Outra Coisa The Music of Moacir Santos (Anzic Records)
Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves
Released April 28, 2017
Grammy Nominee for Best Latin Jazz Album 2018
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m5qN02ltc-E5yHs5GolkJmw9HTg6dcbDo
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/62BsOaSivI88dQQ3f8SLxt?si=NJsNCVzmQPaKaRAtLVJ17Q
About:
The connection between Moacir Santos and the guitar has been on my mind ever since I heard Baden Powell play Moacir Santos’s music on the album “Baden Powell swings with Jimmy Pratt.”
I’ve always loved the rich orchestral sounds of Moacir’s compositions but could not imagine how to transfer the large ensemble sound I heard into my solo guitar. Last year, reading Moacir Santos’s scores directly from his songbook, I was surprised how perfectly it fit the 7-string guitar, in the original key, as if the music was composed for the instrument.
I spent a year working on that repertoire and when Anat visited Brazil, I proposed that we get together so I could show her the arrangements I’d been working on. The clarinet was Moacir’s first instrument. If his compositions sounded so beautiful on the guitar, I could only imagine how special they would sound played by Anat on the clarinet. Anat proposed meeting directly at a recording studio and so we did. When we started playing, Anat, who has known me for many years, said: “I have never seen you so happy!” I responded: “I’ve never been!” This recording documents those two happy days in the studio.
I hope you enjoy listening to this music as much as we enjoyed playing it.
Marcello Gonçalves
Track Listing:
1. Amphibious (Moacir Santos) 3:44
2. Coisa Nº 1 (Moacir Santos) 3:03
3. Outra Coisa (Moacir Santos) 3:21
4. Coisa Nº 6 (Moacir Santos) 3:49
5. Coisa Nº 10 (Moacir Santos) 4:07
6. Nanã (Coisa Nº 5) (Moacir Santos) 4:31
7. Coisa Nº 9 (Moacir Santos) 3:47
8. Mãe Iracema (Moacir Santos) 4:31
9. Oduduá (Moacir Santos) 4:25
10. Maracatucutê (Moacir Santos) 5:25
11. Paraíso (Moacir Santos) 4:47
12. Carrossel (Moacir Santos) 1:07
Personnel:
Anat Cohen: clarinet
Marcello Gonçalves: 7-string guitar
Recorded January, 2016, at Tenda da Raposa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Recorded & Mixed by Carlos Fuchs
Mastered by Mark Wilder
Cover Artwork by Michal Levy
Produced by Anat Cohen and Marcello Gonçalves
Review:
You cannot call yourself Brasilian if you don’t know your Moacir Santos. The clarinetist turned soprano, alto, tenor and (when the music demanded it) baritone saxophonist, was the equivalent of Louis Armstrong in Brasil. And like “Pops” Santos packed his love of Brasil together with his instruments and travelled abroad preaching to the uninitiated – especially in America.
Moacir Santos had already discovered Jazz working in radio, in Brasil. He exploded on the West Coast of America, his genius permeating orchestral Jazz and although he made just half a dozen records in America (excluding Coisas in Brasil) he cast a long shadow on Jazz with his molten mix of Afro-Brasilian-inflected Jazz.
The Brasilian guitarist Marcello Gonçalves conceived of this album; a very difficult one to make if you consider that Gonçalves distills the expansive arrangements of Moacir Santos’ music and brewing from it this sweet cup of mocha on Outra Coisas. Making the connection between Santos and the clarinet, Marcello Gonçalves says that Anat Cohen came to mind. Naturally… Marcello Gonçalves has known Cohen for several years and the two musicians have both worshipped at the altar of originality, which is from where this album springs. It’s clear from the beginning that neither Marcello Gonçalves nor Anat Cohen is making a series of definitive Moacir Santos duets.
And what glorious music this is. Anat Cohen and Marcello Gonçalves are superb. Pick any one of Santos’ iconic “Coisas” for example. In “Outra Coisa” you’ll find that Anat Cohen reduces her (otherwise deep) intensity and plays this piece with all the light shade and fluency of rhythmic inflection that you rarely hear from others. And in “Nanã (Coisa Nº 5)” she slackens the tempo slightly but re-establishes it again for “Coisa Nº 9”. I sat up again on “Paraíso” at a passage of rapt stillness where the guitar of Marcello Gonçalves is in distant conversation with the clarinet of Anat Cohen; Gonçalves’ response to its magic – one of many moments on this album where he and Cohen make you hold your breath.
Raul da Gama (Latin Jazz Network)
