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Seresta: Brazilian Serenade The concert "Seresta: Brazilian Serenade" by the Steve Griggs Ensemble didn't appear on The Stranger's "Up and Coming" list, nor on the Seattle Weekly's "Short List" of recommended shows. Apparently, a performance by a jazz ensemble playing arrangements of music by Brasilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos doesn't rate a blip on their radar. The music reviewers for those "happening" newspapers should have shown up. It was a fascinating concert, the more so for the ample background that Griggs was happy to furnish to reporters in the weeks leading up to the performance. This was in the tradition of the welcoming warmth that Heitor Villa-Lobos showed toward the chôro performers, recently featured on the Link TV documentary "Brasilerinho." [11] Chôro as great Brasilian players perform it, Villa-Lobos's orchestral interpretations of their music, and Griggs's modal jazz arrangements of Villa-Lobos are all of interest to those who enjoy complex improvisations on acoustic music with folk roots. Steve Griggs writes that he was "inspired by the recording Sketches of Spain by Gil Evans and Miles Davis. I learned that the initial recording date for that historic work was November 17, 1959 so I booked this concert for the 50th anniversary. The concert date is also the second anniversary of my father’s death, and I wanted to honor his memory by doing what for me is most joyful.": As a jazz musician I appreciate Villa-Lobos' settings for traditional melodies. He reharmonized and recast melodies to open up emotional territory different from the original. The harmonic language from the French Romantics works well with the melodies, and for me provides a bridge to the modal jazz of the Miles Davis/Bill Evans Kind of Blue genre. My work was to find melodies I liked, edit the music to provide just enough structure for improvisation, and arrange it for the instrumentation -- in this case cello, French Horn, hand percussion, and guitar to supplement the typical jazz quartet. [67] "Follow Marco"I was invited to listen in on the dress rehearsal of the Steve Griggs Ensemble at the Cornish College of the Arts the night before the concert. The seven musicians were arranged in a circle in the practice room. All experienced professionals, they worked quickly, carefully balancing the sounds of their instruments, pulling their parts in Steve's jazz arrangements forward or back in the mix, confirming tempos and cues. During their rehearsal of the fifth piece on the program, "Modinha," a fascinating exchange took place with Brasilian guitarist Marco de Carvalho. The drummer Mark Ivester has quick and flexible hands, but he seemed to be playing a fairly conventional bossa rhythm with repetitive rim shots. Marco gently demonstrated a subtler, more varied Brasilian rhythm, and everyone perked up. The percussionist Jeff Busch, who trained in Brasil, quickly suggested that they "follow Marco," that is, let him begin the tune and then come in behind his rhythm. "This is really delicate stuff, and Marco's comping is the whole thing." Steve was immediately receptive, agreeing at once to "throw my parts out and follow Marco." This was an exaggeration. His modal jazz arrangements were why everyone was there, so no one was about to throw out his sheets. But something clearly was happening. Next, Marco turned to Jeff and suggested that the percussionist try an older baião beat, more nordestino (traditional), less bossa (urban). It was as if he'd suggested "less New York City, more Muscle Shoals." At once, Jeff put down his pandeiro (tambourine) and picked up a triangle (typical in music from the northeast). They began again with a lighter touch, letting Marco open with a four bar vamp and then following his rhythm. Lori Goldston's cello added a pizzicato plunk to the triangle rattle every second bar. Suddenly Mark's drumming was more complex, his brushes picking up odd accents from all over the room. Everything was clicking in, and the guitarist smiled. What was up? This adjustment was not an effort to make the rhythm more "authentic." Villa-Lobos grew up in Rio, after all, not in Salvador da Bahia. And the whole idea of the concert was to present Steve's modal jazz arrangements of these Villa-Lobos orchestral pieces. They were at twice remove from their original popular sources, interpreted first by Villa-Lobos and then reinterpreted by Griggs, so it wasn't on the program that the music become "more authentic." Rather, the ensemble appeared to think that Marco, like any good musician, had intuitive things to contribute that they should draw out of him, and pay attention to. A musician knows things in his hands that he may find it easier to articulate through his playing than by discussing them. The band gets hot when each player finds collaborative room to leverage his or her own groove, and bring the others there. They trust his ears, and theirs, to discover where "the song needs to be happening." Marco knew that something would "happen" with that change of rhythm from bossa nova to baião, and so it did. And Steve was immediately receptive to this process. His subtle jazz arrangements were the musical foundation of their project, yet they were clearly open to interpretation. That nurturing sense of ensemble work is, fundamentally, why I liked this concert. Chôro dance bandsHeitor Villa-Lobos was born in 1887. Brasil declared its independence in 1888, and Rio, since Napoleonic times the seat of the Portuguese court, became not only an important stop on the European concert circuit, but also a hotbed for new forms of popular music: European folk-based music was exported to Brazil as part of the highly-esteemed