Edito de Jazz BrasilJAZZ BRASIL Mark Weinstein, concert, alto and bass flutes Kenny Barron, piano Nilson Matta, bass Marcello Pellietteri, drums and percussion. Produced by Mark Weinstein and Nilson Matta Recorded by Phil Ludwig and Larry Gates Sonic Park Paramus, NJ Mixed and Mastered by Philip Ludwig, Seclusion Hill Music Art Direction and Design by Richard Mantel Cover Photograph by Lena Adasheva Liner Notes by Doug Ramsey Mark Weinstein?s legato time feeling and the relaxed urgency he brings to his flute playing might have been made for Brazilian music. Surely, his treatments of the two Antonio Carlos Jobim songs in this collection are results of long immersion in the tradition and ethos established by Jobim, João Gilberto and Marcus Vinicius de Moraes, the gods of bossa nova. Well?no. Weinstein gravitated to the modern samba?s seductive sway and sensuous harmonic qualities after he left a career as a trombonist in a harder-edged Latin music and became a professor of philosophy. His academic life gave him security he?d never known as a working musician, but something was missing. He took up the flute, thinking it would be a fine hobby. He discovered that he needed to play with others and came back into music late in the ?70s as a jazz flutist. Mark retained his love of Afro-Cuban forms but expanded his horizons to Rio and Bahia. Since the mid-1990s, he has recorded a flurry of CDs for Jazzheads, three of them devoted to Brazilian music. The formidable bassist Nilson Matta, a master of both jazz and the music of his native Brazil, is more than a player here. He is a fellow producer with Mark, and a spiritual and musical guide in this music that suits Weinstein so well. ?Brazilian music is natural in terms of the way I really like to play,? Mark says. ?I like the looseness of the rhythm section, as contrasted to the Cuban groove. I like the harmonic richness of the Brazilian composers. And I find the swing really conducive to my approach, which is not the hard-driving tonguing style, but much more floating, swooping.? Accompanied by Matta, Kenny Barron and Marcello Pellitteri, he floats and swoops to a faretheewell through this collection, Barron, one of the great modern jazz pianists, is an American master of Brazilian music. To his drumming Pellitteri adds the piquant seasoning of Brazilian percussion. Weinstein and Barron are devoted Monk interpreters. ?I love Monk,? Mark told me. Then, he told me again, ?I LOVE Monk.? The abundance of Monk tunes on his Jazzheads albums proves the point, and so does what he called his ?kind of loopy? solo on ?I Mean You.? There is further reflection on Monk in the soulfulness of Mark?s bass flute on ?Ruby My Dear.? He also brings the bass flute?s deep tones to ?Memphis Underground.? He points out that Herbie Mann?s famous tune is built on only one chord but, ?when we solo we play it as a blues. It gave me a chance to play every blues cliché I wouldn?t have dared to play on the C flute. Because it was a bass flute, I went as far into the pocket as I could.? The CD?s other blues is Joe Henderson?s ingenious ?Isotope,? a feature with Henderson In Mark?s trombone days. Matta wrote the danceable ?Sambosco,? which features Pellitteri?s rolling, lyrical drum solo. Like Jobim and Monk, Wayne Shorter is one of Mark?s favorite composers. He finds that Shorter?s tunes work particularly well on the alto flute. ?Nefertiti? is the most recent of several Shorter compositions he has recorded. ?His changes, for me, are the most interesting changes to blow on, Mark said, ?with the exception of my own.? He constructed ?Dawn?s Early Light? on a six-bar phrase, added a two-bar tag for the solos and opened the piece to extended free blowing on the bridge. ?Doing something a little interesting with form,? he explained. There was no bossa nova when Ary Barroso wrote ?Aquarela do Brasil? in 1939, but he lived to see ?Brazil,? ?Bahia? and many of his other songs become staples of the new Brazilian music. ?Brazil? may be a chestnut, but João Gilberto made it one of the first bossa nova recordings for the same reason Mark plays it here; Its form and exhilarating harmonic development make it a fascinating piece of music. ?The chords increase in the rapidity with which the changes come at you,? Mark said. ?So, the tune builds internal complexities through the harmony as well as the tension of the melody. ?Brazil? also has this beautifully interesting form that really is conducive to playing thoughtful improvisations.? Since thoughtful improvisations are Weinstein?s stock in trade, we may hope that he is thinking of further recordings of the Brazilian music he loves or, in the final words of Bob Russell?s English lyric to Barroso?s song: There?s one thing I?m certain of, Return I will To old Brazil. ?Doug Ramsey Doug Ramsey blogs about jazz and other matters on Rifftides at www.dougramsey.com Lire la suite