By the mid 70’s contemporary jazz was beginning to see the results of its move to accommodate a wider ‘pop’ audience. The musicians who would go on to blaze the long trail to today’s jazz - like Grover Washington, Jr., Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Freddie Hubbard and fusion stars like Chick Corea and Al DiMiola - were finally getting their due.
At the same time, Brazilian music was making another comeback with Sergio Mendes with his group ‘Brasil 77’ and a long list of disciples, including Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin, Dori Caymmi, Airto and Oscar Castro-Neves were finding their way into the recording studios to consummate this marriage of instrumental pop and Brazilian rhythms.
John Klemmer’s ‘Brazilia’ is one of the best to emerge from those heady days. At the time of this recording was still riding high on a string of successful records kicked off by his top selling ‘Touch’ and ‘Barefoot Ballet’ albums in 1975 and 1976. Klemmer’s style and approach to music pre-dated the terms ‘Smooth Jazz’ and ‘New Age’ by decades, but there is no denying that the two aforementioned albums both have earned secure places in the lineage of contemporary jazz.
Not to say that Klemmer lacks talent, imagination or chops – in fact, the Chicago-born saxophonist has more than ample access to all three and he uses them to great effect on this CD. The secret in Klemmer’s strength as a musician is in knowing how to reinvent the expected into something utterly (and pleasantly) surprising.
A quick glance at the lineup for this studio date reveals his understanding of both seasoned and young talent, too. The Brazilian contingent is particularly strong, no doubt influenced guitarist and arranger Oscar-Castro-Neves, who had recorded ‘Simpatico’, the stunning ‘live on the beach’ set a short year before these tracks were laid down.
‘Brazilia’ is filled with stunning beauty, Bossa jazz ballads like ‘Heartbreak’ and ‘Tender Storm’ are tropically evocative, placing Klemmer’s dreamy ‘drift away’ style in soft contrast to the samba drive of the title track. This is truly John Klemmer at his best, without resorting to the electric, echoing sax lines he used on the ‘Touch’ album four years earlier.
Castro-Neves is his usual, brilliant self here, and Dalto’s piano lines will stay with you forever, but its John Klemmer’s musical tapestry of jazz, strings and Brazilian rhythms that make this one of our favorite CDs of its day. Don’t be surprised when the music returns again and again to tap you on the shoulder – that’s the magic of ‘Brazilia’ even more than 25 years after the fact.
Other Vocies:
From the liner notes:
“BRAZILIA”
Hot sun and warm breezy evenings
relaxed lazy days with smooth syncopated
rhythms. Thought space to dream and love
smile and cry. Time to think of things
you’ll never do. Ocean breaths that rush
softly and strongly against sands of centuries.
Old men telling tales of wisdom and truth.
Joy and laughter with the community of
man in a carnival of freedom.Open blue
skies to fly with the birds.Exotic scents that
pull you into mind and body.
This is Brazilia. Geographically located
behind the eyes and between the ears.
It’s all in the way you see and feel it.
John Klemmer
1979
