Fabiano do Nascimento - Dança dos Tempos (2015)

This is the debut album from thrilling young Brasilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento, featuring Airto Moreira.

Moreira, the bandleader, songwriter and producer who recorded a bevy of titles under his own name, with his wife Flora Purim, as a producer for acclaimed labels like Milestone, and who played with - seriously - nearly every musician worth mentioning from America or Brasil from the past 50 years plays percussion on the album and is joined by do Nascimento's long time drummer, Ricardo "Tiki" Pasillas on trap drums. Do Nascimento and Kana Shimanuki handle vocals on what is largely a sparse instrumental album that allows the guitarist's virtuosity to shine through, on originals, folkloric Brasilian songs, and select covers by the likes of Hermeto Pascoal and Baden Powell, both formative influences on this young guitarist.

These minimalist songs show the camaraderie these two Brasilian musicians - of two different generations, but of the same spirit - share with their likeminded comrades. They were recorded live in the studio with no overdub, straight to tape, and only sparingly mastered to let the air in the performance shine through.

We asked Airto about playing with Fabiano and he had this to say:

"Well, I’m playing with Fabiano because, I like it. He’s Brazilian but he’s from a place in Brazil that is not common. It’s way up the map. That kind of music; it’s more appealing to me than if I was playing with some normal guitar player just going (imitates noisy guitar sound), which is ok but you know (laughs)…

So he [Fabiano] asked me if I wanted to record and I said, “well yeah, send me something”. So he sent something to my house, then he came over and we played a little bit. Immediately I was like, ok, this is much more natural than what is happening today. Listen, I’m near dead. When the computers first started to make music, making music with computers, I was doing an interview in New York and I said, 'Well, we’re done man. We’re done as musicians. They (the computers) are going to do everything now, so the percussionists are just going to record on a machine and punch a button in the computer and that will be the sound.' Anybody can play anything now. And that happened and happens.

Fortunately, we still have some musicians who like to play music and who like to touch the instrument and who like that energy! You see, because that’s the most important thing in music. The energy. That’s why I love to play live. And that’s why I’m playing with Fabiano. Because it made me go, not back, but it made me think 'Ok, I know that! Its all ok (Laughs).