court style, and once established was assimilated into the realm of popular music and transformed by native performance practice to become the roots for Brazil's own national music. [74] The young Villa-Lobos worked on guitar pieces by Haydn, Bach and Chopin, hiding his interest from his mother, who wanted him to become a doctor. Soon he was slipping out to play guitar with the street musicians of Rio, "the small instrumental groups which improvised on fashionable themes in the chôro form, and with the seresteiros (serenaders)." In this way, he became an excellent guitarist, and he drew upon that background to compose some of the world's best music for the instrument. He would remember with a smile that "We made a logical, not scholarly, counterpoint, far superior to any classical counterpoint." [59] For his part, the great Brasilian folklorist Luis da Camara Cascudo was not at all sentimental about the hustling seresteiros of 19th century Rio: "Antigamente era comum ouvi-lo pelas noites a fora, passeando pelas ruas, em intermináveis serenatas." Beginning in the 1870s, European dance music became the rage at the soirees held at private homes in Rio. Local musicians could get work playing polkas, mazurkas, the schottische, the Brazilian tango, and maxixe (a predecessor of the samba) at these parties. The term chôro was applied to the Brasilian way of performing that dance music, and by extension to the ensembles who knew how to "weep on the strings" as they played it. [51] Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934), a trained pianist and composer, wrote hundreds of compositions for these bandas that "fused elements of Brazilian folk tunes and native dance rhythms with the classical styles of western music." [52] These pieces were learned by ear. Chôro developed as an energetic genre of music with complex improvisations, played by talented amateurs who had day jobs as postmen and office workers. The genre did not appear in printed form until the 1920s, when the recording industry took off and popular musicians could get regular work playing in local clubs. [36] The typical seresteiro (serenader) group of the late 19th century included at least three or four stringed instruments: The violão, or Spanish guitar, and the cavaquinho, a small ukelele-like instrument, ...provided rhythm and harmonies, and the violão de sete cordas, or 7-string guitar, played the bass line. The solo or lead instrument was either a flute, saxophone, or bandolim, Portuguese for mandolin. [52] Northeastern musicians such as Pixinguinha would add the pandeiro, (tambourine) and triangle, and marching band horns. Woodwind players such as Paulo Moura [40, 41] and Paulo Sérgio Santos [42] have added the clarinet. Villa-Lobos was a regular at the "roda de chôro" (chôro circle) that played at the Cavaquinho de Ouro, a music store in downtown Rio de Janeiro, where he jammed with pianist Anacleto Medeiros of the military Banda do Corpo de Bombeiros (Band of the Firemen's Corps), a carnaval favorite. [74]. To help support his family, he also played cello in chôro composer Ernesto Nazareth's theatre orchestra at the famous Odeon movie house on Rio's Avenida Rio Branco. [53] Villa-Lobos was 31 and had been composing orchestral music for a decade "when the pianist Artur Rubinstein went to hear him one afternoon in 1918." [39] Griggs writes that: I found his background as a 'street' musician playing by ear similar to jazz in the U.S. He played chôros with Ernesto Nazareth for silent movies at the Odeon in Rio and dissed Arthur Rubenstein when the famous pianist showed up to meet the rising composer. [67] Rubinstein staked him to a ticket for Paris, and his fame. In turn, Rubenstein would record much of Villa-Lobos's early piano music. Chôro as Rio bebop"It was happening" is a phrase that Marco de Carvalho used in an interview after the concert to describe how all the great players of Rio during the '20s and '30s and '40s learned chôro as part of their basic musical training. "It was happening, it was like bebop for us, the fast 4/4 improvised music everyone knew." Critic João Máximo agrees: The chôro, which predates jazz, is in fact a type of Brazilian jazz: a way of playing, a style. Sonorous integration, which has democratized not only music, but above all the musicians themselves: it was in the back streets of Rio's suburbs that figures like Pixinguinha and Heitor Villa-Lobos existed side-by-side. [40] Heitor Villa-Lobos took pleasure in playing guitar with Pixinguinha, whom he would tell Stowkowski in Paris was "the most important Brazilian musician of all." [39]. Mandolin historian Marilynn Mair writes this of Pixinguinha, whose actual name was Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Jr. (1897-1973): Pixinguinha was born into the chôro tradition; his father was a respected flutist and hosted frequent "rodas de chôro" at his home. Already performing flute professionally and writing by age 14, in 1919 Pixinguinha formed perhaps the most famous chôro group, "Os Oito Batutas" (The 8 Hotshots) The group initially included flute, two guitars, 7-string guitar (used for the bass lines), bandolim, bandola (an alto bandolim), cavaquinho, pandeiro and other percussion. The band was so good and in such demand that they broke down previous race barriers, playing at the prestigious Cinema Palais in Rio, where Ernesto Nazareth was one of their biggest fans. They performed throughout Brazil, and in 1922 were sent to Paris on a tour designed to showcase new developments in the Brazilian arts. They were a huge success, and Pixinguinha, impressed by American ragtime bands he heard in Paris, began including saxophone and other brass instruments in his chôro band. [74] Baden Powell's