While Side A of Y’Y serves as an expression of connection to the earth and to the ancestors, Side B serves as proof of connections between the global Black avant-jazz community. Shabaka Hutchings hails from the rich scene in London, harpist Brandee Younger comes from the legendary New York City jazz scene, bassist Aniel Someillan is of Cuban descent, while guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Hamid Drake come from the deep well of avant garde jazz in Chicago. This album is an artful conversation between those traditions, rooted in the unique sounds and rituals found in Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cultures. With Y’Y, Freitas further codifies his fresh, “decolonized” interpretation of Brazilian jazz, one that may well shatter preconceived notions of what jazz can be.
Português:
Y'Y: Inspiração da Amazônia
Enquanto o Lado A de Y'Y serve como uma expressão de conexão com a terra e com os ancestrais, o Lado B serve como prova das conexões entre a comunidade global de avant-jazz negra. Shabaka Hutchings vem da rica cena de Londres, a harpista Brandee Younger vem da lendária cena de jazz de Nova York, o baixista Aniel Someillan é descendente de cubanos, enquanto o guitarrista Jeff Parker e o baterista Hamid Drake vêm do profundo poço do jazz avant-garde em Chicago. Este álbum é uma conversa artística entre essas tradições, enraizada nos sons e rituais únicos encontrados nas culturas afro-brasileiras e indígenas. Com Y'Y, Freitas codifica ainda mais sua interpretação fresca e "descolonizada" do jazz brasileiro, uma que pode muito bem quebrar noções preconcebidas do que o jazz pode ser.
Life & Work
Bio:
A cultura de Pernambuco naturalmente transborda neste estilo de Amaro Freitas, um pianista e compositor de 32 anos que é uma das mais novas e maiores revelações do jazz brasileiro.
Influenciado por Capiba - o mestre do frevo - Moacir Santos, Hermeto Pascoal e Gismonti, e também por grandes referências do jazz de piano como Monk, Jarrett e Corea, ele lançou seu álbum de estreia, Sangue Negro, em 2016 e imediatamente conquistou os críticos.
Além disso, ele recebeu o prêmio MIMO Instrumental em 2016. Além do sempre dominante samba jazz, Amaro Freitas foca na cultura nordestina e traduz frevo, baião, maracatu, ciranda e maxixe para a linguagem do jazz.
English:
The culture of Pernambuco naturally overflows in this style of Amaro Freitas, a 32 year-old pianist and composer who is one of the newest and greatest revelations of Brazilian jazz.
Influenced by Capiba - the frevo master - Moacir Santos, Hermeto Pascoal and Gismonti, and also by great references of piano jazz like Monk, Jarrett and Corea, he released his debut album Sangue Negro in 2016 and immediately won over the critics.
On top of that he was awarded the MIMO Instrumental Award in 2016. Beyond the always - pre - dominant samba jazz , Amaro Freitas focuses on the northeastern culture and translates frevo, baião, maracatu, ciranda and maxixe into the language of jazz.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).