Az Samad Lessons

I have been a fan of the emotive guitar playing of Yamandu Costa ever since I first saw him play on the documentary, The Sound of Rio: Brasileirinho years ago when I was still living in California. Since then, it’s been fun to listen to his new projects over the years.

So, when I had the opportunity to check out this new record I was excited.

The album opens with a Yamandu Costa piece, Para Aprender A Amar. This sets the mood for the record as we get used to the nylon string guitar and piano combination establishes itself. The mix is pleasant and full (as expected with releases from the ACT record label), and the music is welcoming.

The second track Galliano brings the mood down while still keeping a nice hypnotic quality. There’s less a feeling of real showing off solos and much more about enveloping us in this sonic universe.

The next piece Fresu is another Jan Lundgren tune that features beautiful doublings of the melody from Lundgren and Costa. Yamandu Costa’s guitar solo here is minimalist and keeps to the themes of the piece. Going into Lundgren’s solo, it feels pretty much like a little melodic play before bringing back the theme of the piece.

Diplomata brings up the tempo slightly with a nice dance feel led by the guitar and supported nicely by the piano. This is a real example of how great both of these musicians play together as the blend is perfect. The solos here as really playful and fun throughout!

The peaceful atmostphere of Nina is relaxing. It’s great to hear the wide range of emotions that Yamandu Costa captures in his original compositions.

Breaking up the originals from the two performers, we then have an interpretation of Garoto by Antônio Carlos Jobim. The piano solo here is particularly a highlight from Lundgren.

Moving on we have Jan Lundgren’s Hannah which begins out of time but then moves into an nice groove. Again the pickup into the piano solo, this is probably the most exciting solo on the record so far. The guitar solo lines here are equally inspiring as well.

A Legrand by Yamandu Costa begins with a contemplative beautiful piano introduction that sets the mood for the piece. Once Yamandu begins to play the melody captures your attention with the emotiveness of it all. My favorite part is hearing when both of them harmonize the melody together.

Moving into Habanera, we get to hear a happy mellow piece with some nice harmonic surprises. The piano solo on this really makes me smile, and Yamandu does some cool movements in the accompaniment. The return to the theme is particularly attractive as well.

I always love a fun Choro and with Choro Para Paquito, we get some really cool interplay between the two musicians. There’s some humorous moments as well playful ones throughout… and love the lines especially during the canon or call & response bits towards the ending.

Summer Kind of Love begins slowly and the piece develops with a nice balance of musical (and tasteful) playing from both musicians. The middle part is cool when they solo together at the same time… again never really going far from the original thematic material. This really shows their experience in knowing how much to stretch a piece.

Uma Prece is the first of two Luiz Bonfa tunes on this record. Yamandu Costa’s solo on this is as some might describe as absolute “chef’s kiss”. Following that, Jan Lundgren’s short piano (solo?) is equally elegant as well before the recap the theme.

Nocturne paints a cross between a classical and musical theatre kind of feeling. This makes perfect sense since the song was first heard in the Swedish film “Sjösalavår” in 1949. This is a piece that I’ll probably learn at some point, and am glad I heard it here.

Closing the record is the Luiz Bonfa classic, Manha De Carnaval and it is interesting to hear the duo’s take on this. The danger of doing such a popular piece is figuring out how to make it different than all the previous versions that came before. Good thing with the duo, they chose a sparse conversational take on this. I like how little Lundgren plays which makes Costa’s guitar cut through beautifully during the first half. Later the chords fill up but rhythmically everything is still very spacious. You can really feel and enjoy the pulse of the piece. Also worth mentioning is that although there are improvised melodies, they tend to stay around the melody, which is nice.

All in all, this is a pleasant album to enjoy during a Sunday afternoon. It could have been a record based around virtuosic gymnastics, but instead these two masters chose to embrace absolutely musicality and storytelling through this marriage of their talents. And with this, we get to bask in this amazing work. What joy! Check out this album if you want to hear great musicians that put the music first above everything else. This is a sonic delight indeed.

Rating: 5/5

Find out about Jan Lundgren here: https://janlundgren.com/
Find out about Yamandu Costa here: https://yamandu.com.br/en/

Get this album here: https://janlundgren.bandcamp.com/album/inner-spirits

I received a complimentary copy of this album courtesy of Liam of Jazzfuel. Thank you for the CD.

About Jan Lundgren & Yamandu Costa

Pianist Jan Lundgren from Ystad in Sweden and guitarist Yamandu Costa, from Brazil’s southernmost province Rio Grande del Sur might seem an unlikely pairing, and the combination of guitar and piano is well known to be fraught with difficulty. But the collaborative af- finity of this duo, the chemistry which they have found through playing together, first in a handful of concerts, and now on this fine album, are something truly exceptional.

Lundgren and Costa are internationally outstanding representatives of their craft. “For Yamandu Costa, the guitar is a natural extension of his body and soul,” a critic has observed. Costa has six Latin Grammy nominations and one win to his name, and plays with an elegance, harmonic fluidity and a deep knowledge of Latin American music across a whole range of contexts from solo to working with symphony orchestras. Jan Lundgren has made a major con- tribution to the European jazz of the past two decades, not least through his role in the Mare Nostrum trio with Paolo Fresu and Richard Galliano. As Dave Gelly has written in The Observer (UK), what Mare Nostrum’s members have in common is“ a flair for melody and a similar lightness of touch, which makes their combined sound both delicate and irresistible.” Such are the virtues which Costa and Lundgren bring to their new endeavour together.