Thursday, April 16, 2020

Rubinho Barsotti (1932-2020)

Unfortunately, we've lost another one of the greats.

Rubinho Barsotti was one of the master Brazilian drummers in the period when samba was first being played on the drum set.  As a founding member of Zimbo Trio, Rubinho was at the forefront of the samba-jazz sound.  The trio had a long and successful career on their own, but also backed big-name singers like Elis Regina.  Check out O Fino Do Fino.  Outside of Zimbo Trio Barsotti also played with American jazz masters such as Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz, Kenny Dorham, and more.

For some reason, his name doesn't seem to be thrown around as much as those of Edison Machado, Milton Banana, and Paulo Braga.  Perhaps (and hopefully) this is only true outside of Brazil.  I'm even a bit guilty of over-looking him myself.  Despite checking out a lot of Zimbo Trio records over the years, I've never transcribed any of Rubinho's playing or played along to his records.  As is often the case, these sad moments inspire us to get to work, so hopefully I'll have something for you soon.

In the meantime, check out any of the many great Zimbo Trio records.  Their self-titled 1964 debut is one of my personal faves.


2 comments:

  1. Fantastic post. I have never heard this. Such a different approach..

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  2. I love his explosive tom fills. He is really hitting those hard, yet the rest of his playing sounds very low dynamic. Never heard an approach quite like that before.

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