Monday, January 23, 2012

MAURICIO ZOTTARELLI / GILSON SCHACHNIK - MOZIK


Drummer/Composer Mauricio Zottarelli has been on the forefront of the Jazz, Latin and Brazilian music scenes for quite some time. He is a critically acclaimed and award-winning drummer and artist and has participated in more than 60 albums as a drummer/percussionist who has worked with the likes of Elaine Elias, Esperanza Spalding, Marc Johnson, Dig Trio, and many others. He along with fellow Sao Paolo native pianist Gilson Schachnik are about to release their CD Mozik. Their band includes jazz music guitarist Gustavo Assis-Brasil, Russian flutist Yulia Musayelyan, and Argentine bassist Fernando Huergo - playing a distinctive brand of Brazilian jazz, encompassing the early fusion Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock.

While jazz pianist Gilson Schachnik and jazz music drummer Mauricio Zottarelli were both born in the state of Sao Paulo, it wasn’t until they landed in Boston that Brazilian music seized their imagination. But Brazilian music didn’t capture their interest while they were in Brazil. Each grew up idolizing and playing American jazz. When they met at Berklee, however, their love of Brazilian music was rekindled. Says Zottarelli, “it’s our honest expression of the music we love. We’re not trying to recreate something or recover the past. We don’t have any kind of agenda. It just so happened that we fell in love with Brazilian music. Brazilian jazz, while living in Boston.

“A lot of non-Brazilian musicians who play Brazilian jazz music are obsessed with being authentic, ” says Schachnik, who wrote most of the album’s arrangements. “That’s not our goal at all. We’re not trying to recreate bossa nova. We want to play with all the information that we’ve gathered over the years. I grew up listening to Return to Forever and Headhunters"

“What I love about this music is that it’s our honest expression of the music we love, ” Zottarelli says. “We’re not trying to recreate something or recover the past. We don’t have any kind of agenda. It just so happened that we fell in love with Brazilian jazz music while living in Boston.”

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