first teacher Prof. Meira played with Pixinguinha, and in the 1930s, Pixinguinha and Powell were neighbors. Baden's father would take him on his shoulder to hear seresteiros playing at night on the streets. [49] Pixinguinha and Jacob do Bandolim would come over to jam chôros after his guitar lessons. [52] Jacob Pick Bittencourt (1918-1969) was already performing on Radio Nacionale in Rio by the age of 15. In 1940, he won a music competition that earned him a government pension for life. [74] Baden Powell performed on the radio as a teen prodigy too. Similarly, Sergio and Odair Assad grew up playing Jacob do Bandolim tunes with their father. [29] Curiously, although Baden Powell's composition "Berimbau" is famous now, he never heard a berimbau or much else of Bahian music from the northeast until he traveled to Salvador da Bahia as an adult musician and began writing "Afro-sambas" with poet and lyricist Vinicius de Moraes. [49] It was chôro, the regional music of Rio, that provided his musical education. The uses of "native color"Mario de Andrade, the great Brasilian modernist poet, wrote music criticism in the 1930s for the Diário de São Paulo newspaper. In a review entitled "Música Pernambucana" on March 21st, 1935, he lavished this enthusiastic praise on "O Jazz-Band Acadêmico" that had come down from Recife in the Northeast to give a concert in São Paulo: "Estes rapazes fazem arte e nao etnografia." It is interesting to compare this remark with the sort of concert review that Villa-Lobos was still receiving from French critics in 1948, when he was 61: "The powerful and captivating personality of Villa-Lobos has lost nothing, nor been tamed: the music is hard, at times brutal, with keen edges and colors of extreme violence. It frequently possesses an extraordinary density of sound, and draws striking effects from Brasilian folklore. In every case, this music is distinctively his, yet it endures, despite his exoticism, on the plane of pure art." (Raymond Charpentier, Arts [Paris], March 23, 1948). [8] Both of these passages assume popular European notions of "négritude" that derive from the outdated "primitive psychology" of Lévy-Bruhl. We must remember that it was a radical thing at the time to declare a jazz ensemble, even an "academic" one, capable of performing at the level of "art." You might as well have written a formal review of Paul Whiteman's jazz orchestra playing Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," or praised Bartok or Stravinsky or Villa-Lobos for enlivening their symphonic works with the "exoticism" of folkloric "effects." Nothing like a dash of savagery to give a night out in dress clothes a little spice. Mario de Andrade was, nonetheless, a serious advocate for folklore scholarship. He co-founded the Sociedade de Etnografia e Folclore in São Paulo with Dina Lévi-Strauss, wife of French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss (who was then teaching in São Paulo and making Amazonian field trips to gather the myths used in The Raw and the Cooked). At Dina Lévi-Strauss's urging, Mario wrote instructional articles for their Boletim on how Brasilian folklore collectors could become more scientific and systematic in their ethnographic techniques. [10] He did this so that folklore collectors emulating Luis da Camara Cascudo and Leonardo Mota would gather contextual data to help identify which cultural strata came through where in the melodies and lyrics of Brasilian traditional musicians. Does a given tune or verse derive from colonial Portuguese influences, or from African slaves, or from an indigenous Native American people? In the regional sertanejo and caipira cultures of the arid Brasilian Northeast, these influences were all mixed together. This had a profound impact on Brasilian folklore studies. In 1943, with help from Alan Lomax of the Archive of American Folk-Song at the Library of Congress, L. H. Correa de Azevêdo "founded the Center of Folklore Research at the National School of Music, today part of the School of Music at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro." [43] So the sentimental attachment of composers such as Villa-Lobos to the courting songs performed by urban seresteiros for privileged households in 19th century Rio was charming, but just the beginning of serious Brasilian interest in their folk music and cultures. The arrival of Brasilian jazzThe young Laurindo Almeida worked a cruise to Europe in the 1930s as a member of a ship's orchestra, and heard Django Reinhardt playing with Stephane Grappelli at the Hot Club of Paris. [43] By the mid '40s, Almeida was playing in the duo Cordas Quentes with the guitarist Garoto, who also trained Baden Powell, [49]. Luiz Bonfa, who would help create the bossa nova sound, was playing live on the Radio Nacionale and in the Rio clubs with the Quitandinha Serenaders. [50] As players took interest in post-WWII American jazz, the scene began to change. Laurindo Almeida moved from São Paulo to L.A, where Heitor Villa-Lobos and Igor Stravinsky were both living. Almeida became a sideman in Stan Kenton's swing orchestra, and began doing jazz studio work. It is interesting that this didn't strike him as a great leap. His technique as an improvising guitarist remained just as formidable. Curious to try blending Brasilian music with American jazz, Almeida hooked up with saxophonist Bud Shank in the 1954 to make Brazilliance, the breakthrough album that represented "the first successful fusion of American jazz and traditional Brazilian music." [41]. Sure enough, two of his jazz arrangements for that album were pieces by Pixinguinha, "Cariñoso" and "Nonó." The popularity in the later '50s and early '60s of Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, and