Duo Caramuru-Baldanza

Informações Gerais

Membro desde: 15/02/09

Ultimo Login: 26/02/09

URL do Conexão Vivo: http://fabio-caramuru-pedro-baldanza.conexaovivo.com.br

Sobre

Desde 2003, o pianista paulistano Fábio Caramuru vem desenvolvendo sua própria linguagem em um trabalho autoral original, utilizando procedimentos de improvisação.

Seu primeiro CD autoral solo - Moods Reflections Moods (Echo 204)- foi lançado em 2004 e apresenta um caráter jazzístico. Nele, o pianista se lança a uma experiência de livre improvisação.

O desenvolvimento desse trabalho autoral original se dá com o contrabaixista Pedro Baldanza, tendo formado em 2004 o Duo Caramuru-Baldanza, realizando uma criação identificada com os procedimentos da música progressiva. O primeiro CD do duo, Bossa in the Shadows (LAB 7083), lançado pelo selo Labor Records em Nova York, recebeu em seu encarte um elogioso comentário do conceituado crítico Eric Salzman, qualificando o trabalho do duo como o “novo free jazz brasileiro”. O disco tem recebido excelentes críticas na imprensa dos Estados Unidos, Canadá e Holanda.

O Duo Caramuru-Baldanza tem se apresentado este trabalho em importantes eventos como a Virada Cultural em São Paulo e a Mostra de Música Instrumental do Instituto Capobianco.

Links

EPK / Press kit eletrônico http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=148464

Críticas

http://wildysworld.blogspot.com/2008/06/cd-review-due-caramurubaldanza-bossa-in.html

http://www.laborrecords.com/press/bossa_press.html

http://cdbaby.com/cd/duocaramurubaldanza

http://www.ejazznews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=8952

http://www.moorsmagazine.com/muziek2/caramurubaldanza.html

Algumas críticas

Jornal de Londrina - 4 de fevereiro de 2008
Ranulfo Pedreiro

O nome do CD do duo Caramuru/Baldanza não podia ser mais fiel: Bossa in the shadows foi lançado no ano passado e faz um passeio por caminhos menos elementares da música instrumental, chegando a ambientes pouco ensolarados com inventividade.

A começar pela formação: piano e contrabaixo transitam pelos mesmos registros e, se o diálogo for pouco inspirado, pode cair na redundância. Não é o caso, Fábio Caramuru e Pedro Baldanza se conectam com facilidade, hora intensificando o ritmo com recursos percussivos, hora articulando um contraponto para enriquecer melodias.

Em 2008 comemoram-se os 50 anos da bossa nova, mas Bossa in the shadows não se encaixa no gênero, embora transpareça em determinados momentos como influência, especialmente Tom Jobim. E não é a única: o piano de Caramuru vai de Ernesto Nazareth a Villa-Lobos, de Bill Evans a Magda Tagliaferro, de quem foi aluno.

Miles Davis adorava o silêncio “explosivo” do piano de Evans. Fábio Caramuru desenvolveu algo similar, ressaltando o silêncio na interpretação.

Camargo Guarnieri, Baden Powell, Inezita Barroso, Duke Ellington e Joaquin Rodrigo ganham citações diretas. Jazz, baião, MPB, música erudita, música contemporânea, samba e choro se fundem em composições e improvisos que podem tanto carregar no lirismo – Ballad é bela e profunda – quando ultrapassar as fronteiras do tonalismo – Guarnieri Deconstructed, inspirado no Estudo de Camargo Guarnieri, surpreende nos intervalos e faz referência ao período em que o autor compôs obras atonais e seriais.

Não há fronteiras na música feita pelo duo, e isso quer dizer que as referências são evocadas dentro de uma linguagem particular, com uma complexidade que vai além da mera colagem ou simples citação. Caramuru e Baldanza são calejados, conhecem muito e têm grandes qualidades técnicas, mas nem por isso o disco cai no virtuosismo. A liberdade obtida pelo domínio dos instrumentos e o amplo espectro de gêneros brinda o ouvinte com um trabalho coeso e prazeroso.

Bossa in the shadows é bom de ouvir, mas não é easy-listening. O repertório está sempre cutucando o ouvinte, chamando a atenção, despertando com soluções criativas e livres dos clichês da música instrumental brasileira. Um achado.

