Mark Levine - The Music of Moacir Santos

[Chazro]

Mark Levine - The Music of Moacir Santos - Off and On

I don't usually do Latin Jazz reviews anymore on JC unless I think the record's pretty extraordinary. Well mi bruddas, THIS is a very special record!

I 1st heard Moacir Santos in the 70's, I picked up his Blue Note record; 'Carnival Of The Spirits', just 'cause I dug the title, instrumentation, the cover art, and because it featured Harvey Mason who I'd just discovered with the Headhunters. The record remains a favorite to this day. A few years ago I'm hangin' at Tower and I read a review of his latest record; 'Ouro Negro', I put the mag down and luckily, Tower had it in stock! (man, I miss Tower!). This little walk down memory lane just illustrates how records USED to be bought back in the day! Moacir Santos was a genius brazilean composer whose music was apparently too advanced for Blue Note who, according to the liner notes, were looking for another Sergio Mendes but wound up with a genius instead. The recordings got no promotion. Mark Levine played piano on one of the 3 Blue Notes and also toured with him in the states. This record is a homage to his old boss and man, does he do him proud! I consider Levine and his band part of the West Coast Latin Jazz family. His drummer, Paul Van Wageningen, and master percussionist, Michael Spiro, are bandmates on a bunch of records I own and can tell you that this is a 1st class rhythm machine. The rest of the quintet is the very fine Mary Fettig on reeds, John Wiitala on bass, and Levine on piano. They are a prime example of a classic small Jazz combo that plays a TON of music! Basically what you have are genius Brazilean compositions played with an Afro-Cuban flavor/structure. The music's sophisticated, swings with grace, and the tunes are oh-so-memorable. I've read here and there that there's actually folks out there that don't care for percussion (say it ain't so!!), If you're one of 'em, this record ain't for you. But you're really missing out! Beautifully recorded and packaged. Recorded in 4/09 and released by 9/09, way to take care of business Mr. Levine! This suckas fresh outta the oven!!

Latin Jazz is having another banner year in '09 (the new Dafnis Prietro - Live should be in my mailbox this week!) but this one get's my vote for Latin Jazz record of the year!!

[groover]

I had a vinyl copy of Saudade that I picked up for $2 from a cut-out bin back in the '70's. I foolishly sold it for a pittance a few years later. Now it's going for $250 on CD at Amazon.



"What's My Name" is a great song.

"They told me fairy tales as I prepared for youth.
These are the very tales that led me far from truth."

Mark Levine plays on Saudade, too, though at the time it was probably the fact that it was on Blue Note and produced by Duke Pearson that made me buy it.