2023-06-22 14:49:47
On July 5, the Ella Fitzgerald Stage will welcome Brazilian composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal.
An extraordinary musician
Colorful character and self-taught musician, Hermeto Pascoal is the inventor of his own musical language. Like the captain of a ship bound for unexplored musical lands, he takes his musicians and his audience through sound spaces that mix jazz, MPB and avant-garde experiments. Everything he touches turns into music. Thus, in his sorcerer’s hands (Hermeto is nicknamed “o bruxo”), a beard becomes a stringed instrument, pigs begin to sing, water changes to rhythm and a kettle whistles tunes.
Born June 22, 1936 in canoe lagoon, Hermeto Pascoal was rocked from an early age by the sounds of nature. He discovers with fascination the sound universe that surrounds him and is inspired by it. At 10, he already plays the flute and the accordion and performs in duet with his brother in popular festivals and weddings. He then learned to play the piano.
First recordings
Hermeto often changes music group and city, meeting many musicians on his way, such asedu wolf or Elis the Queen. His first album, as an accordionist of Pernambuco do Pandeiro e seu Regional, was released in 1958. Soon, groups and recordings followed one another: Conjunto Som 4, Sambrasa Trio and, in 1967, the Quarteto Novo, whose richness sound and harmonic, captured on their eponymous album, will constitute a springboard for his career and that ofAirto Moreira.
Meeting with Miles Davis
In 1969, Hermeto traveled to the United States to record his first album. On this occasion, he met Miles Davis and recorded with him two of his compositions for the album Live-Evil (1971). Davis will call him “the most impressive musician in the world”.
From this moment, the visibility and the international career of Hermeto Pascoal take off. The albums Hermeto (1970), The Free Music of Hermeto Pascoal (1973) et Slaves Mass (1977) reveal to the world the sound magician he has become. He is no longer a simple pianist-flutist but an accomplished composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist.
universal music
Although Brazilian folk music (hot, baião, frevo, maracatu, among others) have had an important influence on his work and that some critics consider him a typically Brazilian musician, Hermeto Pascoal describes his art as “universal music”, because it is inspired by various influences and knows no borders. stylistic. The universal character of his approach is also reflected in his project for the sheet music book Calendário do Som (1999), for which he composes one song a day for a year in order to honor the birthdays of all citizens of the world.
Refuting any dualism between scholarly and popular music, between noise and music, between musical instrument and simple object, his concerts are events that leave plenty of room for improvisation, theater and humour.
In the same series:
Plácido Domingo at Victoria Hall: June 13
Photo credit : Emmanuel Doffou; Schorle, CC BY-SA 3.0via Wikimedia Commons
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