Listening to Viva Nana on Brazilian jazz pianist Amaro Freitas’ new album Y’Y, you can immediately hear the influence of percussionist Naná Vasconcelos, who died in 2016 at the age of 71. The song seems heavily inspired by Naná’s Um Dia No Amazonas from the 1995 album Storytelling, with the same atmosphere and timbres evoking the spiritual world of the Amazon.
Viva Nana is Amaro Freitas’ tribute to the legend, both hailing from Recife, Brazil.
Naná Vasconcelos saw a percussionist not only as a rhythm maker, but as someone who works with colors and timbres and uses a lot of space. A percussionist must be able to respond to emotion, he said. Even silence can be percussion. Percussion is an emotional activity. That’s how Amaro Freitas created his new album Y’Y, with the same attention to color and sound as a percussionist.
Y’Y is very different from his previous albums, Sangue Negro, Rasif and Sankofa, which were trio albums. Y’Y is a solo album where Amaro Freitas plays piano for the most part and he’s invited guests to play on some of the tracks, namely Hamid Drake, Shabaka Hutchings, Jeff Parker, Aniel Someillan and Brandee Younger. He also uses the capabilities of the prepared piano more than before.
Because Brazil has a generally warm climate, Freitas wanted to combine the prepared piano with the tropical culture of Brazil, with the fast-paced polyrhythms and swing of samba and maracatu.
Amaro Freitas Press Photo by Micael Hocherman
In 2020, Amaro Freitas traveled to the Amazon and the city of Manaus, 2,500 kilometers west of his home in the coastal city of Recife, where he gave a concert at the historic Teatro Amazonas. His experiences in this unfamiliar part of Brazil inspired him to explore a new musical landscape. This landscape is rooted in the spirituality and stewardship of the earth as practiced by, among others, the Sateré-Mawé community he visited, the indigenous people who gave the world guaraná, an energizing fruit. Freitas sees Y’Y (pronounced eey-eh, eey-eh) as “a tribute to the Amazon forest and rivers of northern Brazil: a call to live, feel, respect and care for nature, which we recognize as our mother.”
In Uiara (Encantada da Água) – Vida e cura, Freitas pays tribute to nature with crisp piano strokes like shimmering drops of water on green leaves. Uiara, also known as Iara, Yara, Hiara or Mãe das Águas (“Mother of the Waters”), is a figure from Amazonian mythology. She is considered to be a water nymph who lives in the Amazonian waters. In the song, Freitas uses an e-bow to evoke sounds like those of the boto, the pink river dolphin often associated with Uiara.
Amaro Freitas also introduces Mapinguari, another mythical figure from traditional folklore. According to the stories, Mapinguari transformed from a human shaman into a hairy, humanoid cyclops with a gaping mouth on his belly and his feet turned backwards. He smashes tree trunks with a club to warn animals of hunters. His disgust for the destroyers of nature is so great that he leads people astray with his backward steps, straight to a 30-meter-long boa that devours the unfortunate. In Mapinguari (Encantado da Mata), this defender of the Amazon manifests himself with ominous sounds as an evil spirit roaming the forest in search of prey on which to vent his rage.
Encontro das Águas – Meeting of the Waters
In Amazônia, Amaro Freitas observed the confluence of the black water Rio Negro with the muddy, yellow-white waters of the Rio Solimões (Amazon), called Encontro das Águas (English: “Meeting of the Waters”). Both rivers have their own unique ecosystems and flow together for miles without mixing. The pianist was very impressed by this unique natural phenomenon.
On the title track, Y’Y, which features Shabaka Hutchings on flute, Freitas attempts to translate the ancestral power of the meeting of these mighty waters into two opposing movements. In each, there are echoes of ancient chants of the past, but also promises of hope for the future.
In Mar de Cirandeiras, the pianist transports the listener to the traditions of his native Pernambuco with warm and sunny sounds. The ciranda is a traditional dance in which people move hand in hand in a circle. Freitas describes Mar de Cirandeiras as “an impression of experiencing a ciranda on the beach, in Tamaracá, in Recife Antigo”, It is a tribute to the sea and to a dance form in which everyone is equal.
Amaro Freitas calls his music “decolonized Brazilian jazz”. In the dazzling Dança dos Martelos (“Dance of the Hammers”), he reaches back to his African origins, using seeds from the Amazon to infuse the sound of his piano with upbeat tropical rhythms. In Sonho Ancestral, the metallic tongues of the African m’bira (thumb piano) thrill the listener.
Amaro Freitas comes from the same Brazilian tradition as Naná Vasconcelos, often considered the best percussionist in the world during his lifetime. Vasconcelos found inspiration in nature, indigenous peoples, and Africa for his groundbreaking albums Amazonas and Africadeus. With Y’Y, Amaro Freitas adds a third title to this legacy. He emerges as a worthy successor to the legendary percussionist and the voice of a new generation that needs to be heard.
Amaro Freitas – Y’Y
Psychic Hotline
Concert Amaro Freitas Trio
North Sea Jazz – Friday July 12
Line-up: Amaro Freitas (piano); Aniel Someillan (double bass); François Morin (drums)
