Fábio Caramuru | Brazilian Music Piano

Bossa in the Shadows is the latest in the series of a dozen CDs by the brilliant Brazilian pianist and composer Fábio Caramuru, this one with his equally creative
partner, bass guitarist Pedro Baldanza.
These remarkable Brazilian artists from São Paolo have the amazing ability to incorporate the major strands of Brazilian tradition and innovation with equal doses of popular and classical Brazilian style in a series of compositions and improvisations that are based on both original themes and the work of Brazilian and North American masters. The latter range from Tom Jobim (Caramuru is famous for his piano interpretations of Jobim’s work) to Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri, from Duke Ellington to the great Brazilian folk artist Inezita, from “Dancing the Baião” to Afro-Samba and updated Bossa Nova to tango and waltz. The music has all the ingredients of great American jazz, traditional and advanced, but, at the same time, it is infused with ideas rooted somewhere else resulting in its originality and lack of clichés.
Brazil remains the motherlode of one of the great world musical cultures mixing native, African, Portuguese and North American traditions with a desire to innovate and yet simultaneously reach a wide public. All of these traits can be found in the music of Caramuru and Baldanza as their creative work emerges
from the shadows to reach the larger European and North American public.
www.laborrecords.com
Tracks
1. Afro-Samba
2. Choro 2007
3. Caught in Flight
4. Ballad
5. Bossa in the Shadows
6. Take the Z Train
7. In Walked Tom
8. Baroque
9. Dancing the Baião
10. For Inezita
11. Guarnieri Deconstructed
12. Mood 2004
13. Caught in Flight, Take 2
14. Incisive
15. String Theory
16. On Edge
17. Heartbeat, Tango & Waltz
18. Gestural
CARAMURU
BALDANZA
LABOR RECORDS releases
Duo Caramuru/Baldanza
BOSSA IN THE SHADOWS
a new album from the great Brazilian pianist and composer
Fábio Caramuru and bass guitarist Pedro Baldanza
LAB 7083
Distributed by: CD Baby
www.cdbaby.com
Contact: info@laborrecords.com - Labor Records

Armed with all the necessary culture & inspiration that relates to bringing a viable Latino oriented CD project to fruition..........Fabio Caramuru & Pedro Baldanza have created a spate of original bossa nova songs for us to discern. I must say: We are charmed!! I hear positive echoes of 'Tom's' influence in the writings of Caramuru, as well as some Oscar Stangnaro-esque finely honed articulated bass lines from Pedro. As for dedication & style,
this group is in a word 'consistent.' As for Caramuru's compositional gifts, he stays close to his roots, offering us his music with outstanding plasticity & great passion.

George W. Carroll
The Musicians' Ombudsman - Ejazz News

CD Review/Caramuru-Baldanza/Bossa In The Shadows/LAB7083

Armed with all the necessary culture & inspiration that relates to bringing a viable Latino oriented CD project to fruition..........Fabio Caramuru & Pedro Baldanza have created a spate of original bossa nova songs for us to discern. I must say: We are charmed!! I hear positive echoes of 'Tom's' influence in the writings of Caramuru, as well as some Oscar Stangnaro-esque finely honed articulated bass lines from Pedro. As for dedication & style,
this group is in a word 'consistent.' As for Caramuru's compositional gifts, he stays close to his roots, offering us his music with outstanding plasticity & great passion.

George W. Carroll
The Musicians' Ombudsman

http://www.cabaretexchange.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=262&Itemid=76&mosmsg=Thanks+for+your+vote%21 - Cabaret Exchange

Labor Records is een avontuurlijk label, dat naast blues ook jazz uitbrengt en muziek die niet in een vakje is onder te brengen, zoals Bossa In The Shadows van het duo Fábio Caramuru op piano en Pedro Baldanza op basgitaar. De twee nemen de bossa als uitgangspunt en vertrekken vervolgens op een inventieve, spannende muzikale reis die regelmatig weer even langs de bossa komt, maar die vooral twee muzikanten laat horen die elkaar improviserend uitdagen. De twee zijn zeer aan elkaar gewaagd en de soms knorrende, soms zoemende bas weet de piano tot onverwachte wendingen te verleiden, waardoor je een album lang ook als luisteraar uitgedaagd wordt om het spel te volgen.
En eerlijk gezegd is dat een feest, want hoewel ze soms bijzonder stevig tekeer kunnen gaan is ook overal het Braziliaanse ritme terug te horen, wat voor een constante, subtiele swing zorgt. Hier worden nieuwe terreinen verkend, en het is een puur genot om daar als luisteraar deelgenoot van te kunnen zijn. Schitterend.

