In the specialized, technically challenging world of chromatic jazz harmonica, the tradition’s pillars generally boil down to a reliable short list: reigning king Toots Thielemans, upstart Gregoire Maret and the always tasteful and nimble German-born Hendrik Meurkens, a talent deserving wider recognition. His new Brazilian-themed project is more than an exotic musical holiday: Meurkens digs deeply into the harmonic traditions and a complementary blend of melodic sensuality and virtuosity.
Meurkens expresses himself with a flowing, natural Rio brio alongside guitar-wielding Brazilians Oscar Castro-Neves (also the coproducer) and Dori Caymmi and other Brazilian players, with clarinet cameos by Cuban Paquito D’Rivera. The material ranges from Meurkens’ own sleek originals (the lovely “Mountain Drive,” the up samba “The Peach”–a la Thielemans’ “Bluesette”) to a handful of Jobim jewels, including the sultry “Ela e Carioca” and “Piano na Mangueira,” which ends the set in a festive spirit, its brisk tempo giving vent to the harpman’s mastery of bebop-inflected phrases.
Related Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro