With few names from the United States, the event gains charm by showing how ancestral sounds have been received by the world
Heir to the old Jazz in the Factory, the Jazz section resumes its face-to-face character from this Wednesday, 5. There will be 20 attractions, including national and nine other countries, which will perform in 54 shows distributed in seven Sesc units: Guarulhos, Jundiaí, Piracicaba, Presidente Prudente, Ribeirão Preto, São José dos Campos and, in the capital, Sesc Pompeia.
The shows will continue until 23 October, with reference names from the world jazz scene – and not only in the US. There is no big picture of traditional American jazz, but perhaps that’s what makes the event so fascinating. Many festivals carry well-known but out-of-shape names, just to justify an alleged relevance to their advertisers and a less informed audience.
According to the names on the Sesc Jazz list, the path is different. They point to creative music (it sounds like pleonasm, but this is how some refer to music not reproduced by sheet music, such as the symphony) made in various corners of the world without necessarily going through the formatting of North American jazz. “I think jazz is music of the diaspora,” says Sérgio Pinto, deputy director of Sesc Pompeia and member of the curatorial team of Sesc Jazz.
Among the references of this most global jazz made in United States, the flutist Nicole Mitchells and the trumpet player Rob Mazurek with his Exploding Star Orchestra, both from Chicago. From off axis comes the London collective Kokoroko, led by the excellent trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Gray, the South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, one of the revelations of African jazz in recent years, the Congolese pianist Ray Motto and singer and percussionist Dobet Gnahoré, from the Ivory Coast. Africa is in full swing.
or Kokoroko is a curious group formed by Afro-descendants who live in London and who have assimilated the Nigerian Afrobeat with a deconstructive approach, but less experimental and more R&B, similar to the new English jazz of Shabaka Hutchings. They did a revisionism for Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat that Brazil was unable to do. Instead of just reproducing an old idea, they mixed it without the weight of tradition. Could We Be More, her recently released album, should be the basis of her concert repertoire in Brazil (at Sesc Pompeia, it will be on October 23).
From Peru, Susana Baca, 78, comes to perform for her latest album, the spectacular Palavras Urgentes (the concert in Pompeia will be on October 16). Nominated as Best Album of the Season at the Latin Grammy in the folk music category (odd, because nothing exactly sounds “folkloric” in Susana), her voice only seems to get better with time.
It was also a Grammy that, exactly 20 years ago, gave Susana artistic breath. Modified in a pirated way, as she tells Estadão, the Lamento Negro album was recorded in 1986, in Cuba, with poems set to music by names like Pablo Neruda and Chabuca Granda. “It was this award that made me known in my country,” she acknowledges.
A historic reunion is that of the Black Four, a group that reunites 35 years after its creation. Zezé Motta, voice; Djalma Correa, percussion; and Jorge Degas, bass. To replace saxophonist Paulo Moura, who passed away in 2010, Ivan Sacerdote, a clarinetist who released an album with Caetano Veloso in 2020, was summoned.
Other highlights that should secure admission are pianists Macha Gharibian, an Armenian based in France, and Kathrine Windfeld, from Denmark. Alaíde Costa will share the stage with Ilessi in a meeting, according to the advertising text, “focused on Brazilian black music of the last decades”. Brazilian collectives, Orquestra Afrosinfônica and Orkestra Rumpilezz, both from Bahia, should act as an interesting counterpoint, with such particular diasporic sounds. L
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Source: Terra
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
