Riessler / Levy / Matinier // Brasileirinho Ao Vivo

Trio Riessler-Levy-Matinier

Coming from diverse musical backgrounds the German, the American and the Frenchman have one thing in common: their devotion to the “unbearable lightness of sound”. Riessler is a kind of modern Renaissance-Man incorporating a wide range of musical attitudes and traditions as well as sonic and structural conceptions. The accordion all-rounder Matinier unpretentiously combines jazz, world music, and European classic. Levy, alongside Toots Thielemans one of the top performers on the diatonic harp, effortlessly intermediates between country, blues, tango and ambient music. With its “total music” the trio reverts to the principles of imaginary folk, jazz avant-garde, vaudeville and blues.

Brasileirinho Ao Vivo

When the tango fever reached Europe in 1913, a whole Scandinavian nation became infected by the virus which then mutated into a variety of its own. To this day, tropical sounds meet with fertile ground in cool Finland. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that director Mika Kaurismäki, after Moro no Brasil, produced a second musical documentary, this time about Choro, the oldest and most authentic urban music style in Brazil (Forum of Berlinale 2005). At the end of the 19th century, Choro developed as a mixture between European melodic patterns and Afro-Brazilian rhythms. In the 20th C, first the samba and then the bossa nova sprouted from these roots, and for a while seemed to predominate over the Choro. Meanwhile, however, Choro is once more on the rise. It has regained popularity in concert halls as well as in the streets and in clubs. Kaurismäki’s Brasileirinho draws a vivid picture of the history and the topical vitality of this South American jazz counterpart.

Some of the most virtuoso protagonists will step down from the screen and come straight to Berlin, live − Ao Vivo. A band of superlatives has gathered around Trio Madeira Brasil, one of the most well-known Choro formations in Brazil, among others featuring trombonist Zé da Velha and trumpeter Silvério Pontes, both charismatic catalysts of this music, and the young guitar gaúcho Yamandú Costa, whose stupendous technique promises to open up a new chapter in Brazil Jazz.