Joyce E Tutty Moreno JID027

Joyce Morenoと、ブラジリアン・ポピュラー・ミュージックのサウンドを形作ってきた伝説的ドラマー、Tutty Morenoが、Adrian Youngeとタッグを組んだ。Joyceによる「Mandala」「Uana Ete」「Is This Love?」「Fingers」「Janeiro」といった楽曲に加え、Adrian Youngeによるインストゥルメンタル曲も収録。そこではJoyceの歌声が、まるでホーンやフルートのように機能し、言葉を超えた旋律の流れとなって楽曲を彩っている。アルバムの最後を飾るのは、「Circulo Vicioso」。これはブラジルを代表する文豪Machado de Assisによる象徴的な詩の朗読作品。

This recording project by Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist Joyce Moreno and legendary Bahaian drummer Tutty Moreno began in tragedy. Jazz Is Deads Adrian Younge and Andrew Lojero traveled to Rio De Janeiro to invite the couple to play in Los Angeles with nonagenarian pianist Joao Donato -- who released JID007. He vouched for them and the Morenos accepted. During their first rehearsal for the concert, Donato fell ill. Unable to join them in Los Angeles, they soldiered on. He died shortly thereafter. The concert in his memory was triumphant. The couple then joined Younge in his Linear Labs studio with a host of session players including pianist Bryan Velasco and percussionist Gibi Dos Santos. Younge also arranged and conducted a small studio orchestra and brought in horns and winds as Joyces compositions and charts required. At a shade over 30 minutes, this vibrant set is chock-full of imagination, inspiration, and taste. At 78, Joyces singing voice and guitar playing skills are of exceedingly high quality. Tutty, also 78, possesses perfect touch, a truly trademark sense of swing, and canny syncopation; he guides the band on each track. During the first minute of set-opener "Mandala," she threads airy samba vocals through the muscular rhythm of her guitar. Soon strings, Younges electric guitar, Rhodes piano, lithe drums, and bubbling percussion fall in around her. The glorious single "Uana Ete," was inspired by a musical garden Joyce once visited; it flows through sophisticated samba and grooving Brazilian jazz backed by the band playing vibes, strings, bass, B-3, etc. Another single, "Is This Love," follows; its a lushly arranged ballad drenched in samba-soul fusion and sung in English. In addition to strings, brass, reeds, and winds swirl around her vocal. "Fingers" is an exercise in psychedelic samba highlighting Joyces guitar playing. Shes surrounded and paced by Tuttys constant, time-stretching cymbal and brushed snare work, as Rhodes piano, a pedal harp, B-3, vibes, and electric guitars float under her vocal. "Janeiro," offered in elastic waltz time, is easy, breezy, and sexy given the interplay between guitars, electric sitar, organ, bass and drums, sax and flute. The music on "Sorria de Novo" was composed by Younge; Tuttys rim shot snare work swings with elegance as Joyce syncopates in falsetto alongside strings, horns, and layered percussion. Its followed by two more Younge compositions. First is the sublime, lushly arranged "Flores Vermelhas," with nearly ecstatic wordless vocal improvisation from Joyce atop uncharacteristically busy drumming from Tutty that provokes the percussionists, but the steamy, seductive groove is never forsaken. He also composed the closer "Circuloso Vicioso" offering a verdant musical backdrop of jazz-samba employing intensely interlocking drums and percussion, saxes, brass, and winds atop swirling strings. Joyce recites the sonnet of 19th century Brazilian poet Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis in her speaking voice; relating a tale of cosmic envy and dissatisfaction. Joyce E Tutty Moreno JID027 is, despite the tragedy in its origins, a stellar late-career collection by the first couple of samba. ~ Thom Jurek