Solo Transcription - Edu Ribeiro, "Lamento"

As promised in an earlier post I've got some more Edu Ribeiro for you today.  His group, Trio Corrente, with pianist Fabio Torres, and bassist Paulo Paulelli, recently won the Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album with Song for Maura, which they recorded with legendary Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera.

But this tune, "Lamento", which is a classic Pixinguinha choro, comes from the group's first album, released almost 10 years ago.  Apparently they recorded the whole thing in one afternoon in Edu's practice space.  I first heard it back when I was just beginning to discover Brazilian jazz and was completely blown away.

Ribeiro has one of the fastest right hands you will ever see.  But that's certainly not to say that he's just some unmusical freak show.  The touch and subtlety with which he applies his burning 16th notes is second to none.  More importantly he is without a doubt one of the swingingest cats out there today.  He obviously has a very strong knowledge of the history of Brazilian jazz as you can clearly hear the influence of drummers like Milton Banana, Edison Machado, and Toninho Pinheiro in his playing.

I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, though, because this post isn't really about his groove playing, but rather his soloing.  One of the coolest things about Edu's solos on this record is that although you can certainly feel the Brazilian swing, they are not so idiomatic that you couldn't use them in many other musical settings.  Many of the phrases within these solos would work just as well if it were applied to an uptempo swing tune.

The band are trading here, hence the groupings of the systems, but as choro forms aren't as simple and rounded as many jazz standards, the length of each section varies.

Feel free to send me an e-mail if you'd like a PDF.