The
reception for Primavera - the first album by the duo of vocalist Sara Serpa and
guitarist André Matos - was rapturous, with reviews for the 2014 release using
such apt descriptors as "enchanting" (The New Yorker),
"breathtaking" (JazzTimes) and "spellbinding" (All About
Jazz). The New York Times praised Primavera at length, calling the album
"calmly stunning" while adding that the pair's music
"capitalizes on their many affinities: as limber improvisers, as
thoughtful composers, as selfless ensemble players, and as internationalists
hailing originally from Portugal (by way of Boston and New York)Š Primavera is
gemlike in its beauty and precision." Now, Serpa & Matos present their
second duo album, the gorgeous All the Dreams, to be released September 16,
2016, via Sunnyside Records.
As with
Primavera - which All About Jazz lauded for being "sonically
lustrous," with an "intricate melodic sense" - the new All the Dreams
glimmers with luminous melodicism and magical atmosphere, the music again
casting a spell. The sound of All the Dreams mixes the organic and the
electronic seamlessly, with Serpa and Matos playing multiple acoustic and
electric instruments along with using the studio as an instrument; several
tracks also feature Billy Mintz on drums and Pete Rende on ambient,
Eno/Budd-like synthesizers. Along with Serpa's signature wordless vocalese and
the duo's own lyrics, there are songs that draw on words of great poets, both
Portuguese and English. Atmosphere and image, poetry and melody - this is the
stuff of which All the Dreams is made.
The title of
the album comes from its lovely song "Nada," which features
universalist lines by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (via his heteronym
Álvaro de Campos): "I am nothing, I shall never be anything / I cannot
even wish to be anything. / Despite all that, I have within me all the dreams
of the world." The title phrase also appears in the poetry of Walt Whitman,
a key influence on Pessoa: "I dream in my dream all the dreams of the
other dreamers / And I become the other dreamers." These words mirror the
feelings of creative reverie Serpa and Matos had while composing the music for
the album. The singer says: "We felt that this music was making us dream
and disconnect somehow from the reality of the outside world - and that seemed
to be a positive feeling. For us, to be able to work in this dreamlike state of
mind is fundamental to staying creative and happy."
About the
leap from Primavera to the even more accomplished All the Dreams, Matos says:
"Primavera planted a seed for us. Our duo identity developed throughout
the making of that first album, and with the new one, we knew more about how to
use the studio to our advantage. We wanted to pay even more attention to detail
- sound, texture, words. We didn't hesitate to depart from a 'duo sound' and do
whatever it took to get the right feel for each song, whether through sonically
multiplying ourselves or developing the sounds we produced. The mixing and
post-production process was more intensive this time, and we did things like
reverse the vocals on 'amlaC.' Pete Rende played such an important role in
this, not only adding synthesizers to a few tracks but mixing the album, too.
It's hard to imagine the album without his contribution."
As for the
contribution of veteran drummer Billy Mintz, Matos adds: "We met Billy a
few years ago, and he has become an important musician for me. He was
super-meticulous in the studio, and the results are amazing, like pure gold.
His dedication to music is inspiring, and his playing gives the record a nice
contour. With Billy, there's a search for a primal beat, playing almost like a
child in the sense of being free. But at the same, he has all this knowledge
and experience to apply. He is a master."
Serpa and
Matos make for a kindred-spirit duo, even beyond being husband and wife. Her
fresh, subtly virtuosic singing blends beautifully with his gleaming, flowing
guitar playing. "We do complement each other as performers easily, with
most of the songs being reducible to just voice and guitar," Matos says.
"In the studio, we're able to guide each other to the best performances
possible, with sometimes even the best arrangements coming after the first
take. Our tunes tend to have slightly different vibes, with Sara's a bit more
intricate and mine less dense, simpler. It creates a nice balance, we
hope."
In addition
to those of Pessoa/Campos, the songs of All the Dreams include words by his
fellow Portuguese writer Luis Amaro, Brazilian poet Clarice Lispector and the
great Englishman William Blake, as well as lyrics by Serpa and Matos. There are
songs about night, dreams and the imagination, about accepting sadness and
offering forgiveness, about identity and empathy, about love and memory. Even
the songs without words impart a sense of mystery and romance, with Serpa
singing vocalese on such gems as the opening "Calma." One of the
album's other, lyrical highlights is "Lisboa," Serpa's tune-rich
paean to the ancient capital of Portugal. "The words stem from something a
taxi driver once told me about Lisbon having 14,000 streets, alleys and
staircases - and all those reflecting so many memories, for me, for everyone
who has lived there," Serpa says. "Because I live in America now, the
city is distant from me, but somehow it remains so close to my heart. Every
time I return to Lisbon, the memories come flooding back, the sense of place
and time so strong. And music can evoke feelings of time and place - of memory
- like little else in art."
JazzTimes
has called Serpa "a rising star," while All About Jazz has said:
"Her unique style of vocalese allows her to utilize the full range of her
exquisite and clear voice with the agility of an instrumentalist, standing out
of the crowd as a sublime interpreter and a bold improviser." The New York
Times has described Matos as a guitarist who "advances a pointedly
contemporary air." Both born and bred in Portugal but based in New York
City for nearly a decade, Serpa and Matos met through music in Boston, where
they both studied at the Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory.
Serpa and
Matos each have long associations with some of the most important musicians in
jazz. Serpa studied with iconic pianist Ran Blake, with whom she has recorded
two albums, Camera Obscura (2010) and Kitano Noir (2015). Serpa joined
saxophonist Greg Osby's band right out of school in 2008, performing with the
group at such hallowed venues as the Village Vanguard and contributing to his
album 9 Levels. Osby's Inner Circle Music label also released Serpa's debut
album as a leader, Praia (2008), and her quintet album Mobile (2011), along
with Camera Obscura. Inner Circle released Matos's third album, Quare (2010),
and Osby also contributed sax to their duo debut, Primavera. Individually and
together, Serpa and Matos have performed with such prominent musicians as John
Zorn, Danilo Perez, Guillermo Klein, Tyshawn Sorey, Dan Weiss, Leo Genovese and
Thomas Morgan, among others. Beyond their duo together, Serpa leads such
projects as her vocal group City Fragments, while Matos leads a trio featuring
saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Billy Mintz.
Sara Serpa
& André Matos: All the Dreams
1. "Calma"
(Matos)
2. "A
La Montagne" (Serpa)
3.
"Estado De Graça" (Matos)
4.
"Story Of A Horse" (Matos)
5.
"Programa" (Serpa/Amaro)
6.
"Água" (Matos)
7.
"Nada" (Matos/Campos)
8.
"Night" (Matos/Blake)
9.
"Hino" (Matos)
10.
"Lisboa" (Serpa)
11.
"Espelho" (Matos)
12. "Os
Outros" (Serpa/Lispector)
13.
"Postlude" (Matos)
14.
"amlaC" (Matos/Rende)
Sara Serpa:
voice, piano (5, 9, 10), Fender Rhodes (4, 7)
André Matos:
guitar, electric bass (1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11), percussion (11)
Pete Rende:
synthesizer (1, 4, 14)
Billy Mintz:
drums and percussion (1, 3, 6, 10)
Produced by
Sara Serpa & André Matos
Recorded at
The Bunker Studio (Todd and Andy), Estúdios Valentim de Carvalho (by Nélson
Carvalho) and Eastside Sound (Marc Urselli); mixed by Pete Rende; mastered by
Nate Wood
