Words by Justin Turford
When the Brazilian guitarist, singer and composer João Gilberto helped birth bossa nova, the melodically intimate ‘new wave’ of samba in the late 1950s, he could have scarcely imagined that it would become a worldwide phenomenon in the 60s, and dumbfounded to be told that disciples of the genre would still be exploring it sixty plus years later.
Incredibly, recent convert Gabriel da Rosa had never even played a bossa or samba song on his guitar pre-2018 but the former garage-punk from São Paulo found his link back to his country’s musical ancestors after moving to Los Angeles. His band Name That Band was doing pretty good in Brazil but was burned by the label in the US leaving Gabriel in a quandary and in L.A. Luck was hovering nearby however. His Brazilian vinyl at hand, DJing became his thing, offering the Angelenos a taste of his MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), Afro-bossa, samba and funk collection. Step in Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ, artist, Brazilian music fanatic and crucially, boss of the exceptional Stones Throw Records label, home to Eddie Chacon, Madvillain, Dilla, MNDSGN and truckloads of the good stuff. Gabriel and PBW met at a bar in 2018, where their mutual love of Brazilian music was shared and numbers were exchanged. What now?
Gabriel da Rosa by Alexander Gay
The longer he stayed away from home, the more he ached for it. That uniquely Brazilian word to describe a longing for home, saudade, began to make deep sense. His mother’s poetry (poetry is HUGE in Brazil) and the bossa records that his DJ father would play become a source for inspiration, looking backwards to move forwards.
Hooking up with (also based in L.A.) his friend Pedro Dom, a composer and musician who's worked with some serious cats from Brazil (Seu Jorge, Rodrigo Amarante and Latin Grammy Award winner Ian Ramil), in 2019 they went deep into the classic bossa nova sound, examining the source to devise their own take on the formula.
Pulling together a team that included Mario C of Beastie Boys fame, to mix the record, and the legendary Brazilian jazz-fusionist Azymuth's Ivan Conti Mamão, they got to work and my word, it is a beauty!
From the fuller samba of album opener ‘Bandida’, the cuica and surdos in full effect, to the Getz/Gilberto-esque sway of ‘Diossincrasia’ and the more funky-folkloric harmony and flute-drenched ‘Jasmim Parte 1’, they have nailed their sound to the bossa nova mast. As good as anything from the late 50s/60s records but enveloped in the warmest of modern production, the record stretches the genre into new shapes. The gentle rebuke of ‘Interlude (That’s a Shame)’ is sung in both English and Portuguese and is a dreamy, sun-baked delight with Hawaiian style pedal steel guitar and a psychedelic spirit. ‘Jasmim Parte 2’ starts with a rural backdrop of flutes before hitting the late night bossa bars of 60s Rio, with big choruses and a jaunty piano-led bossa-jazz uplift.
‘Batuque’ is a bumping pandeiro, timba and agogo bells interlude before the lushly orchestrated ‘So You Can See Me’ washes over us, a hymn to lost love, the ocean a repeated metaphor for the singer’s grief. ‘Dona Chica’ is a classic sounding tribute to his grandmother, again featuring the great Mamão before the bumping samba ‘Cachaça’ closes the album, French horns and whistles adding colourful fizz to the masterly vocal arrangements.
A genuinely welcome addition to the bossa nova canon here from Gabriel and Pedro, I bet Peanut Butter Wolf can’t believe his luck! 9/10
‘É o que a casa Oferece’ is released on 17th Feb 2023 on Stones Throw Records