Astrud Gilberto: Brazilian Tapestry [1971]
from Gilberto with Turrentine
Featuring Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone. Arranged by Eumir Deodato, adapted from "Mulher Rendeira" (a traditional Brazilian melody?)
I want to rule another cut from this album and do more in-depth commentary later, but for now, enjoy this exhilirating sonic adventure, and note the breakneck triangle part and Deodato's 5-star arrangement.
Also, can any Portuguese speakers in our audience tell me what this song is about?
P.S. To J.S., who just left a comment re: Martin Rushent: Good call on Van Gelder -- he's the engineer on this one!
9 comments:
Happy you like 'Brazilian Tapestry". It's one of my all time favorite arrangements (not because I did it though)... The original title is "Mulher Rendeira" which means a woman who does "crochet" (erroneously translated as "Tapestry")... This is an old art very common in Northern Brazil in states like Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, etc... Most work is done in white color to please Yemanjá, the Macumba goddess of the seas. Pretty cool stuff...
Thanks very much for this info! Very interesting stuff. Still, "Brazilian Tapestry" probably sounds cooler as a title than "Brazilian Crochet". Speaking of the arrangement, how about those chromatic strings? They always have me shaking my head in disbelief...
Just chiming in re: Van Gelder. Just in case you didn't know (though likely you do) - he was the engineer on almost all the classic Blue Note recordings and many for other indie NY area jazz labels (Riverside, etc.). Do an allmusic.com search, and you won't believe your eyes. While you're there, check out Glyn Johns...Grab that crown off of Rushent's head!...:+)
js
www.myspace.com/jasonsteidman
Hey J, you know the Thelonious Monk tune "Hackensack"? I have a hunch that's inspired by Rudy's studio in Hackensack.
Looking forward to doing the Glyn Johns search and also John Leckie, whom I've never heard of.
But Martin is still the king for the unexpected Fleetwood Mac/Shirley Bassey/Stranglers trifecta...
Didn't Monk live in Hackensack for a while with his girlfriend? I think I remember seeing shots of him playing piano, and Manhattan is in the background, in Straight No Chaser.
That apartment could have inspired the song as well.
Re: Monk in Hackensack: quizas, quizas, quizas (perhaps perhaps perhaps). I could find the true answer very easily using the Internet but I'm not in the mood to now. BTW, that's rather disrespectful of you to call Nellie his "girlfriend." They were quite legally married! Unless you're not talking about Nellie...
>But Martin is still the king for >the unexpected Fleetwood >Mac/Shirley Bassey/Stranglers >trifecta...
Please look up Glyn Johns before you say that! :+) The guy's discog includes The Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles (he was the one who advised them that the country sound he heard them fooling with during a rehearsal was the sound they should be going for - they wanted to be a heavy rock band originally!), etc., etc. Later he was called in to mix the chaotic Combat Rock album, because The Clash were well aware of the history of British rock recording - it begins with Glyn Johns! :+) John Leckie is a whole other great story! De-crown Rushent! (He's good - but I know he'd step aside for Glyn Johns in a heartbeat!) 8P
js
www.myspace.com/jasonsteidman
js
Hackensack-First recorded on May 11, 1954 (Prestige PRLP 180), it was also the first day Monk recorded in Rudy Van Gelder’s famous studio in Hackensack, New Jersey (hence the title). “Hackensack” bears some resemblance to a Coleman Hawkins composition he must have played when he was with Hawk’s band, and an arrangement of “Lady Be Good” by Mary Lou Williams.
Emmett, you are right about Hackensack.
Here is what I was thinking of:
"Then, in 1973, he vanished again. There were rumors that he was ill and had been taken in by his old friend and mentor the Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter, who lives in a big house in Weehawken, New Jersey. The rumors turned out to be true, and this is what the Baroness had to say about Monk before he died. "No doctor has put his finger on what is wrong with him, and he has had every medical test under the sun. He's not unhappy, and his mind works very well. He knows what is going on in the world, and I don't know how, because he doesn't read the newspapers and he only watches a little telly. He's withdrawn, that's all. It's as though he had gone into retreat. He takes walks several times a week, and Nellie comes over from New York almost every day to cook for him. He began to withdraw in 1973, and he hasn't touched the piano since 1976. He has one twenty or thirty feet from his bed, so to speak, but he never goes near it. When Barry Harris visits, he practices on it, and he'll ask Monk what the correct changes to 'Ruby, My Dear' are, and Monk will tell him. Charlie Rouse, his old tenor saxophonist, came to see him on his birthday the other day, but Monk isn't really interested in seeing anyone. The strange thing is he looks beautiful. He has never said that he won't play the piano again. He suddenly went into this, so maybe he'll suddenly come out.""
This, from Roger Ebert's review of Straight No Chaser... The only film that has anything to do with Clint Eastwood and is worth seeing. (My opinion, not Ebert's.)
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19891208/REVIEWS/912080302/1023
"and Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter, who appeared in Monk's life at about the time his wife was near exhaustion with the effort of dealing with him and seems to have shared both the effort and the man with her."
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