the bossa nova sound coincided neatly with the emerging west-coast interest in modal cool jazz. Gil Evans and Tad Dameron were writing experimental arrangements for their jazz ensembles that used the modal scales suggested by composer George Russell in 1953. [77,78,79,80,81] Russell had arranged "Cubano Be/Cubano Bop’’ for Dizzy Gillespie in 1947, and Miles Davis called him, with affection, "The m***** f***** who taught me how to write." [78] When Miles complained in 1958 that "The music has gotten thick, guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them..." [78], Russell's method provided "a harmonic background and a path for further exploration." [77] When Miles released Kind of Blue [62] in 1959 with a quintet that included pianist Bill Evans [7] and saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, and then Sketches of Spain [63] in 1960 with the Gil Evans Orchestra, the roof blew off. Kind of Blue remains one of the most beloved and best-selling jazz albums of all time. Agile Brasilian musicians, by nature "melodic and creative" and not inclined to fall back on "favourite licks," [79] could get work in the States for real money, and quickly made the "bossa nova" beat world famous. Antonio Carlos Jobim set the Vinicius de Moraes lyric "Garota de Ipanema," about a pretty girl on a Rio beach, to a sexy tune, and Stan Getz got rich off the English version of "The Girl from Ipanema" sung by Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto's wife, on the album Getz/Gilberto. Jobim went on to perform the song with Frank Sinatra. Meanwhile, the chôro went into decline. The multinational recording industry was busy promoting bossa nova, and later tropicalia records. Brasil suffered a military coup in 1964 which put a succession of generals in power for twenty years. That military government attempted to revive chôro in the '70s, "looking for a popular base that it lacked." [36] This only brought scorn from the young tropicalista rock-and-rollers. Nonetheless, master musicians capable of playing this complex music, "our be-bop" as Marco puts it, continued to perform chôro "outside the commercial circuit." In 1975, the Museum of Image and Sound in Rio held a week-long festival celebrating the life and music of Jacob do Bandolim that featured many of his students, colleagues and admirers in concert. That same year, musicologist Jose Mozart de Araújo established the "Clube do Choro" to preserve and promote chôro performance among younger players, and the group sponsored competitions for new chôro groups and songs. The first Festival Nacional do Chôro, called "Brasileirinho," was held in 1977, and the second, "Carinhoso," the following year. [74] Today, twenty-five years after civilian rule was restored in Brasil, a popular revival of chôro is in full swing. With the support of arts organizations, chôro classes have become a popular after-school musical activity for high school students. Recent concerts in 2007 and 2008 by young 7-string guitarist Yamandú Costa (who was featured in the documentary "Brasilerinho" [11]) playing duets with phenomenal mandolinists Hamilton de Holanda [37, 38] and Armandinho [39, 40], indicate that chorinho is enjoying a resurgence once again. Peers of Villa-LobosThere's a good deal to be said, both positive and negative, about what happens when "folk music" is taken with "nativist" enthusiasm as "authentic" raw material for "art music." Use of "folk" and "jazz" materials by 20th century modernist composers was widespread, ranging from Heitor Villa-Lobos to Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein. On the other hand, Fascist governments, both European and Latin American, promoted folk music as a handy and harmless emblem of national pride. Griggs writes that in the 1940s, during the populist regime of Getúlio Vargas, Villa-Lobos was "an avid nationalist, working in the government to promote Brazilian musical education and performance. He conducted 40,000 children in soccer stadiums, to the delight of government officials." The Tropicalistas of the 1960s (Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Rita Lee) at first rebelled against both nordestino (northeastern) folk music and the carioca (Rio) chôro, preferring rock-n-roll to the old-fashioned songs that the generals of the Brasilian ditadura of 1964 would approve for radio play. Later, they found their own reasons to love the music they'd heard as kids. When Villa-Lobos promoted his "Serestas" of 1925-26 by claiming that "Seresta is a new form of vocal composition reminiscent of traditional serenades," [46] he was certainly speaking as a proud modernist symphonic composer (modernists loved to invent new forms of art out of old ones). Yet he clearly didn't feel himself at such a great cultural distance from the chôro players and their "folk" style of "crying on the strings" as a North American composer might have. There was simply less distance in Brasil between orchestral and popular performers. Villa-Lobos respected the musicians of the Rio streets, he gladly performed with them, and he strove to be at least as good a composer of his music as they were of theirs. The Brasilian musicians who have continued to play versions of chorinhos originally composed a century ago for serenades under moonlit balconies are incredible musicians. The way that pretty Badi Assad is marketed is less important than the respect she shares with her brothers Sergio and Odair for the very traditional music that Villa-Lobos loved. They see themselves as his peers in that interest. This has been a common stance among Brasilian master guitarists such as Laurindo Almeida, Baden Powell, Egberto Gismonti, Sergio and Odair Assad, and Yamandú Costa, and virtuoso