Paul Harrison: ‘Encontros’

Brazil comes to Britain and spills over around the rest of the world in the hands of pianist Paul Harrison as he celebrates the music of Brazilian genius Egberto Gismonti.

Paul Harrison is based in Scotland but he felt himself drawn to the compositions and playing of the Brazilian Egberto Gismonti. In Encontros, he has brought a new collection with his ensemble Trio Mágico, which was formed specifically to bring this project to stage and recording.

Harrison says: “The music got under my skin. I was particularly taken by the fact  that Gismonti offered alternatives to samba and bossa nova, much though I like these  styles, and that he was showing that Brazil had so much more music and so many  rhythms. Each piece presented a challenge but in a good way and I quickly grew to love the diversity involved.”

The musicians gathered for Encontros have a rich global mixture of cultures and traditions. Trio Mágico features Harrison (piano) with Scottish-based Brazilian Mario Lima Caribe (bass) and Stu Brown (drums). Together they have released this album with guest appearances from Edmundo Carneiro (percussion), Laura Macdonald (sax), Rachel Lightbody (vocals), Sua-Le (cello) and Fraser Fifield (whistle).

The selection of tracks is inspired, with each one conveying a different aspect of Brazilian music that goes far beyond the rhythms which most of us would recognise. Lightbody’s vocals on Loro have a lightness and intricacy that particularly works alongside the percussion and Harrison’s own piano.

Harrison switches it up as he moves to melodica for the upbeat and bouncy Karate that plays rhythmic tricks on the listener.

The vocals are inspired again on Bianca, as they float around Fifield’s whistle on a track that seems to bring Brazil and Scotland together particularly well.

In the end the closing track of Encontros is the perfectly brief A Fala Da Paixão (the speech of passion). Egberto Gismonti says of the album: “it has humour, has grace, has freedom to play.” Nowhere is that more true than in this tune as the final notes fade to silence.