Live Music: Tudo É Som: Brazil, Jazz and the genius of Hermeto Pascoal - Triskel, Cork

4/5

This third concert in an innovative and adventurous series at the Triskel featuring, and curated by, the England-born, Ireland-based pianist Phil Ware joyously celebrated the many connections between Brazilian music and jazz.

Bringing together seven musicians from, as he described it, “the four corners of my address book”, Ware presented an international ensemble made up of such stellar Irish players as the great bassist Ronan Guilfoyle, versatile drummer Sean Carpio, rising saxophonist Matthew Halpin, and virtuoso accordion player Dermot Dunne.

They were joined by Venezuelan guitarist Orlando Molina, above, German-French vocalist Marie Séférian, and trumpet and flugelhorn player Miguel Gorodi, whose roots lie in Spain, England and Hungary.

It was a group, led by Ware on piano and Fender Rhodes, more than suited to the myriad styles and possibilities inherent in Brazilian music — in particular, as played in the first half of the evening, such much-loved forms as samba and bossa nova. These were songs with a certain laid-back lightness of touch, a sense of space and air; “Cool,” crooned Ware, at the end of an Antônio Carlos Jobim song that featured the scat singing of an engaging Séférian.

The concert’s second half was dedicated to the extraordinary music of the maverick, self-taught, 79-year-old composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, a unique and inspirational figure in Brazilian music.

Taking on compositions renowned for the breakneck speed of their melodies, the density of their rhythms, and the sheer scale of their ambition, Ware’s group, playing much of this music for the first time, seemed somehow more liberated — perhaps by the free spirit of Pascoal himself.

These compositions were at once more traditional and modern, more complex and open, more serious and playful.

It was like listening to samba played by Sun Ra or Frank Zappa.

On another wild, wet and windy Irish winter night, this was wonderfully sunny and sophisticated music, aided by Ware’s smart arrangements, that put a smile on your face — and, judging by those around me, a certain sway in your shoulders.

Philip Watson