Enéas Costa is a real mystery as best as I can tell. His discography is impressive, having recorded with the likes of Gal Costa, Chico Buarque, Edu Lobo, and Caetano Veloso. But I've never been able to find out much else about him; where he is/was from, whether he's still alive, nothing. The only thing I've ever found is one picture which supposedly shows him playing with the great saxophonist J.T. Mereilles, and bassist Luizão Maia, who played with Elis Regina for many years.
But we can certainly hear a lot of him, because his name appears on many an album credit. In addition to the names above, Costa also did considerable work with Maria Bethânia. Here he is playing the standard "Sonho Meu", from Bethânia's album Álibi. This recording also features Gal Costa on vocals, Rosinha de Valença on guitar and cavaquinho, the aforementioned Luizão Maia on bass, and a young Tutty Moreno on percussion.
I've done a traditional note-for-note transcription, but below that is a simplified version, which just shows the comping pattern, which is the real sauce of the phrasing and what we're likely most interested in gleaning from a transcription of this nature. You can then play along with the recording with brushes, a tamborim, whatever you like, really.
In re-listening to Samba Meu for the repique de anel arrangement in the last post I was also reminded of the fantastic playing by the two drummers on the record Camilo Mariano and Cuca Teixera.
The transcription below is of Cuca. You can clearly see/hear his style on this tune just as you can in the transcription of “Recado” that I did way back when. I love the interplay between the rim click and hi-hat. I’ve got a post in the works for further developing that sound, so hopefully I’ll get that up soon. In the meantime….
Continuing on with more repique de anel, here is some modern playing, this time by Nene Brown with Maria Rita.
This track comes from Rita's 2007 album Samba Meu, which is basically how I learned to play pandeiro. The album came out right at the same time I bought my first pandeiro. I listened to it over and over and over again, and tried (and initially failed) to play along to the record. At first I couldn't even make it through a single tune, but with practice I could get through the slower songs, then the faster ones, and eventually I could play the whole album top to bottom with no break, which was incredibly satisfying. So as this record was so influential in my pandeiro development I thought I'd revisit it to try to find some repique material.
As mentioned earlier, Nene demonstrates some more modern language that we don't hear in the earliest Dotô recordings. There are some different rhythmic ideas, and he also presses the head for higher pitched sounds, which I notated that with dots above the notes.
Even if you're not interested in playing repique de anel, there's some great material here that you can develop for the drumset or other instruments. Or even just listen and follow along for a better understanding of some of the phrasing that happens in samba.
The same teacher that introduced me to Andy Kravtiz in the previous post also introduced me to Squarepusher around the same. This stuff blew my mind. I had friends who were really into acid house, techno, and happy hardcore, but that sound always seemed cheesy and boring to me. As electronic music went, though, I could fully appreciate what Squarepusher was doing and enjoyed other artists in the drum 'n' bass/IDM/big beat scenes.
The first album I picked up was Feed Me Weird Things, the opening track "Squarepusher Theme" being a personal favorite of mine then and now.
I transcribed some of it 10 or 15 years ago, but it was a real slog, and when the laptop which stored the not backed up transcription was stolen I didn't have the heart or patience to start it again.
But recently I was checking out a later Squarepusher release called Ultravisitor and decided to write out some of the playing from the tune "Iambic 9 Poetry". Squarepusher, real name Tom Jenkinson, is not only a DJ/producer but also an excellent bassist, with most of his bass lines being played live.
Jenkinson also plays drums and I believe is the one playing them on "Iambic 9 Poetry". With Squarepusher's material it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between what is played live and what is programmed. It's even more difficult on this tune and all of Ultravisitor as he used clips from live performances in the creation of this studio album. The drums on this particular tune sound pretty live to me until about the halfway point where it sounds like the might be some programming or effects going on.
Either way, it's a cool groove on a cool tune, so here is what I'm pretty sure is Tom Jenkinson playing drums on "Iambic 9 Poetry". The first line repeats pretty much the same from 0:55 to about 2:10 where the second line starts and continues until in becomes basically untranscribable around 3:22.
This is one of the first solos that taught me about subtlety.
In high school, my private teacher at the time suggested I check out Joan Osborne's album Relish. I was skeptical because as a hard rock loving teenager I thought "One of Us", the hit single from that album, was stupid. But, as he had yet to lead me astray, I nonetheless used my allowance money to pick up a copy of the album which I found was indeed very good.
One of the main reasons he suggested the album was because one or two tunes feature Omar Hakim, and the rest of the album has drummer/producer Andy Kravitz behind the kit. Kravitz has worked with a wide array of artists that you'll especially remember from the 90s like Juliana Hatfield, Cypress Hill, Spearhead, and Urge Overkill, as well as with bigger names like Billy Joel and The Rolling Stones.
