Sao Paulo Underground

Beija Flors Velho E Sujo is the fourth album by São Paulo Underground. The trio formed around Rob Mazurek (cornet and electronics), a key player in the Chicago post rock/modern jazz scene who spent several years living in the Brazil and developing a music that reflected those experiences. While in Brazil he met the co-founder of the group, Mauricio Takara (drums, cavaquinho (the 'miniature guitar' of Brazil), electronics). Performing as a duo, they soon brought in the group's third member, Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics, samplers). Each of the musicians is an example of the new vanguard in music; Rob in contemporary jazz and forward-looking rock and the 2 Brazilian musicians in updating and modernizing Brazilian musical forms.
 
The album has a huge, modern sound which launches Brazil's "Tropicalia' into a new, heavily electronic milieu. SPU is a power trio and a post-modern orchestra rolled into one, marked by glistening sonic textures, seductive eletronica beats, unabashedly beautiful melodies, an expansive improvisational palette and fiercely gleeful interplay. A potent program of new material honed during a 2012 North American tour, Beija Flors captures an ensemble hitting a fierce creative stride.  Ecstatic, roiling and utterly unpredictable, the music flows from three distinct musical personalities united by “the idea of infinite love, the idea of breaking through to the other side through sonic power and beauty,” says Mazurek, a veteran disrupter of genre conventions.

TRACKS:
01. Ol’ Dirty Hummingbird
02. Into the Rising Sun
03. ArNus NusAr
04. Over the Rainbow
05. Evetch
06. Six-Handed Casio
07. The Love I Feel For You Is More Real Than Ever
08. Basilio's Crazy Wedding Song
09. A árvore de Cereja é Ausente
10. Taking Back the Sea Is No Easy Task