brilliant sound of Vittor Santos’ trombone. But the most remarkable tracks of all are those that appear to be almost completely spontaneous inventions. “Veja o Som” with Airto Moreira’s remarkable volley of sounds of nature, including his primordial voice, the haunting “Sonora Garoa” with the magnificent voice of Mônica Salmaso and the ethereally beautiful “Cruzando o Sertão” with the percussionist, Luiz Guello are the crowning glory of the whole project.
Surely this must be one of Jovino Santos Neto’s most remarkable albums. It certainly is a wonderful follow-up to that spectacular piano duet album he did with Weber Iago for the same label, Live at Caramoor, where his pianism was just as spectacular. Here, however, Santos Neto is driven to invent with a remarkable array of musicians, especially voice artists, something Brasil has a surfeit of. Whatever will the pianist be up to next? Perhaps an album with the great Hermeto Pascoal, with whom Santos Neto spent time as Director of Music, would be the only thing that could cap this experience.
Tracks: CD1: Aquelas Coisas Todas (All of Those Things); Santa Morena (Dark-skinned Saint); Insensatez (How Insensitive); O Que Vier Eu Traço (Bring it On); Caminhos Cruzados (Crossed Paths); Veja o Som (See the Sound); Flor de Lis (Upside Down); February 1; Gloria; Nature Boy; CD2: Ahlê Sonora Garoa (Sonorous Drizzle); Morro Velho (Old Mountain); Cruzando o Sertão (Crossing the Hinterland); Feira de Mangaio (Street Bazaar); Canção do Amanhecer (The Dawn Song); April Child; Joana Francesa (Joana the Frenchwoman); Canto de Xangô (Xangô Chant); Alegre Menina (Gabriela’s Song).
Personnel: Jovino Santos Neto: piano, bamboo flute, flute, melodica; David Sanchez: tenor saxophone; Mike Marshall: mandocello, mandolin; Gretchen Parlato: voice; Paquito D’Rivera: C clarinet; Bill Frisell: electric guitar; Airto Moreira: voice, percussion; Tom Lellis: voice, shaker; Anat Cohen: soprano saxophone; Danilo Brito: mandolin; Joe Locke: vibraphone; João Donato: electric piano; Mônica Salmaso: voice; Ricardo Silveira: acoustic guitar; Luiz Guello: Pandeiro, effects, congas, djembe; Toninho Ferragutti: accordion; Joyce Moreno: voice; Vittor Santos: trombone; Paula Morelenbaum: voice; Gabriel Grossi: harmonica; Teco Cardoso: flutes.
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Jovino Santos Neto on the web: www.jovisan.net
Review written by: Raul da Gama
Mike Marshall – An Adventure 1999—2009 (Adventure Music – 2010)
Few musicians deserve a retrospective more richly than the mandolin player, Mike Marshall. The ground-breaking, genre defying instrumentalist and composer has melded his prodigious skills with musicians as far removed as David Grisman and Darol Anger, Bela Fleck and Caterina Lichtenberg… to where his heart lies most comfortably and gracefully, with Brasilian musicians such as Hamilton de Holanda and Hermeto Pascoal. Marshall’s career has spanned much more than a decade. However, this album, An Adventure 1999—2009 features his work in various contexts for just the years that he helped form the Adventure Music label with Richard Zirinsky, and recorded with that truly artist-oriented label.
Marshall’s work during this time was truly distinct. There is work here with artists such as the virtuoso violinist Alex Hargreaves and also the wondrous violinist, Darol Anger that was recorded just over a year or two ago—albums such as Big Trio and Woodshop that produced tracks such as “House Camp,” “Back to the Castle” and “Peter Pan” as well as “Borealis” that contain some of the finest work that has bluegrass inflected. Further back, in 2007 there is collaboration with the Scandinavian group Väsen, together with Darol Anger that explores more exotic avenues such as the ululations of Middle Eastern sounding melodies such as “Egypt” and the Nordic mythical elements brought delightfully to life with “Loke’s Troubles.” The violinist, Anger, is more than a casual collaborator with Marshall and he is featured again in an earlier Adventure album with Marshall. This one is 2005’s Psychograss, a voluptuous album that yields “Into the Lion’s Den” and “Stroll of the Mud Bug,” both of which are moveable feasts for Marshall fans and feature rich harmonies with Anger as well as banjo player, Tony Trischka and guitarist, David Grier.
Then there are the memorable Brasilian albums. The earliest is the 1996/2005 album, Brazil Duets from which the two duets—with Andy Narell on piano this time—“Um a Zero,” Pixinguinha’s wonderful choro, and “Indifference” with the great banjoist, Bela Fleck are culled. In 2004 Marshall recorded an album of some of the best-known choros, Choro Famoso and this album produced two of the finest tracks on this retrospective, “Sarau Para Redamés” and “Um Abraço Seu Domingos.”
But the most memorable of all the work represented here is on the 2003 album with fellow Adventure Music alumni, Jovino Santos Neto, the extraordinary Brasilian-born and raised multi instrumentalist, who was formally musical director of the legendary Hermeto Pascoal’s group before lighting out on his own. The album, Serenata also yields two tracks, “Serenata” with Santos Neto on piano and “Quando Mais Longe, Mais Perto” which also features Pascoal himself on bass flute. The other unforgettable album is “New Words” (2006) with magical duets featuring the new sensation, Brasilian bandolim player, Hamilton de Holanda. The traditional track and an extended medley with Ernesto Nazareth’s “Blackberry Blossom/Apenhei-te Cavaquinho” is a fascinating reminder of the unbridled genius of both de Holanda and Marshall. The crowning moment must surely be the Irish jig-inflected, “Brejeiro,” which features de Holanda on an Irish bouzouki, a lute that he has mastered and on which he waxes eloquently.
