EGBERTO GISMONTI — Nó Caipira (review)

EGBERTO GISMONTI — Nó Caipira album cover Album · 1978 · World Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Moshkiae
No Caipira Egberto Gismonti 1978

NOTE: Listing on the CD Reissue is not the same as the album.

Saudacoes No Caipira & Zabumba Noca & Garrafas Pira $ Bambuzai Palacio de Pinturas Maracatu & Sapo/Queimada & Grillo Frevo Esquenta Muie & Banda de Pifanos Frevo Rasgado Sertao Brasileiro Selva Amazonica (Homenagem a Villa Lobos) Uana Lua & Kalimbas Cancao da Espera Danca Das Sombras

This album tracks non-stop and the pieces are linked some ... and the best part of it, is that ... it fits and you go along for an incredible ride of images and sounds ... it's non stop and sometimes exhausting, because it is so much and so strong ... and ... of course, so beautiful.

Of all the albums by Egberto Gismonti that I have heard, this is the one that is less "jazz" or his usual ... welcome to my musical excursion to somewhere and nowhere at the same time specially in the early albums when he is solo.

Right away after the opening, the only piece that is familiar for us, in that it is a nice piece of what we might almost call pop music, the album takes off in what we should really think is some kind of classical music, and later Egberto plays a piece that is dedicated to Villa Lobos, but in my mind this is the best Stravinsky ever ... and the images, are never going to fail you ... Palacio de Pinturas ... stands out as creating an image of a forest that feels like it is long gone, these days, with the incredible rape of the Amazon Forest. It is a sad piece, but somehow it makes us want to listen to a lot more ... I'm not sure I have ever heard a "jazz" musician do classical music so originally as this ... this is pure music at its best ... and is an incredible achievement. And it concludes with a bit of piano that is so soft ... and is the opening of the next piece ... you get a bit of "jazz" with a saxophone, but it is not the showcase solo style of playing by anyone here ... it is a part of the musical piece ... and one that is not always found in any jazz out there.

Frevo is the beginning of the next section of this album ... and it is a flute driven jazz piece, classically composed, instead of a jazz feeling where the plays are everywhere somewhere else, but here you can see what it might be like when you get a classical musician do some jazz ... and it is better than so much jazz, because it doesn't feel "empty" or that it is not going anywhere ... you know that this is some incredible music, and you can't help feeling ... where is this going? ... and you want to listen to a lot more ... and goodness ... it delivers beautifully!

Esquenta Muie & Banda de Pifanos feels like a piece taken out of the natives in the forest ... and only becomes something else when the flute solos along the piece ... and gives it up to a piano that will floor your imagination ... and now we get something of a jazzy definition, but (again) it flows so differently and much more like classical music ... that all you can think is ... wow ... what next?

Sertao Brasileiro is a classical piece coming out of the previous piece. It leads into a piece that is said to be dedicated to Villa Lobos, the Brazilian classical composer.

The final piece, Danca Das Sombras is the special piece of all ... a classical piece all the way also featuring some of the jazz instruments ... it is some kind of a soundtrack for an imaginary film (title translates to Dance of the Shadows) and it has some strange bits and pieces fit into the complete piece ... adding a very different touch to anything that you thought jazz was ... this is very special classical defined and designed music for many of us ... and how it is played and done is magnificent ... something that you would want to see ... so on the way out you do not have many words for it, but it is like you are trying to find how you felt through so many parts of it ... it took you to many places!

There aren't many albums that fuse things so beautifully and come up with something really special ... and NO CAIPIRA is one such album ... it might not be Egberto's best selling album, but musically, it is an incredible piece ... and something that not many folks have the imagination to do ... in my book one of the most special albums I have ever heard, and loved dearly!

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