Saturday, December 8, 2018

Ivan 'Mamão' Conti - Poison Fruit (FAR OUT RECORDINGS January 25, 2019)


From an artist in their seventies, you probably wouldn’t expect to hear an album like this. But Brazilian drumming legend Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti has been experimenting and innovating for the last half a century. As one third of cult Rio jazz-funk trio Azymuth, Mamão was at the root of the group’s ‘samba doido’ (crazy samba) philosophy, which warped the traditional samba compass with jazz influences and space age electronics. Even with his lesser known jovem guarda group The Youngsters, Mamão was experimenting with tapes and delays to create unique, ahead-of-its-time sounds, way back in the sixties. More recently Mamão recorded an album with hip-hop royalty Madlib under the shared moniker ‘Jackson Conti’. 

With his first album in over twenty years, and the first to be released on vinyl since his 1984 classic The Human Factor, Mamão shares his zany carioca character across eleven tracks of rootsy electronic samba and tripped out jazz, beats and dance music. Featuring Alex Malheiros and Kiko Continentino on a number of tracks, the Azymuth lifeblood runs deep, but venturing into the modern discotheque (as Mamão would call it), Poison Fruit also experiments with sounds more commonly associated with house and techno, with the help of London based producer Daniel Maunick (aka Dokta Venom) and Mamão's son Thiago Maranhão. 

Ivan 'Mamão' Conti

Take a bite of Mamão’s psychoactive Papaya and join the maestro on a weird and wonderful stroll through the Brazilian jungle. 

United by a love for the music of Mamão and Azymuth, the CD and digital edition also feature the previously released remixes and dubs from some of today’s most forward-thinking producers with a penchant for percussion, including IG Culture, the 22a crew, Max Graef and Glenn Astro. 

1. Aroeira
2. Jemburi
3. Encontro
4. Bacurau
5. Ninho
6. Ilha Da Luz
7. O Ritual
8. Poison Fruit
9. Que Legal
10. Ecos Da Mata
11. Tempestades
12. Ilha Da Luz (aka Mamão’s Brake) Tenderlonious Remix
13. Encontro (aka Azul) Glenn Astro Remix
14. Que Legal Reginald Omas Mamode IV Remix
15. Encontro (aka Azul) Max Graef Remix
16. Poison Fruit (Dokta Venom's Digital Dub Mix)

Os Catedraticos - Ataque [1965] FAR OUT RECORDINGS December 2018


One of Brazil’s most prolific artists, Eumir Deodato has racked up 16 platinum albums, won a Grammy (and been nominated for two more), and sold over 250 million records in the USA alone. After moving from Rio de Janeiro to New York in the late 60’s, Deodato would work as a composer, arranger, producer and keyboardist on nearing 500 records, under his own name and with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Earth Wind & Fire, Frank Sinatra, Kool & The Gang, George Benson, Tom Jobim and Bjork, to name a just a few. 

But before that, a young Deodato had already cemented his status in Brazil as one of the country’s top musical minds. In the mid-sixties, when he wasn’t working with the likes of Roberto Menescal, Joao Donato, and Marcos Valle, Deodato recorded a string of albums with his lesser known instrumental samba jazz and bossa nova ensemble Os Catedráticos. 

Eumir Deodato

A masterpiece of hip Brazilian swing, Ataque reflects the deeper, groovier side of that magical, hazy sound of sixties Rio, with monster samba grooves backing big brass arrangements and scorching organ solos. Amongst Deodato’s own tracks, there are compositions by Marcos & Paulo Sergio Valle, Baden Powell and Luiz Bonfa, arranged for a big horn section, which includes trombone player Edson Maciel, and given an extra dose of cool from the inimitable drums of Wilson Das Neves and Ruebens Bassini on percussion. 

An elusive long player in the cannon of killer, groovy Brazilian music, with vinyl copies near impossible to find for less than three digits, Ataque finally gets the official Far Out reissue treatment: re-mastered from the tapes and pressed to 180g vinyl. Now available for the first time outside of South America. 

