Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

Courtesy of Contrarede

Japan is no stranger to the music of Brazil, be it bossa nova, pop or jazz. And as albino jazz giant Hermeto Pascoal prepares to head here, the locals are about to reacquaint themselves with a man whose career in some ways encompasses the entire arc of Brazilian music over the last half-century.

Pascoal arrives for the latest installment of the newly revived Organic Groove series, which brought him to Japan for two unusual concerts over the past decade. The first introduced audiences to the musician’s crazed virtuosity in an open-air festival at the Yomiuriland amusement park in 2002. Two years later, he paired with Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista for an intimate master class in improvisation at Unit in Daikanyama.

Now, at 73, the bearded native of Olho d´Água in the remote Brazilian heartland returns with his seven-member Grupo for a weekend of concerts at the new Pleasure Pleasure venue next to Shibuya 109. The shows will also feature his wife and musical partner, Aline Morena.

Pascoal is best remembered internationally for his early-’70s sessions with jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (Davis termed him “the most impressive musician in the world”), by which time he was already being called “O Bruxo” (The Sorcerer) in Brazil. In the ’60s, Pascoal and musicians like percussionist Airto Moreira (also a Davis alum) had defined the direction of post-bossa nova jazz with their Quarteto Novo, which aligned Brazil with the budding free jazz movement.

Since the ’70s, Pascoal has been a regular of the international jazz circuit, headlining events like the marquee Montreux Jazz Festival. A virtuoso pianist, he also plays the accordion and flute, but it’s his use of unconventional objects that make him stand out from other musicians.

One popular YouTube video, for example, shows Pascoal directing his Grupo in a style he calls “Musica da Lagoa” as they sit at the base of a waterfall, presumably in the Brazilian countryside. They create complex rhythms and harmonies with the simple use of water-filled glasses, while Pascoal solos on a flute that emits unearthly sounds as he lunges in and out of the water.

Contacted by email, Pascoal said he would be bringing instruments to Tokyo including the “keyboards, kettle, bull’s horn, melodica, eight bass accordion [and] water glass.” He replied that he wasn’t overly concerned that the destruction of the environment would rob the world of potential musical instruments, because “everything is music. I play with everything. It does not matter how the world is: if there is a world, there is music.”

Touching on just a few of the musical genres he’s been involved with, Pascoal attempted to describe his efforts to integrate them in a new way. “Jazz, classical music, bossa nova and choro are acclaimed genres, but they are passé,” he said. “Now it’s time to mix, to restore these styles in a new way. Now it’s time for a universal music that puts styles together without prejudice but with good taste!”

Pascoal will be bringing his Grupo to Tokyo, but elsewhere he performs solo, conducts symphony orchestras, and presides over an ensemble called Festa dos Deuses (“Party of the Gods”). “Each musical formation of mine is different: the instrumentation, repertoire, arrangements… and I love all of them,” he says. “The Grupo we call [the] ‘Mother Ship’ because it was from there that the other formations of mine sprang forth.”

Making her second visit to Japan with Pascoal, Morena will be central to the concerts. Pascoal discovered the effervescent singer at a workshop in 2002, and the pair have since been joined at the hip. In addition to her voice, Morena plays ten-string guitar and “body percussion” on her and Pascoal’s new CD, Bodas de Latao (lit., “Marriage of Brass”), which Pascoal explains is the name for a couple’s seventh anniversary.

Created by music producer Taichi Komatsubara in 1999, Organic Groove introduced the jam band and improv scenes to Japan, giving the country its first taste of artists like Medeski Martin & Wood before financial troubles forced Komatsubara to halt the series (and leave his apartment) in 2006. The producer recently hooked up with offbeat label/promoter Contrarede to restart the concerts and release the records of artists that perform in them.

Hermeto Pascoal
Veteran Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. June 26, 7pm & 9:30pm; June 27, 6pm & 8:30pm, ¥6,800 (adv)/¥7,500 (door). Pleasure Pleasure, Shibuya. Tel: Contrarede 03-5773-5061.