cavaquinho and mandolin players from Pixinginha and Jacob do Bandolim to Armandinho and Hamilton de Holanda. Like their counterparts in Africa and India, these "national treasures" not only interpret, they MAKE music. They don't bother taking sides between "popular" and "classical" traditions, but rather revel in both as "composer-performers" willing and ready to arrange and improvise upon all of the music they've grown up with and loved. Listening to the Steve Griggs EnsembleSteve Griggs writes that "I find the history of blending African, Iberian, European, and native music in South America an interesting contrast to the blend that evolved in the US. While chôro developed in Brazil, the US sprouted ragtime." Well, his interest in Brasilian music seems to have progressed steadily from the cut "Quiet Afternoon" on his 2000 album Live!. [66] Guitarist Marco de Carvalho pointed out in an interview that as Griggs adapts these Villa-Lobos pieces for the Ensemble's instrumentation, he "changes chords, changes rhythms, brings swing." In the "Mazurka," for example, Marco had to "stretch the melody" to fit the new 4/4 rhythm of Griggs' arrangement. [68] Celtophiles worshipful of Irish folk music and its various reflections might respond, "Who cares if jazz musicians muck about with classical compositions based upon folk traditions? What has this to do with authentic folk music?" Should you dare to suggest that the chôro tradition underneath this musical ferment might be as interesting as theirs, you risk their disdain. That sort of misguided devotion to the "authentic" at the expense of the "innovative" can leave good players bored. We folkies can be a starched honky crowd, particularly when we get stuck in our own cultural foreground and don't reach out to other forms of music that live and develop at a greater distance from us. To the south, for example. (Our foreign policy suffers similarly when we regard Latin American nations as children.) We should celebrate a tradition so rich and dynamic as chôro. It is strong enough to tolerate all this fussing. Bravo to the Steve Griggs Ensemble for paying it a musician's respect, by composing jazz arrangements of Villa-Lobos that convey the affection that they share with the Brasilian composer for this vital music. Griggs will return to the Good Shepherd Chapel next March 3rd, and also hopes to perform further new arrangements in November of 2010. The programOn November 19th, 2009, the Steve Griggs Ensemble played his jazz arrangements of the following eighteen pieces, thirteen of them arrangements of works by Brasilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos: Preludes for Guitar (1940) 1. Prelude #4: "Homage ao Indio Brasileiro" The french horn played with the hand deep in the bell, and a gently amplified acoustic guitar balance nicely. The sax plays fast Sonny Stitt arpeggios on the bridge. 2. Prelude #1: Homage ao Sertanejo Brasileiro The figure of the taciturn sertanejo in his leather hat is important to the folklore of the arid Brasilian northeast. As the piano comps relaxed 2s against 3s, and the sax and french horn become a horn section, the cello plays the melody in a polyrhythmic 6/8. Canções Típicas Brasileiras (1919) 3. Papá Curumiaçu The piano plays ghostly chords in 6/4, over a cello sustenato. The french horn takes a lovely solo, sometimes over a Csus4, sometimes over a C minor. Stephen Griggs explains: Early in the 20th century, the Brazilian government funded an expedition of the country’s northern regions. Roquette Pinto, a member of this expedition, recorded melodies of the native tribes on cylinders. Villa-Lobos transcribed melodies from these cylinders to use in this song cycle. How wonderful that he took indigenous and regional music so seriously ("tipicas" also means "regional" in Brasilian Portuguese, as in the "comida tipica" of Bahia served at Tempero do Brasil restaurant.) 16 Cirandas (1929) 4. Xô, Xô, Passarinho In Griggs' arrangement, this piece sounds a little like "All Blues" with Charles Mingus replacing Paul Chambers on bass. The bass drives the piece at a sprightly tempo, the french horn sounds like a muted trombone, the sax is deliberately blowsy, and Lori Goldston plays an eloquent, fluid cello solo in her lower register. Serestas Griggs writes that: Seresta is the Portuguese word for serenade — music that expresses love by declaring deep personal feelings of longing and hope. Serenades are performed publicly so the declaration of love is heard not only by the beloved but also by others in the community. ...Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote serenades that combined improvisation from the chôro genre of Rio de Janeiro with his love of native melodies, all influenced by the harmony of Chopin and Debussy. Villa-Lobos himself said of chôros that they are "very sentimental, not romantic." [59] This seems right for a genre whose name means "to cry." 5. Modinha (1925) The rehearsal of this piece, with Marco playing a baião rhythm on guitar over nordestino triangle by Jeff, is annotated above in the section "Follow Marco." Pianist Bill Anschell folds gently in, and there is quiet power in his solo. He reminds me of the story Griggs tells of how Villa-Lobos met his first wife: Upon request, Villa-Lobos played chorinho on guitar at a salon one evening. Later that night, the host's daughter played classical piano. Villa-Lobos then apologized for his crude playing and promised to bring his cello next time. He rehearsed with the young female pianist and performed at another salon. The pianist wound up becoming his first wife and Villa-Lobos went on to dedicate most of his piano works to her. 6. Saudades da Minha Vida (1925) Steve is on tenor for this one. The sound is