Jazz Articles

Helio Alves and Duduka Da Fonseca (HD2): Songs from the Last Century

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
July 20, 2013

One of the many delights of writing for All About Jazz is stumbling upon a great CD from the past, and being able to bring it to an audience that might have missed its debut. It's clear that Songs from the Last Century is one of these rare gems--even before a single note is heard, the list of players and songs suggests that something very special is going on.For one thing, the leaders are the superb pianist Helio ...

Elin: Lazy Afternoon

by Suzanne Lorge
June 6, 2007

Swedish-born singer Elin (née Kathleen Clelia Elin Melgarejo) moved to the U.S. as a young adult, won a scholarship to study Portuguese in Brazil, and later received her musical training in vocal jazz at the University of Miami in Florida. Eventually the peripatetic singer settled in New York City, and the local jazz scene is all the better for it.

Her debut album, Lazy Afternoons, on the Blue Toucan Music label, employs a vast band and exciting Latin ...

Nanny Assis: Double Rainbow

by Michael P. Gladstone
March 24, 2007

Here's a new release on Blue Toucan Records, a label that has a positive way with Brazilian jazz, and has an impressive roster of artists in this genre. Singer/percussionist/composer Nanny Assis has been on this scene for some sixteen years but this is his first solo album after working with and arranging music for such Brazilian musicians as Eumir Deodato, Vinicius Cantuaria, Arto Lindsey, Leo Gandelman, Helio Alves, Paulo Braga, Romero Lubambo and Nilson Matta, In addition, Assis has worked ...

Marco Figueira: Brazilliance

by Jerry D'Souza
February 3, 2007

Marco Figueira has all the right things going for him on this aptly named recording, where he brings into play several of the streams that flow into Brazilian music. Figueira made New York City his home since 1988, and he's played with several of the best-known musicians of the genre. Some of them join him here, augmenting the core band of Paulo Andre Tavares (acoustic and electric guitars), Sergio Brandao (bass) and Paulo Braga (drums, percussion).

Figueira has a voice ...

Nilson Matta: Walking With My Bass

by Ken Dryden
December 12, 2006

Nilson Matta has long been considered one of the best bassists to emerge on the Brazilian music scene, primarily as a member of Trio de Paz. Although he has had few opportunities to record as a leader, he has been widely utilized as a sideman. On this collection of studio sessions, he repays the debt to some of them by recruiting nearly two dozen different musicians with whom he has worked over the past three decades. As a result, Matta ...

Trio Da Paz: Somewhere

by Ollie Bivens
November 28, 2005

Brazil is a rich amalgam of Portuguese, African, and Indian cultures. And because of that, its musicians have always had the ability to take the music of other cultures, put it in a Brazilian mixer and produce something unique and satisfying to the taste, while still remaining Brazilian.

Three Brazilian-born musicians comprise Trio Da Paz, one of the best Brazilian jazz groups in the world: Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, and Duduka Da Fonseca. Somewhere, on the Blue Toucan label--which specializes ...

Hendrik Meurkens: Amazon River

by Jim Santella
October 26, 2005

With a session of originals and established Brazilian songs, Hendrik Meurkens pays homage to the music that moves him. His guests play a large part in helping the harmonica virtuoso create a recommended album that accurately describes those feelings. He soars high and low, swooping effortlessly around melodic fragments that belie the rustic impression of a land where no one has to hurry to get things done. Simple, yet filled with exotic undercurrents, the music fills a need that we ...

Trio da Paz: Somewhere

by Jim Santella
October 22, 2005

Don't think that a trio consisting of acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, and drums with a name that translates to “Trio of Peace" is going to give you a mindless smooth jazz performance without any substance of note. No, Trio da Paz drives hard along jazz's mainstream, putting all their syncopated beats and spontaneous gestures into perspective with a Brazilian feel. Together, they create marvelous interpretations that gather momentum and come alive.

Familiar melodies such as Jobim's “Look to ...

Trio Da Paz: Somewhere

by Jerry D'Souza
September 30, 2005

Somewhere is comprised of tunes that Trio Da Paz had never recorded before and others the group had never played. The latter were certainly more challenging, but in tandem the new options provided a lure for these three players to get in and fill the music with their own approach. And it certainly is some approach: fresh and inventive, taking tunes out of their known clasps and freeing them into an enticing and adventurous mould. That is the marvel and ...

Hendrik Meurkens: Amazon River

by Chris May
August 24, 2005

When the great wordsmith in the sky invented the word “gorgeous" She might have been thinking of this album, a celebration of all that is lovely about Brazilian music, from samba and choro through bossa nova and jazz.

On the face of it, Hendrik Meurkens is not the most likely outsider to have gotten so deep inside the Brazilian tradition. Of Dutch ancestry, he was brought up in the grimy German port of Hamburg--about as far as you ...