O disco saiu pela Labor Records nos Estados Unidos e o encarte traz um texto elogioso de Eric Salzman, compositor, produtor e crítico com passagens pelo The New York Times e Stereo Review.

O Estado de S. Paulo
O pianista Fábio Caramuru e o violonista Pedro Baldanza lançam Bossa in the Shadows, que dialoga com um rico universo

João Luiz Sampaio

Paulistano, Fábio Caramuru se iniciou na música pelo piano, estudou todo o repertório, do tradicional ao contemporâneo, se aperfeiçoou com Magda Tagliaferro. Já Pedro Baldanza aprendeu a tocar violão, guitarra e baixo “na marra”, ainda no interior do Rio Grande do Sul, começando cedo uma carreira que anos depois o levaria a se apresentar ao lado de Gal Costa, Elis Regina, Ney Matogrosso. Talvez por tudo isso soe estranho à primeira vista que os dois tenham se reunido, levando a amizade à colaboração nos palcos, desenvolvendo um trabalho interessante, que resulta agora no CD Bossa in the Shadows (selo Labors).

É o próprio Caramuru que, conversando com o Estado, ressalta a diferença na formação dos dois. E, se ele faz isso, é porque de certa forma é essa diferença - ou a busca pelo diálogo e a aproximação - que está no cerne do disco, que traz composições criadas da colaboração dos dois músicos e que conversam com um rico universo, de Duke Ellington a Inezita Barroso, passando por Villa-Lobos, Thelonious Monk ou Camargo Guarnieri. “Quando nos conhecemos, houve uma empatia imediata. O mundo musical de Baldanza me atraiu muito e vice-versa. Ele estabelece uma rica condução, um terreno fértil para que eu possa me libertar do rigor da música erudita. Do meu lado, posso ampliar suas referências a partir de minha formação erudita. Nessa dinâmica, há uma rica troca de signos entre esses dois mundos musicais tão distintos. O resultado é que conseguimos prescindir de clichês. Arrisco-me a dizer, até mesmo, que o nosso procedimento composicional se aproxima muito mais do rock progressivo que do jazz, que é normalmente atrelado a padrões mais previsíveis e decifráveis”, diz Caramuru.

É possível articular diferentes leituras a partir do trabalho do duo Caramuru/Baldanza. A mais evidente talvez seja aquela que insere o disco em uma linhagem antiga, bastante característica da música brasileira, que é a interseção constante e espontânea entre o clássico e popular. Villa-Lobos, Nazareth, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Guarnieri, Tom Jobim são apenas alguns dos nomes que transitaram entre esses dois mundos - e, não por acaso, Bossa in the Shadows ecoa muito do trabalho deles, dando uma unidade às faixas. “Acho sim que há um elemento que unifica o disco. Trata-se da nossa poética, representada pelo livre exercício da imaginação musical. Se analisarmos mais objetivamente, acredito que um dos aspectos mais marcantes seja a presença da politonalidade. Eu diria ainda que nosso tecido musical se fundamenta quase sempre em estruturas de contraponto, forte influência de Guarnieri. Exploramos muito também os silêncios, o que torna nossa música assimétrica e a faz respirar. Como pianista, sou particularmente fascinado pelos baixos. Isso pode ser facilmente percebido em muitas das faixas do CD. Em alguns momentos, praticamente não se distingue o piano do baixo de Baldanza, pois eles se fundem completamente. Uma particularidade do Pedro é a sua capacidade de reproduzir inúmeros timbres, do mais delicado ao percussivo, sendo que esse fator é decisivo para a riqueza de nosso timbre. Acho importante também mencionar que ensaiamos semanalmente, fazendo questão de não nos atrelar a um roteiro preestabelecido. Nessas ocasiões, e também nos concertos ao vivo e nas gravações, procuramos fazer com que a música brote diretamente de nossa percepção conjunta do momento que estamos vivenciando, buscando sempre um canal direto com o momento presente”, diz Caramuru.

Anything, and I mean anything recorded by Brazilian pianist and composer Fabio Caramuru is a treat. Team him with bass guitarist Pedro Baldanza and it's going to be a good time. This Sao Paolo based duo blends Brazilian Classical and popular musical styles to create musical magic, and also interpret songs from Brazilian and North American artists along the way. Drawing on American Jazz traditions and styles, Duo Caramuru/Baldanza add in dashes of Brazilian musical culture to create a sound that is both foreign and familiar; familiar yet new.

