Orixá Mutante

Davi Moraes is mostly known as the guitarist who played with famous Brazilian artists like Caetano Veloso and Vanessa da Mata. He’s a remarkable sideman but his solo albums are well worth having a look. Orixá Mutante is Davi’s second album released in 2004.

The album opens with Ganzá which has one of the grooviest guitar riffs I’ve ever seen. Som das Ruas follows with high-vibe funky beat. Pretoriana and I’m Still in Love with You bring the reggae sauce to the pot. Tô na Sua is a slow tempo funky balad with amazing vocalized guitar solos. Liquidificador de Orixás is a punchy afrobeat a la Femi Kuti. The album also features the original recording of Café com Pão which became a big hit a few years later in Salvador’s carnival.

Orixá Mutante is a great showcase of what I consider the best side of axé music. A fusion of all sorts of music genres, from Afro-Caribbean to funk. Style-wise, this album is similar to some of the best stuff by Carlinhos Brown such as Omelete Man which is, in my opinion, Brown’s greatest masterpiece. What differentiates Davi from Brown is his lyrical style as well as his strong focus on the overlayed guitar riffs.

This album should definitely be in your playlist if you enjoy good afro-groovy music!

Dreyfus Night in Paris

The magic of jazz comes mainly from the fact that it’s fundamentally built around improvisation. Reinventing the same tunes over and over again is a core part of the culture among the jazz musicians. This is maybe why I find it so cool to track all the ways by which certain tunes have been performed at different gigs in various moments of jazz’s history. I talked about my favourite performance of the classic So What in a previous post. Now I’d like to talk a bit about my favourite Tutu.

Tutu was composed by the genius Marcus Miller in 1986. It was originally recorded as part of a Miles Davis’ album with same name that was all composed, arranged, and co-produced by Miller. What I find special about Tutu (the tune) is that it shares a lot of the qualities of So What by working as a sort of minimalist platform for great improvisation. The core foundation of Tutu comes from the 3-note bass line with a chord progression that provides the perfect ground for intense solos. My favourite performance of Tutu is in an album called Dreyfus Night in Paris recorded in 1994, three years after Miles’ death.

So, what makes this specific performance so cool? The personnel is fantastic: Marcus Miller (bass), Michel Petrucciani (piano), Kenny Garrett (sax), Bireli Lagrene (guitar), and Lenny White (drums). White and Garret have played with Miles and other giants, Lagrene has a very interesting work with Pastorius, and Petrucciani is just legendary. If you haven’t heard of some of those guys, you should definitely go look for them. You won’t be disappointed!

The solos are fantastic! All of them start setting a quiet atmosphere, with sparse notes and rhythm then go into more complex rhythmic and melodic explorations until reaching a climax with high-pitched notes full of energy. Garret’s dissonant arpeggios are overwhelmingly cool. Lagrene brings in a highly melodic solo full of tempo-bending riffs. Petrucciani has such a Hancockian precision in his solo that it almost feels like he’s composing a new tune while improving. Finally, Miller turns his bass into a percussion instrument while still playing the bass line.

So, in summary, Tutu in Dreyfus Night in Paris is 16 minutes of pure energy with remarkable solos. Other people have positively reviewed this album before—good reads if you want to know a bit more about the album.

It’s hard to define what groove is. It’s a combination of swing, rhythm, and use of space. Usually it arises from the right interaction of sounds from the rhythm section – drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards. You know when it’s there and you know when it’s not. Maceo Parker, a groove maven, usually starts his concerts with something like this:

We’d like to present 2% Jazz and 98% funky stuff. This is known as happy music. Happy music is when you hear it, you start moving and shaking something automatically!

I love groovy music. But I have especial preference for more raw grooves. By raw I mean the grooves that are powerful because they are imperfect, human, noisy and full of energy. Grooves are becoming too synthetic, metronomic, clean, and perfect nowadays. They often lose the point. So, here’s a quick list of some of the raw groovy tunes I love.

Sex Machine by James Brown. Yes, the classic one. It’s full of energy and has a tight groove. Great example of use space between bass, guitar, and drums.

Shake Everything You’ve Got by Maceo Parker. He is one of the most prominent disciples of the James Brown “university” – as he usually says. This song is all about enjoying the moment. My favourite version is in the album Life on Planet Groove.

Rocks by Brecker Brothers. They are a great jazz fusion duo – Michael on sax and Rangy on trumpet. I first heard Rocks in one of the 5 Brecker Brothers albums I bought last year. The groove arises from the alternation of bass and guitar lines on top of a powerful drum beat.

Cissy Strut by The Meters. This is a classic groove – for those into funky stuff. Cissy Strut is a slow-tempo funky song. Great use of space, packed with swing. The drum beat is simply awesome!

