Vira Loucos - Cyro Baptista Plays the music of Villa-Lobos (1997)

Artista: Vira Loucos
Álbum: Cyro Baptista Plays the Music of Villa Lobos
Año: 1997
Género: Jazz fusión / Word Music / Chamber Music / Avant Garde
Duración: 45:16
Nacionalidad: Brasil / Multinacional

Lista de Temas:
1. Dansa
2. Passion in the Basement
3. Cantiga
4. Ama
5. Complaint
6. Choro
7. Choros Number 8
8. Dansa Do Indio Branco
9. Ciranda
10. Sapo Cururu

Alineación:
- Cyro Baptista / percussion, vocals
- Greg Cohen / bass
- John Zorn / saxophone
- Marc Ribot / banjo, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
- Romero Lubambo / acoustic guitar, cavaquinho
- Chango Spasiuk / accordion
- Naná Vasconcelos / vocals
- Vanessa Falabella / vocals

En este disco Cyro Baptista logra armar un verdadero Dream Team de músicos geniales, ya que junto a él tocan: John Zorn, Naná Vasconcelos, Greg Cohen y el Chango Spasiuk (este post me viene justo antes de empezar a publicar algún álbum y republicar los que tenía ya publicados). A ver una muestra...

Si quieren más, tienen que entrar al post...

Esta historia contada por el genial Cyro Baptista:

In the middle of the miserable winter of '96 Michael Tilson Thomas invited me to Miami to help prepare a program on Villa-Lobos music with the New World Symphony Orchestra.
When I got there, I found him sitting on a swimming pool of musical sheets. He was having trouble with a complicated transition from violas to violins. There were so many notes written on the paper he showed me that it seemed as if thousands of dead flies were laying on the music sheet.
My immediate reaction was to play the berimbau and sing the simple Brazilian folk melody that Villa-Lobos had based his composition on, and so I had the idea of developing a work based on the sources Villa-Lobos used in his music, exploring the various percussion elements predominant throughout his work.
Only a man of strange appetites like John Zorn (may God keep him like that), could give me the courage to make this idea come alive. As for Villa, if he turns over in his grave and throws up dust, I'm sorry. He is a dead genius, I am a live idiot."

Cyro Baptista

Vamos con un poco de contecto: Cyro Baptista es un genial músico brasilero, profesor, artista multifacético especializado en la percusión dentro de varios géneros del jazz y lo que se conoce como world music, o folk, o folcklore, pero no solo brasilero. Creador de (creo) todos los instrumentos que toca, o al menos la mayoría, siempre lo que prima en él es el ánimo de experimentación y creación.
El tipo llegó a yankilandia en 1980 para estudiar en una escuela de música, luego viaja a New York sin un peso en el bolsillo y tocando en las calles hasta que contactó con el señor Zorn.... a ver:

Vine a Estados Unidos con una beca. Fui a un gran estudio de música de Woodstock y me encontré con estos músicos increíbles allí como Don Cherry y Nana Vasconcelos. Había aprendido mucho en 2 o 3 meses, más de lo que hubiera aprendido en 20 años. Yo estaba en el lugar correcto en el momento adecuado. Después de que terminé mi estudio me dí cuenta de que tenía 70 dólares en el bolsillo. Pensé que debería volver a Brasil, pero me fui a Nueva York y he estado allí por 23 años. El momento en que llegué he tocado en las calles. Entonces tuve nuevamente a la gran suerte de mi parte y me encontré con John Zorn y Marc Ribot . Yo tuve la suerte de llegar allí en ese momento, porque ahora Nueva York se parece más a un mundo de Disney. En ese momento Lower East Side era una parte muy pobre de la ciudad y ahí es donde los músicos estaban viviendo. Fui a tocar con ellos, y me dije: "esta es mi gente! con ellos puedo hacer cualquier cosa!" Empezamos esta cosa que se hizo conocer como "Downtown Music". Se consideró una especie de Avant-garde, pero fue un éxito. Tuve mucha suerte de encontrar ese lugar y esa gente, se abrió una puerta para mí. Eso es lo que hago, encontrar una puerta, abrirla y llevar la vida a otro estado, otra situación.

