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Dexter Payne Quintet: Jazz for All (Jazz Forró)
ByFunded in part by a Pathways to Jazz grant from the Boulder County (CO) Arts Alliance, Jazz for All renders choro and other Brazilian music through jazz arrangements and its improvisational instrumental approach. Payne first swam in Brazil's warm, tropical musical waters led by the hand of composer Guadencio Thiago de Mello, with whom Payne collaborated across two continents, four albums, and fifteen years.
"Most of these great Brazilian compositions came to my attention in 2014, a seminal year for me in music and much more, fomenting changes that are still unfolding," Payne writes in his set notes. It's so fitting that the first sound you hear is Payne's unaccompanied clarinet as it ushers in the opening "Vestido Longo," selected as the theme song for Brazil's Festival Choro Jazz 2014, which brims with acoustic guitar and piano solos as strong and rich as fine Brazilian coffee.
"Coisa No 10" bounces more than glides, as the ensemble plays the chords so tightly in unison that they jump out of the mix and the soloists pour into your ear like sparkling, clear spring water. "Coração Latino" revisits a thrillride that Payne first recorded in 1997 for his release Inspiration (Dexofon, 2004). This serpentine melody sounds almost Arabic, as exotic and playful as a Disney Alladin character, with the accordion chirping in vocal-sounding harmonies that sound like an itchy scratch lifted from a BossaCucaNova record. If you could take a musical antidepressant, "Coração Latino" would be your best prescription!
"I see clearly now, my musical passion is a language for reaching across cultural boundaries. Beginning as a young white boy, thirsty for the blues, Miles and Basie I heard on the radio, later traveling in America Latina and Brazil," Payne explains. "Now I'm taking baby steps to understand my wife's Asian culture. So many beautiful moments of open-hearted sharing among musicians, brilliant unknown stars from every genre, and every country where I've played 17 so far, and counting! And since I cracked the shell, I've tasted so many more cultures right here at home, and met so many starsBlues, African, Brazilian, Latin, Greek, Balkan, Turkish, Arabic, Moroccan. It's not about exotic tourism or distance. Abbey Lincoln said it: 'Music is the magic.'"
Track Listing
Vestido Longo; Ao Mestre; Coisa No 10; Forrozinho; Coração Latino; Sempre Que Posso; De Leve; Trenzinho do Caipira; Dia Santo; Xote de Saudade.
Personnel
Dexter Payne
clarinetDexter Payne: clarinet, triangle; Dave Willey: accordion; Bill Kopper: seven-string guitar; Victor Mestas Perez: piano, Rhodes; Raoul Rossiter: drums, pandeiro, caixa, zabumba, triangle, tamborim, agogo; Elena Camerin Young: vocals.
Album information
Title: Jazz for All (Jazz Forró) | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: Dexofon Records
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