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Bob
Baldwin - Brazil Chill
To
paraphrase the title of a legendary 1960s pop song, maybe we can
blame the inspiration for Brazil
Chill, Bob Baldwin’s A440 Music Group debut
on the ‘Bossa Nova’…or the Samba. Even as Bob Baldwin
has established himself as one of smooth jazz’s most popular
jazz/funk keyboardists over the past 15 years, he’s carried
on a quiet but steady love affair with all things Brazilian, and
Brazilian jazz in particular.
Amidst
the intense soul and gospel inflected energy that has become his
trademark, Baldwin found a few moments to reflect upon his growing
musical passion on tracks like “Billy’s Smile”
(from Reflections of Love, 1992), “Bahia Maria” (Cool
Breeze, 1997) and “Those Eyes” (BobBaldwin.com, 2000).
His quietly beautiful obsession blossoms into a full-blown musical
Carnival on his exhilarating A440 Music Group debut Brazil Chill,
a joyful celebration of the culture’s deep and diverse rhythms,
recorded in Rio de Janeiro and featuring a host of percussive
minded native musicians.
Finding
his own “American smooth jazz meets the Rio groove thing”
somewhere between jolts of “Cafezinho” (the album’s
second track) and the hardcore percussion forest of “Carnival,”
Baldwin jams with saxophonist Leo Gandelman, guitarist Torcquato
Mariano, keyboardist Marcos Ariel (playing flute here), bassist
Alex Malhieros, vocalist Zolea Ohizep and a handful of top drummers
and percussionists—Café, Armando Marcal, Ivan Conte
and Juliano Zanoni. Amidst the exotica of the South American journey
is the in-the-pocket, blues flavored smooth jazz ballad “Sho
Nuff,” featuring guest sax star Jeff Kashiwa.
Baldwin
can trace his own interest in Brazilian music to recordings by
American jazz performers like George Duke, Maurice White, Ramsey
Lewis and Stan Getz, as well as Brazilian born songwriters and
artists like Eliane Elias, Ivan Lins and the great Antonio Carlos
Jobim. “I’ve always been intrigued by the subtle sexiness
and sincerity of Brazilian music, and had always danced with the
idea of visiting the country and checking out the real deal,”
he says. “The first thing I did when I finally got a chance
to visit with my jazz promoter friend Frazier West in 2001 was
go to the music stores and hear the music that was happening.
Hearing these rhythms, hooking up with Marcos Ariel and visiting
some studios on subsequent visits opened my mind to some interesting
musical possibilities.
“The
idea that grew into Brazil Chill
began with the notion of keeping my core sound as a piano and
keyboard player, but have it translated by top Brazilian musicians,”
Baldwin adds. “The ball got rolling when I contacted my old
friend Leo Gandelman, who I knew from New York but was now back
there with his own Zaga Studios. Through him, I met all of these
other great musicians and I started writing new material in a
Brazilian rhythm frame of mind. The most important element was
having a stirring percussion presence and a native feel. The overall
concept grew as the pieces came together. Once we had the studio,
the musicians, and the right vibe, everything took shape pretty
easily. Rather than tell them what and how to play, I would give
them the framework of the song and let them do the rhythmic interpretations.
Everything began with the drum track. Once the bass locked in
with that, the sessions just clicked.”
Rather
than simply fashion a collection of great tunes, Baldwin’s
intent with Brazil Chill is
to create an entire Brazilian mood from start to finish. The opening
cut “Street Sounds” is just that, 15 textured layers
of urban ambience (including a little spoken Portuguese and the
sounds of a street party), compiled Baldwin’s road manager
Tony Clarke. The first musical track is the swinging, jazzy jolt
of “Cafezinho,” featuring a hot Partido-Alto groove
laid down by Juliano Zanoni, Baldwin’s own “choir”
of vocals and Gandelman’s soulful sax solo. A return trip
to Manhattan inspired the urban groove driven “New York Samba,”
driven by Café’s seductive percussion textures. The
distinctive percussion and vocals of Armando Marcal spices up
the Latin Montuno styled treatment of Leon Ware’s popular
70’s soul tune “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” which
is followed by the half reggae beat that drives the playful “Braz-funk”
of “Everybody’s Beautiful (in Brazil).”