Duo Caramuru/Baldanza - Bossa In The Shadows - Labor Records LAB 7083
terug naar de startpagina van moors magazine

TRANSLATION:

Labor Records is an adventurous label that, besides blues, also releases jazz and music which is not to be put in any box, like Bossa in The Shadows from the Duo Fabio Caramuru on piano and Pedro Baldanza on bass guitar. These two start with the bossa and then go on an inventive, exciting musical journey which often reaches back to the bossa, but which most of all let you hear two musicns who challenge each other while improvising. The two of them are a good match up and the sometimes growling, sometimes buzzing bass knows how to seduce the piano to unexpected turns, challenging the listener to follow the music for the entire album.
And to be honest that is a treat, and while they may go about it pretty hard every now and then the Brazilian rhythm is always recognizable providing a constant subtle swing. This music goes into new territory, and it is a pure delight to be able to be part of it as a listener. Brilliant.

http://www.moorsmagazine.com/muziek2/caramurubaldanza.html
- Moors Magazine - Holland

Pianist/composer Fábio Caramuru and bassist/composer Pedro Baldanza working across a huge and vibrant musical spectrum that runs from Afro-Samba to updated Bossa Nova, to Ellington, to Villa-Lobos to the great Brazilian master Tom Jobim.

LABOR RECORDS releases
Duo Caramuru/Baldanza
BOSSA IN THE SHADOWS
A new album from the great Brazilian pianist and composer
Fábio Caramuru and bass guitarist Pedro Baldanza

Bossa in the Shadows is the latest in the series of a dozen CDs by the brilliant Brazilian pianist and composer Fábio Caramuru, this one with his equally creative partner, bass guitarist Pedro Baldanza.

These remarkable Brazilian artists from São Paolo have the amazing ability to incorporate the major strands of Brazilian tradition and innovation with equal doses of popular and classical Brazilian style in a series of compositions and improvisations that are based on both original themes and the work of Brazilian and North American masters. The latter range from Tom Jobim (Caramuru is famous for his piano interpretations of Jobim’s work) to Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri, from Duke Ellington to the great Brazilian folk artist Inezita, from “Dancing the Baião” to Afro-Samba and updated Bossa Nova to tango and waltz. The music has all the ingredients of great American jazz, traditional and advanced, but, at the same time, it is infused with ideas rooted somewhere else resulting in its originality and lack of clichés.

Brazil remains the motherlode of one of the great world musical cultures mixing native, African, Portuguese and North American traditions with a desire to innovate and yet simultaneously reach a wide public. All of these traits can be found in the music of Caramuru and Baldanza as their creative work emerges from the shadows to reach the larger European and North American public.

BIO / Caramuru
Fábio Caramuru was born in São Paulo in 1956 and, although he had some serious training and credentials as a young pianist, he began his professional career as an architect. It was not too long, however, before he exchanged the art of frozen music for that of liquid architecture. In 1980 he received a French government scholarship, enabling him to go to Paris where he studied with the Brazilian-French pianist Magda Tagliaferro. After his return to Brazil, he became director of the Magda Tagliaferro Foundation in São Paulo and Cultural Coordinator of the Brazil-United States Cultural Union. He was involved with many musical projects including a festival of the music of Guarnieri, a Magda Tagliaferro Festival, a Brazilian music history project and, among his many recordings, an album of Richard Rodgers songs and another of his piano solo arrangements of Tom Jobim. With Pedro Baldanza, he formed the Duo Caramaru/Baldanza and the two instrumentalists have also joined with singer Magda Painno to form the Trio Echo, creating two improvising ensembles that combine classical, jazz, popular and even folkloric elements in new and original combinations.


BIO / Baldanza
Pedro Baldanza, born 1953 in Rio Grande do Sul, has played an important role in the development of progressive ideas in Brazilian music. Over more than a quarter of a century, he has worked with the ensemble Som Nossa de Cada Dia and with such outstanding artists as Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Ney Matogrosso and many others. His creative and improvisatory work includes his collaborations with Fábio Caramuru on original themes as well as their improvisations on music of Jobim, Guarnieri, Rodgers and others. Baldanza plays a six-string bass made by the Brazilian luthier Daniel D'Alegria
- CD Baby

Jornal de Londrina - 4 de fevereiro de 2008
Ranulfo Pedreiro

O nome do CD do duo Caramuru/Baldanza não podia ser mais fiel: Bossa in the shadows foi lançado no ano passado e faz um passeio por caminhos menos elementares da música instrumental, chegando a ambientes pouco ensolarados com inventividade.

