{"id":26714,"date":"2025-02-26T13:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=26714"},"modified":"2025-03-02T10:49:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T10:49:24","slug":"music-virgin-land-identity-airto-1974-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=26714","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Virgin Land & Identity, Airto, 1974 & \u201875"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When these two discs first reached me, along with Hermeto Pascoal\u2019s (?), I must admit I was slightly disappointed. The Pascoal album is a bit too whacked out\/free jazz for me, in places (read about that disc elsewhere). And these Airto ones were – so I thought at first – a bit manic, and all over the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019ve been listening to them more, in the car, whilst I\u2019m working. And they\u2019re really growing on me. The sheer talent of the players, and the rather unique blend of Brazilian music, jazz, and the general melting-pot that was jazz rock fusion of \u201870s sounds – esp\u2019 on labels like CTI – adds up to something that\u2019s always interesting, frequently impelling, and occasionally sublime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virgin Land<\/em> kick\u2019s off with \u2018Stanley\u2019s Tune\u2018, named for bassist Stanley Clarke, whose groovy bass riff propels the piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarke switches to upright bass for the modal jam \u2018Musikana\u2019, which also features lots of Airto jungle-noise type vocalising, without him ever singing. Flora Purim also adds her typically higher more ethereal wordless vocalising. Another key sound in this piece is the droning of berimbau, an instrument Airto often uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track three is the title number, which seems to emerge from a foggy or misty jungle soundscape, out of the previous number. Before going into a galloping bass and drum figure, over which Airto and electric guitar sing, in unison, once again wordlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do love this kind of syncopated propulsive groove. It\u2019s an ideal modal bedrock for jazzy instrumental soloing and exploration. Stanley Clarke goes into a bass part that reminds me of Santana\u2019s Doug Rauch, when Carlos and Co (and Airto worked with them around this time, e.g. on Borboletta<\/em>!) were at their peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Airto, singing and percussing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next up, \u2018Peasant Dance\u2019, a real oddity. It certainly is here, but prob\u2019 would be on almost any 1970s jazz fusion type disc. By Bulgarian keys player Milcho Leviev, it\u2019s based around lines that very clearly evoke Eastern European folk melodies, as befits the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the eclecticism of this already diverse brand of musical fusion, distinctly Eastern European stuff is still a rarity. Do I actually like it, tho\u2019? I have to say, I do. The combo of trilling chirping melodies, and the unusual voices of clarinet, oboe and piccolo, all over a rather funky background, work surprisingly well. Also, it\u2019s short and sweet, not wearing out it\u2019s welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up is the much mellower \u2018Lydian Riff\u2019. This follows \u2018Peasant Dance\u2019 well, maintaining the slightly skewed – spooky even? – melodic vibes, while transitioning into something sonically more \u2018normal\u2019-ish. There are some occasional stabs, which remind me a little of Wayne Shorter\u2019s \u2018Eighty One\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track six, \u2018Hot Sand\u2019 resumes that percolating groove we encountered on \u2018Virgin Land\u2019, with wordless vocals again. Only this time we get a section punctuated with stop-start hits. And, as well as an acoustic piano, in the rhythm section, there\u2019s monophonic synth and electric guitar, taking modal solos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album closes with \u2018I Don\u2019t Have To Do What I Don\u2019t Want To Do\u2019 – a great if rather long or cumbersome title! – which, like \u2018Lydian Riff\u2019, after Peasant Dance, slows the tempo down. A compositional collaboration between Airto and guitarist (?) DeLorme, I love what DeLorme brings to the piece, his axe sounding rather berimbau-like at times. And the \u2018water bag\u2019 wah-wah like effect, combined with fuzzy distortion!? What a fab sound!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, not Earth-shattering, but very, very<\/em> good. Definitely worth having and listening to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of the two Airto albums that I\u2019m looking at and listening to here, this is the more \u2018straight ahead\u2019, vocally speaking. Inasmuch as there\u2019s singing, and not just of the wordless variety, such as we hear on Virgin Land<\/em>, but actual sung lyrics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blah\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Airto at work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The back cover of Virgin Land<\/em>, and some other Airto albums I don\u2019t, as yet, have on CD:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When these two discs first reached me, along with Hermeto Pascoal\u2019s (?), I must admit I was slightly disappointed. The Pascoal album is a bit too whacked out\/free jazz for me, in places (read about that disc elsewhere). And these Airto ones were – so I thought at first – a bit manic, and all … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Virgin Land & Identity, Airto, 1974 & \u201875”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-6WS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26714"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26714"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26829,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26714\/revisions\/26829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}