1. Ataque (Full Attack) 02:09
2. Os Grilos (Crickets Sing For Anamaria) 02:19
3. É Bom Parar 01:43
4. Feitinha Pro Poeta 02:00
5. Terra De Ninguém 03:28
6. Razão De Viver (A Little Tear) 03:11
7. Tristeza (Goodbye Sadness) 03:47
8. Samba Do Dom Natural 01:15
9. O Sol Nascerá 01:30
10. Samba De Rei 01:19
11. Até De Cavaquinho 02:12
12. Porque Somos Iguais 02:42

Itiberê Orquestra Familia - Pedra Do Espia (FAR OUT RECORDINGS 2018)


Itiberê Zwarg is an award-winning Brazilian bassist and the longest-serving member of Hermeto Pascoal’s ground-breaking ensemble ‘O Grupo’. Since their first meeting in 1977, the two have been closely collaborating to create a unique musical language: a genre-defying polyharmonic, polyrhythmic music, now widely studied by musicians and musicologists alike, known as ‘Universal Music’. 

Back in 1999, Itiberê led a workshop at Villa Lobos School of Music, with twenty-nine of Rio de Janeiro’s most exceptionally talented young musicians. Employing the principles of Universal Music alongside his long-held belief in the powers of listening and intuition, over the course of many months, with regular intensive 7 hour rehearsal sessions, Itiberê composed and arranged in real time, transcribing the improvisations of the prodigious orchestra while allowing the players freedom to experiment. The result was Pedra do Espia, an Amazonian orchestral masterpiece which is as difficult to categorise as it is fun to listen to. 

Itiberê Zwarg

Named after the beachside viewing point which translates as ‘Spy’s Rock’, where Itiberê would sit as a child, daydreaming and gazing out over the Brazilian coast, the record harnesses the pure creativity of youth and nature, creating a magical sense of innocence amongst the striking compositions and astonishing musicianship. 

On the original liner notes from the 2001 CD release, Itiberê guarantees the record to be “surprising in its uniqueness, it’s harmonic richness, it’s exuberant melodies and rhythmic variations like nothing heard before.” Bringing the album to vinyl for the first time, alongside a full 16 track CD and digital release, Far Out Recordings are honoured to present this overlooked masterpiece from one of the greatest minds in Brazilian instrumental music. 

1. Na Carioca 07:01
2. Bota Para Quebrar 06:17
3. De Coração Aberto 04:05
4. Forró No Encontro Dos Rios 04:07
5. Curupira 04:05
6. Arco-Iris De Som 03:36
7. No Varal 04:20
8. Toada Cigana 09:19
9. Doce 08:12
10. Vale de Luz 02:56
11. De Repente 06:23
12. Muito Natural 06:53
13. Ao Pé Da Lareira 06:23
14. Hora Da Prece 03:33
15. 17 De Janeiro 04:33
16. Pedra Do Espia 11:18

Amaro Freitas - Rasif (FAR OUT RECORDINGS 2018)


In the sweltering North-Eastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco lies the coastal city of Recife, where Amaro Freitas is pioneering the new sound of Brazilian jazz. For the prodigious young pianist, the spirit of his hometown runs deep. From the Afro-Brazilian maracatu born on the sugar plantations of slavery, to the high intensity carnival rhythms of frevo and baião, Amaro’s heavily percussive approach to jazz is as indebted to these Pernambuco traditions as it is to Coltrane, Parker and Monk. 

As with many of the greats before him, Amaro began playing piano in church aged 12, under the instruction of his father, leader of the church band. As his natural talents became obvious, the young prodigy quickly outgrew his father’s instruction. He won a place at the prestigious Conservatório Pernambucano de Música but had to drop out as his family could not spare the money for the bus fare. Undeterred, Amaro gigged in bands at weddings and worked in a call centre to fund his tuition. The transformative moment came at age 15 when Amaro stumbled across a DVD of Chick Corea concert, “he completely blew my mind, I’d never seen anything like it but I knew that’s what I wanted to do with a piano”. 

Despite not actually owning a piano, Amaro devoted himself to studying day and night – he would practice on imaginary keys in his bedroom, until eventually striking a deal with a local restaurant to practice before opening hours. By the age of 22 Amaro was one of the most sought-after musicians in Recife and resident pianist at the legendary jazz bar Mingus. It was during this time he met and begun collaborating with bassist Jean Elton and the pair went in search of a drummer. “We kept hearing about this crazy kid who was playing in 7/8 or 6/4, we knew we had to meet him”. Hugo Medeiros joined, and the Amaro Freitas Trio was born. 

“I want to show the simplicity of music, to break the stigma that the piano is for a particular social class. Yes, it’s a difficult instrument, which many people do not have access to, but with it you can express everything.” 

Following his critically acclaimed debut album Sangue Negro (black blood), the title of his sophomore release Rasif is a colloquial spelling of Amaro’s hometown. A love letter to his native northeast, Amaro explores its traditional rhythms through the jazz idiom, employing complex mathematical patterns reminiscent of some of the most challenging works by fellow Brazilian masters Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti and Moacir Santos.

