PRELUDIO by FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO

The third album by this young Brasilian guitarist ! These are all  his own compositions and, like his previous albums Dança dos Tempos and Tempo dos Mestres, follows folkloric Brasilian music, Brasilian jazz, bossa-nova and samba as experienced through the mind and able fingers of an expansive musician, combing the heady ‘60s and ‘70s experimentalism of Hermeto Pascoal and Baden Powell with the childlike elegance of music played and passed down by native Brasilians for generations. 

Do Nascimento was born into a musical family, from lineage that stretches back to his great-grand-father Ladario Teixeira, a blind saxophonist who contributed to the re-creation of the instrument by adding more keys to the older incarnation of the instrument in the early 20th century. He was born in Rio de Janeiro and grew up there and in Sao Paulo, where he found inspiration in his uncle, the late Lúcio Nascimento, bassist and composer in Leny Andrade's band Bom de Três. While he came from a musical pedigree, he’s largely self-taught, largely in the service of an overarching mission to showcase the folkloric music of his home country as he continue to develop possibilities for language of the guitar itself. His studies ramped up after he moved to Los Angeles in 2001.

Record Of The Week W30 by Rogier Oostlander.

"Prelúdio’ is the third album by Fabiano Do Nascimento, the virtuoso Brazilian guitarist who traded in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo for L.A. to become one of the most sought after players of the Brazilian musical diaspora.

Three years after ‘Tempo dos Mestres’ - somewhat of a Rush Hour store classic - Do Nascimento returns to Los Angeles powerhouse imprint Now Again with another perfectly executed and meticulously produced

masterpiece that’s rooted in the classic bossa nova tradition of the sixties and seventies, with some extra samba, MPB and tropicalia influences thrown in for good measure, playing like a modern day Baden Powell without the extra cheese.

Baden Powell, Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes are the most obvious influences here (just check out the stylistic similarities between the opening track and the classic ‘Berimbau’), as is the breezy melodic approach of the unsurpassable Edu Lobo.

Do Nascimento’s virtuosity is most apparent on fast-paced compositions like ‘Partiu’ and ‘Trem-Bala’, but he never lets his incredibly skilled playing get in the way of the sensitivity of his work, the same way he makes sure his elegance doesn’t turn his compositions into light music - A risk that’s always there when playing largely instrumental bossa-based music.

‘Prelúdio’’s timing couldn’t have been better either - it’s presented just in time for those long hot late summer nights (to prove my point: this was written on an all but deserted beach under the last rays of the blistering Portuguese sun). Now excuse me while I go get another caipirinha."