Description
Brace yourself! Man of the Forest is Brazilian Ivo Perelman’s breathtaking vision of the music of fellow countryman and renowned composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Ivo has pulled off something truly amazing here. Taking Villa-Lobos’ themes that are well-known and loved by aficionados of classical and Brazilian music and originally fusing them with several different strains of jazz, heavy doses of delirium-inducing percussion, and a saxophone style that is at once sophisticated and wild, Perelman has hit on an authentically new hybrid of innovation and tradition. Recent Pulitzer Prize and Downbeat Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Gunther Schuller — co- producer of this record — calls Ivo’s music “an entire new school of jazz.”
Ivo reveals the same brilliant vision in his selection of personnel for this project. The rich blend of Brazilian-born percussionists Nana Vasconcelos (Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek), Guilherme Franco, Cyro Baptista and Duduka da Fonseca, sparked by the legendary American trap-set wizard Billy Hart, provides a highly combustible rhythmic fuel. Joanne Brackeen and Mark Helias need no intro; in addition to being accomplished solo artists, both are members of New York City’s session elite. A final, spicy touch is provided by Dom Salvador’s flavorful country accordion, indigenous to the mountains and savannas of Brazil.
This is music at its best — intelligent, impassioned, high-voltage, fearless, and new.
PERFORMERS
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Joanne Brackeen, piano (1, 3, 4);
Mark Helias, bass (1, 3, 4, 5); Billy Hart, drums (1, 3, 4, 5); Guilherme Franco, cuica, timba, congas, pandeiro, zabumba, bells (1, 2, 3, 5); Cyro Baptista, pandeiro, cuica, triangulo, gongs, caxixi, ceramic drum, bells (1, 2, 3, 5);
Nana Vasconcelos, caxixi, bells, shells, voice (2, 4); Dom Salvador, accordion (2);
Duduka da Fonseca, caxixi, triangle, wood blocks (5)
PROGRAM
1. Man of the Forest 12:24
2. Cantiga Caicó 5:44
3. Veleiro 11:02
4. Rasga o Coração 5:22
5. Prelude Number 1 11:27
All pieces based on motifs by Heitor Villa-Lobos, adapted by Ivo Perelman.
Recorded Jan. 3 & 4, 1994 at Sear Sound in New York City.
Producers: Gunther Schuller, Ivo Perelman
ALSO AVAILABLE
for downloads and streaming on Amazon as well as other digital sites.
