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Moacir Santos

You don’t have to apologize if you don’t know who Moacir Santos is. Many people are oblivious to the works of the arranger and songwriter, regarded by the critics and researchers as one of the most innovative talents in the history of MPB. But from now on, there are no more excuses: the album Ouro Negro, produced by musicians Zé Nogueira and Mario Adnet, is coming out. The CD (released on the label MP,B) features the two instrumentalists performing the sophisticated music of Santos—who is 75 years old and has lived in Los Angeles for the past 3 decades. 

In fact, the "secret" around Moacir Santos is not that secret. The arranger, born in Pernambuco (northeastern Brazil), is regarded as a walking encyclopedia in the realms of Brazilian instrumental music. Without hesitation, artists like João Donato, Dori Caymmi, Paulo Moura and Sérgio Mendes will testify to that statement. The late Brazilian guitar ace Baden Powell was Moacir’s pupil, once, and revered his master on the song Samba da Benção.

On Ouro Negro, saxophonist Zé Nogueira and guitarist Mário Adnet lined-up an all-star team, so as to reproduce the original arrangements written for the 28 instrumental pieces picked for the album. Besides the attention to the music, lyrics (written by Ney Lopes) were added to some of the originally instrumental numbers. That’s where big MPB singers come in: Milton Nascimento, Ed Motta, Djavan, Gilberto Gil and João Bosco, among others, appear on the new versions.

The best moments of the record are the covers of tracks from the album Coisas (1965), Moacir’s most famous release—considered a classic, which featured his most well-known song, Nanã (Coisa No 4), also present in Ouro Negro. The influence of Africa (noticed on Kamba, originally written in 1975) and its Brazilian northeastern portion (clear on Jequié and Maracatu) complete the sound spectrum of the double-disc.

Moacir himself supervised the recording sessions produced by Adnet and Nogueira. The work on Ouro Negro is the latest addition to a remarkable résumé. Coming from a poor family in the countryside, Moacir gained status as an arranger while working on the radio in the 1950s, at the same time when he was studying music with maestro Guerra-Peixe. In the ‘60s, he wrote various soundtracks for the movies. After settling in the USA in 1967, he made records for the renowned jazz label Blue Note, wrote soundtracks in Hollywood and worked with Sérgio Mendes.


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8
Play This!

Moacir Santos: Coisas

Read "Moacir Santos: Coisas" reviewed by Marc Myers


Moacir Santos was a Brazilian composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator who never became as well known as his peers, including Bola Sete and Baden Powell. While he collaborated on songs with Nara Leão, Roberto Menescal and Sérgio Mendes among others, he privately taught artists who went on to become highly successful global bossa nova singers and songwriters. In 1965, he released Coisas (Things, in English), which combined the new Brazilian beat with big band jazz. The album didn't attract ...

367
Album Review

Moacir Santos: Choros y Alegria

Read "Choros y Alegria" reviewed by Tomas Pena


In 2002, music critic Ben Ratliff listed Coisas (2002) in the New York Times Essential Library's 100 Most Important Recordings. He posed this question: “Why is this man not famous? Ratliff was alluding to the fact that little was known about Santos' vast body of work, despite the fact that he is regarded by many critics and researchers as one of the most important and innovative artists in the history of Brazilian music. Thanks to the efforts of Adventure Music, ...

249
Jazz From The Vinyl Junkyard

Moacir Santos: Maestro

Read "Moacir Santos: Maestro" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Moacir Santos Maestro Blue Note Records 1972 Among a sizable number of Brazilian composers who are better known in their homeland than abroad, few can lay claim to a more substantive and varied catalog of music as that written by the great Moacir Santos. A prodigy of sorts, Santos mastered many wind instruments while still in his teens and toured Brazil for many years, studying and playing with a wide variety of ...

508
Album Review

Moacir Santos: Ouro Negro

Read "Ouro Negro" reviewed by Jim Luce


One of the reasons I love music so much is that even after 45+ years of listening, it is a continual source of delight and surprise. No boredom here! Over time, our listening habits change, but sometimes old friends return to visit. I hate to admit it, but over the years I've forgotten about a lot of music that at one time or another really stoked my passions.Such is the case for me with the music of Moacir ...

