The work is the result of the musician’s meetings with Gili Lopes and Graciliano Zambonin during the pandemic
Playing the drums was the boy’s first dream, born on September 12, 1938, the youngest of a family of 11 children, all singers and/or instrumentalists in Rio Claro, a city in the interior of São Paulo. The rhythm fascinated him. But there was no teacher in town, which led him to another percussion instrument.
“That’s why I chose the piano,” she reveals Sun Salvador in an interview with Stadiumon the occasion of the release of his album Samboriumrecently arrived on streaming platforms and should also be released on vinyl in the future.
Dom Salvador (stage name of Salvador da Silva Filho), aged 84 and living in New York for half a century, explains the title: “One of my songs is called Samborio, and since I included it in this album, I decided to put it in the title, but I put it in Latin, to give it more charm”.
He’s already speaking opening a wide smile like a master. A master who combines genius with a calm and attentive attitude towards the new generations.
Samborium is the result of Dom Salvador’s “practically daily” meetings, during the pandemic, with two new partners, also residing in New York: the bassist Gili Lopez and the drummer Graziano Zambonin. For the first time in 43 years he was unable to work at the River Café, a refined restaurant in Brooklyn, where five days a week he played the “romantic piano”, as he puts it, “non-stop” for 45 years, from 1977 (yes moved to New York in 1973).
“They are two great musicians and the pandemic has brought us together in a very beautiful way,” says Dom Salvador. The result is breathtaking. Four jazz themes – one by Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington’s alter-ego, and three by Thelonious Monk, the most original and inventive pianist in modern jazz – coexist with authorial themes interspersed with absolutely different improvisations.
Empathy
Empathy is established by the first chords of Upper Manhattan Medical Centerby Strayhorn. The delightful strangeness of his piano was well defined by the American jazz critic Ben Ratliff, in 2018 at the The New York Times: “Samba in the left hand and jazz licks in the right hand”.
To understand, after being amazed by this unique piano, you have to go back to studying classical music in Campinas, at the Carlos Gomes Conservatory, and later at the Magdalena Tagliaferro School. “Without technique you won’t get anywhere,” he warns. “Because I studied classical music, I learned the technique.”
The ideal complement happened in Rio de Janeiro, when he accompanied Elis Regina in her first show at Beco das Garrafas, in the early 60s, and then found a musical soul mate in drummer Edison Machado. Rio 65 AND Sadness, emerged the following year, they were real revolutions in Brazilian instrumental music.
Dom simply defines the drum differential of Edison, the first to play samba-jazz, which he emulated on the piano: “It corresponded to my style. The unchanging and direct rhythm of the drums, in which there was no interaction, bothered me. jazz. Philly Joe Jones had a lot of interactions. That’s what I’d like to hear again. And Edison did.”
There was another direct source of samba-jazz: the track Billy Boy, on the Milestones LP, from 1958. In this song, previously recorded by Ahmad Jamal (1951), Miles left only the Red Garland trio (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) roll and Philly Joe Jones (drums). It was a jazzy 4/4 time signature, but with a 2/4 time signature, i.e. samba. “A light came on, I added this ingredient to my creative blender,” he recalls with a laugh.
In the movie
He will turn 85 next September. She has total technical mastery of the instrument and is renewed when he plays with the “boys” he surrounds himself with Samborium.
Coincidentally, at this time, he received a beautiful tribute from the Jorginho Neto Collective & Big Band, formed by musicians from the suburbs of Greater São Paulo. They released, on January 30, the video of sun comes back, composition and arrangement by trombonist Jorginho. It is one of six videos released weekly on digital platforms.
The album will be released in the second half of this year, along with a documentary showing how music can transform the life of an entire community.
Source: Terra
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