Following
the taste of Carnival music via the heavy percussion and Rhodes
textures of the “Late Night Samba (Interlude),” Baldwin
brings us back to his classic urban jazz funk sound on the cool
hip-hop flavored ballad “Last Call,” featuring scratches
by New York based drummer Dennis Johnson. Joining Baldwin on the
hypnotic, easy chilling title track are the members of the legendary
Brazilian funk band Azimuth—Ivan Conte, Alex Malhieros, and
Ragan Whiteside. The keyboardist describes “Sho Nuff”
as “smooth jazz with Brazilian percussion on top.” The
tune is laced with a Stylistics type sitar sound and the cool
sax of guest star Jeff Kashiwa. The popping snare sound that drives
“Beijos (The Kiss)” reminds us that it’s another
Partido Alto, complete with a bluesy soul groove and a smooth
melodica solo by Brazilian Pianist Delia Fischer.
“Carnival”
is Brazil Chill’s great
crescendo, the ultimate Street Samba, a wild and festive explosion
of drum and percussion textures (led by Zononi and Café)
mixed with Baldwin’s funky piano and cool Rhodes underpinnings.
Bookending the set is a gently exotic reprise of “I Wanna
Be Where You Are.”
Baldwin
recorded so much music for the Brazil
Chill sessions that A440 Music Group plans to release
a specially priced follow-up recording (release date TBA) featuring
some of the extra tracks (including covers of songs by Lins and
Jobim).
A
native of Mount Vernon, NY, Bob Baldwin’s early fascination
with the piano was hardly a surprise considering that the instrument
was his creative lifeblood from the time he was a toddler and
his father Robert, Sr. was himself a distinguished jazz pianist
who performed with Art Davis, Keter Betts and Max Roach. Baldwin
remembers going to his dad’s local gigs in Westchester County,
NY listening to and loving traditional jazz, with his dad playing.
“You’d
think being this prodigy kid would be a great thing all around,
but my playing by ear was so good so early that when I took lessons,
I was a very poor sight reader,” he says. “Then of course,
there was the image of the other kids in high school out there
playing ball and me in the basement trying to figure out the latest
hip chord and learning keyboards from all those early 70s Stevie
Wonder records. I think Stevie became a huge influence on me because
my dad got to do a few gigs with him in 1968 when he played a
club in town when ‘My Cherie Amour’ was a hit.”
Baldwin
earned a degree in business administration from Geneva College
is Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and worked for MCI and Sprint Communications
for some years before launching his solo career in the late 80s
with The Dream featuring Bob Baldwin on Malaco Records—an
album that led Roberta Flack to select the young keyboardist as
the 1989 Sony Innovators Award winner.
Baldwin
signed to Atlantic Jazz for his second and third recordings, Rejoice
(1990) and Reflections of Love (1992), with the latter reaching
#7 on the Contemporary Jazz Chart. The music on his 1996 internet
release City Sketches was a commemorative celebration of Atlanta’s
unique history during the year it played host to the Summer Olympics
and was inspired by Baldwin’s recent move there. He sold
a remarkable 7,000 recordings over the web, prompting the tongue
in cheek title of his 2000 recording BobBaldwin.com, his bestselling
disc ever. BobBaldwin.com featured an all-star lineup of smooth
jazz talent, including Gerald Albright, Marion Meadows, Dean James
and Eric Essix, in addition to a tribute song for Grover Washington,
Jr. (Tom Browne's “Funkin’ For Jamaica”). "I
met up with Washington in Cincy '99 and he originally agreed to
play on the song prior to his sudden passing, which at that point,
it became a sax tribute featuring Albright, Meadows, AWB's Fred
Vig, and the original principals Tom Browne and vocalist Tonni
Smith."
Baldwin
called his 2002 release Standing Tall—which debuted as the
#1 most added on the smoothjazz.com chart and #2 most added on
Urban Adult Contemporary--to reflect the resilient American spirit
in the months after 9/11. While he didn’t know any of the
victims, he had friends who did and that triggered a uniquely
personal connection. Earlier that year on July 4, Baldwin had
performed for several thousand people at the World Trade Center
as part of CD 101’s ongoing jazz series.
Though
many genre artists dedicated live performances to the tragedy
and the resulting patriotism, Baldwin was one of the few who came
out with a recorded response. He recorded “America The Beautiful”
and “God Bless America” that week, and joining forces
with then-labelmates (at Shanachie) Chuck Loeb, Chieli Minucci
and Kim Waters, released The American Spirit to great acclaim.
“When
all is said and done, my goal is to connect with people in any
way I can,” he says. “That means, getting out there
and playing live for them and applying all my life experiences
to the music I make. Writing and recording Brazil
Chill was a great adventure for me and I’m excited
about the journey I’ll get to take my fans on. The most rewarding
thing is not record sales or chart positions, but playing music
and touching the audience in different ways. Something as simple
as watching people smile as I perform means so much.”
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