A começar pela formação: piano e contrabaixo transitam pelos mesmos registros e, se o diálogo for pouco inspirado, pode cair na redundância. Não é o caso, Fábio Caramuru e Pedro Baldanza se conectam com facilidade, hora intensificando o ritmo com recursos percussivos, hora articulando um contraponto para enriquecer melodias.

Em 2008 comemoram-se os 50 anos da bossa nova, mas Bossa in the shadows não se encaixa no gênero, embora transpareça em determinados momentos como influência, especialmente Tom Jobim. E não é a única: o piano de Caramuru vai de Ernesto Nazareth a Villa-Lobos, de Bill Evans a Magda Tagliaferro, de quem foi aluno.

Miles Davis adorava o silêncio “explosivo” do piano de Evans. Fábio Caramuru desenvolveu algo similar, ressaltando o silêncio na interpretação.

Camargo Guarnieri, Baden Powell, Inezita Barroso, Duke Ellington e Joaquin Rodrigo ganham citações diretas. Jazz, baião, MPB, música erudita, música contemporânea, samba e choro se fundem em composições e improvisos que podem tanto carregar no lirismo – Ballad é bela e profunda – quando ultrapassar as fronteiras do tonalismo – Guarnieri Deconstructed, inspirado no Estudo de Camargo Guarnieri, surpreende nos intervalos e faz referência ao período em que o autor compôs obras atonais e seriais.

Não há fronteiras na música feita pelo duo, e isso quer dizer que as referências são evocadas dentro de uma linguagem particular, com uma complexidade que vai além da mera colagem ou simples citação. Caramuru e Baldanza são calejados, conhecem muito e têm grandes qualidades técnicas, mas nem por isso o disco cai no virtuosismo. A liberdade obtida pelo domínio dos instrumentos e o amplo espectro de gêneros brinda o ouvinte com um trabalho coeso e prazeroso.

Bossa in the shadows é bom de ouvir, mas não é easy-listening. O repertório está sempre cutucando o ouvinte, chamando a atenção, despertando com soluções criativas e livres dos clichês da música instrumental brasileira. Um achado.

O disco saiu pela Labor Records nos Estados Unidos e o encarte traz um texto elogioso de Eric Salzman, compositor, produtor e crítico com passagens pelo The New York Times e Stereo Review.



- Jornal de Londrina

O pianista Fábio Caramuru e o violonista Pedro Baldanza lançam Bossa in the Shadows, que dialoga com um rico universo

João Luiz Sampaio

Paulistano, Fábio Caramuru se iniciou na música pelo piano, estudou todo o repertório, do tradicional ao contemporâneo, se aperfeiçoou com Magda Tagliaferro. Já Pedro Baldanza aprendeu a tocar violão, guitarra e baixo “na marra”, ainda no interior do Rio Grande do Sul, começando cedo uma carreira que anos depois o levaria a se apresentar ao lado de Gal Costa, Elis Regina, Ney Matogrosso. Talvez por tudo isso soe estranho à primeira vista que os dois tenham se reunido, levando a amizade à colaboração nos palcos, desenvolvendo um trabalho interessante, que resulta agora no CD Bossa in the Shadows (selo Labors).

É o próprio Caramuru que, conversando com o Estado, ressalta a diferença na formação dos dois. E, se ele faz isso, é porque de certa forma é essa diferença - ou a busca pelo diálogo e a aproximação - que está no cerne do disco, que traz composições criadas da colaboração dos dois músicos e que conversam com um rico universo, de Duke Ellington a Inezita Barroso, passando por Villa-Lobos, Thelonious Monk ou Camargo Guarnieri. “Quando nos conhecemos, houve uma empatia imediata. O mundo musical de Baldanza me atraiu muito e vice-versa. Ele estabelece uma rica condução, um terreno fértil para que eu possa me libertar do rigor da música erudita. Do meu lado, posso ampliar suas referências a partir de minha formação erudita. Nessa dinâmica, há uma rica troca de signos entre esses dois mundos musicais tão distintos. O resultado é que conseguimos prescindir de clichês. Arrisco-me a dizer, até mesmo, que o nosso procedimento composicional se aproxima muito mais do rock progressivo que do jazz, que é normalmente atrelado a padrões mais previsíveis e decifráveis”, diz Caramuru.