Another one of the singles from Relish, "St. Teresa" has an understated solo at the end. I still remember thinking how crazy it was that he wasn't playing all that many notes but it was still really cool. The bass drum and rim click were coming in unexpected places to great effect.
This popped into my head the other day, so I put it on and realized I still remembered the solo note for note, so I figured I'd quickly jot it down and share it with you. Solo starts around 4:30.
This is a very cool groove that I've been enjoying for many years and have been meaning to write about for almost as long. I'm pretty sure it was developed by Hamilton de Holanda.
I first heard it in 2007 when I went to Brazil and picked up the first album by de Holanda's now famous quintet. The album is called Brasilianos, and the groove came up in the song "Pra Sempre". It only appears for a few bars at a time at the end of the first A section. You'll find it in the melody at 0:16 and 0:58, and many more times throughout the solos and out head. Marcio Bahia is on drums.
Two years later, in 2009, de Holanda's quintet released a new album, called Brasilianos 2, and the same rhythm was on a very beautiful, and very funky tune called "Tamanduá". Within the first few bars I recognized it as "that cool groove from 'Pra Sempre'". Except this time an entire piece had been composed around it. Again, Marcio Bahia is on drums, and he includes a few different variations on the groove.
Bahia orchestrates it a few different ways in this live version as well.
So what's going on here? The answer is actually right in front of us, though cleverly hidden. It didn't jump out to me until I saw Hamilton de Holanda's own chart for "Tamanduá". Beneath the title the style marking said "Samba Invertido", which translates "inverted samba", and it smacked me in the face.
If you keep up with my regular postings on samba and Brazilian music, you might already know that a common telecoteco rhythm looks like this:
This rhythm is directional, meaning that depending on the composition it could be played as you see it above, or the two bars can be swapped so the cycle starts on beat one of the second bar.
But, if we start on beat two of the second bar (or "invert" it), we end up with this:
Which just so happens to be exactly what is being played in the examples above. "Tamanduá" adds an additional layer of disorientation by starting on a pick up note, like so:
Edu Ribeiro has played this groove a few times as well, putting his own subtle spin on it. The first was in 2011 when, Jota P., a sax/flute player from Hermeto Pascoal's band released a self-titled solo album. The track "Que Fase!" features the groove.
And finally, in 2019, Hamilton de Holanda released a record with a new quartet featuring guitarist Daniel Santiago from his quintet, Thiago Espírito Santo on bass (son of Arismar do Espírito Santo, and occasional sub in the HH quintet), and Edu Ribeiro on drums. The album, Harmonize, is one of de Holanda's finest in my opinion, and features a new rendition of "Tamanduá".
This groove is quite a specific thing, so I wouldn't recommend dropping it willy-nilly into your next bossa gig. But it presents it's own challenges that are a lot of fun to work though and might give you some new creative ideas.
This is one I've been meaning to do for a long time. Years, really. I remember the first time I saw this video in college, and was struck by a few things. For one, I don't know that I had seen a left-handed jazz drummer before then. Also, the band seemed like an unlikely bunch. For one, I was surprised not to see Max Roach on drums, and two the bassist, who is named Sandy Block, seemed kind of old for that crew. And the pianist is Dick Hyman, who was also a host of the television show that this performance was on.
The drummer is Charlie Smith. His name isn't thrown around as often as the likes of Kenny Clarke or Max Roack, but he had an enviable career working for the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Erroll Garner, Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, and more.
I love Charlie's feel on this tune, and the minimal set up with the jumbo bass drum.
Following on from the first Gaylord Birch post the other day, here is a live version of the same tune where he gets more of a feature. This is my kind of drum solo. Just a kick-ass groove that everyone can still dance to with some bells and whistles thrown in for pizzazz. I love the way that old kit shakes as he plays the living crap out of it, and that backhanded crash at 3:22 gets me every time.
Solo starts around 3:02, but you should just listen to the whole thing
This one has been in the drafts folder for a loooong time.
I remember the girl across the street from me growing up and her parents were big fans of the Pointer Sisters. Then a few years ago I was reminded of them when this tune came on the radio very late one night as I was driving home from a gig. I checked out the record the next day, read up on the drummer, Gaylord Birch, who I wasn't really familiar with, and made a note to transcribe that cool breakdown.
Fast forward a few years and my buddy from college, Steve Bidwell, posted about Gaylord on his blog, which reminded my that I had never finished this post. Long story short, here we are. Gaylord is killer, there's a cool transcription below, and you should also check out Steve's blog.
