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LP
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AR 187LP
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Tum Tum Tum is the eighth album from London-based Brazilian artist Marcelo Frota aka MOMO., featuring guest appearances from Brazilian bossa nova legend Marcos Valle and Smoke City's Nina Miranda as well as UK jazz trombonist Rosie Turton and his tight-knit band, all recorded in South London. This is a free-flowing, warm, expansive and fully assured album, and exudes a playfulness and a sense of someone who is truly in their element and at peace when writing and recording. Recorded in South London, the album captures a band deeply attuned to one another. Drummer Thomas Broda and percussionist Jim Le Mesurier play together in the same room, shaping a physical pulse that runs through the record. Long-standing collaborators Regis Damasceno on bass and Caetano Malta on guitar bring depth and precision, while UK jazz trombonist Rosie Turton adds expressive lift throughout. The arrangements remain open and responsive, with space, feel, and attention guiding each track forward rather than click tracks or studio polish. Lead track "Egum Eô" is a wonderfully Afro-Brazilian opening and sets the scene perfectly with MOMO.'s vocal sounding much like the album's title Tum Tum Tum, pushing the positivity sky-high in unison with a gorgeous horn hook. The broken groove slowly rolls in like a curling surf-perfect wave before the band all join the jam, leaving the listener joyfully entranced. Guest appearances from Brazilian MPB legend Marcos Valle and Smoke City's Nina Miranda speak to a body of work shaped through enduring artistic relationships. MOMO.'s connection with Valle goes back several years, to his time with former band Fino Coletivo and a live recording in Rio de Janeiro. With Nina Miranda, a London-based friendship and creative partnership that grew over years of performance together finds its recorded form in "Canto de Aldeia," a track that, in MOMO.'s words, "celebrates our friendship.". Miranda sings in English in an almost Jacqui McShee style, evoking real nostalgia against the band's steady rhythm and dreamy strings. Tum Tum Tum feels assured and alive, music shaped by travel, time and accumulated experience. It carries the confidence of an artist who understands that continuity is its own form of strength. Twenty years and eight albums in, MOMO. continues forward with clarity and intent.
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2LP
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BTR 102LP
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London has a bright new Brazilian talent in town, who goes by the name of MOMO. One of the recent generation of artists influenced by the Brazilian classics, from 1970s tropicália, Os Mutantes, and Milton Nascimento. MOMO. releases his seventh album Gira, on Batov Records bringing together some very special musicians and guests from London's bustling and hustling jazz community, with fellow Brazilian artists, recorded and cut to tape at East London's Total Refreshment Center. A journeying collaboration which effortlessly swings, guided by Marcelo Frota's soft yet reassuringly familiar vocal, with ruminative and explorative brass twists, Gira was recorded with friends and guests including Alabaster DePlume on tenor sax (in whose band Marcelo toured), Jessica Lauren on keys, Tamar Osborn on baritone sax, Nick 'Emanative' Woodmansey on drums, Carwyn Ellis of Rio 18 fame on piano, Magnus Mehta from Penya on percussion and Caetano Malta on bass. Gira is MOMO.'s first album recorded in London. His debut from 2006, A Estética do Rabisco, was named one of the best albums of the year by the Chicago Reader and set Marcelo's musical path in motion. His singer-songwriting talents have already earned him plaudits from royalty like Patti Smith and David Byrne and he was invited to participate in A Tribute to Caetano to mark the 70th birthday of Brazilian musical legend, Caetano Veloso. Gira is a new departure for MOMO. While previous albums have always started with guitar and voice, Gira begins with the groove -- yet succeeds sublimely in balancing this new emphasis on spontaneous improvisation and songwriting. "Life brought me to London and I think I've made my lightest album; it could only have been created here," he says. When Brazil meets London, you can't help but move to the groove. For fans of: Sessa, Caetano, Veloso, Alabaster DePlume, Bala Desejo.
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