643
Interview

Moacir Santos: Music in His Blood

Read "Moacir Santos: Music in His Blood" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


Moacir Santos speaks slowly, struggling from the after effects of a stroke suffered eight years ago. The 78 year-old also labors with his English, which doesn't come to him as easily these days as it did in the years after he arrived in Southern California from his native Brazil in 1967. He prefers to speak Portugese. The words are slow, but heartfelt. They describe music and Santos' feelings about the art form to which he dedicated his entire ...

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1

Recording

Backgrounder: Moacir Santos - Coisas

Backgrounder: Moacir Santos - Coisas

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Moacir Santos was a Brazilian composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator who never became as well known as his peers, including Bola Sete and Baden Powell. While he collaborated on songs with Nara Leão, Roberto Menescal and Sérgio Mendes among others, he privately taught artists who went on to become highly successful global bossa nova singers and songwriters. In 1965, he released Coisas (Things, in English), which combined the new Brazilian beat with big band jazz. The album didn't attract much attention ...

235

Recording

New Mark Levine CD, Due 9/15, Features the Music of Moacir Santos

New Mark Levine CD, Due 9/15, Features the Music of Moacir Santos

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Grammy-nominated pianist Mark Levine was introduced to the music of Moacir Santos in the late 1960s, when he had the good fortune to work with the Brazilian composer. Now Levine is preparing to release a tribute album in Santos’s memory on his own Left Coast Clave label. The new CD, Off & On: The Music of Moacir Santos, made with Levine’s Afro-Caribbean ensemble The Latin Tinge, is scheduled for release on September 15. “This is something I’ve wanted to do ...

121

Radio

The Genius of Moacir Santos on Freedom Jazz Dance

The Genius of Moacir Santos on Freedom Jazz Dance

Source: All About Jazz

5 - 7 PM Sunday WDCE 90.1 FM Listen via streamcast at http://www.student.richmond.edu/~wdce/ 804-289-UR90 Studio Give thanks for great jazz with Freedom Jazz Dance--modern jazz from bebop to freebop and beyond--live from the beautiful campus of the University of Richmond this Sunday. This week I will be featuring some remarkable music from the late Brazilian jazz composer Moacir Santos. A recent clipping I read about his music turned me on to this brilliant and ...

204

Obituary

Legendary Brazilian Composer And Arranger Moacir Santos Dies At 80 Years Of Age

Legendary Brazilian Composer And Arranger Moacir Santos Dies At 80 Years Of Age

Source: GoMedia PR

Acclaimed Musician Had Recently Won Both Shell Music and Premio Tim Awards

Moacir Santos, the legendary composer and arranger whose body of work served to expand popular preconceptions of Brazilian music beyond bossa nova and Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB), died in Pasadena, California on Sunday, August 6th. Santos was recently enjoying a resurgence of interest in his career, thanks in part to the efforts of producers Mario Adnet and Ze Nogueira, and New York based record label Adventure Music.

“Moacir's ...

103

Award / Grant

Moacir Santos Wins Shell Music Award In Brazil

Moacir Santos Wins Shell Music Award In Brazil

Source: All About Jazz

Moacir Santos, whose two recent Adventure Music releases, Ouro Negro and Choros & Alegria have earned considerable acclaim from such respected media outlets as the New York Times, National Public Radio, DownBeat and JazzTimes magazines, has just been awarded the prestigious Shell Music Award for 2006 in his homeland of Brazil.

The jury unanimously chose Santos, citing both the status of his work as a composer and arranger and the significant role he has played in Brazilian music education. Bello ...

158

Recording

Adventure Music To Release New Moacir Santos Recording On October 18

Adventure Music To Release New Moacir Santos Recording On October 18

Source: All About Jazz

Choros & Alegria Features Guest Appearance By Wynton Marsalis

A highlight of Adventure Music’s fall release schedule will be the newly recorded Moacir Santos: Choros & Alegria, which features Wynton Marsalis, along with many of Brazil’s most respected instrumentalists performing twelve never-before recorded compositions from Santos, one of the country’s most influential composers and arrangers. Recorded this year in Rio and Sao Paulo, and produced under Santos’ direct supervision by Mario Adnet and Ze’ Nogueira, who last collaborated with Santos ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Choros y Alegria

Adventure Music
2005

buy

Ouro Negro

Adventure Music
2004

buy

Ouro Negro

Adventure Music
2001

buy

A Trip To Brazil...

Verve Records
1999

buy

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