Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » MoFrancesco Quintetto: Maloca

4

MoFrancesco Quintetto: Maloca

By

Sign in to view read count
MoFrancesco Quintetto: Maloca
A maloca is an ancestral long house used by Indians in the Amazonian jungle to receive outsiders and exchange knowledge and ideas.

Italian bassist Francesco Valente became fascinated with the idea of the maloca on a trip to Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. A close perusal of the album cover reveals him doing a push-up between the M and the L of MALOCA at Uyuni, in Bolivia as a tropical storm looms.

Valente, 39, now lives in Lisbon, where he studied jazz bass at the Escola Superior de Musica and now studies ethnomusicology at the city's Universidade Nova. Through the latter he discovered classical composer Bela Bartok and the work he did to preserve the traditional music of his native Hungary.

When he formed a quintet featuring Guto Lucena, a Brazilian now living in Sweden, on saxophones and bass clarinet and Johannes Krieger, from Germany, on trumpet, Valente invited Bartok into the musical maloca they created.

This, the quintet's first album, features jazz versions of Bartok's "An Evening At The Village," "Ket Roman Tanc" and "Buciumeana-Romanian Folk Dances." They are all remarkably accessible, perhaps not that surprising. Bartok, while initially suspicious, took an interest in jazz, writing a concerto for violin and clarinet which was performed at Carnegie Hall in 1939 with Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti and Benny Goodman as soloists.

If all this makes Maloca sound like some kind of academic exercise: it ain't. The album really cooks right from the off, trumpeter Johannes Krieger's "Tjap Tjap Tjap," featuring fine work from the leader and Iuri Gaspar on piano.

The title song, as you might expect, is Latin-tinged and percussive with Gaspar's piano bringing to mind McCoy Tyner. It ends with a joyous yell of "Maloca!" Valente sees this as "an explosion of enthusiasm but also a defiant proclamation of how much better the world would be if all our houses were open to diversity."

Thinking man's music, Euro jazz/fusion at its very best: Bartok would have approved.

Track Listing

Tchap Tchap Tchap; Maloca; Hamsa; An Evening At The Village; Ket Roman Tanc; Buciumeana-Romanian Folk Dances; Naira; Soul.

Personnel

Francesco Valente: bass; Johannes Krieger: trumpet; Guto Lucena: reeds; Iuri Gaspar: piano; Miguel Moreira: drums.

Album information

Title: Maloca | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Art of Life Records

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Sensual
Rachel Z
Over and Over
Tony Monaco Trio
Love Is Passing Thru
Roberto Magris

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.