Serpentine Fire by Earth Wind & Fire. Ok, it’s quite hard to pick only one tune from those guys. They have a countless number of amazing groovy songs. Serpentine Fire has such a great vibe. Maurice White delivers a great singing performance, packed with energy.

As I said, this is just quick list. Groove is everywhere and, because it’s a subjective thing, people tend to have different favourite artists groove-wise. What are your favourite raw grooves?

Mama's Gun

Sanna, a very close friend from Finland, lent me a Mama’s Gun CD back in 2007. I had no clue who Erykah Badu was at that time. It was the first ever neo soul album I’ve listened to. This album has a very powerful sound and has been in my recurrent playlist since 2007.

Mama’s Gun is a gapless album. This brings a sense of constant flow throughout the album. Feels like one big track with different moods. You’ll find an acid and groovy sound in the opening track Penitentiary Philosophy and some sexy stuff in Hey Sugah and Kiss Me on My Neck. There’s some space for soft melodies too in the jazzy Orange Moon and in the famous Bag Lady.

As for the sound of the album, Erykah Badu’s performance is simply amazing: sexy, emotional, and very intense. I really love the fact that the drums are acoustic and played by the awesome Questlove – who is also co-producing. He brings a strong, earthy, and groovy sound to the whole album.

Every single track of Mama’s Gun has something cool. I generally listen to the whole album without skipping any track. The gapless approach might have some influence on that. Mama’s Gun is a soul album. Literally.

Joe Henderson is one of my favourite jazz saxophonists. He’s has a very emotional, exploratory, and intense sound. He played as a leader and sideman with great musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, and many others; and recorded for labels like Milestone and Blue Note.

As I mentioned before, the first time I heard Henderson playing was in Hubbard’s Straight Life album. After that, I ended up finding the album Inner Urge while looking for some new albums to buy at Stockmann, in Helsinki. I lost track of how many times I listened to this album after I bought it. I think it was pretty much the only thing I listened to for at least a whole month or so.

The sidemen: McCoy Tyner (piano), Elvin Jones (Drums), and Bob Cranshaw (Bass). The first two were part of the amazing Coltrane quartet that recorded the masterpiece album A Love Supreme a few months later. Maybe for this reason, Inner Urge has this sort of Coltranean, deep, explorative atmosphere. Maybe this is why I love this album.

My favourite tracks are Inner Urge and El Barrio. The former is a direct reference to Coltrane sound. It’s a mysterious melody, some serious stuff. The latter is a Latin-influenced tune with a slow tempo – which brings a more exploratory mood to the group. The album also has Isotope, which became one of Henderson’s classics. Special mention goes to Elvin Jones who’s at his best in this album with the complex, rich, imperfectly beautiful beats.

You can find reviews of Inner Urge at PopMatters, AllMusic, and AllAboutJazz. Happy listening!

Freddie Hubbard by Brian McMillen (CC-BY-SA)

Freddie Hubbard is one of my favourite jazzists. Surely one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all times. He recorded albums as a leader and sideman with many of the greatest: John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, Woody Shaw, and many others. He has a furious and groovy sound. A style that can actually be seen in the way he plays (see the photo above). He became more popular during the 1970s with a series of albums recorded for CTI Records including a sort of trilogy of funk-influenced hard bop albums: Red Clay, First Flight, and Straight Life. The last one is quite special to me.

I bought a Straight Life CD back in 2007 when I was still living in Finland. As I mentioned in a previous post, I found a very nice record shop in Helsinki – close to Kamppi - and I used to go there every other weekend to pick new albums more or less randomly. Straight Life was the first-ever Hubbard album I tried. I became a fan almost instantly!

The personel is full of stars: Joe Henderson (Sax), Herbie Hancock (Electric Piano), Ron Carter (Bass), Jack DeJohnette (Drums), George Benson (Guitar), Richard Landrum (Percussion), and Weldon Irvine (Tabla/Tambourine). The album has three tracks: Straight Life, Mr. Clean, and “Here’s That Rainy Day”. The order of the tracks is an exact match on my personal rank. Straight Life is an amazing 17 minute (!) performance. Mr. Clean is a nice medium tempo funky tune. “Here’s That Rainy Day” is a ballad – but Hubbard is not good with ballads in my opinion. I love this album mostly because of the track that names the album.