1. Dona Eni 04:03
2. Trupe 04:09
3. Paço 04:23
4. Rasif 06:07
5. Mantra 07:07
6. Aurora 10:16
7. Vitrais 07:01
8. Plenilúnio 09:02
9. Afrocatu 05:22

Azymuth - Light As A Feather [1979] FAR OUT RECORDINGS 2018


Azymuth's career-defining LP Light As A Feather returns. Home to their worldwide disco/fusion hit single ‘Jazz Carnival’, the samba-doido staple 'Partido Alto', and the proto-deep house masterpiece ‘Avenida Das Mangueiras’, this album typifies the trio’s tireless innovation in the fields of jazz, funk, samba and cosmic music perhaps more so than any of their other ground-breaking records from its era.

Their first release on Milestone Records in 1979, it quickly became one of the best-selling LPs of the year, staying in the UK Top 20 for eight straight weeks with more than half a million copies sold. An incredibly well thought out album both in pace, song selection and musicality, ‘Light As A Feather’ marked a maturing of the band as they began to rightfully utilise the studio as an instrument itself, embracing numerous mixing and recording techniques not yet common for the time as well as pioneering the use of the Big Muff and Dolby System to great effect. The result is an album that endures to this day as a samba/jazz-funk masterpiece.

First reissued in 2012, the Far Out edition of this seminal recording was remixed and re-mastered from the original 16-track tapes, which were given to Joe Davis by Azymuth. This latest version is the first ever issue to be complete with a download card that that gives access to previously unreleased tracks, including the incredible full length version of 'Jazz Carnival', as well as remixes from house stalwarts Theo Parrish, Ashley Beedle, and Mark E.


Tracklist:

1. Partido Alto
2. Avenida Das Mangueiras
3. Light As A Feather
4. Fly Over The Horizon (Voo Sobre O Horizonte)
5. Amazonia
6. Jazz Carnival
7. Young Embrace (Um Abraco Da Mocidade)
8. Dona Olimpia
9. This Exists (Existe Isto)
10. O Pescador

CD & digital edition

11. Jazz Carnival (Full original mix)
12. Avenida Das Mangueiras (SS translation by Theo Parrish)
13. Endless Flight (Mark E Remix)
14. Jazz Carnival - Yambee Rework (Ashley Beedle and Yam Who? Remix)

Marcos Valle - Nova Bossa Nova (FAR OUT RECORDINGS 2018)


Marking sixty years of Bossa Nova, and twenty years since Marcos Valle’s first release for Far Out Recordings, what better time to bring back this era-defining classic from the Brazilian master composer? 

Throughout his astounding six-decade career, infiltrating pop, bossa nova, samba, delicate psychedelia, jazz and funk, Marcos Valle has consistently shown a dogged determination to transcend the traditions and structures of bossa nova, whilst never veering away from the movement’s inherent, fundamental spirit. To some extent, his epithet ‘the original Rio beach boy’ is a handy one: it reflects the origin and character of his often sun-soaked sound, but expounding his importance in the lineage of Brazilian music, he is more discerningly known as ‘the renaissance man of Brazilian pop’. He is indeed one the very greatest and most important composers, arrangers, writers and performers in Brazil. 

Up until Nova Bossa Nova, Marcos Valle hadn’t released an album for well over a decade. After 1983, he resented the way the music industry had changed with commercialisation and new demands curtailing his creative freedom. This was until 1994 when Marcos met Far Out boss Joe Davis and they recorded a track for Far Out’s first Friends From Rio album. This new collaborative partnership resulted in a new solo album, which commenced recording in 1996. 

Nova Bossa Nova brought Marcos bouncing back into the 90s, slotting nicely in place alongside the acid jazz movement as well as a voracious new demand for Brazilian music on dancefloors from London to Tokyo. It was witnessing the London club scene’s growing appetite for Brazilian music, as well as a lack of new sounds coming out of Brazil at the time, that a young Joe Davis put in a proposal to record a new album with one of his musical idols. Joe wanted to facilitate an album which would combine the latest technologies and production techniques, with live to analogue tape recording: a Marcos Valle album tailor-made for London’s clubs. Always open to modern influences and possibilities, Marcos agreed to the project, and Joe and his production partner Roc Hunter flew to Rio in ‘96.

The record wasn’t released until ’98, as the original ½ inch tapes were stolen from Far Out’s London studio, meaning parts of the album had to be re-recorded. 