É possível articular diferentes leituras a partir do trabalho do duo Caramuru/Baldanza. A mais evidente talvez seja aquela que insere o disco em uma linhagem antiga, bastante característica da música brasileira, que é a interseção constante e espontânea entre o clássico e popular. Villa-Lobos, Nazareth, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Guarnieri, Tom Jobim são apenas alguns dos nomes que transitaram entre esses dois mundos - e, não por acaso, Bossa in the Shadows ecoa muito do trabalho deles, dando uma unidade às faixas. “Acho sim que há um elemento que unifica o disco. Trata-se da nossa poética, representada pelo livre exercício da imaginação musical. Se analisarmos mais objetivamente, acredito que um dos aspectos mais marcantes seja a presença da politonalidade. Eu diria ainda que nosso tecido musical se fundamenta quase sempre em estruturas de contraponto, forte influência de Guarnieri. Exploramos muito também os silêncios, o que torna nossa música assimétrica e a faz respirar. Como pianista, sou particularmente fascinado pelos baixos. Isso pode ser facilmente percebido em muitas das faixas do CD. Em alguns momentos, praticamente não se distingue o piano do baixo de Baldanza, pois eles se fundem completamente. Uma particularidade do Pedro é a sua capacidade de reproduzir inúmeros timbres, do mais delicado ao percussivo, sendo que esse fator é decisivo para a riqueza de nosso timbre. Acho importante também mencionar que ensaiamos semanalmente, fazendo questão de não nos atrelar a um roteiro preestabelecido. Nessas ocasiões, e também nos concertos ao vivo e nas gravações, procuramos fazer com que a música brote diretamente de nossa percepção conjunta do momento que estamos vivenciando, buscando sempre um canal direto com o momento presente”, diz Caramuru.

- O Estado de S. Paulo

Caramuru/Baldanza Duo -- "In Walked Tom" --
"Piano and electric bass from two Brazilian bossa nova types: Fabio Caramuru and Pedro Baldanza, respectively. But they take advantage of the sparse duo format to venture into all kinds of territory, including modern-classical-sounding material and free improvisation. Surprisingly adventurous, but often with a velvety air; it reminds me a lot of European chamber jazz, the kind found on labels like Altri Suoni."

- KZSU 90,1 FM, Palo Alto, CA - February, 1, 2008 - 4 PM

http://www.palmares.ca/catalog/details.aspx?pid=orchard_829410174084 - http://www.palmares.ca/catalog/details.aspx?pid=orchard_829410174084

Anything, and I mean anything recorded by Brazilian pianist and composer Fabio Caramuru is a treat. Team him with bass guitarist Pedro Baldanza and it's going to be a good time. This Sao Paolo based duo blends Brazilian Classical and popular musical styles to create musical magic, and also interpret songs from Brazilian and North American artists along the way. Drawing on American Jazz traditions and styles, Duo Caramuru/Baldanza add in dashes of Brazilian musical culture to create a sound that is both foreign and familiar; familiar yet new.

One of the reasons that Brazilian Jazz draws so many devotees is that there is still a view of Jazz as an art form instead of platform in Brazil. The focus here is still on making great music, rather than seeing how many notes an instrumentalist can fit into a run. There is an understanding that there are times for such polyphonic spree, but also times when more said when less is spoken. Fabio Caramuru is a master at knowing what to say with his piano, and when to say it. He understands when a moment of silence is more musical than any notes he might choose to play, and Pedro Baldanza is the ultimate foil to Caramuru's artistry. Bossa In The Shadows is an on-going discussion between these two great artists that should have tongues wagging from New Orleans to New York to wherever Jazz finds a home.

There are too many highlights - passages even, to mention specific songs or moments. If you are an aficionado of great jazz, or if you are a neophyte who wants to experience and understand the artistry of the form, then Bossa In The Shadows is essential listening for you.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can find additional information about Duo Caramuru/Baldanza through www.laborrecords.com. You can purchase a copy of Bossa In The Shadows at www.cdbaby.com/duocaramurubaldanza.
Posted by Wildy at 11:20 PM - Wildy's World June 20th, 2008