Ensemble Novo At Mount Laurel Library

Ensemble Novo
Mount Laurel Library
Mount Laurel, NJ
June 8, 2025

In a spacious, windowed corner of the Mount Laurel, NJ public library (yes, library), amidst the Silent Zone signs, Ensemble Novo was anything but. The beautiful, sultry and sometimes melancholy sounds of Brazilian Samba and Bossa Nova filled the room and drifted soothingly through the building. Since 2013, Ensemble Novo has visited the libraries, art galleries, parks, gardens, breweries and restaurants in South Jersey and Philadelphia to share the sounds of Brazilian music, providing a balm for challenging times.

Former music writer and NPR critic Tom Moon founded Ensemble Novo in 2013, performs on saxophone and flute and composes for the band. Cofounders include master vibraphonist Behn Gillece, also on the faculty of Rowan College, and guitarist Ryan McNeely, who studied Brazilian music at Temple University and in Brazil. The rhythm section has varied somewhat over the years, but currently Nicholas Krolak provides the steady, pulsing backbone on bass, with Claudio De Pujadas frolicking creatively around the drum kit.

Stan Getz famously brought jazz saxophone to Bossa Nova in the early 1960s, a style Moon echoes, but his flute creates a sweet alternative voice. Gillece's ringing vibes strikingly brighten the music, rhythmically enhanced by his extensive jazz skills. The guitar is fundamental to much of Brazilian music, which flows melodically, fluidly and seemingly effortlessly from McNeely. They sensually sing Brazilian music, adding that swinging jazz feel.

As Moon pointed out, they have amassed a sizable repertoire over the years spanning eras and composers. Works by the grand masters Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Egberto Gismonti and Milton Nascimento are heavily present, but so are perhaps lesser-known composers, at least outside of Brazil, including the influential Edu Lobo, Ary Barroso, Baden Powell and others. Stan Getz, of course, is a guiding spirit. Moon is humble about his compositions in the shadow of the giants, but his contribution to the day's set, "The Sand This Time," was a jazz-inflected, enjoyable tune.

Sunday's performance, not surprisingly, included songs by Jobim and Nascimento. A decade after Stan Getz and João Gilberto merged jazz and Bossa, another saxophonist, Wayne Shorter, collaborated with Nascimento on the masterful Native Dancer (Columbia, 1974) album, with strikingly different yet lovely results. Ensemble Novo nicely reorchestrated and reimagined "The Lonely Afternoons" from that album. The set included a second Nascimento song, "Nuvem Cigana," and the breezy, dancing "E Luxo So" by Ary Barroso and Luíz Peixoto, both with Moon on sax. "Ponteio" and "Reza," memorable songs written by Edú Lôbo, featured Moon on flute and showcased the beauty of the flute, guitar and vibraphone combo. "Captain Bicardi" by Jobim closed the show on an upbeat note.

Percussion, like the guitar, is fundamental to Brazilian music, so a final shoutout goes to De Pujadas. He played all around the beat, craftily varying rhythms and adding artful accents while never losing the feel of any piece, much of the time with an infectious smile. What a delight.