Nilson Matta - Brazilian Voyage

at Joe’s Pub - New York City - Klaus Mueller (piano) Nilson Matta (bass) Mauricio Zottarelli (drums)

Nilson Matta’s Brazilian Voyage – The Beauty of Brazil

Featuring Harry Allen (tenor sax), Anne Drummond (flute), Klaus Mueller (piano), Zé Mauricio (percussion), Mauricio Zotterelli (drummer)

In the winter of 2010, Nilson Matta will release an album with his newest project – The Brazilian Voyage.  The album features an exciting mix of Matta’s original songs and new takes on some Brazilian standards.  On this album, Nilson called on some old friends to realize his concept.  The great tenor saxophonist Harry Allen and amazing flutist Anne Drummond make up the reed section flowing easily from one style to another throughout the album.  Klaus Mueller on piano and Brazilians Mauricio Zottarelli and Zé Mauricio round out the rhythm section.  “Having two other Brazilians in the rhythm section was essential to give the album the right feel – we melded together beautifully”. 

Nilson’s concept while producing the album was to literally take the listener on a “Brazilian Voyage” through the many regions of his home country.  In fact, the album is dedicated to Brazil.  Each song has its roots in a different aspect of Brazil – distinct regions, cultural icons, and natural wonders are all fodder for Matta.  The song Águas Brasileiras was written by Nilson in honor of all the lakes, rivers, beached and amazing waterfalls found throughout Brazil.  The listener will also been taken to the region known as Pantanal – one of the world’s more amazing and diverse habitats.  In Nilson’s track  Pantanal the feeling of that region is literally brought to life through the music.  This album is not only a tour of the country, but a lesson in Brazilian culture too.  In Matta’s song Saci Pererê, you will become familiar with the most popular character in Brazilian folklore.  This little prankster was the inspiration for this fun and lighthearted song.  This is just a sampling of the nine songs on this amazing journey!

The genesis of this band comes from a single event.  Matta was asked to put together a band for an important convention about Brazilian culture at The Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City.  The concert saw Nilson and his band playing a repertoire that included music from different regions of Brazil.  Each region has its own style of music and a unique rhythmic pattern.  Nilson enjoyed playing this varied set so much that he decided keep the band and maintain the name – Nilson Matta’s Brazilian Voyage was born!

Since that time, promoters have been clamoring to book this band and each time one calls, Nilson puts together an “all-star team” of musicians to play Matta’s originals and select songs from the Brazilian songbook.  The band has performed at numerous music festivals, jazz clubs and private events.  The common question for Nilson after each gig with this band is always “where can I get the CD?” or “when are you recording with this group”.  So finally, after several years of playing together, Nilson took his project into the studio.  The recording process came easily since the players had so much experience with the songs. 

Look for this new and exciting album from Nilson Matta’s Brazilian Voyage in the winter 2010!

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What the members of the band says about Nilson:

"Nilson is one of my favorite musicians! Working with him is an immense pleasure to me, and always a great learning experience. Nilson has an amazing feel, sound, and groove. And he is a great composer too! I love playing with him."

Mauricio Zottarelli (Drummer)

"Nilson Matta swings like no one else and it's impossible not to become a little more joyful.   His deep rich timbre on his bass make's him a pleasure to record."

Michael Brorby  (Sound Engineer)

“Nilson Matta possesses  that rare combination of virtuosic technique and the ability to groove you into good health”

Harry Allen (sax)

“It is always a pleasure to work with Nilson, apart from being one of  the greatest bass players from Brazil, he excels at leading an ensemble. It is great to come to the studio with this sense of freedom, being able to explore and take the music to different places. I think this is what Nilson had in mind with this recording and I’m happy to be part of it.”

Klaus Mueller (piano)

“He’s one of favorite writers - not to mention unbelievable fun to work with.

Anne Drummond (flute)

“Not only a great musician, a friend... Not only a friend, a great musician... this summarizes how great is to work with Nilsão... so easy and productive, full of great ideas and open inputs... always YES to his calls.”

Zé Mauricio (percussion)

Reviews:

OSPAC Jazz Festival

Monday September 08, 2008

“Bassist Nilson Matta's Brazilian Voyage delved luxuriantly into sounds of Brazil, and other climes, with verve and spirit. The leader and his partners -- pianist Klaus Mueller and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli -- were exemplary, as was guest tenor saxophonist Harry Allen.

