Nanã Vasconcelos
Fragmentos

Modern traditions, sound fragments, voices and percussion of the man and his land, from the humid Amazonian forest to the dry "sertão" of the northeast. Nanã Vasconcelos, famous Brazilian percussionist from Recife, now transplanted to New York, already a collaborator of great American jazz musicians, master in the art of the berimbau, an instrument of African origin, a king in the "rode" of capoeira.

The voice that also becomes a primitive, percussive sound, placing itself well before the singing, sighs, insect flights, gargles. And yet, "congas", "caxixis", "maracas", "moringas" and his talking drum (percussion that is placed under the armpit and played with a curved stick. By increasing or decreasing the pressure of the strings attached to the skins, the sound register is changed). This instrument is an inseparable companion in the "Codona" trio.

Fragments are soundtracks, of short films and documentaries, including an Italian one "Amazonia il fiume del silenzio" directed by F. Lucariello and T. De Stefano.

Fragments placed with a certain continuity, homogeneous fragments. Only in the middle of the CD, a music to dance to, a forró* indeed, brings us back among modern men, as if to awaken us from the wonder of so much greenery, like a tourist village in the middle of the jungle, and then again resume the journey among the aborigines and the amazement of a wild mother nature.

*A typical rhythm of northeastern Brazil traditionally played with "zabumba" (a type of drum), triangle, and accordion. It is danced in pairs, and it's simpler than typical Caribbean dances. Consider it like our smooth dance with the difference that everyone dances it, not just couples over forty or young men looking for mature nymphomaniacs.