Moacir Santos - Carnival Of The Spirits (1975)

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Posts anteriores do Moacir Santos:
Coisas (1965)
The Maestro (1972)

Past posts on Moacir Santos:
Coisas (1965)
The Maestro (1972)

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No dia 26 de julho, Moacir Santos fez 80 anos. Um dia antes, seu disco "Choros & Alegria" foi um dos vencedores do Prêmio Tim de Música; uma semana antes fora agraciado com o Shell de Música - as duas mais importantes premiações da área. Aos 80 e morando em Los Angeles, costa Oeste dos EUA, há mais de 40, o pernambucano Moacir parece cada vez mais brasileiro e cada vez mais ativo - apesar do derrame que sofreu há cerca de dez anos que o impediu de seguir tocando saxofone. Maestro, compositor, arranjador, professor e saxofonista, atualmente anda envolvido, entre outras coisas, com a produção de um documentário sobre sua vida.

"A idéia é fazer uma mistura de making off do seu disco mais recente, "Choros & Alegria", com a história da vida dele. Já captamos muito, mas faltam ainda algumas coisas. Queremos levá-los nos lugares onde ele tocou na juventude, por exemplo", conta Mario Adnet, músico e produtor que nos últimos anos se dedica a recuperar a obra de Moacir. O documentário está aprovado na Lei Rouanet e deve ser finalizado até o ano que vem. Outra grande novidade - talvez a mais espetacular - é que Adnet e seu parceiro Zé Nogueira estão em negociações adiantadas para lançar finalmente no Brasil os discos que Moacir gravou nos anos 70 na conceituada gravadora de jazz Blue Note.

"Já fizemos uma reunião com o pessoal da Blue Note, em Nova York, e está tudo correndo bem. Só falta cuidar da parte burocrática. Esperamos conseguir fazer tudo ainda este ano", contou Adnet. Os três álbuns -"The Maestro", de 1972; "Saudade", de 1974; e "Carnival of the Spirits", de 1975- circulam entre colecionadores há tempos e são igualmente inspirados, trazendo Moacir Santos leve e jazzístico, mais do que em seu trabalho mais conhecido, o álbum "Coisas", único lançado no Brasil, em 1965.

"Coisas", lançado na época pela gravadora Forma e relançado em CD em 2004, foi um impacto na música da época, ainda que não tenha sido um sucesso comercial. "Quando o "Coisas" saiu, a turma dos músicos da bossa nova se reunia todo sábado só para ficar ouvindo o LP", conta Roberto Menescal, aluno de Moacir na época. Nara Leão, Baden Powell, Sérgio Mendes eram outros de seus alunos -e todos sempre correram em elogiar a genialidade do mestre, além de chamá-lo para seus discos. O músico também escreveu arranjos para o primeiro disco de Vinicius de Moraes - que aliás, o homenageia no famoso "Samba da Bênção": "Moacir Santos, tu que não é um só, é tantos".

Ronaldo Evangelista - 27/07/2006 - extraído do jornal Folha de São Paulo

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One of the main Brazilian arrangers, having renovated the country's harmonic language in the '50s, the underrated Moacir Santos had nevertheless a highly influential role as he had as his pupils, in the '60s: Paulo Moura, Oscar Castro-Neves, Baden Powell, Maurício Einhorn, Geraldo Vespar, Bola Sete, Sérgio Mendes, Dom Um Romão, João Donato, Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra, Dori Caymmi, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim, among others. In 1968, he was admitted into Henry Mancini's cinema music writing team and, four years later, he launched his first album in the American market, The Maestro, which was nominated for a Grammy award; it was followed by Saudade (1974), Carnival of the Spirits (1975), and Opus 3, No. 1 (1979). Owner of a distinctive Brazilian style as a composer and arranger, Santos' most-known tunes are "Nanã" (written with Mário Teles), which had over 150 different recordings (including those by Herbie Mann and Kenny Burrell); and "Coisas" (number one to 12); not to mention a series of compositions with Vinicius de Moraes ("Triste de Quem," "Menino Travesso," "Se Você Disser Que Sim," "Lembre-Se"), who praised him in his "Samba da Benção." Having written the arrangements for, among others, Vinicius de Moraes e Odete Lara (1963), Santos also composed the soundtracks for the films Love in the Pacific, Seara Vermelha (an adaptation of Jorge Amado's novel, directed by R. Aversa), Ganga Zumba (Cacá Diegues), O Santo Médico (Sacha Gordine), and Os Fuzis (Ruy Guerra), among others.

Santos had contact with music very early in his life in the local band Flores do Pajeú (Pernambuco), taking classes with bandmaster Paixão and joining the group at 14 on the saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, banjo, guitar, and drums. Leaving home two years later, he played around northeastern Brazil until 1943, when he got a break at the Rádio Clube de Pernambuco. Having joined the Band of the Military Police of Paraíba in 1945, Santos replaced Severino Araújo (who had being invited to work in Rio de Janeiro) in the jazz band (a generic and common denomination at the time, not having to do with the repertory) of Rádio Tabajara da Paraíba, as a tenor/clarinetist. Two years later, he was appointed the conductor of the band and, in 1948, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where his first job was at the gafieira Clube Brasil Danças, remaining there for 18 years as saxophonist and then as conductor/arranger. One month after his arrival in Rio he joined Rádio Nacional as a solo tenor of the Orquestra do Maestro Chiquinho, where he would work until 1967. Having studied under Hans Joachim Koellreutter's guidance, to whom Santos became an assistant, in 1951 he was invited by Rádio Nacional's A&R director, Paulo Tapajós, to be one of the regular conductors/arrangers of the cast.

In 1954, Santos went to São Paulo, where he directed the orchestra of TV Record. Two years later, he returned to Rio de Janeiro, resuming his work at Rádio Nacional, also becoming Ary Barroso's assistant in the A&R direction of the Rozemblit recording company, and conductor at Copacabana Discos. At the peak of the success in Brazil, Santos released in 1965 his first solo album, Coisas. In the same year, he wrote the soundtrack of the film Love in the Pacific, having been honored by the Brazilian government with the payment of travel expenses to be present at the debut in New York, NY. In 1966, he was appointed as a member of ASCAP and in the next year he left Rádio Nacional. Moving to the U.S., Santos settled in Pasadena where he gave music classes at home until he was discovered by Horace Silver. In 1985, he opened with Radamés Gnattali, in Rio de Janeiro, the I Free Jazz Festival. In 1996, he was decorated by the President of the Republic of Brazil as Oficial da Ordem do Rio Branco. In the same year, Santos was paid tribute at the Brazilian Summer Festival (Ford Theater, Los Angeles, CA). His original arrangements for several of his compositions were transcribed by Mário Adnet and Zé Nogueira and recorded on the double-CD Ouro Negro (2001), which had the participation of Milton Nascimento, João Bosco, Joyce, João Donato, Djavan, Gilberto Gil, Ed Motta, and Santos himself. The album was launched with a show at the João Caetano theater, which was presented again at the Free Jazz Festival of that year.

Alvaro Neder - extracted from All Music Guide