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Artist
TGB
12+ albums
jazzguitartubapercussiongammarec
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TubaGuitarra&Bateria Carolino/Delgado/Frazao (2004) By Derek Taylor Western improvised music has long prized the possibilities that arise out of conjoining potentially dissimilar elements. Strange-seeming instrumental unions have now almost become the norm. Oboe, harp and drums. Sopranino, mandolin and contrabass. Odds are if you can conjure up a particular assemblage of instruments in your mind's eye, precedence exists for improvisors putting it into practice. TGB is a felicitous case in point, the acronym representing the three principle constituents of their sound eponymous to the disc (guitarist Mário Delgado doubles on dobro and drummer Alexandre Frazāo also plays melodica). Their fleet style of interplay subverts the potentially cumbersome nature of their instrumentation. In both form and content it brings the spirit of Muhammad Ali's most famous mantra to mind. Ten cuts make for an expeditious program of music, lean and relatively free of congestion. Most of the tracks rely on infectious melodic hooks, bouncy syncopated grooves and rapid switchbacks in tempo as springboards for spontaneity. Quixotic solos are a common part of the recipe too, starting as each man sounds off on the opening Frazāo number “Pipa Baquígrafo,” a piece that interpolates thematic kernels of Ellington's “Take the Coltrane” into its structure. Carolino negotiates his weighty brass beast with agility more customary to euphonium or slide trombone, and there are points when the speed of his phrasi
