In the late 70s/early 80s, Brazilian
music was very much the scene. A lot of
musicians were living in LA, so I was lucky to be able to hang in the clubs
(even as a teenager) and hear Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Raul
de Souza, Moacir Santos, Sebastian Neto, Joao Donato and
others. I got to know and played with
some of them. They would always speak about this cat Hermeto Pascoal, who
taught a few of them.
So,
I dug around and found his records and was astonished. I learned what an experimenter and how
progressive he is. Coincidentally, a few
years later, Sergio Mendes asked me to join his band and over 8 years my
Brazilian music education expanded. I
was introduced to Ivan Lins, Djavan, Edu Lobo and others.
Fast forward 30 years, I’m
in Sardinia playing at the Sant Anna Arressi jazz festival and who’s on the
bill, but Hermeto. I was like a kid in a
music store! He brought his band from
Brazil that has a reputation to play really tight because rumor has it that
they live together commune style in the country and play every day. They were unbelievable playing a wide variety
of music with no space btw the tunes.
At one point, Hermeto
brought out a melodica. He was playing
directly into the instrument (without tube or mouthpiece) and it sounded more
like a harmonica. He was walking around
the stage like a horn player. Since I
played oboe all thru school and dabbled with sax and flute, I wanted to go back
to my past playing a wind instrument, so he inspired me to buy a melodica.
After Sardinia, I was in
Naples and found the music street and the shop that sold melodicas - the exact
one Hermeto had – a Yamaha in ox-blood color.
On a tangent, there was an 80s (?) poster on the wall of the music store
for Yamaha drums and guess who was on it – none other than Peter Erskine! Erskine is omnipresence!
So, I got a new lease on my
musician life with this portable instrument. I decided to be a street musician
and for three nights in sultry Naples, I pulled out my melodica and joined the
musicians entertaining the dancing men and women. Another night, I walked into a restaurant and
there was a guy playing a cahone and a big Italian tambourine to people eating,
so I whipped out my axe and improvised on a Neopolitan
folk song. Lorna dared me to find a
street corner and play for pay, but no one was impressed or took compassion on
me! I guess I need to work on my
melodica skills!
