BRB - The James Brady Ed Rice Brazilian Project @ Gala Studio 1, Durham - April 23

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

James Brady (trumpet, flugelhorn, melodica, percussion); Ed Rice (piano)

Originally billed as the Brady/Rice Boss Nova Project, the billing was changed three days before the concert to Brazilian Project. This prompted me to see what jazz reference books had to say about Brazilian jazz and in particular bossa nova. In their programme notes James and Ed describe the project as “building on their shared love of Brazilian music and Brazilian jazz in particular ….. focussing on their shared interests in in-the-moment improvisational playfulness”.  

(© Malcolm Sinclair)

Bossa nova, they go on to say, “has long formed an important part of the jazz repertoire but in Europe has rarely been given the attention it deserves”. The last part interested me and I was surprised to see the Brian Priestley entry in the Rough Guide to Jazz, and similar mentions in the Penguin Guide to Jazz CD as well as by French writer Franck Bergerot, referring to bossa nova as an 'easy listening' strand of jazz deriving from west coast cool. This would confirm the Euro-centrism James and Ed seek to rescue it from.

So I approached Friday’s concert at the Gala in Durham with inquisitive curiosity. The audience was smaller than usual, perhaps reflecting an uncertainty at what was on the menu, but there was repeated warmth in the response the duo received and many generous complements afterwards. Certainly they were not treated to ‘easy listening’, if by that is meant music that is little more than simple tunes and comfortable melodies, but this is not to say that James and Ed’s music was difficult to listen to and not requiring reflection and engagement.

Nevertheless James and Ed opened - as if to reassure the audience with the familiar - Tom Jobim’s Desafinado, James’ flugel statement and Ed’s piano accompaniment and subsequent soloing by both fully exploring the possibilities of the composition. This pattern was followed on most of the pieces, Ed and James taking turns to introduce the music and take the lead on the composition. James switched on some numbers to trumpet and on others to melodica, the latter certainly giving a different dimension to the music. James also added accompaniment on various Latin percussion instruments when not blowing his horns or melodica.

Tom Jobim (and Vinicius de Moraes) featured on several pieces in the programme (although not all were played because of the one hour concert time limit).   Other composers featured were Wayne Shorter (Beauty and the Beast, from the 1974 Native Dancer album), Eliane Elias (An up Dawn from her Dance in Time) and Oscar Castro-Neves’ Felicia and Bianca. In addition one of the two pieces by James (Hermeto’s Tune) was a tribute to multi-instrumentalist and composer Hermeto Pascoal, the other (Armchair Traveller), a playful piece, perhaps reflecting James taking flight from his sitting room to the excitement of musical expression in Brazil. The Castro-Neves number was their last full exploration of a tune, but they finished as they started, with the familiar, a quick (and pacy) run-through on Jobim’s (now jazz classic) Chega de Saudade.

Throughout the musicians interacted fluently, responding readily and inventively to each other’s prompts and ideas and new iterations of melody.  The duo format has its limitations for musicians, and it will be interesting to see how the project develops. James and Ed are to play in quartet format at the Glasgow Jazz Festival later this year. Certainly it felt as if the musical experience and the possibilities of the project would be considerably enhanced by the addition of a guitar or bass and a dedicated percussionist. Brian E

Desafinado, Beauty and the Beast, An Up Dawn, Luiza, Fotografia, Hermeto’s Tune, Armchair Traveller, Felicia and Bianca, Chega de Saudade.