The Pop Corporation

Recife is the hidden gem in Brazil’s musical heritage. While Rio and Salvador get all the critical praise, Pernambuco has a wealth of super interesting music, with shape-shifting acid folk, gonzo rock, and now we’re looking toward Amaro Freitas who manages to combine that rural and rugged sound with sophisticated metropolitan goodness to make for a really superb jazz album that you need in your collection ASAP.

Freitas has combined hard bop with trad Brazilian sounds before, but on this outing, he’s switching things up a bit and inspired in part by visiting a city deep in the Amazon, notably, Manaus where the Amazon and Negro rivers converge. Basically, where previous outings were a bit hotter and dense, this latest cut has allowed his music to open up and let a bit of air into it, and it’s all the better for it.

It still has complicated motifs and tropical humidity, but this time, the strokes can be a little broader and the whole thing can breathe and groove along nicely, while laying down some mega mad polyrhythms and whatnot.

The first turns of the LP are timbral, prepared piano affairs, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the opener has a whiff of acid house about it at times, before making way for something folky.

There’s a number of standout tracks, and we found ourselves being immediately drawn to the title track, as well as the utterly magic ‘Encantados’ and the atmospheric ‘Uira (Encantada da Água)’ Vida e cura’. There’s super lyrical moments on the keys, but it’s the moments where they sound more like a percussion instrument which will grab you by the scruff.

Fans of Latin jazz will love it, but also, fans of say, Chilly Gonzales. What we like about the album is how it appeals to our old head, and our new head at the same time.

If you’re into jazz, you won’t mind a bit of experimentation and some scene setting – there’s plenty of that on offer here – but this is Brazilian jazz, so it’s bringing it’s own palate to the fore, so don’t expect the usual steaming New York City vents and dimly lit juke joints; this is an album that is a different kind of hot, but it’s also beautiful pastoral and at one with nature. You know how Dr John’s Night Tripper outings sounded like they were hewn from the earth? This LP sometimes feels like it was plucked from the branch of a tree.

Which is to say, the shakes and clinks of ancestral music and indigenous vibes appear throughout the architecture of the music, so songs bleed into one another, veering from New Age, to classic fusion jazz, to cinematic soundscapes, to rootsy Brazilian stuff.

The keys are at the front of this LP, but the woodwind that features is almost a show-stealer, giving the whole thing a light touch while delivering some pretty intense musicianship. While a lot of jazz is a lesson in dexterity, ‘Y’Y’ is a surprisingly emotional listen, with tender moments matched by face melting experiments.

There’s a confidence to this whole thing which really stands out, so if you love the swagger on some of the top tier jazz classics of the ’50s and ’70s, you’re going to love this album. Amaro Freitas is clearly super talented, and has surrounded himself with people who can follow his lead. And yet, for all this virtuosic playing, ‘Y’Y’ ends up being an accessible album and won’t leave you with a headache like some jazz records can.

By the closer, and the drums come, you feel like you’ve had your whole head jolted and it’s an intelligent, terrific listen top to bottom.

A superb album that needs to be in rotation for any jazzer, aficionado of Brazilian music, or experimental head. Don’t miss out.