Azymuth JID004

Revered Brazilian jazz-funk trio Azymuth continue to amaze, as much for their longevity (they came together in 1972) and productivity (they’ve released over two dozen albums) as for their remarkable ability to reinvent and stay current. The London-based Far Out label can take much credit for helping the ageless genre-blending samba doida (‘crazy samba’) group curry favour with a remix-friendly club-floor audience, and here bassist Alex Malheiros, percussionist Ivan Conti and synthesizer wizard Kiko Continenti – who in 2012 replaced founding keyboard player, the late José Roberto Bertrami – continue to push at the boundaries of all things samba. Here, ingeniously teamed with rap-and-soul fusionists and producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest), Azymuth springboard off their template – electronic instruments, angular arrangements and trademark combinations of jazz, funk, rock and samba – into new territory woozy with beats, infused with light and space and with synchronicity at a premium.

Tracks composed by Younge and Muhammad with and without Azymuth are mellow yet brisk, laid-back but funky, experimental and accessible, and playful while packing a punch. Added guitars, flutes, percussion and horns blend with keyboards including, on standout track ‘Sumaré’, the monophonic synthesizer and electro-mechanical Mellotron. Analogue synths wheel and a marimba chimes patterns on ‘Cat Jump’ and ‘Pulando Corda’; throughout, both generations seem to be having a ball.