Cyro Baptista

Desde comienzos de los '80, Cyro Baptista ha sido el pecusionista predilecto para muchos en la escena downtown neoyorkina, adquiriendo renombre en el grupo de cámara Bar Kokhba de >John Zorn. Aquí, Baptista interpreta junto a notables invitados (como el propio Zorn, el maestro Naná Vasconcelos, Marc Ribot, Greg Cohen y nuestro gran virtuoso y poeta de las teclas, el misionero Chango Spasiuk) música escrita e inspirada por el compositor brasileño Heitor Villa-Lobos, lo que da como resultado un buen compendio de ritmos brasileños, folklore afro y exquisitas instrumentaciones donde la percusión y el acordeón marcan el camino.

Percussionist Cyro Baptista will revive an old project for a new tour. Villa-Lobos/Vira-Loucos will focus on material based on the former Trey Anastasio Band member’s oldest and first project: his debut solo CD, recorded in 1997,where he interpreted the music
of Brazil’s greatest classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. In the original CD notes, Cyro asks forgiveness to the composer: “As for Villa, if he turns over in his grave and throws up dust, I’m sorry. He is a dead genius. I am a live idiot.” In addition to Baptista, the band will feature: Romero Lubambo (acoustic guitar), Kevin Breit (electric guitar/banjo), Tim Keiper (drums), Michael Ward-Bergeman (hyper-accordion), Shanir Blumenkranz (upright bass) and Vanessa Falabella (vocals). Baptista will introduce the project with a guest-heavy show at New York’s Zankel Hall on October 13. John Zorn is among the musicians who will join the group at Zankel.
This adventure is in fact Cyro's oldest and first project: it is based on his debut solo CD , recorded in 1997, where he interprets the music of Brazil's greatest classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Cyro's unique arrangements and unprecedented take on Villa's music, led to the play of words Villa-Lobos/Vira Loucos - meaning "Villa-Lobos Turned Crazy". In the original CD notes, Cyro asks forgiveness to the composer: "As for Villa, if he turns over in his grave and throws up dust, I'm sorry. He is a dead genius. I am a live idiot"
The tour included the following stops:
Oct 13, 2010: New York City's Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall.
Oct 14, 2010: Hampton, VA - The American Theatre/Hampton Arts
Oct 15, 2010: Richmond, VA - Modlin Center at The University of Richmond
Oct 17, 2010: Warm Springs, VA - Garth Newel Music Center
Oct 26, 2010: Cyro Baptista's Vira-Loucos - Austin, TX - Texas Performing Arts Center

Vira Loucos is:
Cyro Baptista (Percussion & Vocals)
Romero Lubambo (Acoustic Guitar)
Kevin Breit (Electric Guitar & Banjo)
Michael Ward-Bergeman (Hyper-Accordion)
Vanessa Falabella (Vocals)
Tim Keiper (Drums & Percussion)
Shanir Blumenkranz (Upright Bass)
Brian Marsella (Piano)

Con su arsenal alienígena de instrumentos de percusión caseros y tradicionales, ha tocado con gente como Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Yo Yo Ma, Sting, Brian Eno, Paul Simon, David Byrne, y muchos otros, entre ellos la Orquesta Sinfónica de Chicago.
Este es su primer álbum solista y tiene el sabor increíble que brinda la variedad de estilos, mientras que sus shows en vivo presentando el álbum fueron un espectáculo en el mejor sentido de la palabra, el álbum ignora categorías fáciles (les juro que no sabía como catalogralo, hice lo mejor que pude) en una multiplicidad de rítmos que trasciende cualquier período de tiempo y región, pero también se las arregla para evocar el poder y la imaginación de las grabaciones pioneras de sus compatriotas brasileños: Gilberto Gil o Caetano Veloso más una locura inspirada por Tom Zé (ídolos musicales de Cyro Baptista). Con toques de Tropicalia y una apuesta vanguardista a toda prueba, este registro incluye la adrenalina y la belleza en un expansivo paisaje sonoro de cambios permanentes.

