Brazilian-tinged
jazz and funk from Switzerland/ Italy 1972-75, recorded by European guitar
legend Pierre Cavalli with the ensembles of music masters Angel Pocho Gatti and
Bruno Spoerri – all original material, previously unreleased. Library- and
Soundtrack-like album full of bossa breakbeat tunes, scat funk, jazz fusion and
trippy interludes – with acoustic or spacey electric guitars, latin flutes,
vibes, fender rhodes plus occasional vocals. 14 lost tracks transferred from a
test pressing and tapes found in the archives of Nanda Cavalli and Bruno
Spoerri, also featuring Renato Anselmi and Fernando Vicencio, remastered in
2014 for 6-page-dgipak-CD and limited vinyl LP.
Vitamina
De Brasil: The Brazilian “Tristeza” has already infected Europe in the early
60s, with the film “Orfeu Negro” and a commercialization of Bossa Nova. At the
end of the decade Brazilian artists like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil
created Tropicalia, a synthesis of pop, rock, jazz and Brazilian music.
Composer, guitarist and bassist Pierre Cavalli from Zurich traveled to Brazil
in 1968 and stayed there for a whole year. Upon his return to Switzerland, he
worked on recordings that should convey his musical impressions of Brazil. In
1971 Cavalli produced and played music in his hometown, mostly with his own
small ensembles and as a studio musician. Some Brazilian-inspired instrumental
and vocal tracks were recorded spontaneously with the excellent ensembles of
Angel Pocho Gatti (Italy/ Argentina) and Bruno Spoerri (Switzerland), in
various studios and for advertising purposes only. Some of the recorded music
was used in local TV advertising or appeared on a vinyl LP for the promotion of
an airline, while the remaining tunes were put in the vault immediately after
production. The final result is this “lost” and newly mastered album by Pierre
Cavalli, released here for the first time ever.
“Uma
Vitamina Faz Favor” is a journey of sound, infiltrated by music from South
America and in a style of the best Italian film soundtracks of that time. With
the acoustic or trippy electric guitar in the center of attention, Cavalli and
his musicians developed a complex range of sounds, a mixture of funk, dreamy
bossa nova, jazz fusion, Latin blues and references to film music. The album
generates a high degree of intimacy, with Latin flutes and percussion, Fender
Rhodes, vibraphone, analog synthesizers and wind or vocal inserts, often
psychedelic tinged and sometimes even framed by imitations of nature sounds
from Brazil. The jazz fusion piece “Caçador” (in a later version included on
the Spoerri LP “Container”, entitled “Brain Hunter”) and the bossa breakbeat
tune “Passarinhos” are funk gems and take the listener to the Brazilian rain
forest with their electronic effects. The worldless vocal work in “Possarinhos”
or “Lembrança do Santos” is reminiscent of scat legends like Edda Dell`Orso or
the best De Wolfe Library LPs by Barbara Moore. Driven by Cavalli’s catchy
uptempo guitar lines, the sounds of “Alegria” and “Cachaça” come out of the
speakers with South American joie de vivre. Laid back tracks like “Transmissão
mutàvel”, “Tranquilamente” or “Tecidos” are full of fine melodies and Cavalli’s
spacey guitar licks, clearly referring to the Brazilian hippies and their
psychedelic nonchalance. “Uma vitamina faz favor” and the love declaration
“Therezinha Meu Amor”, even sung by Cavalli himself (probably unique in his
recording career), are breezy bossa novas and the only songs with lyrics.
Six
sought after tracks hail from an impossible to find one-sided testpressing from
1972, an unreleased promotional album for the airline “Swissair” entitled “Rio
De Janeiro”. It comes from the vaults of Pierre Cavalli and was recently discovered
by his wife Nanda Cavalli. All music is played by “Pierre Cavalli et son
ensemble” with “paroles et musiques de Pierre Cavalli et vocalises de Merry
Francen”. The ensemble is led by Argentinean born soundtrack master Angel
“Pocho” Gatti who conducted the best Italian Big Band during the 1970s. These
recordings were produced by Cavalli and remain as the only source of
collaboration between Cavalli and Gatti. The other eight tracks were
rediscovered by Bruno Spoerri, who started to record some Brazilian-tinged
compositions with his favourite guitarist Cavalli in various places at the same
time. Some of the best Swiss jazz musicians like pianist Renato Anselmi,
flutist Fernando Vicencio, bassist Heinz Pfenninger or drummer Curt Treier
belonged to their frequently changing ensemble, in which Spoerri led the
production and used to play various synthesizers. Thanks to the efforts of
Nanda Cavalli and Bruno Spoerri, “Uma Vitamina Faz Favor” is a mind-blowing
record and a truly great find.
Pierre
Cavalli (1928-1985) played various guitar styles on innumerable European album
productions from the 1950s to the 1970s. Already in the 1940s he had become a
friend of Django Reinhardt and attended his performances in Paris. He performed
with well known jazz artists like Art Simmons, Hans Koller, Peter Trunk, Daniel
Humair or Wolfgang Dauner and made excellent commercial productions for music
libraries. Cavalli became employed by Friedrich Gulda as his first big band
guitar player, joined the “Swiss All Stars” and performed with the excellent
but short-lived fusion bands “Oimels” (MPS) and “Emphasis” (Pick). He was well
known throughout the studio scene, played in several orchestras, appeared at
galas, composed music for French tv-serials and belonged more to the showiz than
to the “serious” jazz scene. His impressive discography lists over 500 titles.
Bruno
Spoerri (*1935) earned his degree in Applied Psychology in 1958, after he had
already played saxophone in various bands as a student (including the Modern
Jazz Group Freiburg). From 1957 to 1975 he belonged to the Zurich “Metronome
Quintet” with which he toured internationally and recorded several Albums and
EPs. In the 1970s Spoerri became musical director of the jazz festival Zurich
several times and has performed with many international jazz greats. Back in
1967, he began to experiment with electrified saxophone, effect units and Ondes
Martenot, and went deeper into the electronic music scene through the purchase
of an EMS VCS3 synthesizer. To date he still works as a freelance composer,
sound engineer and author (editor of “Jazz in Switzerland”/ Chronos
Publishing). At present, Spoerri deals primarily with the interactive potential
of electronic music equipment.
Angel
“Pocho” Gatti (1930-2000) from Buenos Aires was an outstanding pianist,
arranger, conductor and composer. He worked mainly in Italy during the 1960s
and early 70s. With his orchestras, that included Italian jazz masters like
Gianni Basso, Giorgio Gaslini or Oscar Valdambrini as soloists, he accompanied
American stars like Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan or Johnnie Ray. Already during
the 1950s Pocho Gatti frequently played at the “Bop Club Argentino” in Buenos
Aires with world reknowned musicians like Lalo Schifrin, “Chivo” Borraro or
Gato Barbieri. Later on he recorded with Giorgio Azzolini in Italy. At the end
of the 1960s his Milan Big Band, the “big orchestra Angel Pocho Gatti”,
belonged to the most famous European ensembles. Subsequent productions of the
1970s include prestigious work for Quincy Jones and collaborations with Gerry
Mulligan and Astor Piazzolla.
www.sonorama.de
Tracklisting:
01.
Possarinhos
02.
Tempo in tempo
03. Uma
vitamina faz favor
04.
Cachaca
05.
Violao em foco
06. Pao
de acucar
07.
Transmissao mutavel
08.
Cacador
09.
Lembranca do Santos
10.
Tecidos
11.
Terezinha meu amor
12.
Tranquilamente
13.
Alegria
14.
Meninas na praia
