Fábio Caramuru

1. Afro-Samba
2. Choro 2007
3. Caught in Flight
4. Ballad
5. Bossa in the Shadows
6. Take the Z Train
7. In Walked Tom
8. Baroque
9. Dancing the Baião
10. For Inezita
11. Guarnieri Deconstructed
12. Mood 2004
13. Caught in Flight, Take 2
14. Incisive
15. String Theory
16. On Edge
17. Heartbeat, Tango & Waltz
18. Gestural

There are two great strands in Brazilian music – classical or cultivated and the popular or vernacular tradition. But in Brazil, unlike most other places, these two strands are inextricably interwoven.
This mix can be found with “serious” composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri but also in the work of Ernesto Nazareth and Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim. And now again we can hear it in the music of pianist/composer Fábio Caramuru and his collaborator, the bass guitarist and composer Pedro Baldanza.

Caramuru was born in São Paulo in 1956 and, although he had some serious training and credentials as a young pianist, he began his professional career as an architect. It was not too long, however, before he exchanged the art of frozen music for that of liquid architecture. In 1980 he received a French government scholarship, enabling him to go to Paris where he studied with the Brazilian-French pianist Magda Tagliaferro. After his return to Brazil, he became director of the Magda Tagliaferro Foundation in São Paulo and Cultural Coordinator of the Brazil-United States Cultural Union. He was involved with many musical projects including a festival of the music of Guarnieri, a Magda Tagliaferro Festival, a Brazilian music history project and, among his many recordings, an album of Richard Rodgers songs and another of his piano solo arrangements of Tom Jobim; he also has a series of two-piano arrangements of Jobim songs. With Pedro Baldanza, he formed the Duo Caramuru/Baldanza and the two instrumentalists have also joined with singer Magda Painno to form the Trio Echo, creating two improvising ensemble that combine classical, jazz, popular and even folkloric elements in new and original combinations.

The title Bossa in the Shadows itself suggests some of the moods evoked by this music. This is a collection of original compositions and improvisations – dark, moody, rhythmic, always evocative -- that combine the rich and varied elements of Brazilian tradition in strikingly new ways. These pieces owe something to American jazz in their use of free forms and, in particular, in the way Caramuru and Baldanza use multiple or simultaneous polytonal centers. The influences of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, counterpointed by Caramuru’s classical background and the influence of Brazilian tradition from Afro-samba to Jobim and bossa nova, and then paired with Baldanza’s bass work, produce a kind of Brazilian style free jazz with an expanded view of tonality but one in which the connection to the fundamental Brazilian beat is never absent. The music has all the ingredients
of great American jazz, traditional and advanced, but, at the same time, it is infused with ideas rooted somewhere else resulting in its originality and lack of clichés.

The class form of the Brazilian beat is, of course, samba and Afro-Samba refers not only to the indigenous dance form but also to its African roots as exemplified by the influence of the great acoustic guitarist Baden Powell who inspired this piece.
Choro – the word means “cry” or “lament” in Portuguese – is a traditional style of Brazilian instrumental music that dates back to 19th century Rio. Although it was to some degree replaced by the jazz-inflected bossa nova, choro remains a quintessential Brazilian musical form and it has undergone a major revival in recent years. Choro 2007 demonstrates some of the newest possibilities of this form.

Capturando is the Portuguese title for Caught in Flight, a piece developed out of the idea that the musicians are catching the sounds they produce in mid-air and bringing them back down – barely – to earth so the rest of us down here below can actually hear them.

Balada or Ballad is a slow piece that provides an intimate and dense atmosphere with a suppressed yet highly expressive lyricism.

The title track, Bossa in the Shadows, is a bossa nova that breaks free from the familiar cool jazz harmonies of the genre to create something that is doubly new in its dark harmonic tensions.

Take the Z Trainmakes the amusing suggestion that the famous Ellington/Strayhorn musical subway train heading north to Harlem is now running south at the other end of the earth – a very different sort of musical ride!

“Wave Moods” -- Wave inesperado or Unexpected Wave – incorporates the theme from a famous Jobim song that popped up as the musicians were finishing this number. Hence the new English title, In Walked Tom. This is a kind of musical double entendre since it is also a reference to Thelonious Monk’s tribute to Bud Powell!

The composer refers to Baroque as having a serious and dramatic atmosphere. The original title was Bachianas and the piece refers musically both to the Concerto de Aranjuez by the Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and the Bachianas Brasileiras of Villa-Lobos.

Although samba and bossa nova are often thought of as the basis of Brazilian music, baião, the native music of northeastern Brazil, may be equally important. Like samba, it is essentially a dance rhythm of indigenous origins which was later combined with African influences. As with samba and bossa nova, Caramuru and Baldanza have created a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Dancing the Baião.