urban, modern, with horn chording out of Bela Bartok via Stan Kenton. The drum set seems to be accompanying the percussion, and the attack of the horns is impeccable. The musicians called this one their "power ballad." Steve plays alto over a bowed bass doubling the cello line. There is much drama, reminiscent of the cut "Saeta" on "Sketches of Spain." [51] Villa-Lobos wrote this evocative description of "Serenata": Seresteiros play with passion. The little street winds up the hill, and behind her window a girl sighs, gazing at the moon. The flower of the night hovers near, close at hand yet mute as the serenaders cry out for love. Along the deserted and empty street, the sad soul of an old woman passes, telling the moon her rosary. Pure are those who suffer for love. [56] Tin Pan Alley 8. Cry Me a River (1955) This song was written by Arthur Hamilton for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the 1955 film "Pete Kelly’s Blues." It was cut from that film, then became a hit when Julie London covered it in the 1956 film "The Girl Can’t Help It." The Griggs Ensemble performed it to the beat of a berimbau, an afro-Brasilian instrument made of a stick, a gourd resonator, and a single metal string, once played on the plantations of Bahia, center of the colonial slave trade in the northeast. Jeff can really play it, moving the gourd resonator in and out of his belly. The sax solo over the modal piano chords is fluid, soulful and muscular. Duas Passagens 9. Manhã na Praia (1946) Griggs writes that "Villa-Lobos painted this text with a melody that slowly rises like the sun over the beach in Rio." A cinematic imagination is evident here. Griggs directed the Ensemble to build slowly, the drums played with brushes, the piano gradually doubling the melody over four-chord changes. The sax is feathery, and the french horn soaring but controlled over a pizzicato bass. Songs for My Father (2009) 10. Lost This is an up-tempo G minor blues. Jeff plays a cuica ("talking drum") on the backbeat. The hot walking bass drives the piano solo, and Steve on soprano does not back down from the fast tempo, maintaining the tension. The sax, french horn, and cello play delicate harmonies throughout the head and the finish, which they called out carefully in rehearsal, polishing them like Ellington's "Mood Indigo" sax trio. 11. Remembering The piano releases from the written voicings beneath the sax solo, and makes Villa-Lobos chords. Griggs writes tenderly of his late father, to whom he dedicated this piece: My father was a scientist [and] what we call today a lifelong learner. In retirement, he read several books simultaneously on topics like evolutionary psychology, the mind-body connection, and zen, while also enjoying classic fiction. When our son was born, my parents moved next door to us. My father and I would walk together, and he would often recount memories of his life and career. I will always cherish those moments. Suite Popular Brasileira (1908) 12. Mazurka Brasilian musicologist Vasco Mariz [8] assigns the "Suite Popular Brasileira" to an "initial period of transcriptions." Villa-Lobos, born in 1887, was just 21 when he "transcribed" this intricate "Mazurka" that he'd heard while hanging out with the popular chôro players. Villa-Lobos gave this description: These chôros are popular music. Chôros in Braz...are always made by musicians playing together, good or bad musicians making music for their own pleasure, often at night, improvising, and the musician demonstrates his skill and his technique. And it is always very sentimental, this is important. [1] If there was a singer the group could play serestas (serenades). Villa-Lobos described his serestas for orchestra as a new genre based on folk materials: Seresta is a new form of vocal composition reminiscent of all kinds of traditional serenades, of the toadas (tunes) of our beggars and wandering minstrels, of the various songs and calls of our wagoners, cowherds, bull tamers. stone masons, etc., who come from afar, from the hinterland, and also from the Brazilian capital. [9] In rehearsal, the musicians called this one "very chamber-musicky" and "the most traditional one." The drummer played only the little pandeiro, and the guitar was asked to "sing out the melody." The arrangement is truly lovely., with jazz inflections as the guitar leads into the piano and horns over cello counterpoint. Forest of the Amazon (1959) 13. Vocalize 2 Villa-Lobos provided materials for the 1959 MGM film "Green Mansions." Bronislau Kaper orchestrated the film score, and Villa-Lobos was not happy with the result. So he composed a symphonic poem "Forest of the Amazon" with new music and poetry by Dora Vasconcellos. This piece has a 5/4 beat that the Griggs Ensemble plays as a 10/8. A wickedly simple cymbal part drives the piece over a precise bass line, the piano is low and understated, and the sax effusive. 14. Anticipando Jobim This piece was renamed "Anticipando Jobim" by pianist Wagner Tiso when he recorded the work. The Griggs Ensemble plays another lovely arrangement. The cello maintains an ostinato pattern, which the drums and percussion ornament, then they dissolve to piano over walking guitar, and the sax and french horn blend back in. Chôros 15. Chôro No. 5, Alma Brasileira (1925) Villa-Lobos wrote several pieces that he labeled "chôro." "Chôro No. 5" is subtitled "Alma Brasileira" or "The Soul of Brazil." Of this piece Villa-Lobos said: The most interesting aspects of this chôro are the irregular rhythmic and melodic formulas, giving an impression of rubato, or a melody with ritardando, which gives the impression of delay and pause, which is exactly the practice of seresteiros (street singers). His ears apparently told him that popular performers such as Ernesto Nazareth, to whom he dedicated his "Chôro No. 1" (1920) [59], played with a delightful intricacy that should be honored and made known beyond Brasil, not merely patronized or apologized for or used as "color." The light-handed drummer Mark Ivester drives the piece from sixteenths on his ride cymbal. A hot alto solo, then the french horn, cello, and piano make jazz chords beneath the flying drums and percussion. 16. Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras (1927) Griggs writes: While in Paris in the 1920s, Villa-Lobos wrote of his longing for his home country. One of the pieces was "Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras" or "Longing for the Brazilian Forests." The arrangement sounds a little bit like Ellington, with low piano brooding under long horn lines, into a 6-b7-8 change with an oriental flavor. Bachianas Brasileiras 17. Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 (1938) Villa-Lobos' most celebrated melody, the "Aria" from "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5" comes from one of nine suites composed in honor of Johann Sebastian Bach. This movement was written in 1938 for voice and 8 cellos. Steve plays soprano sax on this one, and his arrangement is down and funky, Gil Evans for chamber ensemble. The sax and french horn sound like a Tad Dameron horn section for a Pacific Jazz record in the '50s, played over up-tempo bossa rim shots and guitar chords. A carefully written blend of modal jazz with orchestral sensibilities. Encore 18. Three for Me This is a breezy piece by Griggs in 3/4, written for his son's third birthday. The piano and bass mesh tightly while the french horn and cello play together and somehow balance, not an easy trick. The musiciansMarco de Carvalho – Guitar Marco, a native of Rio de Janeiro, graduated from that city’s Music Conservatory. He appears on a number of soundtracks and recordings, including three CDs featuring his own compositions. His latest CD is entitled Cançoes. Lori Goldston – Cello Lori is co-founder of the Black Cat Orchestra. She appears on more than 40 recordings, and performed with rock band Nirvana. Steve Griggs – Saxophone Steve recorded two CDs in Seattle with Elvin Jones, and is featured on the soundtrack the Bungie/Microsoft video game Halo 3: ODST. His most recent project is musical settings for poems by Northwest sculptor James Washington. Tom Varner – French Horn Tom teaches at Cornish College, appears on over 50 recordings, and has ranked high on the Down Beat critics polls for many years. His latest recording is Heaven and Hell on Omnitone Records. Bill Anschell – Piano Bill recently won several Earshot awards, toured South America five times, worked as Musical Director for Nnenna Freelon, and provided music for the TV shows West Wing and The Wire. His latest recording More to the Ear than Meets the Eye is on Origin Records. Chuck Kistler – Bass Chuck began playing music on guitar. He appears on several CDs including Jay Thomas’ Blues for JW, and works with many bands such as Milo Petersen and the Jazz Disciples. Mark Ivester – Drums Mark studied gamelan in Java, and performs with Jovino Santos Neto. He teaches at Cornish College, and appears on several CDs with Greta Matassa. Jeff Busch – Percussion Jeff studied percussion in England and Brasil. His latest project is Drums and Voices – Contemporary Spirituals with Pat Wright of the Total Experience Gospel Choir. Resources for further studyBooks 1. Appleby, David (2002). Heitor Villa-Lobos: A Life (1887-1959) (The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland, and London), pp. 39, 80, 84. See also David P. Appleby Collection on Brazilian Music, Univ. of Texas. 2. Cascudo, Luis da Camara (1954). Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro, 5a. ed. (Belo Horizonte, Ed. Itatiaia Ltda., 1984), See "Choro" p. 222, and "Serenata" p. 707. 3. Dahlhouse, Carl (1974). "Nationalism and Music." In his Between Romanticism and Modernism (Berkeley, Univ. of California Press, 1989), pp. 79-101. 4. de Andrade, Mário (1928). "A Influéncia Portuguesa na Música Popular Brasileira." Apendice II of his As Melodias do Boi e Outras Pecas, ed. Oneyda Alvarenga (São Paulo: Liv. Duas Cidades, 1987), pp. 373-416. 5. de Andrade, Mário (1929). "Chico Antônio" and (1944) "O Canto do Cantador." Apendices III and IV of his Os Cocos, ed. Oneyda Alvarenga (São Paulo: Liv. Duas Cidades, 1984), pp. 377-79, 381-85. 6. de Andrade, Mário (1935), "Música Pernambucana." In his Música e Jornalismo: Diário de São Paulo, ed. Paulo Castagna (São Paulo: Hucitec Edusp, 1993), pp. 286-87. 7. Evans, Bill (1959), "Kind of Blue." In Setting the Tempo: Fifty Years of Great Jazz Liner Notes, ed. Tom Piazza (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1996), pp. 345-47. 8. Mariz, Vasco (1994). "Primeira Geração Nacionalista: Heitor Villa-Lobos." In his História da Música no Brasil, 4a. ed. (Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira, 1994), Ch. 8. 9. Peppercorn, Lisa (1991). Villa-Lobos: The Music (Kahn & Averill, London), p.32. 10. Soares, Lélia Gontijo (1983). "Mário de Andrade e o Folclore." In Mário de Andrade e a Sociedade de Etnografia e Folclore 1936-1939 (Rio de Janeiro, FUNARTE, Inst. Nacional do Folclore, Memória 2), pp. 7-12. Video (click link to play) 11. "Brasileirinho" Maria Bethânia 12. "The Voice of Brazil - Maria Bethânia" 13. Maria Bethânia, "Chão de Estrelas" by Silvio Caldas and Orestes Barbosa. Ernesto Aun 14. Ernesto Aun, "Chão de Estrelas" by Silvio Caldas and Orestes Barbosa. 15. Ernesto Aun, "Por causa desta cabocla" by Ary Barrosa. Laurindo Almeida 16. Laurindo Almeida, Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras No 5, by Heitor Villa-Lobos. 