|
 Smokey
and Miho performed selections
from Baden Powell's 1965 Brazilian classic "Os Afro Sambas".
The show was Sunday, Dec. 17, 2000 in New York City at Tonic. Smokey
Hormel has worked as a guitarist with Beck, Tom Waits, worked on
the soundtrack for Twin Peaks, and worked with many of the usual
suspects. Miho is "Miho on vocals. " Sebastian
Steinberg was on bass, Stephen Hodges lent his hands to percussion,
and other special guests showed up. Of course Yuka was on hand as
one of those special guests.
Baden
Powell is a famous Brazilian
guitarist. He became well known during Brazil's classic bossa nova
era. Bossa
nova music has it's roots
in Brazil's more traditional samba style of music. Brazilian musicians
in the late 1950's began to let jazz music influence their samba
music. By the early 1960's, musicians such as Balden Powell lead
this musical movement. His music was some of the first bossa nova
music to feature improvisational jazz in his performances. His bold
use of
flamenco guitar passages,
combined with gripping classical arrangements set him apart from
the more well known guitarists of the time.
Baden
Powell took a trip to Bahia
In 1964. This trip had a very strong creative influence on
Baden. He was absorbed by the intoxicating mix of the African and
Brazilian cultures. It was after this trip that he recorded
Os Afro Sambas. Lyrics for the songs on the album were penned
by Vinícius de Moraes. Vinícius
is best known for writing the lyrics to the song, "The Girl
from Ipanema". The musical album, Os Afro Sambas,
was released
in 1966. This album further set Baden apart from other music of
the time, by having a heavy beat laid underneath the samba, jazz,
and bossa nova melodies. Powell
and Moraes
named this new style of heavy
percussion samba
music "Afro Samba".
In
1991, Baden recreated the record to take advantage of improvements
in recorded sound quality made possible by the modern recording
industry. The album from the 1966 release is very rare, and hard
to find. Of course, Smokey and Miho used the 1966 version of the
songs for their own musical model. The
authentic essence can be heard in this earlier recording, that was
made while Baden was still under the creative influence of his travels
in Bahia.
Below
are some of Miho's comments from the Cibo Matto Message Board at
cibomatto.com:
 "A
couple years ago, I got a tape of the album, Os Afro Sambas de Baden
Powell and Vinicius de Moraes from Smokey. I immediately fell in
love with the music. Something strong feeling. And this year Baden
Powell died. After that, Smokey and I started to learn his songs,
so that we can share the music. "
"I think Baden Powell is an amazing composer and guitarist.
He is not known here that much. Also the album,Os Afro Sambas (the
original version) is super hard to find. It's so wrong..."
"I always feel when I listen to the album that his music transcends
time, space, language and nationality. I want to share that magic.
This album is genius because it speaks on many levels. Musicians
can appreciate how elegant and sophisticated it is, and non-musicians
can move their booties to the rhythm. I like it for both."
miho
2000
Click
for More
Click
to subscribe to osafrosambas
Members
Click Here
|
