, there was an air of celebration at the packed Jazz Cafe following the victory of left-wing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. And this was jubilant music for sure. In fact, Pascoal's freeform jazz was like nothing I've ever heard. It may have been a dark London Halloween outside, but inside it was like a fever dream at a fiesta. Pascoal is aptly known as O Bruxo ('the wizard'). The self-taught multi-instrumentalist from north-eastern Brazil is an arch improvisor. So diverse are his influences that he calls his brand of jazz 'universal music' – it takes in everything from traditional choro music (early Brazilian jazz) to bossa nova, Latin jazz, Bebop and psychedelia. Pascoal sat stage-side behind a keyboard, his vast white beard almost touching the keys and his long hair only partially tamed by a cowboy hat. If the children's toys and teapots he has sometimes used as instruments were absent, his spirit of adventure certainly wasn't. After Pascoal worked with Miles Davis in 1971, Davis described him as 'the most impressive musician in the world'. You can see why. Backed by five scarily skilled musicians, the wizard cast a spell with endlessly modulating melodies and rhythms. The music would veer from an escape velocity cowbell and drum onslaught courtesy of his percussionist son Fabio and drummer Ajurinã Zwarg to a flute solo from saxophonist and flautist João Paulo Barbosa. Just when you thought it couldn't get any faster, the band would go double time before Itiberê Zwarg's roving bass would lock into a new groove with the keyboards (shared between Hermeto and André Marques). There was no setlist (the band just 'go wherever the music takes them', according to their publicist) so I can't furnish you with song titles. But){kind=link}
Known as ‘the wizard’, the Brazilian composer cast a fever dream spell on The Jazz Cafe with his modulating melodies and rhythms
“Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole! Lu-laaa!, Lu-laaa!” chanted the crowd at the end of this dizzying concert by Brazilian jazz veteran Hermeto Pascoal. Although the 86-year-old didn’t mention the recent presidential election back home (he barely spoke at all), there was an air of celebration at the packed Jazz Cafe following the victory of left-wing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. And this was jubilant music for sure. In fact, Pascoal’s freeform jazz was like nothing I’ve ever heard. It may have been a dark London Halloween outside, but inside it was like a fever dream at a fiesta.
Pascoal is aptly known as O Bruxo (“the wizard”). The self-taught multi-instrumentalist from north-eastern Brazil is an arch improvisor. So diverse are his influences that he calls his brand of jazz “universal music” – it takes in everything from traditional choro music (early Brazilian jazz) to bossa nova, Latin jazz, Bebop and psychedelia. Pascoal sat stage-side behind a keyboard, his vast white beard almost touching the keys and his long hair only partially tamed by a cowboy hat. If the children’s toys and teapots he has sometimes used as instruments were absent, his spirit of adventure certainly wasn’t. After Pascoal worked with Miles Davis in 1971, Davis described him as “the most impressive musician in the world”. You can see why.
Backed by five scarily skilled musicians, the wizard cast a spell with endlessly modulating melodies and rhythms. The music would veer from an escape velocity cowbell and drum onslaught courtesy of his percussionist son Fabio and drummer Ajurinã Zwarg to a flute solo from saxophonist and flautist João Paulo Barbosa. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any faster, the band would go double time before Itiberê Zwarg’s roving bass would lock into a new groove with the keyboards (shared between Hermeto and Andre Marques).
There was no setlist (the band just “go wherever the music takes them”, according to their publicist) so I can’t furnish you with song titles. But no song name would have done justice to the bit where Fabio Pascoal made duck sounds while coaxing a mindbending rhythm from a tambourine, or when Pascoal walked centre stage for a melodica-sax duel with Barbosa.