Canadian instrumental group salutes 50th anniversary of Clube da Esquina
Montreal’s Trio Bruxo have devoted the past decade to their pursuit of Brazilian instrumental music. Comprised of three of the city’s most in-demand musicians – pianist David Ryshpan, bassist Nicolas Bédard and drummer Mark Nelson – they have explored the breadth of Brazilian repertoire from lesser-known bossa novas to contemporary popular music. For the first time, they turn their attention to the state of Minas Gerais and its brilliant cohort of composers, including Milton Nascimento and Toninho Horta.
While the band has long included Milton Nascimento songs in their repertoire, they had never explicitly focused on the aesthetic of 1972’s Clube da Esquina, with its mix of psychedelia with folkloric and religious music from the region. Pianist and composer David Ryshpan found himself revisiting Nascimento’s discography throughout 2020, as well as his formative jazz and R&B influences.
This music was developed during a November 2020 residency at l’Entrepôt Lachine, part of Montreal’s Accès Culture network, and funded by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. The results are being released as a series of EPs on Ropeadope starting in April 2022. The band spent five days in the theater, workshopping covers from Nascimento, Lô Borges, Toninho Horta and Heitor Villa-Lobos, as well as their original music inspired from these sources. Ryshpan summarizes the music this way:
Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges were in their late twenties/early thirties when they recorded Clube da Esquina, and the influence of the Beatles and Miles Davis are incredibly evident. I kept thinking, what would happen if we kept the
melodic and harmonic language of these composers, but framed it with the R&B
contemporary jazz elements that are so important to our generation?
Ryshpan, Bédard and Nelson embraced the hip-hop and neo-soul sounds of Robert Glasper and RH Factor in their arrangements of Nascimento’s “Nada sera como antes” and Horta’s “Viver do amor.” Their extensive jazz backgrounds come to bear in Nelson’s “Reunion” and Ryshpan’s “Folhas de corvos” – the latter, a re-imagining of Toninho Horta’s “Vôo dos urubus.” The band hews closer to the original melodies of Villa-Lobos’ “Caíco” and the classic Clube da Esquina ballad, “Um girassol da cor do seu cabelo.”
Trio Bruxo have established themselves as one of Canada’s leading ensembles of Brazilian music. They have collaborated with São Paulo superstar Rael, guitarist/mandolinist Rodrigo Simões, and singer-songwriter Rômmel Ribeiro. Outside of Trio Bruxo, Ryshpan has toured and recorded with a multitude of Brazilian artists including Jorge Ben Jor, Dadi Carvalho, Cézar Mendes and Lara Klaus. Their 2019 album, A bandeira do bruxo (The Sorcerer’s Flag), was anchored in music from Northeastern Brazil as transformed by Hermeto Pascoal and Egberto Gismonti.
credits
released March 11, 2022
David Ryshpan – piano/keyboards
Nicolas Bédard – electric bass
Mark Nelson – drums
Recorded at Planet Studios, Montreal, Québec, Canada by Jacob Lacroix-Cardinal
Mixed by Jacob Lacroix-Cardinal
Mastered by Jon Kaspy
All photos by Evan Shay @evanshayphoto
The creation of this work was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. Special thanks to Réseau Accès Culture and l’Entrepôt Lachine.
Montreal’s Trio Bruxo have devoted the past decade to their pursuit of Brazilian instrumental music. Comprised of three of
the city’s most in-demand musicians – pianist David Ryshpan, bassist Nicolas Bédard and drummer Mark Nelson – they have explored the breadth of Brazilian repertoire from lesser-known bossa novas to contemporary popular music....more
Love the whole vibe of this child of the pandemic, a tale from two cities...The compositions run the the range of emotion and culture, the playing is in the moment, the production brings it all together.
For the shoutout to the pandemic, "Lockdown" is stellar. dgcirkus