Com sonoridade versátil e contemporânea, Iroko Trio nasce para transitar um caminho único na ampla geografia musical da América Latina.
Ao convergir estilos entre obras autorais, comissionadas ou emblemáticas do repertório clássico latino-americano, o trio cria espaço para peças ora imponentes, como Danzón Nº 2, de Arturo Márquez, ora intimistas, como Memória e Fado, de Egberto Gismonti.
Em seus arranjos próprios, exploram com extraordinária profundidade e amplitude cada um dos instrumentos, até seu limite técnico, oferecendo alternativas sonoras surpreendentes para a formação. Iroko Trio, composto por três instrumentistas com brilhantes carreiras individuais, cujas trajetórias cosmopolitas se conectam, contrapõe com maestria a concepção erudita às formas populares. Um convite irrecusável para ouvidos atentos.
With its versatile and contemporary sound, the Iroko Trio has carved a unique path in the vast musical geography of Latin American. Embracing a variety of styles from original compositions, commissioned works, or iconic pieces from the classical Latin American repertoire, the Trio’s repertoire ranges from large and imposing works such as Danzón no. 2 by Arturo Márquez, to intimate pieces such as Memória e Fado by Egberto Gismonti.
Through its own arrangements, the Trio also explores the range, depth, and technical resources of each of its instruments, thus extending the sound palette of the ensemble beyond its expected sonorities. The Iroko Trio is composed of three musicians who have built brilliant individual careers as soloists, and whose cosmopolitan trajectories come together to provide a masterful combination of classical and popular musical forms. The results are an irresistible invitation to attentive and discerning listeners.
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).