Som Brasil - Tudo Joia (2002)

In Chicago we recorded another four independent albums this time with a similar line up – trumpet, sax, piano, bass, drums, percussion and a vocalist with the initial name of Made in Brasil. This all came about when we decided to go into a studio here in Chicago to record a direct-cut session, a premixed live recording, just for us to hear how the group flowed together, you know, if there were any defects we needed to iron out and stuff. And this served as a demo for us. At the time we were playing under the name Made in Brasil. Anyway, the owner of the studio loved the sound of that band so much that he got in touch with PAUSA Records and sold them the demo and they released the record on the spot – just like that! And there we were, afraid to say anything that would make us look dumb, so we just went along with it, kept our mouths shut and let the record come out. At this point Victor Meshkovsky appeared on the scene and it turned out that he had a group with the same name! , Made in Brasil – only this name had been registered by him! As a result of this we changed our name to Som Brasil – this time registering our name and keeping quiet about the Made in Brasil thing! That really was a painful time – ‘muito’ painful…
With Som Brasil I also changed the format of the group once more. I had David Urban, then Art Davis [tp]; Peter O’Neill or Jim Galereto [ts, ss, fl]; Paulinho Garcia, then Kurt Bley ; Luiz Ewerling [ds]; Neusa [vox] and myself on piano. With this line-up I wanted to approach the sound of the Jazz Messengers, but playing Brasilian music. The band spent a number of years playing what I think was some really excellent music.
I think for me the future of [good] Brasilian music is… well, I’d like to have something good to say about it but it’s probably best to wait some more and keep our fingers crossed!