One of the reasons that Brazilian Jazz draws so many devotees is that there is still a view of Jazz as an art form instead of platform in Brazil. The focus here is still on making great music, rather than seeing how many notes an instrumentalist can fit into a run. There is an understanding that there are times for such polyphonic spree, but also times when more said when less is spoken. Fabio Caramuru is a master at knowing what to say with his piano, and when to say it. He understands when a moment of silence is more musical than any notes he might choose to play, and Pedro Baldanza is the ultimate foil to Caramuru's artistry. Bossa In The Shadows is an on-going discussion between these two great artists that should have tongues wagging from New Orleans to New York to wherever Jazz finds a home.

There are too many highlights - passages even, to mention specific songs or moments. If you are an aficionado of great jazz, or if you are a neophyte who wants to experience and understand the artistry of the form, then Bossa In The Shadows is essential listening for you.
(Wildy's World - 18 de junho de 2008)

These remarkable Brazilian artists from Sao Paulo have the amazing ability to incorporate the major strands of Brazilian tradition and innovation with equal doses of popular and classical Brazilian style in a series of compositions and improvisations that are based on both original themes and the work of Brazilian and North American masters.

The latter range from Tom Jobim (Caramuru is famous for his piano interpretations of Jobim’s work) to Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri, from Duke Ellington to the great Brazilian folk artist Inezita, from “Dancing the Baiao” to Afro-Samba and updated Bossa Nova to tango and waltz. The music has all the ingredients of great American jazz, traditional and advanced, but, at the same time, it is infused with ideas rooted somewhere else resulting in its originality and lack of clichés.
Brazil remains the motherlode of one of the great world musical cultures mixing native, African, Portuguese and North American traditions with a desire to innovate and yet simultaneously reach a wide public. All of these traits can be found in the music of Caramuru and Baldanza as their creative work emerges
from the shadows to reach the larger European and North American public.

Bossa in the Shadows is the latest in the series of a dozen CDs by the brilliant Brazilian pianist and composer Fabio Caramuru, this one with his equally creative
partner, bass guitarist Pedro Baldanza.

Caramuru was born in Sao Paulo in 1956 and, although he had some serious training and credentials as a young pianist, he began his professional career as an architect. It was not too long, however, before he exchanged the art of frozen music for that of liquid architecture. In 1980 he received a French government scholarship, enabling him to go to Paris where he studied with the Brazilian-French pianist Magda Tagliaferro. After his return to Brazil, he became director of the Magda Tagliaferro Foundation in São Paulo and Cultural Coordinator of the Brazil-United States Cultural Union. He was involved with many musical projects including a festival of the music of Guarnieri, a Magda Tagliaferro Festival, a Brazilian music history project and, among his many recordings, an album of Richard Rodgers songs and another of his piano solo arrangements of Tom Jobim; he also has a series of two-piano arrangements of Jobim songs. With Pedro Baldanza, he formed the Duo Caramuru/Baldanza and the two instrumentalists have also joined with singer Magda Painno to form the Trio Echo, creating two improvising ensemble that combine classical, jazz, popular and even folkloric elements in new and original combinations.

Pedro Baldanza, born 1953 in Rio Grande do Sul, has played an important role in the development of progressive ideas in Brazilian music. Over more than a quarter of a century, he has worked with the ensemble Som Nosso de Cada Dia and with such outstanding artists as Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Ney Matogrosso and many others. His creative and improvisatory work includes his collaborations with Fábio Caramuru on original themes as well as their improvisations on music of Jobim, Guarnieri, Rodgers and others. Baldanza plays a six-string bass made by the Brazilian luthier Daniel D'Alegria.