Hubbard starts Straight Life with some fast arpeggios alternated with DeJohnette’s drumming. It’s like a musical greeting. Makes you curious about what’s to come. Then Hubbard starts the theme and the band follows. The rhythm is hard to explain. It’s a bit amorphous and very rich in complexity. It’s some sort of afro-latin thing. It’s interesting how the soloists make such a complex rhythm sound so natural. The solos by Henderson and Hubbard are my favourite. This was the first time I heard Henderson playing. The great moment of his solo is when he plays the theme in a different scale on top of an unexpected harmony played by Hancock. Hubbard starts his solo with a very soft sound and then moves on to a faster and high-pitched solo.

Straight Life (the album) introduced me to Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson at their best and I’ve been enjoying their albums a lot since then. This album is definitely in my top 10 list. You can read reviews of this album at AllAboutJazz, BBC, and Jazzbo Notes. See also this video of Hubbard performing Straight Life. Enjoy!

Abstract #2

Yes, I’m an avid music fan. I’ve learnt to love music since I was a little kid seeing my Dad playing Brazilian music (Forró, Chorinho, Samba, Bossa, Jovem Guarda, and others) every week in a bar/restaurant in our neighbourhood in Salvador. Since then, I’ve been the singer of a garage rock band called Precários (during my teenage years), percussionist and drummer in a few bands until 2006, and listened to a quite diverse range of genres. Here are some quick facts about my music habits which roughly describe how I enjoy music nowadays.

I listen to Jazz most of the time. Neo-soul, Acid Jazz, and Brazilian music comes next in my daily playlist – intertwined with the new stuff I end up finding on the way. I’m not really a mainstream guy and usually like more niche stuff. But I can enjoy some mainstream things too. A side note: it’s really nice to not be in the mainstream wagon because your favourite albums tend to be much cheaper (especially the old jazz stuff).

I rarely buy CDs. I only do it in specific cases. i.e. when I find a nice record shop (see below). I buy albums in digital format (MP3) most of the time.

I prefer to listen to the whole album first. I don’t like to buy specific tracks only. In my opinion, an album is a cohesive piece that is better enjoyed as whole. It tells a lot about the musical phase of the artists and their influences. Listening to a track alone is like hearing only one part of a longer story. There are exceptions of course.

I’m ok to pay for music. May sound silly to say that but this is not necessarily true for a lot of people these days :-P So, yes, if the price is not abusive and it’s music I’m interested in, I’m ok to pay for it.

I focus on quality, not quantity. This is actually one of the reasons I pay for the albums I really care about. It’s a way to slow down a bit and take my time to enjoy the stuff I have in more depth. I see people downloading a huge amount of albums from internet (e.g. the whole discography of artist A and B) just for the sake “having” them. They rarely listen to everything they download. After an album passes my initial gut test (i.e. sounds interesting, causes some reaction, etc), I listen to it several times to dissect it into the smallest details. I have a lot of fun doing it! For instance, this is what I did with my favourite version of So What and other tunes.

I discover new stuff through the web. Duh, who doesn’t? I’ve used mp3 stores (7digital, Amazon, Ubuntu Music Store, and others), subscription-based stores (eMusic), and streaming services (Last.fm and Spotify Premium). To find new stuff to listen to, I usually follow a process of researching, sampling, and acquisition. Nowadays I use a combination of related artists listings from Last.fm, Wikipedia articles, and reviews from specialised websites (such as AllAboutJazz) for the research part; and Spotify for continuous sampling. If I decide that I really like the album or artist, I eventually buy the MP3 albums from Amazon. Nothing new here I guess.

I love independent record shops. I haven’t found my favourite/official one in London yet. Suggestions are welcome. Back in my Finnish days, I found a really nice record shop in Helsinki, where I would go every other week. Local music shops are really nice to meet other music fans, get good suggestions for your next album, etc.

Now, let me get back to this cool Myron Walden album I just found out about.

Miles Davis: Genius

Even if you’re not into jazz, you’ve probably listened to or heard of this song. So What is a Miles Davis composition that was first recorded as part of his world famous 1959 album Kind of Blue – probably the best-selling jazz record of all time. Miles plays with his famous first great sextet: Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly (piano), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Paul Chambers (bass), and John Coltrane and “Cannonball” Adderley (Sax). With this amazing ensemble, the original So What version is, with no doubt, a masterpiece. Especial mention to the soft and enigmatic piano and bass intro written by Gil Evans. It bothers me a bit that Miles, Coltrane and Cannonball are a bit inconsistent among themselves in this version. Miles sounds much more in the proper mood for the tune: less notes but the right ones. Coltrane, on the other hand, is doing something else. He’s just doing his own thing – which is awesome but not really matching Miles’ purpose for the album. Cannonball is somewhere in the middle. All in all, So What became a standard and has been recorded by several artists and with different arrangements and styles – including different versions by Miles himself.

Among all versions of So What that I had the chance to listen to, my favourite one is the one recorded by Miles with a band very similar to his second great quintet in an album called Live At The 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival. Let me share why.

