Though not well-known among American Brazilian music fans, despite being on the road for 20 years, guitarist/composer
Gui Mallon ought to gain a bigger following with the release of his eighth album -- his first on an American label. Here is one Brazilian who has something new to say in a vintage idiom, combining a 1960s bossa nova/samba sensibility, a sharp ear for good tunes, a flair for driving rhythm, and sophisticated third stream writing for strings and winds.
Mallon's energetic acoustic guitar work is complemented by a versatile ensemble that he formed when he was based in Sweden -- and this band has no trouble getting a rise out of the discerning audience at the 1999 Montreux Jazz Festival. The strings are in configurations of duos, quartets, and quintets; the winds are two flutes or two saxophones -- and these musicians are not mere window-dressing slathered onto the band as a sweetener. The string parts often interweave with the rhythms -- and the wind players, obviously well-versed in jazz, are given plenty of worthwhile solo time. The centerpiece of the disc is the multi-part "Brasil, Brazil Suite," a seamless, beautifully played, percolating progression of pieces that seem to take listeners through the vast green interior of the country. As the suite seems to settle into a rumbling cadenza for
Mallon's solo acoustic guitar, one that tells a complete short story in only a bit over a minute, the scene shifts abruptly as rapper Glauko Santos Lima jars listeners back to urban reality. Yes, there is a vital, inventive, Brazilian third stream route in the 21st century.