Antonio Adolfo talks about the CD

Antonio Adolfo continues in the United States, where he lives since 2007, but his music has been flirting with the traditions of Brazil. In his album Fine Blends, 2013, the musician met his dialogues with jazz and ballad, the lizard, the tune and the gang. Already in 2014, in his disc Rio Choro, Jazz ... , pianist sight the cries and the waltzes of Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934) , instrument colleague and the one responsible for crying crystallization as a musical genre.

Contact with the Nazareth music still came child, when he heard his songs in the soirees held by the mother in her home. In 1981, already had his composer whiner work of vision on the album Pianeiros - Antonio Adolfo Embraces Ernesto Nazareth . In the new work, the musician made ​​freer reinterpretations of the work of Nazareth, holding up a bridge with jazz.

ALBUM
When and how was your first contact with the work of Ernesto Nazareth?
ANTONIO ADOLFO - I think the first contact I had with the music of Ernesto Nazareth was the soirees that my mother (violinist of the Municipal Theater Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro) was at home when I was still a 7 boy or 8 years age. His colleagues were playing, and also played many Brazilian composers music. Just be rolled much, I remember, percussion - may be even so - but had piano, violin, cellos, double bass, flute ... Then, as a teenager, I remember very well hearing songs of Nazareth, like "I caught you Cavaquinho "," Odeon "," Brejeiro "and waltzes.

In the Pianeiros (1981) you revisited the repertoire of the composer. What changes in this new project?
In 1981 with the album The Pianeiros - Antonio Adolfo Embraces Ernesto Nazareth , I decided to record the songs of Nazareth in the Polygram studio, changing the rent studio for arrangements made ​​for them (label) and much we MPB. And I decided to take a looser approach in relation to what they used to hear so far, either by pianists who played classic and also Nazareth, either through traditional groups of crying that touched some, not many, master works. And I decided to call my friends and colleagues from other recordings, as Dino 7 strings, Jorginho do Pandeiro, Oberdan Magalhães, Ernesto (bass), Claudio Jorge (guitar), Jaquinho Morelenbaum (cello) and Zé Luiz Mazzioti (voice in "Bambino" ). Mexi some harmonies, tempos, and put my style of playing and arranging, but with a certain parsimony, who came to fall to the ground. After the 1981 recording of the album, I played the songs of Nazareth in shows, especially when presented in solo (piano), because he had complete freedom to go for the musical phrase instead of following a metric (measure) pre-established, as is commonly plays on popular music in general. I began to realize that also could improvise much more loose, inventing rhythms, change shapes instead of using the traditional (AABACA) as used in cries in general. I put chords with extensions (chord type that is used in jazz or bossa). Finally, creating another Nazareth, recreating Nazareth, and began to also make other composers of the time, as Chiquinha Gonzaga, João Pernambuco and even Jacob's Mandolin. The challenge himself painted when I was invited to attend the CCBB series of Belo Horizonte at the end of last year with Ernesto Nazareth Project After 150 years, in which Mario Aratanha suggested I submit Nazareth with jazz. Then I leaned over about three months trying to translate what I was already on the ground was hard work, but it worked. The Jorge Helder musicians (bass) and Rafael Barata (drums) are bright and that helped a lot, as understood with only one test everything I was trying to present. The show served to mature the project to a disc, recorded soon after. What I did was expand the orchestration, using guitar / guitar, percussion and flute / soprano sax. And we went to a very nice studio in Rio (drum) and recorded the whole album in four days. Then they were only a few finishing touches.

On the album you honors Nazareth with its composition. What its composition has in relation to the work of the honored?
In the show wanted to do a tribute to Ernesto Nazareth with a song of mine and added that, which came to be called "Rio Choro, Jazz ..." because bears the malice of Rio cry (and Brazilian music in general), mixed with jazz, with which I am familiar in some way since the days of the Lane in Copacabana in Rio in the 1960s.

What is the legacy of Nazareth for Brazilian music?
Nazareth, Pixinguinha and Tom Jobim make up the trio of the great Brazilian composers in terms of quality / quantity of the work. Three geniuses, each in his own style. Nazareth brought great contribution to what came to be called the Brazilian piano. Of course they have other great Brazilian pianist composers, but his contribution, as I said, in terms of quality and quantity is unmatched. It is beautiful your music!