Well, folks, this is what it's come to. Levels of boredom and frustration so high that when someone posts a video on YouTube entitled "Broken air con that plays a jazz drum solo!!" you think to yourself, "Hey, maybe I'll transcribe that!"....and then you actually do it. So, for your Saturday evening pleasure, I give you, Snare Conditioner.
So, I finally got around to that Rubinho transcription I promised ages ago, and it turned out to be a nice intro to playing samba in odd meters, something we've yet to cover on this blog.
Released in 1966, Zimbo Trio's album Volume 3, the album on which this track is found, came out at a time when odd time signatures in jazz, and especially samba and bossa nova, were still pretty novel. I don't know of many before this. So that could explain why there isn't a whole lot of improvising going on here. Or maybe Rubinho was just holding it down and intentionally being understated. Either way, the bulk of the tune is the same bar or two orchestrated just a couple of different ways.
Spending just a little bit of time with the four examples above should give you a pretty good grasp of a common samba feel in 5/8. But if you want to play along with the recording, here is the transcription in full. The track starts at 22:11, and the transcription starts after the intro, when the bass line comes in.
One of the great Brazilian drummers whose work we have yet to explore on this blog is Wilson das Neves. Besides being a great drumset player, das Neves was also a percussionist, singer, and composer, and worked in the realms of samba, bossa nova, and samba-jazz
Though he died in 2017, das Neves remained active for the duration of his life, appearing on the Roberta Sá album Braseiro which we've looked at before, and in the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics in 2016.
In 1968, das Neves released an album together with Elza Soares entitled simply Baterista: Wilson das Neves. On it is the piece "Deixa Isso Para Lá" which is transcribed below. While it does include the rest of the band, the bulk of the tune is a drumset and vocal duet between the two leaders.
As we've recently been talking about rhythmic direction in telecoteco and how some of the samba-jazz drummers of the 60s and 70s were liberal in their treatment of it it's interesting to note that das Neves actually adheres quite strictly to the rhythmic direction in this recording, (and nearly every other one I've heard). His rim clicks play very much like a tamborim part from a samba. I'm presuming this is because das Neves had a background in traditional batucada-style drumming and spent time in one or more escolas. With that in mind, check out the extra beat in the middle of page 3.
In old jazz recordings it's not completely uncommon to hear what may sound like a bar of odd time, or an extra beat. Usually, this is from an old-school tape edit where two takes are being spliced together. However, that doesn't appear to be the case here. Rather, I think it's more likely the Wilson is playing those quarter notes in the subsequent bars to see where Elza is going to phrase her melodic line in an attempt to stay on the correct side of the rhythm.
Also, note that at the beginning of many of the phrases you can clearly here das Neves playing an entrada before carrying on.
Finally, if you speak Portuguese, or know someone who does, it's worth checking out this short documentary on the making of Baterista: Wilson das Neves.
A little while back when we looked at the Milton Banana transcription of "Cidade Vazia" I mentioned that some of the jazz influenced Brazilian drummers of the 1960s didn't always follow a specific rhythmic direction, and I hypothesized that part of this may have simply ignorance on their part. While that could potentially be true for some drummers, it's clearly not the case with Milton Banana. On the album Getz/Gilberto Banana puts on a clinic on how to properly improvise within the confines of rhythmic direction. And he's doing it on nothing more than a hi-hat. We've seen João Gilberto using minimal percussion to great effect before when we looked at Sonny Carr. If you look at the first and third bar of each line you'll notice that with only two exceptions Banana always starts the phrase with two 8th notes. In the second and fourth bars of each line there is no instance where he plays a note on the downbeat. Of course telecoteco goes deeper than just being on the beat one bar, then off the beat the next, but this simply highlights the fact that Banana is staying true to that rhythmic direction. Also note how subtle Banana is with his improvisation. He's improvising quite a bit. On very few occasions does he play the same phrase twice in a row. But he's never more than a note or two away from a stock telecoteco pattern; an 8th note turned into two 16th notes here, a note omitted there. The transcription below shows only the accent pattern, but this is filled in with 16th notes through the entire song. As with the other transcriptions of this style that we've done try orchestrating in different ways around the kit, and with different patterns in your other limbs. A few ideas to get you started:
With brushes, play the transcription with the 16th notes filled in in your right hand, and sweep with your left hand
Play 16th notes on the hi-hat and read the transcription on a rim click
Play 16th notes on the hi-hat and read the transcription with both hand, sometimes playing a rim click, and sometimes playing an accent on the hi-hat. This works particularly well when playing the bass drum just on beat two. We saw Cuca Teixeira do this in one of the first ever posts on this blog