Ignez Magdalena Aranha de Lima, known as Inezita Barroso or simply Inezita, is a living legend of Brazilian folk music. Although born in São Paolo and best-known as a television performer, her espousal of traditional Brazilian music, much of it from the countryside, has made her an iconic figure in Brazilian music and helped the tradition stay alive. In For Inezita, Caramuru and Baldanza have again fashioned a tribute that incorporates both traditional and original contemporary elements.

Desconstruindo Guarnieri or Guarnieri Deconstructedis based on a piano Étude by the Brazilian composer that is constructed in fourths and deconstructed when Caramuru and Baldanza take away some of its original inevitability in their own inimitable style.

Mood 2004is a close reworking of one of the cuts from Caramuru’s 2004 CD entitled “Moods”.

Caught in Flight, Take 2 or Capturando outra vez is another version of Track 3, again using the conceit that its sounds are snatched from the air and brought down to earth.

Contundente is the Portuguese title for Incisive whose strongly marked and acute sonorities are set forth with energy and humor.

Both the bass guitar and the piano are string instruments that can also function as percussion – the piano because the strings are struck by hammers which are activated by striking the ivories and the guitar because of the many techniques of plucking and striking the strings as well as the body of the guitar in rhythmic fashion. Cordas or String Theoryis a piece that bypasses the percussive possibilities to emphasize the stringiness of these instruments.

Espasmo literally means “spasm” but On Edge also expresses what the composer calls the uncontrollable, spontaneous and involuntary character of the piece.

Heartbeat, Tango & Waltzdescribes quite precisely the three sections of the piece that carries this title.

Finally, Gestural is a work built on musical gestures but also on the physicality of the movements that result in the striking sounds and sonorities that are the expressive vocabulary of these artists.

Pedro Baldanza, born 1953 in Rio Grande do Sul, has played an important role in the development of progressive ideas in Brazilian music. Over more than a quarter of a century, he has worked with the ensemble Som Nossa de Cada Dia and with such outstanding artists as Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Ney Matogrosso and many others. His creative and improvisatory work includes his collaborations with Fábio Caramuru on original themes as well as their improvisations on music of Jobim, Guarnieri, Rodgers and others. Baldanza plays a six-string bass made by the Brazilian luthier Daniel D'Alegria.

Composer/writer Eric Salzman had a number of major premieres in 2007 including two works with Valeria Vasilevski: "The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz" (Symphony Space's Wall-to-Wall Opera)and "The Jukebox in the Tavern of Love" (world premiere by the Western Wind at the Tenri Center inGreenwich Village). His instrumental Suite from the Gershwin "Strike Up the Band" was performed at the Washington Square Music Festival. "The New Music Theater" with Thomas Dezsy is scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in 2008. The 4th edition of his well-known “20th Century Music” was published in 2002.

CD 1
1 - Choro
2 - Meditação
3 - Esperança Perdida
4 - Chega de Saudade
5 - Desafinado
6 - Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Você
7 - Só Danço Samba
8 - Amparo (Olha Maria)
9 - Chovendo na Roseira
10 - Luiza
11 - Quebra-Pedra
12 - Eu Te Amo
13 - Insensatez
14 - Anos Dourados

CD 2
1 - Água de beber *
2 - Garota de Ipanema *
3 - Falando de amor
4 - Wave *
5 - Espelho das águas *
6 - Samba de uma nota só
7 - Dindi
8 - Canta, canta mais *
9 - Sabiá
10 - Flor do mato *
11 - Retrato em branco e preto
12 - Two kites *
13 - Valsa romântica (Imagina)
14 - Modinha

1 - Choro
2 - Meditação
3 - Esperança Perdida
4 - Chega de Saudade
5 - Desafinado
6 - Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Você
7 - Só Danço Samba
8 - Amparo
9 - Chovendo na Roseira
10 - Luiza
11 - Quebra-Pedra
12 - Eu Te Amo
13 - Insensatez
14 - Anos Dourados

1 - This can't be love
2 - Bewitched
3 - Spring is here
4 - My funny Valentine
5 - Blue Room
6 - You are too beautiful
7 - Can't you do a friend a favor
8 - Blue moon
9 - Johnny one note

Gravação ao vivo feita em 7 de junho de 2004 no projeto SESC INSTRUMENTAL BRASIL, São Paulo.

1 - Camargo Guarnieri - Cantiga (Magda Painno / Fábio Caramuru)
2 - Claudio Santoro - Luar de meu bem
3 - Waldemar Henrique - Rolinha