The title Bossa in the Shadows itself suggests some of the moods evoked by this music. This is a collection of original compositions and improvisations – dark, moody, rhythmic, always evocative -- that combine the rich and varied elements of Brazilian tradition in strikingly new ways. These pieces owe something to American jazz in their use of free forms and, in particular, in the way Caramuru and Baldanza use multiple or simultaneous polytonal centers. The influences of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, counterpointed by Caramuru’s classical background and the influence of Brazilian tradition from Afro-samba to Jobim and bossa nova, and then paired with Baldanza’s bass work, produce a kind of Brazilian style free jazz with an expanded view of tonality but one in which the connection to the fundamental Brazilian beat is never absent. The music has all the ingredients
of great American jazz, traditional and advanced, but, at the same time, it is infused with ideas rooted somewhere else resulting in its originality and lack of clichés.

The class form of the Brazilian beat is, of course, samba and Afro-Samba refers not only to the indigenous dance form but also to its African roots as exemplified by the influence of the great acoustic guitarist Baden Powell who inspired this piece.
Choro – the word means “cry” or “lament” in Portuguese – is a traditional style of Brazilian instrumental music that dates back to 19th century Rio. Although it was to some degree replaced by the jazz-inflected bossa nova, choro remains a quintessential Brazilian musical form and it has undergone a major revival in recent years. Choro 2007 demonstrates some of the newest possibilities of this form.

Capturando is the Portuguese title for Caught in Flight, a piece developed out of the idea that the musicians are catching the sounds they produce in mid-air and bringing them back down – barely – to earth so the rest of us down here below can actually hear them.

Balada or Ballad is a slow piece that provides an intimate and dense atmosphere with a suppressed yet highly expressive lyricism.

The title track, Bossa in the Shadows, is a bossa nova that breaks free from the familiar cool jazz harmonies of the genre to create something that is doubly new in its dark harmonic tensions.

Take the Z Train makes the amusing suggestion that the famous Ellington/Strayhorn musical subway train heading north to Harlem is now running south at the other end of the earth – a very different sort of musical ride!

“Wave Moods” -- Wave inesperado or Unexpected Wave – incorporates the theme from a famous Jobim song that popped up as the musicians were finishing this number. Hence the new English title, In Walked Tom. This is a kind of musical double entendre since it is also a reference to Thelonious Monk’s tribute to Bud Powell!

The composer refers to Baroque as having a serious and dramatic atmosphere. The original title was Bachianas and the piece refers musically both to the Concerto de Aranjuez by the Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and the Bachianas Brasileiras of Villa-Lobos.

Although samba and bossa nova are often thought of as the basis of Brazilian music, baião, the native music of northeastern Brazil, may be equally important. Like samba, it is essentially a dance rhythm of indigenous origins which was later combined with African influences. As with samba and bossa nova, Caramuru and Baldanza have created a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Dancing the Baião.

Ignez Magdalena Aranha de Lima, known as Inezita Barroso or simply Inezita, is a living legend of Brazilian folk music. Although born in São Paolo and best-known as a television performer, her espousal of traditional Brazilian music, much of it from the countryside, has made her an iconic figure in Brazilian music and helped the tradition stay alive. In For Inezita, Caramuru and Baldanza have again fashioned a tribute that incorporates both traditional and original contemporary elements.

Desconstruindo Guarnieri or Guarnieri Deconstructedis based on a piano Étude by the Brazilian composer that is constructed in fourths and deconstructed when Caramuru and Baldanza take away some of its original inevitability in their own inimitable style.

Mood 2004 is a close reworking of one of the cuts from Caramuru’s 2004 CD entitled “Moods”.

Caught in Flight, Take 2 or Capturando outra vez is another version of Track 3, again using the conceit that its sounds are snatched from the air and brought down to earth.

Contundente is the Portuguese title for Incisive whose strongly marked and acute sonorities are set forth with energy and humor.

Both the bass guitar and the piano are string instruments that can also function as percussion – the piano because the strings are struck by hammers which are activated by striking the ivories and the guitar because of the many techniques of plucking and striking the strings as well as the body of the guitar in rhythmic fashion. Cordas or String Theoryis a piece that bypasses the percussive possibilities to emphasize the stringiness of these instruments.

Espasmo literally means “spasm” but On Edge also expresses what the composer calls the uncontrollable, spontaneous and involuntary character of the piece.

Heartbeat, Tango & Waltz describes quite precisely the three sections of the piece that carries this title.

Finally, Gestural is a work built on musical gestures but also on the physicality of the movements that result in the striking sounds and sonorities that are the expressive vocabulary of these artists.