Brazilian pianist and composer Amaro Freitas is from the city of Recife, on the northeastern edge of Brazil, a city rooted in African culture. But his latest album, Y’Y, looks in a different direction. The title, spelled Y’Y, is an indigenous Amazonian word for river, and the album is celebration of nature in its musical journey down the Amazon - the water, the rainforest, the Indigenous people of the region, and the exotic wildlife. There’s also perhaps a warning that our connection to nature is more important than we may think. Freitas found that the usual piano sounds weren’t always enough, and enhances his sonic palette by preparing the piano and playing the insides for his visionary and futuristic decolonized Brazilian jazz. For example, in his piece, “Uiara,” an Indigenous name for the pink river dolphins of the Amazon, Freitas uses an electric magnet to bow some strings inside the instrument, and uses adhesive tape to give other strings a more earthy sound. Elsewhere, there are plucked strings and an echo-laden rattle as his polyrhythms shake the body of the piano - “it’s as though my left hand is Africa and my right hand is Europe,” he recently told The New York Times. “Trying to rescue things that came before coloniality," he notes, is a theme that has been woven into Freitas's work for years, (National Sawdust). While his connection to the earth and the ancestors is an undercurrent on the record Y'Y, there is also a strong connection to and showcasing of the global Black avant-jazz community, as he recorded with woodwind and flute virtuoso Shabaka Hutchings (London), harpist Brandee Younger (New York), bassist Aniel Someillan (of Cuban descent), along with guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Hamid Drake (Chicago). For this live set in the studio, Amaro has prepared our piano and performs some of these works live. - Caryn Havlik Program #4979, From Soundcheck: Amaro Freitas (First aired 2/17/2025) ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Y'Y [1:00]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Uiara/Viva Naná [11:41]RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Oct. 2024SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy | https://amarofreitas.com/ ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Angico [6:34]RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Oct. 2024SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://amarofreitas.com/ ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Glorioso (featuring Brandee Younger) [1:35]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Y'Y [:39]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Dança dos Martelos [9:50]RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Oct. 2024SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy | https://amarofreitas.com/ ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Sonho Ancestral [:30]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy ARTIST: Luis Gonzaga WORK: Asa Branca [:30]RECORDING: O Nordeste na Voz de Luiz GonzagaSOURCE: RCA Records LabelINFO: Available at AppleMusic, Spotify, YouTube. ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Sonho Ancestral [4:41]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy
Brazilian pianist and composer Amaro Freitas is from the city of Recife, on the northeastern edge of Brazil, a city rooted in African culture. But his latest album, Y’Y, looks in a different direction. The title, spelled Y’Y, is an indigenous Amazonian word for river, and the album is celebration of nature in its musical journey down the Amazon - the water, the rainforest, the Indigenous people of the region, and the exotic wildlife. There’s also perhaps a warning that our connection to nature is more important than we may think. Freitas found that the usual piano sounds weren’t always enough, and enhances his sonic palette by preparing the piano and playing the insides for his visionary and futuristic decolonized Brazilian jazz. For example, in his piece, “Uiara,” an Indigenous name for the pink river dolphins of the Amazon, Freitas uses an electric magnet to bow some strings inside the instrument, and uses adhesive tape to give other strings a more earthy sound. Elsewhere, there are plucked strings and an echo-laden rattle as his polyrhythms shake the body of the piano - “it’s as though my left hand is Africa and my right hand is Europe,” he recently told The New York Times.
“Trying to rescue things that came before coloniality," he notes, is a theme that has been woven into Freitas's work for years, (National Sawdust). While his connection to the earth and the ancestors is an undercurrent on the record Y'Y, there is also a strong connection to and showcasing of the global Black avant-jazz community, as he recorded with woodwind and flute virtuoso Shabaka Hutchings (London), harpist Brandee Younger (New York), bassist Aniel Someillan (of Cuban descent), along with guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Hamid Drake (Chicago). For this live set in the studio, Amaro has prepared our piano and performs some of these works live. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4979, From Soundcheck: Amaro Freitas (First aired 2/17/2025)
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Y'Y [1:00]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Uiara/Viva Naná [11:41]RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Oct. 2024SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy | https://amarofreitas.com/
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Angico [6:34]RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Oct. 2024SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://amarofreitas.com/
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Glorioso (featuring Brandee Younger) [1:35]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Y'Y [:39]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Dança dos Martelos [9:50]RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Oct. 2024SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy | https://amarofreitas.com/
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Sonho Ancestral [:30]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy
ARTIST: Luis Gonzaga WORK: Asa Branca [:30]RECORDING: O Nordeste na Voz de Luiz GonzagaSOURCE: RCA Records LabelINFO: Available at AppleMusic, Spotify, YouTube.
ARTIST: Amaro FreitasWORK: Sonho Ancestral [4:41]RECORDING: Y'YSOURCE: Psychic HotlineINFO: https://amarofreitas.bandcamp.com/album/yy