Nova Bossa Nova was unveiled at the peak of the of the Brazilian movement, the record would also prove to be something of a revolution, inspiring a new generation of artists like Bebel Gilberto, Sabrina Malheiros, Da Lata and Bossacucanova, who continued to fuse Brazilian influences with modern electronic sounds. 

The album takes a panoramic view of Valle’s career, which was so fundamental in defining the standard of bossa back in the Sixties and continues to do so to this day. Nova Bossa Nova, the album’s title track is an update on Marcos’s trademark style, developing a more modern, funkier sound. Other gems include the dance-floor ready re-work of his 1970 hit ‘Freio Aerodynamico’, and the smooth instrumentals ‘Bar Ingles’, a jazz fusion looper, and the sun-soaked samba ‘Nordeste’. 

Twenty years since the original release, the album remains a landmark release for Far Out Recordings and Brazilian music in general. It is yet another example of Marcos Valle’s ability to transcend musical limitations and explore new musical ground, as he has done so passionately for the last sixty years. 

1. Novo Visual 04:16
2. Abandonu 05:32
3. Cidade Aberto 03:11
4. Bahia Blue 05:27
5. Freio Aerodynamico 06:05
6. Mushi Mushi 04:17
7. Nova Bossa Nova 04:05
8. Nordeste 06:48
9. Bar Ingles 06:28
10. A Vantage De Rever Voce (Rocking You) 04:52

Alabaster dePlume - The Corner of a Sphere (2018)


This fluid live music performance reassures with behaviour and sound while it challenges with thoughts and words. 

“My album of the week” – Gilles Peterson, BBC 6Music

"Now is this man a genius?" – Verity Sharp, BBC R3

"Cosmic dreaminess cut with wry exasperation" – Q Magazine

"Skronk, ecstasy and keen-eyed observation" – MOJO

1. Is It Enough 04:05
2. I Want A Red Car 03:43
3. They Put The Stars Far Away 03:35
4. What Do We Want 04:44
5. Did You Ever Hear About The Mau Mau 03:38
6. Be Nice To People 03:26
7. Who Are You Asking For 03:35
8. Not Counting Numbers Obviously 03:33
9. The Winner 03:13
10. There's Always More 06:17

Pat Brennan Quartet - Welcome to, (December 2018)


"All conditioned things are impermanent, 
They are phenomena, subject to birth and death. 
When birth and death no longer are, 
the complete silencing is joy."
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Pat Brennan: Bass, Composition
Jonah Christian: Guitar
Ethan Berkowitz: Piano, Keyboard
Kevin Blanke: Drum Set

1. My Body is a Dark Void 03:14
2. For the Vistas 07:42
3. Blood Moon 08:22
4. I am a Ghost 01:38
5. Lotus in the Fire 06:15
6. Anything Goes 04:41
7. Sinking 08:19

Engineered by JohnPaul Beattie
Mixed/Mastered by Jonah Christian

Artwork by Tilda Rose Sladek

Roy Hargrove Musical Celebration :: Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater :: Tuesday, January 8, 2019 @ 7pm



ROY HARGROVE 
MUSICAL CELEBRATION

Tuesday, January 8, 2019, 7pm

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater

The life and work of Roy Hargrove will be honored at a musical celebration on Tuesday, January 8, in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, on Broadway at 60th Street, New York, New York. Doors will open at 6:30pm and the event will begin promptly at 7pm.

Originally scheduled to take place at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the festivities will take place at Jazz at Lincoln Center after the conclusion of the 2019 Jazz Congress.

The celebration will be open to the public and the general seating area will become available on a first come first serve basis. Seating in Rose Theater is limited, and Jazz at Lincoln Center reserves the right to close admission based on capacity. Additional seating will be available for simulcast viewing in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s The Appel Room, Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Atrium and Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.

Roy Anthony Hargrove, one of the most respected and loved musicians in the New York City community and the world at large, was a trailblazing multiple Grammy Award winning trumpeter. He was known just as intensely for his brimming fire and fury as he was for his gorgeous, signature balladry. Over and over, his sound attested to and sanctified his deep love for music. His unselfish timbre covered the waterfront of every musical landscape. Owning his music, his sound, Roy inspired generations of musicians. He was a game changer.

Those who wish to make a tax-deductible contribution to offset production costs, please click here.

Box Office 
Address and Hours
Broadway at 60th Street, Ground floor
Mon–Fri: 10am–6pm
Sun: 12pm–6pm

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212-721-6500