Jon3 Pascaol 12.xii.11

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

never been convinced about this artist tho previous discussions still rankle .... apparently he gets the listeners .... why he does that escapes me ...

another miss for aka ....

Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal and his big band in a 75th birthday celebration concert at the London Jazz Festival. Pascoal first gained international recognition through his performance on Miles Davis's Live-Evil recording in the early 1970s, with Davis later calling him 'the most impressive musician in the world'. He has since worked with compatriots Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, and extensively as a bandleader. His eccentrically groovy music draws on Brazilian folk music, jazz and rock, with Pascoal playing a bewildering array of instruments including saxophone, accordion, found objects and, in the past, live animals. His Brazilian group is reunited in this performance with an all-star British big band originally formed for a collaboration in the 1990s.

[Serial_Apologist]

Love his stuff - colour, complex rhythms, unexpected harmonic turns aplenty. I understand the name is pronounced "Pascole", NOT Pasquale. I hope someone has told Jezza.

[Tenor Freak]

How many times now has Jezzer had that Hermeto Pascoal on his show? I should listen, perhaps?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

A shaft of tropical sunlight penetrates the wintry December skies on Jazz on 3 this week, courtesy of Brazilian legend Hermeto Pascoal. We've got the shiniest bits of a 3-hour gig that combined the multi-instrumentalist's regular septet with a bespoke British big band.

75 years young, Pascoal and his music are still brimming with new ideas and joyful eccentricity. After a funky opener from the big band the septet get to work in a folky whirligig that features the stratospheric vocals of Pascoal's partner Aline Morena. And the sparring between the two groups continues all night long, punctuated only by one of the wackiest interviews Jez has ever done – suffice to say that Hermeto simply can't resist creating music from the objects around him for more than 5 minutes!

Pascoal also talks about the inseparability of humour from profound expression and this really gets to the heart of his music. Somehow it adds up to more than just jaunty riffs and party beats – maybe because Pascoal puts his Brazilian folk heritage at the heart of his music, nowhere more so than in the beautiful duet with bandolim player Hamilton de Holanda in the second half of the gig.

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