MPB Jazz
Located in 2 routes
The jazz-inflected, harmonically advanced wing of MPB and Brazilian instrumental music: virtuoso musicianship, extended chords and improvisation applied to samba, baião, frevo and choro, in settings from solo piano to fusion band and orchestra. Textures range from intricate acoustic-piano-and-guitar to electric fusion; grooves draw on samba-jazz and Northeastern rhythms. The mood is sophisticated and exploratory, prizing composition and instrumental brilliance while retaining Brazilian melody and swing.
History
Brazilian jazz-MPB flowed from bossa nova and samba-jazz into the fertile instrumental scene of the late 1960s–70s, where composer-multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal and pianist-guitarist Egberto Gismonti built idiosyncratic bodies of work admired worldwide (Hermeto famously recorded with Miles Davis). Milton Nascimento and the Clube da Esquina, arranger-pianist César Camargo Mariano, guitarist Toninho Horta and songwriters Djavan and Ivan Lins wove jazz harmony deep into MPB, and singer Elis Regina brought that sophistication to a mass audience. The tradition remains central to Brazil's celebrated instrumental and jazz scenes.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Chris McGowan & Ricardo Pessanha, 'The Brazilian Sound'
- Down Beat, features on Hermeto Pascoal and Egberto Gismonti
- Charles A. Perrone, 'Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song'