Sunny melodies, beats, noise, sounds & songs from Rob Mazurek (Chicago) and Mauricio Takara, Guilherme Granado, and Richard Ribeiro (São Paulo, Brazil).
"Cool blue cornet over a spellbinding collage of saturated textures, syncopated rhythms, and sundry electronics." —Time Out Top 10 jazz albums of 2011
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São Paulo Underground embodies a fascinating musical mixture of Sun Ra-esque cosmic noise and rhythms and phrasing from samba, maracatu, rock and free jazz traditions, launching Brazil's "Tropicalia" into a new, heavily electronic millennium. The group formed in Brazil around Rob Mazurek (cornet and electronics) and Maricio Takara (drums, percussion, cavaquinho, electronics). Two other Brazilians, Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics, samplers) and Richard Ribeiro (drums), subsequently joined the group. Mazurek is a key player in the Chicago scene whose work reflects a keen interest in modern, interesting music from both from the jazz and rock traditions and the founder of Exploding Star Orchestra and the Chicago Underground and a collaborator of Jim O'Rourke, Pharaoh Sanders, and many more, he spent several years living in Brazil and developing a music that reflected those experiences. Takara has been involved in the Brazilian music scene for many years, predominately on drums and percussion, but also as an electronic programmer, and occasionally on trumpet. He's collaborated with a vast range of local and world artists and toured Europe, the U.S., and India. He's released two solo records for the Brazilian labels Submarine & Slag Records, four with his six piece group Hurtmold and is currently working on a remix record of the 60's Brazilian samba-jazz saxophonist J.T. Meirelles with the group Instituto.
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