17. Laurindo Almeida, "One Note Samba" with the Modern Jazz Quartet. Baden Powell 18. Baden Powell, "Samba Triste", Paris 1960s. 19. Baden Powell, "Manha do Carnival," Saarbrucken 1970. 20. Baden Powell, "Samba do Avião," Paris 1999. 21. Baden Powell, "Chão de Estrelas" by Silvio Caldas and Orestes Barbosa. 22. Paula and Jaques Morelenbaum, "Serenata do Adeus" by Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powell, from a poem by Fernando Pessoa. Egberto Gismonti 23. Egberto Gismonti, "Dança das Cabeças." 24. Egberto Gismonti, Charlie Haden, and Jan Garbarek, "Magico," ECM trio live in studio, early '80s. 25. Egberto Gismonti Trio, "Celebração de Nupcias + A Porta Encantada," Canada 1990. 26. Egberto Gismonti, "Salvador," Montréal 2007. 27. Guilherme Vincens, "Frevo" by Egberto Gismonti, arr. Ulisses Rocha. 28. Brasil Guitar Duo, "Sete Aneis" by Egberto Gismonti. Sergio and Odair Assad 29. Sergio and Odair Assad, "Doce de coco" by Jacob do Bandolim, with their father Jorge. 30. Sergio and Odair Assad, "Casa Forte" by Edu Lobo, with vocals by sisters Badi, Carolina, and Clarice. 31. Sergio and Odair Assad with Yo-Yo Ma, "Menino" by Sergio Assad (written for Yo-Yo Ma). 32. Sergio and Odair Assad with Yo-Yo Ma, "Zita" by Astor Piazolla. Badi Assad 33. Badi Assad, "Ai Que Saudade de Você" adding mouth sounds to guitar. 34. Badi Assad trio, Netherlands, 2007 with Reno Steba, bass. 35. Badi Assad, "Harmonics Demonstration" (in English). 36. Bobby McFerrin with Badi Assad and audience, "Barbatuques," improvised live at São Paulo's Teatro Municipal, June 22, 2008. Yamandú Costa 37. Hamilton de Holanda and Yamandú Costa, "Adios Nonino" by Astor Piazzolla. 38. Hamilton de Holanda and Yamandú Costa, "Meiga" by Yamandú Costa. 39. Armandinho and Yamandú Costa, "Apanhei-Te Cavaquinho" by Ernesto Nazareth. 40. Armandinho and Yamandú Costa, "Live at Patrimonio 2008." Recordings 41. Laurindo Almeida and Bud Shank (1954). Brazilliance Vol. 1 (Blue Note World Pacific CDP 7 96339 2). 42. Laurindo Almeida and The Modern Jazz Quartet (1964). Collaboration (Atlantic). 43. Laurindo Almeida (1977, 1990). Virtuoso Guitar (LaserLight 15296). 44. Laurindo Almeida, Baden Powell (2000). Brasil Guitar Magic! (Fine Tune 2244-2). 45. Sérgio and Odair Assad (1988). Alma Brasileira (Elektra Nonesuch 79179-2). 46. Sérgio and Odair Assad (1996). Saga dos Migrantes (Nonesuch 79365-2). 47. Baden Powell (1991). Seresta Brasileira (Milestone MCD-9212-2). 48. Baden Powell (2000). Baden Powell & Friends (TIM 220449-303). 49. Baden Powell (2006). Tempo de Musica (Iris Music 3001 967). 50. Luiz Bonfá (1989). Non-Stop to Brazil (Chesky Records JD 29). 51. Os Ingênuos (1992). Os Ingênuos Play Choros From Brazil (Nimbus Records NI 5338, Musical Heritage Society 513596T). 52. Jacob do Bandolim (1994). Original Classic Recordings, both Vol. I (Acoustic Disc ACD-3) and Vol. II (Acoustic Disc ACD-13). Liner notes by Dexter Johnson and David Grisman. 53. Yo-Yo Ma (2003). Obrigado Brazil (Sony Classical SK 89935). 54. Paulo Moura and Raphael Rabello (1992). Dois Irmãos (Milestone MCD-9203-2). 55. Paulo Moura and Yamandú Costa (2004). El Negro del Blanco (Biscoito Fino BF-585). 56. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1972, 2006). Voice of Brazil (Divine Art 21209). 57. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1998, 2008). Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras (excerpts); Sentimental Melody, Choros Nos.1 & 5 (EMI Classics UK, LC 06646). 58. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1978). Villa-Lobos - A Obra Completa para Violão Solo (Kuarup KCD139) 59. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1999). Heitor Villa-Lobos: Complete Music for Solo Guitar (Naxos 8.553987). 60. [Various] (1997). L.H. Correa de Azevedo: Music of Ceara and Minas Gerais (Ryko RCD 10404). 61. [Various] (2002). Cantoria Brasileira (Kuarup KCD 173). 62. Miles Davis (1959). Kind of Blue (Columbia Records). 63. Miles Davis and Gil Evans (1960) Sketches of Spain (Columbia Records). 64. Mike Marshall and Jovino Santos Neto (2003). Serenata: The Music of Hermeto Pascoal (Adventure Music AM1001-2). Compositions by Hermeto Pascoal, who performs on two tracks. Liner notes by Andy Connell. 65. Steve Griggs Quintet (1998). Jones for Elvin, Vol. 1 (Hip City HC-101012) and Vol. 2 (Hip City HC-101022). 66. Steve Griggs Quintet (2000). Live! (Hip City HC-101032). The Musicians 67. My thanks to Steve Griggs for providing advance copies of his extensive program notes. The early draft of his remarks to the audience included quotes from Villa-Lobos drawn from [1, 9, and 56]. 68. Thanks also to Brasilian guitarist Marco de Carvalho for an enthusiastic interview. Web Sites 69. Steve Griggs - Seresta Concert. 71. Heitor Villa-Lobos (Google Composers). 72. Carnaval and the Bossa Nova: Sounds of Brazil 73. Richard Boukas (1999). O Chôro: A Perennial Tradition In Brazilian Music, Part One and Part Two 74. Marilynn Mair (2000). A History of Choro in Context 75. Mike Marshall. Biography 76. Jovino Santos Neto. Biography 77. George Russell - The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. 78. George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept. 79. Modal Jazz - Modal v Key Based Approach. 80. Bryan Marquard and Michael Bailey, Boston Globe (2009). George Russell, 86; composer, theoretician led giants of jazz to fertile new lands. 81. Ben Ratliff, New York Times (2009). George Russell, Composer Whose Theories Sent Jazz in a New Direction, Dies at 86. Addenda 82. [Various] (2005). Brasileirinho: Grandes Encontros do Choro Contemporâneo (Rob Digital RD 105)
83. Yamandú Costa + Dominguinhos (2007). (Biscoito Fino 274).
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