Brazilian Drummers

I went to the Zinc Bar in NYC a couple Sundays back. I got to see Paulo Braga and Ricky Sebastian play with some Brazilian heavyweights: Sergio Brandao on bass and Cicidinho Teixeira on keys. Wow...serious playing!

It's interesting to see how Paulo, Portinho, and Ricky approach Brazilian rhythms on the drumset. I'm surprised at how broken and loose they play the time-not strict at all. The time and tempo and feel are there- don't get me wrong- but they very rarely stick to a pattern for more than 4 bars, for example- they seem to be constantly interacting with the other musicians, even with vocals going on. Very creative. Nothing they play comes from a book, if you know what I mean. Somewhere between a samba, afoxe, baiao, and a partido alto is what they're doing. But kinda mixed up. Am I making any sense? Sounds amazing. The way they play must be the way to play because they're the cats...got to get out of the books and play along to the music more to get the right feel...and the feel is all that...going again soon. You should too- they're there every Sunday and have been for 7 years or something.

MAN, you "gots dat right."

Those are the ways the serious guys play that stuff - the true "ethnicity" of it. They live, eat, sleep, & breathe the stuff.

I had mentioned Braga in one of the Underrated posts [i think] recently...he smoked when i saw him with a latin - brazilian - jazz - all points in between band in a little basement club in NYC, after a gig I was playing at the Meadowlands Fair, NJ [outside Giants' Stadium] in summer of '97...Hiram Bullock came in late & sat in...he'd been havin' a couple[?] [img]wink.gif[/img] & turned up his amp TOO loud over the rest of the acoustic band...they did a latin jazz tune & Hiram blew bop & fusion lines over it...it was killer, regardless.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 26, 2004 04:28 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

Yes, I know, we brazilian are the best! [img]tongue.gif[/img]
hehe! There are ALOT of EXTREMLY good musicinas in brazil today. From Mpb(brasilian popular music),Samba,Samba-Jazz,Bossa Novo and the MANY,MANYE unkown rythms. I love brazilain music in all its forms and shapes!


Cesar

Cool, Cesar!

A close jazz/bop/fusion guitarist friend of mine who lives not too far from me was born in Sao Paulo.

But as he'd tell you, he didnt stay there long enough to let it rub off on him!! ;c)

...We're two gringos...we are always working on our afro-braz-jazz...[he has to moreso than me [img]wink.gif[/img] ]...I'm trying to make mine less "fusiony" & more authentic! It takes a while to "add more than a dash a' color to the blank canvas," if ya know what I mean! [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 26, 2004 05:34 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

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Originally posted by cjbdrm:
I went to the Zinc Bar in NYC a couple Sundays back. I got to see Paulo Braga and Ricky Sebastian play with some Brazilian heavyweights: Sergio Brandao on bass and Cicidinho Teixeira on keys. Wow...serious playing!

It's interesting to see how Paulo, Portinho, and Ricky approach Brazilian rhythms on the drumset. I'm surprised at how broken and loose they play the time-not strict at all. The time and tempo and feel are there- don't get me wrong- but they very rarely stick to a pattern for more than 4 bars, for example- they seem to be constantly interacting with the other musicians, even with vocals going on.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Portinho is a killer player!!! The first time that I listened to him was in a Paquito D'Rivera album called "Why Not", which has one of my favorite samba performances: "Samba for Carmen". I had to transcribe some parts of that tune in order to figure out what he did. Indeed, I wish I played samba like him!!! Sergio Brand?o released a album called "Brazilian Landscapes", with Portinho and Steve Langone on drums, a cd with beautiful tunes.
Great Brazilian jazz-samba players and American straigh-ahead jazz players have some similarities: they react to other musicians all the time. In fact, there are some Brazilian players who play "free samba", they improvise with all their limbs. Tutty Moreno, a drummer who played with Quarteto Novo, Joyce and others, approach drums in that way. I think the first drummer to play "free samba" was Edison Machado, in 60's. By the way, I'd like to listen to Ricky Sebastian, I've read good comments about him. Could anyone suggest me any album with him (playing fusion or Brazilian music)?

A correction of my last message: Tutty Moreno played with Quarteto Livre, not with Quarteto Novo. Airto Moreira, other Brazilian master, was the drummer of Quarteto Novo.

Brazilian music still makes me sit there in awwwww... when I hear it. Last year I saw Danilio Perez(piano) with Adam Cruz on drums and bassist Ben Street. They where amazing people. I still am trying to understand there polyrhytjms.

-Ed

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Originally posted by Ed Hermanek:
Brazilian music still makes me sit there in awwwww... when I hear it. Last year I saw Danilio Perez(piano) with Adam Cruz on drums and bassist Ben Street. They where amazing people. I still am trying to understand there polyrhytjms.

-Ed

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Believe it or not alot of the polyrhytms are 3 over 2! Ive played many songs with some friends, based on that polyrhytm! Next time you hear any brazilian music play that polyrhytm on your lap! youll see!

Navega,

For starters, check out Ricky's solo album.

http://www.strdigital.com/ricseb.htm

He told me personally it's "bad-ass". There's a nice variety of time feels and grooves. Fast forward to the end of some of the tunes to hear him solo. You can listen to the entire album here. Hope you have a high-speed connection...
[img]wink.gif[/img]

Paulo Braga is an incredible Brazilian player. I have a disk of him playing w/a female Brazilian singer and that disk is a virtual clinic on bossa nova. I'll go and look for the title.