Jazz breaking news: Hermeto Pascoal brings the samba heat to Soho
Thursday, July 18, 2013
How fitting that jazz's most tropical and exotic outfit should make its club debut at Ronnie Scott's on the hottest night of the British summer.
Soho was sweltering under mid-July temperatures of 32C or 90F as the wondrous Hermeto Pascoal reaffirmed his status as a multi-instrumentalist of genius. Short, jovial and rotund, with white hair cascading from his head and chin to his waist, he maintained amazing energy levels throughout a 90-minute set, booting his six-piece band along with incisive comping, brilliant synth solos and amazing compositions.
Multi-reedman Vinicius Dorin was the most versatile sideman, blasting powerful messages on flute, tenor, alto and soprano saxes, but pianist André Marques and bass-guitarist Itiberê Zwarg also took brilliant solos. Vocalist Aline Morena was no slouch either, sharing the often-stratospheric melody lead and scatting like a young Flora Purim.
Everyone doubled on percussion instruments as the numbers tumbled along with that typically off-centre Brazilian samba momentum, complex yet free flowing, but Hermeto remains the main man. He rounded off one number with a solo cadenza on melodica, giving us the hippest three minutes you could imagine from this humble novelty instrument. And who else but Hermeto could produce a fascinating ballad version of ‘Round Midnight’ on a household kettle? Blowing down the spout, he turned it into an amplified kazoo. Follow that.
– Jack Massarik