MESTRE AMBROSIO – CD 7527

Music-lovers from outside Brazil usually identify the country musically with the samba, the highlight of Carnaval each year, a cultural product imported to Rio de Janeiro from Salvador in the early twentieth century, and adopted as a national symbol by the government of Getulio Vargas in the 30’s and 40s. But Brazil, a large country with a heritage of more than 500 years since its colonization, has musical roots that are deep and various, and nowhere more so than in the Northeast, where the Portuguese arrived first. If a composer wants to evoke Brazil, he draws upon the folk music of the Northeast -particularly Paraiba and Pernambuco.

            The musical group known as Mestre Ambrosio (“Mestre”, or master, is the honorific given to a skilled musician) is based in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco. The group was formed in 1992, and recorded its first CD in 1995, which was produced by pop star Lenine. Unlike Lenine’s music, where more mainstream musical sounds are flavored with Northeastern idioms, Mestre Ambrosio is much closer to back-country Northeastern roots, with a stripped-sound style based on the rabeca (a folk-violin which dates to Portuguese borrowings from Muslim invaders in the middle ages), with percussion. Lots of percussion – the photo on the CD shows the lone rabeca (played by Siba) with no fewer than five percussion instruments. On occasion you may hear an electric guitar or bass – but the music rocks without these. The groove is infectious, and the lyrics amusing or hilarious, with a deadpan delivery by lead singer Siba. Once this disc hits your CD player, it will stay there.

Official site (Portuguese only): http://www2.uol.com.br/mestreambrosio/

-Tom Moore