It seems that at the moments a few groups coming out of Brazil are spearheading world jazz. Orquestra Imperial, comprising a number of current Brazilian music stars like Set Jorge are recreating all forms of Brazilian music, with the accent on Samba, Bixiga 70 are adding to that the afro-latin element, with a touch of early instrumental Santana sound (the number 70 is there for a reason), and then there is Nomade Orquestra, fresh off with their second album Entre Mundos (Between Worlds).
Jazziest of the three mentioned, by saying they play world jazz, they really incorporate everything from around the world. Again, the title is there for a reason. The Sao Paulo group picks up everything with aplomb - Jardins de Zaira, is a test that Fela Kuti’s music lives today, while Rinoceronte Blues is a like a walk through New Orleans street at night when there is music blasting from everywhere. Terra Fertil musically moves everywhere from Terra Del Fuego to Timbuktu, literally. Estrada Para Camomila has skewed up Memphis soul of Hi Records, while Felag Mengu takes one of the better pages from Mulatu Astatke’s book with a dash of those Tuareg guitar wizards. Vale da Boca Seca doesn’t miss to re-reference Sixties San Francisco referencing Latin Music with some groovy fuzz guitar added, and Madame Butterfly, could have something to do with the famous opera, but then it is well hidden with the pure funk and analog synthesizers. Deliriuns could be a funeral march from anywhere and everywhere, while Olho De Tempo is all of the above, together. And working. Travessia which closes the album sounds like some science-fiction-fi version of anything from the Amazon region.
If you start thinking that all this sounds too much over the place and incoherent, you’d be completely wrong. The reason lies in the fact that the band is comprised of some of the best jazz musicians (or any other music, for that matter) from Sao Paulo, who bring all these diverse sounds into a fiery ball of integrated music. No wonder guys like Gilles Peterson sing praises about them. Enter Mundos is an obvious reason why.
