New Release: Carnaval from Antonio Adolfo

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Carnaval from Antonio Adolfo
Label:  AAM Music (Cat# AAM 0719)
Release Date:  July 11, 2025
Website:  https://antonioadolfomusic.com

Pianist, composer, and Brazilian jazz artist Antonio Adolfo garnered international acclaim for his reharmonization of both jazz standards and Brazilian songs.  He has reimagined Milton Nascimento, Antonio Carlos Jobim, bossa nova, samba, choro, and baião compositions with a jazz framework and bop-inspired improvisations, as well as finessing works by Cole Porter and Wayne Shorter with Brazilian-tinged interpretations. On his newest album, Carnaval, Adolfo once again applies his artistry for making sauve and debonair harmonies that lighten a room's mood and elevates its community.  The festive vibrations of “Vassourinhas” (Vassourinhas Carnaval Club) is a frevo, a vibrant Brazilian dance and music style that is performed at carnivals throughout Brazil.  Composed by Matias da Rocha and Joana Batista Ramos in 1909 as a tribute to a Carnaval club in the northeastern town of Recife, the song became an anthem of the Carnaval in that town. The song features flowery solos by tenor saxophonist Marcelo Martins and bubbly rivulets by Lula Galvao on guitar.  

Throughout the recording, Adolfo combines traditional elements of Brazilian music and jazz, merging vintage with modern, restoring the luster of the music performed at Brazil's Carnavals. “Mal-Me-Quer” (She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not) is a classic Carnaval song with a smooth fluid melody, adorned in delicate saxophone curls and blissful piano musings. Written in 1940, Adolfo arranged the piece as a ballad in the marcha-rancho style, a slow tempo bossa/marcha.  Adolfo shows an affinity for Carnaval music, capturing its melodic luster and uplifting spirit for audiences on the outside to enjoy.

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