Since releasing his first album a decade ago, São Paulo-raised
New York-based guitarist
Flavio Silva has thrived as an
artist with a foot firmly planted in two worlds. His new album
"Eko" displays the mastery of Brazilian instrumental music he
brought with him to the States and the consummate feel for jazz
that has fueled his career in New York
City.
RICHMOND, Calif., April 30,
2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Guitarist Flavio Silva gives his beloved Brazilian jazz a
new electrical charge with "Eko," set to arrive June 7 on his own Break Free Records. The
follow-up to 2018's "Break Free," Silva's third album digs deeper
into the fusion sound that has always been a simmering ingredient
in his heady brew of various jazz and Brazilian flavors.
This is an electric album. Even though
there's double bass, the aesthetic is way more toward the electric
side.
Brazilian rhythms have, of course, been an indispensable piece
of the jazz fusion puzzle ever since percussionist Airto Moreira played on Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew" sessions. With
"Eko", Silva drives home the hand-in-glove relationship of those
sonic palettes. "This is an electric album," Silva affirms. "Even
though there's double bass, the aesthetic is way more toward the
electric side."
That much is certain. The album's opening "Motaba" is a
veritable whiplash of rock-infused power and attitude. In addition,
the title track and the closing "Sunflower" are nothing if not
hard-driving, plugged-in stuff, irradiated as much by keyboardist
Gabriel Gaiardo's Fender Rhodes and
synths as by Silva's sinewy but crystalline guitar tone.
With that said, there's no question but that more traditional
Brazilian and jazz musics also exert a powerful influence within
these seven tracks. "Pare de Saranhar Meu Cabelo Menino" is
remarkably lilting and delicate, driven by Cuca Teixeira's
brushwork on the cymbals and Sidiel Vieira's stolid upright bass;
both Milton Nascimento's "Dom
Quixote" and Silva's "To Blade and Cowherd" exhibit a lighter,
postbop-oriented touch; and "Heroes and Friends," for all its
scalding electric textures, is ultimately a full-on swinger.
This says as much about Silva's collaborators on "Eko" as it
does about the guitarist himself. Gaiardo, Teixeira, and Vieira are
three of the most acclaimed and in-demand players on the scene in
the musically rich city of São Paulo, where they've cultivated a
repertoire as wide as it is deep, thus establishing themselves as
Silva's peers by any measure. You can hear it in the music.
Flavio Silva was born
February 11, 1985 in in São Paulo,
Brazil. His was a household
immersed in music, whether in the northeastern folk music that his
father loved or the more contemporary MPB that his mother favored.
Silva himself preferred the sounds of Black American pop music:
funk and R&B, which inspired him to try his hand at the guitar
he grew up hearing his father's friends play.
When he was 13, Silva's guitar teacher bent his ear toward jazz
fusion guitarists; a later teacher introduced him to acoustic jazz.
The discovery literally changed his life. It started him on the
course to earn a degree in jazz, which in turn led him to the
professional jazz circles of São Paulo—and later to Europe. He spent six years in Belgium and the
Netherlands, honing his craft and recording his eponymous
first album with fellow Brazilian expats (including drummer Cuca
Teixeira).
The next stop was New York,
where Silva matriculated at Queens
College in 2015 to earn a master's in jazz studies. His
teachers included fellow guitarists Paul
Bollenback and Mike Moreno,
as well as alto saxophonist Antonio
Hart, who turned Silva loose on the endlessly fecund
New York scene. He was soon a
first-call guitarist among the jazz elite, several of whom joined
him to record his second album, "Break Free"—an important
breakthrough for the young guitarist.
The 2018 release of "Break Free," however, more or less
coincided with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and Silva chose to
wait out the lockdowns in his hometown of São Paulo. His return and
two-year stay in the Brazilian metropolis led him to reconnect with
his colleagues there. The bounty of that reconnection is "Eko,"
which reflects everything that the guitarist has done and learned
in his accomplished musical career.
Paulistas can catch Flavio Silva
this month at the following São Paulo venues: Thurs 5/2 Let's Beer
Brewery; Sat 5/18 O Picco; Thurs 5/23 Cine Clube Cortina.
Media Contact
Terri Hinte, Terri Hinte Public
Relations, +15102348781, hudba@sbcglobal.net,
http://www.terrihinte.com
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SOURCE Flavio Silva