Jobim's "A Felicidade" demonstrated the rhythm section's zesty, buoyant feel, Allen's gift for melodic nuggets, and the leader's ability to tell an alluring musical story with song-like phrases, and fat-to-shimmering notes. Matta's "Paraty" was another hearty offering.”

by Zan Stewart/The Star-Ledger

December 6th 2007

Matta's trio with brio likes songs about Rio

by Zan Stewart, Star-Ledger Staff

STAR-LEDGER

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2007/12/mattas_trio_with_brio_likes_so.html

Matta is a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who has lived in the United States since 1985 and now resides in Cresskill, Bergen County. He has recorded and toured with each of those greats, save Jobim -- the famed Brazilian songwriter of such classics as "The Girl from Ipanema."

"I was working at the Club 21 in Rio de Janeiro in 1970, and he came and sat in," recalls Matta, who prefers not to state his age. "So I say I worked with Jobim that night and that I am still working with him, since I play his music on every gig. You

can't avoid him."

Matta leads his Brazilian Voyage Trio Friday and Saturday at Shanghai Jazz in Madison. Among the Jobim numbers on tap will be "Ipanema" and "Corcovado."

"Not only is the melody of 'Corcovado' beautiful, but the harmonic structure is so rich," says Matta, whose Web site is www.nilsonmatta.com and whose latest CD is "Walking with My Bass" (Blue Toucan). "The song always provokes us to develop new phrases and ideas."

Matta's trio, which includes pianist Klaus Mueller and drummer Marcello Pellitteri, will also play evergreen standards such as "But Beautiful" with a Brazilian rhythm, and originals like "Bossa for Copacabana," dedicated to Rio's famed beach.

"When I moved to Rio, I lived near Copacabana," says Matta. "It's an incredible, beautiful beach, very romantic. I met a lot of people on that beach, including my wife, Luisa."

Matta, from a musical family, began to play bass at age 10, picking out a ¾-size instrument when he went with his mother to a Sao Paulo music store. "I saw the bass, then touched the strings, and heard that sound, so fat and beautiful," he recalls. "I fell in love."

At 14, Matta started playing in Sao Paulo clubs with people like the famed composer and instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, with whom he later played in a quartet with equally noted drummer Airto Moreira.

The mostly self-taught Matta caught the height of the bossa nova craze in the early to mid-1960s, working through the mid-1980s with stars such as João Gilberto, Chico Buarque and João Bosco.

Matta traveled to the United States with his longtime friend, guitarist Romero Lubambo, and connected with another Brazilian colleague, drummer Duduka Da Fonseca. They began to work and decided to form a band, for which Matta came up with the name Trio Da Paz (Trio of Peace), "because we live in peace, and all the time having fun," he says.

The band now has five CDs, and backed Barron on his "Canta Brasil" Sunnyside CD. The pianist will join Trio Da Paz for part of its Dec. 27-31 engagement at the Jazz Standard in New York.

Of his life in music, Matta says, "I'm blessed, having been surrounded by so many great musicians."

NILSON MATTA & FRIENDS Walking With My Bass (Blue Toucan)

Latin Beat Magazine - 2006

Al igual que la más reciente grabación de Tania Maria (Intimidade, Blue Note), el CD Walking With My Bass del insigne bajista/guitarrista/compositor/arreglista Nilson Matta (nativo de São Paulo y radicado actualmente en la Gran Manzana) constituye una muestra fehaciente del renacimiento reciente del jazz brasileño. Renombrado por sus colaboraciones con el Trio da Paz y considerado como el bajista brasileño mas prominente al norte de Rio de Janeiro, Matta expone un sentido palpable de júbilo debutante en esta proeza estelar, la cual contiene mas sorpresas que la mitológica Caja de Pandora, incluyendo las maravillosas aportaciones vocales y/o instrumentales de múltiples baluartes de nacionalidad brasileña (Rosa Passos, Ivan Lins, João Bosco, Joyce, Filo Machado, Helio Alves, Claudio Roditi, Robertinho Silva, Mauricio Einhorn, etc.), en complicidad con Kenny Barron, Jeff Tain Watts y otros distinguidos jazzistas estadounidenses. (LT)

By Luis Tamargo

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FXV/is_7_16/ai_n16788743

Nilson Matta - Brazilian Voyage

Jazz Review - By Don Heckman - Special to The Los Angeles Times

February, 28, 2006

Quote:

“Most fascinating, however, was the clear sense of this unique Brazilian take on jazz. Only loosely connected with the blues roots so important to American Jazz, it is more indebted to the fast-paced, virtuosic techniques of choro, the early (and still very much alive) Brazilian music roughly parallel to New Orleans jazz. Swinging in their own fashion, generating quick-paced melodies and sudden rhythmic accents the Brazilian Voyage player affirmed the capacity of jazz to become a global  form of musical expression.”