First of all, the personnel is amazing: Herbie Hancock (Piano), George Coleman (Sax), Tony Williams (Drums), and Ron Carter (Bass). Definitely one of my favourite Miles band. This album was recorded in 1963, a transition period for Miles between the first and second great quintet (the only difference from the second quintet is Coleman in place of Wayne Shorter). The sound of the band is tight and furious. Their connection is amazing, it’s like they can predict what the others are about to play. It’s one of the last Miles acoustic bands. The second Miles quintet – which is well represented here – was focused mostly on standards and bebop tunes. They kept reinventing old tunes. It was a very inventive, creative, and genius group.

Secondly, this So What version uses a really fast tempo. That was another important characteristic of Miles’ bands of that period: they loved to accelerate the tunes. Quoting Miles own words in his autobiography:

What was funny was this: the tunes that we used to record live that we played every night were just getting faster and faster., and after a while the speed really limited what we could do with them because they definitely couldn’t get no faster than what they were.

The third reason I love this version is the performance of the rhythm section (piano, bass, drums). When they start to play, you really wonder if they are going to keep up the pace. Doing that famous bass riff in that speed in an acoustic bass is quite challenging. But Carter does it sharply. The Williams’ drum beat is fucking awesome. The complex bebopian beat and the random snare and bass drums bombing really gets you. Last but not least, Hancock’s use of silence and space combined with unexpected harmony hints glues everything together.

The last aspect is the solos by Miles, Coleman, and Hancock. Miles solo is the first. The use of space is precise (and groovy). His solo if full high pitched arpeggios. He sounds acid, aggressive, hot. It’s the evil face of Miles. When Coleman starts his solo you can hear him coming from the back of the stage getting closer to the mic, bringing an informal atmosphere. His solo follows a smoother approach. He does some really neat riffs, playing same notes with different rhythms and articulations (intuitively followed by the rhythm section). Hancock’s solo is classic Herbie. Extremely melodic. You feel like he’s composing a tune on demand. Everything fits together like it was planned. Nothing feels out of place.

Samuel Chell wrote a review of Live At The 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival for All About Jazz. A good read if you want to know more about the album.

Amsterdam

• Moved to a better/cheaper/larger apartment in the same cool area in London. Perfect! After all the hassle of the move, we are really enjoying our new home and neighborhood!
• Work at litl is fastly and intensely moving forward. So intense that I’ve been feeling a bit burnt out for GNOME stuff… I’m trying to catch up with my long list of pending GNOME tasks now.
• Really glad that we managed to come up with a plan for GNOME 3. There are still a lot of open questions which I hope will be answered as we move on the schedule. Another great move was our migration to git. We’ve got a very positive atmosphere inside the community now. That’s awesome!
• Cultural life in London simply rocks. I went to Stomp and Mama Mia, concerts of Richard Bona, Bosco de Oliveira, Vanessa da Mata, Ben Harper, a bunch of nice museums, parks, neighborhoods, open markets, etc, and planning to go to many more! That’s something I really missed in Finland.
• For some reason, my english accent tends to be a bit too American but I like the British English accent much more. I’m practicing my British English “Hello” and “So…” everyday. Maybe at some point I’ll have a a perfectly pronounced “Hello” but then there are all the other words to get the pronunciation right :-P
• Traveled to the simply beautiful Prague (photos) in March and to the weirdly amazing Amsterdam (photos, some more uploads pending…) in April. More travels being planned, yay!
• Got LittleBIGPlanet: fun, fun, fun. It’s the only game my wife and I get to play together (as she doesn’t like to play most of the games we have). So, it’s double fun for us.
• Looking forward to getting a new DSLR camera soon. I’m getting very annoyed by the unstable handling and the small viewfinder of my Canon 350D. I’ve heard Canon 450D has some good improvements over the 350D but I’m leaning towards a Canon 40D… Suggestions for camera models, places to sell my used camera, and stores with good deals for new cameras are welcome.
• Two awesome apps I started to use recently: GNOME Do and Miro.
• Latest playlist includes: Holly Golightly, Erykah Badu, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Soulive, The New Mastersounds, Jill Scott, Amel Larrieux, Anthony Hamilton, Miles Davis, Fiona Apple, Sonny Rollins, Roberto Mendes, Stanton Moore, Ben Harper, Clube do Balanço, Black Rio, a lot more. Actually, I feel it’s time to renew my music collection with some new albums…
• I’m in Twitter now. It took some time until I got the point of microblogging. So far, it’s been an interesting experience.
• That’s all for now. Time to sleep.

Anyway, if you’re around and want to have dinner/a beer this week, just let me know.