The title Vira Loucos, Baptista explains, means ‘turning crazy’ in Portuguese. I said, ‘I’m a downtown musician. I’m a percussionist. I can’t play Villa-Lobos.’ So what I did was to turn [the music] upside down so it’s more like what Villa-Lobos would have liked. He was pretty crazy.”
The result was an album, released the following year,Vira Loucos: Cyro Baptista Plays the Music of Villa-Lobos. Baptista’s debut as a leader, it featured 10 tracks, half composed byVilla-Lobos and the others inspired by him.

Jeff Tamarkin

Since the early '80s, Cyro Baptista has been the percussionist of choice for many a downtown New York ensemble, perhaps achieving greatest prominence in John Zorn's Bar Kokhba chamber group. Here, Baptista performs music written or inspired by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos and the result is a fine compendium, bristling with Brazilian rhythms, earthy folk songs and impassioned accordions among other delights. Happily shedding any traces of irony (which mar many a "downtown" venture), his band wades thigh deep into the songs, led by Baptista's wonderfully guttural vocals. And what a fine band! With New York stalwarts like guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Greg Cohen joined by Chango Spasiuk (accordion) and Romero Lubambo (acoustic guitar), Baptista has a assembled a group both light on its feet and capable of negotiating the trickiest of rhythmic passages and deliriously romantic melodies with wit, enthusiasm, and grace. Highly recommended.

Brian Olewnick

Vira Loucos-for the unitiated-is one of today's quintessetial albums, hands down. It is a collection of interpretations of the music of famed Brazilian composer Heitor Villa Lobos by one of the world's reigning kings of percussion: the wizard Cyro Baptista. This album is a true testament to his mastery of music, as it will take the listener on a musical journey that is dynamic, virtuosic, grooving, and absolutely unique in sound and vision. This is an album that any true lover of quality music will cherish for the rest of their music-listening days!
The Musicians come together to really make this music work. Marc Ribot, Zorn, Greg Cohen, hard to go wrong. The music is strong and I keep coming back for more listens... Check it out - you won't be disappointed!

Amazon

Back in the heyday of world-music fusions in the 1980s, tradition-minded players and fans worried that too much mixing of styles would result in a dreaded generic "worldbeat" that was a bit of everything and a lot of nothing. The neo-traditionalist movements that countered runaway fusions were worthy attempts to keep old styles alive in specific regions and languages. And, eventually, the idea of huge crossover hits in world music faded away.
But the ideal of blending diverse styles never disappeared. One of the most enduring proponents is percussionist and bandleader Cyro Baptista. He's from Brazil, but his real native land is the recording studio and on stage. Baptista is a regular collaborator with John Zorn and, like Zorn, you never know quite what his records are going to sound like. Indeed, Caym, Baptista's latest project with his group Banquet of the Spirits, uses a dozen themes written by Zorn as starting points. But all the tracks take off in unpredictable, though satisfying, directions.
In the first cuts, Baptista and Banquet of the Spirits evoke and play around with the sounds and textures of North African gnawa music and even the horn-driven clamor of Morocco's Jajouka musicians. But just when you think Caym is settling into a pan-Middle East mode, the album swerves into a delightful evocation of Indonesian gamelan.
Most impressive is that all this variety comes from just a quartet. Producer and arranger Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz plays oud and the gimbri African lute, as well as bass. Tim Keiper does drums and percussion, as well as the ngoni guitar from Mali, and Brian Marsella excels on piano, harpsichord and pump organ. Leader Baptista plays a slew of instruments that throb and rattle, including some of his own invention. Everybody does some affable chanting from time to time.
But, more than virtuosity, it's the harmonious, positive spirit of Caym that makes it a fine introduction to Baptista's way of performing. The session ends with a number called "Phaleg," featuring Marsella wailing on the pump-organ in a workout that's both witty and eerie, a sort of Phantom of the International Opera.
The strong group unity and interaction helps Caym avoid the typical downfalls of eclectic world-music albums — fancy, empty playing and superficial dabs of exotic styles. Instead, you feel like you're listening to a captivating travelogue, as told by a group of nomads who are at home everywhere.

Milo Miles