Customer Reviews

Cerebro Magnetico: Arquivo Warner

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What I mean is, it is lightyears beyond GREAT that Warner-Brasil has finally released on cd, this CLASSIC recording of Hermeto Pascoal, who I will unequivocably say is THE GREATEST MUSICIAN/ COMPOSER /ARRANGER that has ever graced this planeta, Case CLOSED, hehehehehehe!

This recording was released in 1980(!)and only now is avaliable on cd,along with his other 2 recordings that Warner controls "Zabumbe Bum-A " and "Ao Vivo em Montreux".

From his first recordings back in the early 60s( including the seminal Quarteto Novo in partnership with Airto, Heraldo do Monte and Theo de Barros), Hermeto has been expanding the parameters of music, combining improvisational technique Of jazz and chorinho with the nodestino ritmos of his Alagoas state origins and more traditional bossa/samba and other styles. My "description" only scratches the surface..

He has evolved into the most unique composer/instrumentalist you will ever hear, and along with some 60 instruments that he performs on with almost equal virtuosity,he has also made musics with almost ANY "found" sound, be it animal sounds, metallic tubes, tuned bottles, e MUITO MAIS!

If you understand Portugues, among O mestre's basic axioms, he has said " A musica tem tres partes que sao como pai, mai e filho. O pai e o ritmo,a mae e a harmonia, e o filho e a melodia".
In essence,like a "family", you have to have the 3 elements of ritmo(cant spell that ... word in English, hehehe), harmony and melody to make the music "whole" , and Hermeto accomplishes this on EVERY composition, even his most "out" musics, always the 3 elements are present!

This cd release is mostly Hermeto alone in the studio, with overdubs-- it foreshadowed his "Eu e Eles" release in which he does the same, a one man show. There are also some occasional contributions from "regulars" from his "O Grupo" aggregations on certain tracks.

The HIGHLIGHTS of the recording are "Musica das Nuvens e do Chao" which features a typical long snaking, and ACHINGLY beautiful Hermeto melody progressing into a 5/4 samba percolating under the melody restated. Hermeto then breaks for a haunting quasi-vocalese in his mad original style - cheio de bem humor, por folia!-- Hermeto has an incredible sense of humor in his musics.
Hermeto has proven samba can be written in "5" and "3" time signatures, for sure! as this track demonstrates.

"Voz e Vento" is one of Hermeto's pinpoint accurate song titles(Voice and Wind), as he evokes many different moods in this short composition, you feel the breezes blow his wordless vocals into the air, an amazingly sensitive song, while still pulsating with polyritmos.
I wont run down track by track, but you will here the enormous range of hermeto's creative mind on this cd!
Hermeto possui o dom da enorme criatividade, um grande experimentador sem esquecer os principios maravilhosos da musica - um grande coracao e sua capacidade de extrair musica boa de qualquer coisa! (Hermeto is experimental , a master imagination, but always you feel his big Heart as he extracts musics from everything!!!)

WHY is there 10000 books on Trane ,Ellington, Miles,Stravinsky, and FOR WORSE, there is a myriad of useless forgettable "pop" stars who are rhapsodized ad nauseum, ad infinitum, while the genius of Hermeto is marginalized to a select few musical "seekers" who are lucky enough to "know" the works of probably the greatest musician -- in USA terms and trying not to trivialize, he is the "Michael Jordan" of the music world, multiplied to the 10th power!

10 million stars for every Hermeto recording, and this is one of the best,and until now, most difficult to obtain.
OUCA ISSO!

What a great blessing it is to finally have this album (along with another of Hermeto Pascoal's albums of the same period, Zabumbe-bum-a)in print once again! The compositions and playing are fantastic, and the arrangements are as creative as one would expect from this great musician. Fans of other Hermeto Pascoal albums will not be disappointed with this one.

I like the mini-lp packaging too. It looks pretty much like the original record, only much smaller, of course. The only disadvantage is that some of the writing is almost too tiny to read. I wish they had included a fold out insert with the liner notes in larger type.

A kooky and far-ranging free-jazz album that makes extensive use of indigenous Amazonian percussion and avant-jazz philosophies. Mega-instrumentalist Pascoal, who is one of the key figures in modern Brazilian jazz, plays most of the music on here, apparently multi-tracking on several tunes, to play saxophone, flutes, percussion, woodwinds, piano and guitar, often on the same tune. He also draws on the help of several talented Brazilian jazz players, notably pianist Jovino Jose dos Santos Neto. Although I personally have a pretty short attention span for avantnik jazz, I found this album to be engaging from beginning to end. It's pretty impressive and imaginative; definitely worth checking out.

Hermeto has two type of discs, one based in a Group work and another based on experimental studio manipulation. This Cd is among Hermeto's experimental discs. It has some very swingy themes, and some beautiful ones, but in whole the Cd is a studio work, that Hermeto worked alone, with little contributions by musicians from his group. If you are new to Hermeto's work I suggest you check Slaves Mass or the Live at Montreux first, that have more intense group effort. Cerebro Magnetico is not so easy to listen, but if you do so carefully you will understand Hermeto's creativity better.