Grupo Falso Baiano: Simplicidade: Live at Yoshi's (2011)

Dan McClenaghan

Senior Contributor since 2002

A lover of sounds, and the way they fit together.

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Published: August 1, 2011

Grupo Falso Baiano: Simplicidade: Live at Yoshi's

In the early 1960s, a series of albums by Stan Getz Stan Getz
1927 - 1991
sax, tenor , including Jazz Samba (Verve Records, 1962), with guitarist Charlie Byrd Charlie Byrd
1925 - 1999
guitar , and Getz/Gilberto (Verve Records, 1963), with Joao Gilberto Joao Gilberto
b.1931
vocal and Antonio Carlos Jobim Antonio Carlos Jobim
1927 - 1994
piano , helped propel the Brazilian bossa nova to an unusually high level of popularity. But in Brazil, before there was bossa nova there was choro, an earlier instrumental music that has escaped popular attention outside its home country. On Simplicide, San Francisco Bay area's Grupo Falso Baiano takes the traditional choro sound, stretches it out, and adds an American accent.

Where bossa nova possesses a cool, sensuous, smooth-flowing feel, Grupo Falso Baiano's music has a happy, lively sound—danceable and ebullient. The quartet, featuring saxophone/flute, guitar, mandolin and percussion including pandeiro and zabumba, can sound, at times, like an freewheeling and exotic form of bluegrass ("Caminhando") and, elsewhere, like a wistful lament ("Rosa Cigana").

The set opens with three tunes by some of choro's most influential twentieth century composers: the joyous "Caminhando," penned by Nelson Cavaquinho and Norival Bahia; the lilting title track, written by Jacob do Bandolim; and Pixinguinha's bouncy "Chegui," that showcases the group's seamless interplay—here, as a sextet, with the addition of pianist Jovino Santos Neto Jovino Santos Neto
b.1954
piano and percussionist Brian Rice. "Feira Livre" lifts the energy level higher, the sextet locked in tight over the intricacies of tinkling percussion, with Zak Pitt-Smith's sax weaving a sweet melody around the strings. Pitt-Smith then switches to flute and the group shifts into a stop-time groove, with the percussionists filling the spaces.

Choro, in the hands of Grupo Falso Baiano, is a happy and engaging music, full of tempo shifts and moods swings. A real bonus on the set is its closing tune, "Forro Na Penha," featuring Neta on accordion, giving the sound a sighing, ecstatic, African Zulu jive atmosphere counterpointed by Pitt-Smith's cool flute incursions.

Track Listing: Caminhando; Simplicidade; Cheguei; Feira Livre; Kenny E Voce; Rosa Cigana; Bem Brasil; Deixa O Breque; Doce De Coco; Forro Na Penha.

Personnel: Zack Pitt-Smith: saxophone, flute; Jesse Appelman: mandolin; Brian Moran: 7-string guitar; Ami Molineli: percussion; Jovino Santos Neto: piano (3-6, 9), accordion: (10), flute (5); Brian Rice: percussion (3-5, 10).

Record Label: Self Produced