This past Friday, Brazilian guitarist/singer/songwriter Joao Bosco and Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba visited the Hopkins Center, giving Dartmouth a rare night of Brazilian music and providing a wonderful concert for the public.
When I think of Brazilian music, I imagine the gentle piano playing and virtuosic songwriting of Antonio Carlos Jobim and the soft voice of Joao Gilberto. Both were masters of samba and virtual progenitors of Brazilian music as we now know it.
Bosco is one of Brazil's premier songwriters from the generation that was directly influenced by the works of Jobim and Gilberto and, as I expected, their influence could be clearly heard in Bosco's music, especially in the pulsing bossa nova rhythm that makes Brazilian jazz so instantly recognizable.
What I was not expecting was the extent to which Bosco has clearly made this music his own. The bossa beat laid down by Bosco and his band was interlaced with a wide variety of musical influences from different sources. Chordally, Bosco often deviated from the typical Brazilian progressions, once incorporating something resembling an American spiritual, and more than once invoking the sound of European popular music from the 1970s. In this way, Bosco's music reminded me slightly of French guitarist Serge Gainsbourg, but with a very Brazilian twist.
Melodically, Bosco was inventive and interesting. Singing entirely in Portugese, most of the audience presumably did not understand him. However, the language lends itself so beautifully to singing that understanding the meaning matters very little. Bosco's melodies were simple and fitting, and Bosco's singing voice was well suited for his music as well. He sounded at times like a Spanish flamenco singer, reaching high notes and singing with a strong emotional investment. At other times he sounded more like a folk singer, often rhythmically speaking the words and moving freely between speaking and singing. This gave a very personal quality to his music.
Bosco's band was extremely strong and allowed Bosco's full range of musical ideas to express themselves. Ney Conceicao on bass guitar laid down strong rhythmic playing and Nelson Faria on acoustic guitar gave clever and technically impressive solos on about half of the tunes. The drummer, Leonardo Freitas, was the most impressive member of the band, lending solid but varied rhythmic playing and undeniably impressive drum solos to the group.
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, the Cuban pianist who shared the bill and sometimes the stage with Bosco and his band, played exceptionally overall, and especially during those times when he was playing with Bosco. Rubalcaba gave impressive solos during the tunes he played with Bosco, giving technically adept and modally inventive improvisations. His solos were very simple in the way that Thelonious Monk's solos were simple: He may have only been playing a few notes on the piano, but he made every note count.
About halfway through the evening, Rubalcaba was left alone on the stage and given the opportunity to showcase his solo abilities, which he did admirably. However, the overall tone of the performance changed at this point, as Rubalcaba's compositions were extremely slow and cerebral, which contrasted with Bosco's uptempo bossa nova. Rubalcaba's classical training was evident in his solo compositions, as he made use of deliberate and impressively technical keyboard maneuvers.
Educated in Cuba and trained in music from a very young age, Rubalcaba, young though he may be, has already left an indelible mark on the world of jazz and Afro-Cuban music. He has worked extensively with bassist Charlie Haden and, in 2002, received a Latin Grammy for Jazz Album of the Year for his album "Supernova."
Bosco, on the other hand, was educated as a civil engineer before he went on to become one of Brazil's greatest songwriters. For the past thirty years he has been one of the most recognizable musical figures within Brazil. He was virtually unknown to American audiences until he released an album with Lee Retinour in 1988. He has become a rising international star since then, regularly performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
This performance was a particular treat for most, as Bosco rarely leaves his home country. Bosco and Rubalcaba continue on to New York later this week, where they will play a five-day stint at Birdland.
