Psychedelic Rio

Album review

Vinicius Cantuária is one of Brazil's most adventurous guitarists. His music is influenced by the country's early bossa nova composers and instrumentalists, the tropicalistas of the late 1960s, and the country's jazz scene of the '70s and '80s. After moving to New York during the '90s, he worked with a startling array of musicians including Arto Lindsay, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, and Bill Frisell, in addition to Brazilians Marisa Monte and Ricardo Silvera. Cantuária's solo recordings are fascinating for experimentation with form and production, especially the 21st century titles Horse & Fish, Cymbals, and two duet sets with Frisell, Lagrimas and El Camino.
In the late 2010s, the guitarist met Italian bassist Paolo Andriolo at a concert in Rio de Janeiro. The latter, an admirer, proposed working together. The following week they met to jam at Cantuária's house in Brazil. Andriolo brought along drummer Roberto Rossi, his longtime friend and collaborator. Within a month, the trio had developed its own musical language. They regularly visited Jupiter Studios to jam, and most of Psychedelic Rio emerged from those sessions. While Brazilian music lies at the core here, it's been turned inside-out by this electric trio.
Opener "Rio Negro" was co-written by the guitarist and Caetano Veloso as the title track of Cantuária's 1991 album. This version stands apart for Andriolo's hyper-intensive hand drumming across tablas and timbales as the guitarist snakes through ambient blues atop the sparse bassline. "É Preciso Perdoar" is a standard covered by many. This version offers a simmering dialogue between the rhythm section's members; Cantuária punctuates it with poignant, bluesy fills. The hazy, slow, tribal boogie that is "Uirapuru" was originally composed by the guitarist and master percussionist Nana Vasconcelos; the original appeared on his stellar Contaminação in 1999. It's looser and slower here, but contains an unshakeable, elastic groove. The guitarist's "Berlin" and "Humanos" are elliptical, atmospheric ballads that complement one another by erasing boundaries between flamenco, blues, modal music, and rock. The latter contains Italian lyrics. The cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's and Vinicius De Moraes's bossa standard "Insensatez" is rendered spooky, nocturnal, and languid, allowing for the protagonist's regret and pain to emerge freely from the lyric. Guest keyboardist Gianluca Ballarin provides humid atmospherics without altering the direction. It also contains a biting, spare Telecaster solo. "Nossa Estrada" is Cantuária's take on a country-waltz featuring a strummed acoustic guitar, layered organic percussion, a laconic vocal, and a hovering accordion courtesy of guest Rafael Meninão. The trio close Psychedelic Rio with "Verde Mata," composed by the rhythm section. It's a drifting, pastoral rock tune flavored with Brazilian polyrhythms and lyrics celebrating Rio's landscape and people. This date is as relaxed as it is adventurous. It places Brazilian music in a context that those unfamiliar with bossa, samba, or MPB can appreciate as part of the contemporary jazz-rock vernacular without watering them down them in the process.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo