Good Morning Samba Nation!
Today we travel to Brazil to experience the transcendental allure of the bossa nova. It’s all about the mix of gentle groove with rich harmonic content and truth be told, it’s probably better just to let go of the details. Instead, flow into the beauty of Jobim, one of the giants of Brazilian music.
We’ve been playing Antonio Carlos Jobim’s music for most of our musical life but it’s finally up to now that we set out to go full on Jobim. Today we have arrived with a new album release.
“Estrada Do Sol,” road to the sun, is our path to the enlightened music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. My dad had Jobim’s bossa nova on the turntable and as a kid, even in the trenches with rock music, Jobim’s music touched me deeply. There’s something magic about the rhythm of samba coupled with the harmonic wealth of jazz that seduces the ear and makes us live upgraded lives. Listen to “Corcovado” and tell me there isn’t divine beauty hovering in the air waves.
For this album we explore the full spectrum of Antonio’s vast wealth of songs including, “Agua De Beber,” “Waters of March,” “Girl From Ipanema,” “Desifinado,” “One Note Samba,” and the list keeps on going. I’ve even put together a mega medley that touches down to various gorgeous locales of Jobim – dom. Almost hilarious!
The “Estrada do Sol” streaming release is available at these fine outlets:
Spotify
Apple Music
PS Online Store
Today’s vid release also coincides with our album release and it’s the one and only “The Girl From Ipanema.”
It’s one of the most iconic bossa nova tunes and as a kid I listened nonstop with my dad to the Stan Getz version of the song. I was transported then and still am now. Jobim rules the airwaves!
For our version we first sonic travel through a bunch of different Jobim themes until we arrive at the beach at Ipanema and that’s where we finally meet the “girl.” She’s as magical as Brazilian lore professes.
Good news, we’ve got a livestream concert planned for March 6th and it’s been awhile since we rounded up the posse and fired up the cameras. The angle on this show is brand new compositions by each of the band members and each of the songs has some AI component connected to it. That could be an AI generated lyric of which the composer writes the music. Or maybe AI comes up with the song title. We’re thinking that AI could come up with a drum extravaganza that Duncan interacts with and I’ve got a new song that I’m going to have AI help with the lyrics and also come up with a song of it’s own with those very same lyrics. Next we’ll listen to both versions of the song and see who likes which version the most. We real humans could very well loose on the deal.
Super fun and we hope you can join us!
That’s it folks and as Jobim once sang, “when she walks, she’s like a samba, that swings so cool and sways so gentle”…
all best, Peter