Romero Lubambo - Sampa '2015

Tracks list

Not many musicians are more enthusiastic about performance and collaborations
than Romero Lubambo is. The virtuoso guitarist has been based in the United
States for decades but regularly makes it back to his native Brazil for
innumerable projects with musicians of all sorts. 

On one of these trips, Lubambo met drummer Thiago Rabello. The Rio de Janeiro
born Lubambo was greatly impressed by the percussionist from São Paulo during
a weeklong residency in Bahia. So when the guitarist was scheduled to perform in
São Paulo shortly thereafter, he naturally reached out to Rabello to be his
drummer and to help find a bassist. It was with the suggestion and addition of
Sidiel Vieira that Lubambo’s Brazilian trio became whole. 

In Rabello and Vieira, Lubambo found two musicians who are excellent players and
fantastic people. Upon his arrival in Brazil, Lubambo found that his trio mates
had not only learned his music but had memorized it, requiring only one
rehearsal before they were able to take their music on the road. The
trio’s rapport can be heard on their new recording Sampa, an energetic
and diverse program recorded in São Paulo (the title being a local
colloquialism for the city’s name) at Rabello’s recording studio. 

The recording features Lubambo mainly on acoustic nylon string guitar, though he
does record a couple of pieces with his solid body Les Paul, an instrument he
keeps in Brazil to play for his more electric guitar savvy fans. The music is a
mixture of Brazilian music, like bossa nova and forró, and jazz with a little
blues mixed in. 

The program begins with accordion legend Dominguinhos’s “Gostoso
Demais,” an incredibly popular song in Brazil that the trio plays in a
hazily insistent manner. The trio shows its dexterity on Mauricio Einhorn and
Durval Ferreira’s “Estamos Aí,” a fun piece from the bossa
nova era that’s title means “ready for anything.”
“Contrato De Separação” is a beautiful Dominguinhos
composition about trying to separate oneself from saudade, the nostalgic
longing, for someone who is gone, and is appropriately melancholy. The electric
guitar is in full swing on Lubambo’s “New Slash Blues,” a
grooving piece showing Lubambo’s unfiltered side. 

“Paquito In Bremen” is Lubambo’s moving tribute to friend and
woodwind maestro Paquito D’Rivera, revisited here in an expanded trio
setting. Lubambo’s “P’ro Flavio” is a spirited piece
written in the Baião style of northeastern Brazil for the guitarist’s
super supportive father. The lovely “Nature’s Beauty” was
written by Lubambo and his wife, Pamela Driggs, for their then three year-old
daughter. The electric guitar is back on the second line flavored “Dipper
Mouth,” a tune from the pen of Lubambo’s “American
father,” Herbie Mann. 

“Luisa” is another moving lilting tribute to Lubambo’s
daughter that he wrote more recently. Lubambo and Paulo Cesar Pinheiro’s
dedication to Brazilian legend João Donato, “For Donato,”
utilizes a Brazilian meets Latin rhythm that the pianist has used throughout his
storied career. The album concludes with another touching ballad entitled
“Song For Kaya,” which the guitarist wrote many years ago while on
tour with Harry Belafonte. 

Guitarist Romero Lubambo regularly makes music that moves listeners with its
soul and effervescence. Thus, his meeting with two incredible São Paulo based
musicians, Thiago Rabello and Sidiel Vieira, on their new recording Sampa is
inspiring and exciting. 

Romero Lubambo - guitar 
Sidiel Vieira - bass 
Thiago Rabello - drums

Tracklist:
01. Romero Lubambo - Gostoso demais (4:25)
02. Romero Lubambo - Estamos aí (4:40)
03. Romero Lubambo - Contrato de separação (4:16)
04. Romero Lubambo - New Slash Blues (4:28)
05. Romero Lubambo - Paquito In Bremen (for Paquito D’Rivera) (4:15)
06. Romero Lubambo - P’Ro Flavio (for My Father) (6:28)
07. Romero Lubambo - Nature’s Beauty (4:18)
08. Romero Lubambo - Dipper Mouth (4:40)
09. Romero Lubambo - Luisa (for My Daughter) (3:27)
10. Romero Lubambo - For Donato (for João Donato) (6:06)
11. Romero Lubambo - Song for Kaya (4:42)

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