Jazz Articles about Spok

SpokFrevo Orquestra: Ninho de Vespa

by Jack Bowers
February 10, 2015

To begin, a couple of small but important details: first, saxophonist Spok (given name: Inaldo Cavalcante de Albuquerque) is the leader of this remarkable seventeen-piece “orquestra." Second, Frevo isn't Spok's co-leader but a form of Brazilian swing / dance music whose wellspring is the area in and around Recife, Pernambuco. Is it jazz? Most definitely, as it satisfies all the criteria: rhythmic and harmonic finesse, improvisation on almost every number, and, even more important, an unreserved desire to lay into ...