Le Trio Camara in Bloomington, MN

Trio Camara
were a Brazilian piano trio who hung about playing their particularly rhythmic brand of
bossa nova
jazz
in the early to mid-'70s. This self-titled disc is their debut, and it is a stunner. Pianist
Fernando Martins
, bassist
Edson Lobo
, and drummer
Nelson Serras
were all arrangers and composers in addition to being players, and these 11 tunes bear that out in spades. Nothing here is left to chance; every nuance, every dynamic shift, every turnaround is charted out, and this doesn't make the music sound any less spontaneous. There are three covers mixed in with the band's originals.
"Berimbau,"
by
Baden Powell
, opens the album at a furious
samba
pace, with wildly careen piano arpeggios running up and down the scales against the rhythm section. On
"Noa, Noa,"
deep pizzicato work by
Lobo
underscores the fat, augmented ninths by
Martins
, and on
"Upa Neguinho"
a
bebop
sensibility strides along the
bossa
rhythm, taking things to a frenzied height of intervallic madness. This is a smooth but furiously played recording displaying wondrous technical skill and exquisite taste; it should be sought out by all fans of Brazilian
. ~ Thom Jurek