Review | Songlines

Collab

Rating: ★★★★

View album and artist details

Album and Artist Details

Artist/band:

Hamilton de Holanda & Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Label:

Sony Music Brazil

November/2024

Afro-Cuban pianist Rubalcaba and Brazilian mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda combine to play this impeccable hour of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz, as well as taking in traditional choro, samba and bossa nova. It's always interesting to listen to music that doesn't have bass and drums: you end up just concentrating on the interplay between the two instruments, and there is no denying how well this is played. I also wonder how much of it is improvised; on ‘Blues Lundvall’ it does sound like there's some instantaneous composition at play, while in ‘Mandalagh’, you hear the instruments closely chasing each other around. The array of sounds Hamilton gets from his mandolin is impressive – you can almost see his fingers running up and down the frets, making it sound like a cavaquinho or the jazz guitar of Django Reinhardt. The pair are also joined by harmonica player Gabriel Grossi for a rousing interpretation of Stevie Wonder's ‘Don't You Worry a ’Bout a Thing’.

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