Amaro Freitas in recital
Sale Apollinee
Amaro Freitas piano
Amaro Freitas is a Brazilian jazz pianist and composer whose sound is rooted in the folk and ceremonial rhythms and harmonies from his country’s northern region. His 2016 debut, Sangue Negro, showcased a percussive approach to the instrument that prizes the Afro-Brazilian maracatu rhythm, the high-intensity carnival rhythms of frevo and baião, the bop innovations of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and the post-bop and modal sounds of John Coltrane. 2018’s Rasif employed baiao and a particularly Brazilian strain of post-bop that swung so hard it sounded like dance music. 2021’s Sankofa showcased an even more expansive aspect of his compositional approach as he revisioned Brazil’s historic folk styles and rhythms through the refracted lens of modern jazz
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2024’s Y’Y offered solo pieces and select collaborations in compositions inspired by the pianist/composer’s 4,600 km journey to Manaus, the capital city of Amazonas.
Continuing to intwine ancestral knowledge into his music, Amaro Freitas brings his fresh, “decolonized” interpretation of jazz. With his new album Y’Y Freitas steps into a new realm of musical creation that’s rooted in magic, possibility, and stewardship for the earth, changing what the genre can be