Significantly, Marshall also excels on the air, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” from the 1997/2008 album, Midnight Clear, but this time he is heard on acoustic guitar, an instrument he rarely plays. However this is one instrument that might be grist for his grinding in the near future—perhaps a pensive solo album from the ingenious fingers of Mike Marshall.
Tracks: House Camp; Back to the Castle; Peter Pan; Borealis; Egypt; Loke’s Troubles; Blackberry Blossom/Apenhei-te Cavaquinho; Brejeiro; Into the Lion’s Den; Stroll of the Mud Bug; Sarau Para Redamés; Um Abraço Seu Domingos; Serenata; Quando Mais Longe, Mais Perto; Angels We Have Heard on High; Um a Zero; Indifference.
Personnel: Mike Marshall: mandolin (1 – 7, 9 – 12, 14, 16, 17), 10-string mandolin (1), mandocello (2); nylon string guitar (13), acoustic guitar (15); Paul Kowert: bass (1, 2); Alex Hargreaves: violin (1, 2); Darol Anger: violins (3 – 5, 9, 10), baritone violin (5, 6); Phil Asberg: piano (3); Todd Sickaloose: bass (3); Aaron Johnston: shaker, cymbals (3); Olov Johansson: nykelharpa (5, 6); Mikael Mann: 5-string viola (5, 6); Roger Tallroth: 12-string guitar (5, 6); Hamilton de Holanda: 10-string mandolin (7), Irish bouzouki (8); David Grier: guitar (9, 10); Todd Phillips: acoustic bass (9, 10); Tony Trischka: banjo (9, 10); Carlos Oliveira: nylon string guitar (11, 12); Andy Connell: clarinet, soprano saxophone (11, 12); Michael Spiro: percussion (11, 12, 14); Brian Rice: percussion (11, 12); Jovino Santos Neto: piano (13, 14); Hermeto Pascoal: bass flute (14); John Santos: percussion (14); Andy Narell: piano (16); Béla Fleck: banjo (17).
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Mike Marshall on the web: http://mikemarshall.net
Review written by: Raul da Gama
Mike Marshall & Caterina Lichtenberg (Adventure Music – 2010)
It is no longer the necessity to use the term Third Stream that Gunther Schuller “invented” to describe the music created by the Modern Jazz Quartet in the 50’s, which was a confluence of the European Classical tradition streaming with cadenzas, infused with swaggering swing and syncopations of jazz idioms to describe much contemporary 21st century music, which does the same. Labels of any sort would diminish the excellence of the music played by Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg, certainly two of the finest practitioners of that graceful instrument—the mandolin—descended from the Lute of the Renaissance era. Besides which, the beautiful flow of Lichtenberg’s expressive interpretations of the music coaxed, no doubt, by Marshall’s gentle, effervescent and irresistible crush on Brasilian music makes his delightful intransigence on Lichtenberg’s filigreed, baroque fluttering makes the music impossible to label one way or another.
Does Marshall make the creative leap in to the realm of the European or does Lichtenberg flutter and gambol in the uninterrupted sertão of Brasil? It does not seem to matter as the transcription of Bach’s “Violin Sonata III in C Major” belongs not so much to the tradition of the baroque cathedral, here but to the Elysian fields of the pampas or the sertão of Brasil, at least this is what the collision of cultures brought about. Not that it was consciously done by the artists. It is just that it happened. Recto verso the whole effect when Marshall and Lichtenberg play Jacob do Bandolim’s “Assanhado” and “Santa Morena,” or Zeguinho da Abreu’s “Não Me Toques,” or even—though not at all surprisingly—Marshall’s own beguiling compositions, “The Cat, The Mouse and The Chicken” a piece that dazzles animatedly as it tells a story full of the pathos of a Charlie Chaplin short, marked with classical sadness, and “Dec 29th” which is more ominous and with murkier antecedents. Both his songs mark Marshall a clever composer, who mixed media and has a fine sense of putting the narrative together with vivid pictures and compelling storytelling.
Both players are at the top of their respective games as they advance from one chart to the other. Lichtenberg is fey, almost shy as she expresses herself with delicacy and feminine grace. She flutters like a bird of paradise on the strings seeming to make the notes hang much longer than they are prone to do with a mandolin. Marshall is sinewy, yet seems to conjure a kind of yin-yang approach to his soloing. The androgynous pretence makes for a calculatedly singular style that is neither harsh nor slender, but, like a mysterious being, Marshall always seems to inhabit a magical place somewhere between earth and sky as he lets his mystique unfold with hypnotic splendour.
What a marvellous, utterly memorable piece of work this is from Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg—such a seemingly hard act to follow for any mandolin players.
Tracks: Allegro Assai (From the Violin Sonata III in C Major); The Cat, The Mouse and The Chicken; Sonata IV for Two Violins; Gankino (Bulgarian traditional tune); Assanhado; Marziale Allegretto (Duetto II Op. 98); Santa Morena; Dec. 29th; Giga (From the Violin Partita II in D Minor-BWV1004); Suite Venezolana; Não Me Toques.
Personnel: Mike Marshall: mandolin, mandocello, mandola, cello (12); Caterina Lichtenberg: mandolin.
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Mike Marshall on the web: www.mikemarshall.net
Caterina Lichtenberg on the web: www.caterinalichtenberg.de
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
