Eumir Deodato
“Os Catedráticos 73”
originally released 1973
This reissue 2008 on Atração Fonográfica (ATR41066)
This album is no stranger to the blogosphere, being posted about on quite a few blogs featuring Brazilian music and rare groove delights. This post highlights a recent reissue on the label Atração Fonográfica that has given us a new remastering and fancy fold-out digipack graphic design, the same they have used for their other Deodato issues. I suspect that this album is so popular among rare groove enthusiasts because it has the same musical sensibility of post-bossa Brazilian jazz fusion infused with North American soul and funk that characterized his more famous recordings for CTI, but here they shine completely free of the sterile and sterilizing production prison of Creed Taylor. One other difference, however, is that Deodato almost exclusively plays the Hammond organ on this disc, with some occasional electric and acoustic pianos hanging back in the mix on a few cuts. An ignorant reviewer at AMG (which I realize is a redundant phrase..) talks about this record as some revolutionary marriage of the organ with Brazilian music that hadn’t been done before, which is of course utter bullshit — Walter Wanderley and Ed Lincoln were exploring this territory long before Sr.Eumir. But Deodato definitely takes the funky factor up a notch, and also incorporates the rhythms and cadence of other Latin American musical traditions — something he most definitely picked up in multicultural North America, and *not* in Brazil. And like all of Deodato’s work, there is a dose of “lounge” in the sound that is either an asset or a detriment depending on your orientation, but this album manages to swing pretty hard even when it gets ‘light,’ and anyone in their right mind has to give props for the arranging skills shown here. It should be mentioned that Os Catedráticos was also the name of a jazz-bossa combo that Deodato put together in the 60s, but as far as I can tell this record is a total reinvention with completely different musicians involved.The lineup on this album is rather crowded and confusing, so I have taken the liberty of using Doug Payne’s breakdown of it which is the most thorough I have seen, albeit a little tricky to read. It’s worth noting the presence of drummer Mamão from Azymuth and percussionist Orlandivo. Payne has also given a release history of the various labels this has appeared on (minus this more recent reissue on Atração). The album has also been issued as ‘Skyscrapers’ in some countries, with different song titles in English, and there has been at least one bootleg version on vinyl with the original cover according to Discogs.com. Note also the writing credits on two tracks to the Brothers Valle.
from the website of dougpayne.com
Eumir Deodato (p,org,arr,cond); Durval Ferreira (g, el-g); Zé Menezes (12 string g); Sergio Barroso (el-b); Ivan Conti (Mamão) (d); Bebeto (cga); Helcio Milito, Orlandivo (perc).
overdubbed in New York City: September and October 1972
Marvin Stamm, John Frosk (tp,flhrn); Phil Bodner (ts, c-flute); Romeo Penque (bs, g-flute); Eumir Deodato (el-p,arr,cond).a. Arranha Céu (Skyscrapers) (Eumir Deodato) – 4:49
b. Flap (Marcos Valle/Paulo Sergio Valle) – 3:17
c. Rodando Por Aí (Rudy’s) (Eumir Deodato) – 3:09
d. O Jogo (Soccer Game) (Pacífico Mascarenhas) – 2:28
e. Atire A 1a Pedra (aka The First Stone) (Ataulfo Alves-Mário Lago) – 3:18
f. Puma Branco (The White Puma) (aka Elizeth)
(Marcos Valle/Paulo Sergio Valle) – 3:30
g. Passarinho Diferente (The Bird) (aka The Byrd) (Eumir Deodato) – 1:52
h. Extremo Norte (The Gap) (Eumir Deodato) – 3:52
i. Tô Fazendo Nada (Down The Hill) (Eumir Deodato) – 2:55
j. Menina (Boy Meets Girl) (Eumir Deodato) – 3:10
k. Carlota & Carolina (Carly & Carole) (Eumir Deodato) – 3:12Issues: a-k on Equipe (Br) EQS 100.001, Ubatuqui (Sp) UBCD-105 [CD], Bomba (Jap) BOM-22068 [CD]. a-k also on Irma (It) 509563-1, Irma (It) 509563-2 [CD] titled SKYSCRAPERS.
Samplers: b & f also on Irma (It) 507901-2 [CD] titled SUMMER SAMBA.
Producer: Eumir Deodato. Executive Producer: Oswaldo Cadaxo (Equipe (Br) EQS 100.001). Eumir Deodato, Arnaldo DeSouteiro. Executive Producer: Carl Rosenthal (Ubatuqui (Sp) UBCD-105 [CD], Bomba (Jap) BOM-22068 [CD], Irma (It) 509563-1, Irma (It) 509563-2 [CD]).
Engineer: Ary Perdigão & Walter, George Klabin
password: vibes
Thanks, F.–somehow I've gone this long without hearing this recording. That's a harsh assessment of Joe S., though, isn't it? I mean, I guess my take on the guy is somewhat like my take on Caetano: a douche, maybe, but the good he's done seems to outweigh the harm. The guy's catalogue is a herculean feat, whether or not you agree with his judgments. I've leaned on his guide more than I'd care to admit, even though I disagree with him in a lot of cases.
password:
vibes
naw, I'll stand by my assessment. Caetano actually possesses creativity. Joe S.`s legacy is being one of those guys with the same college radio show for thirty years. The reviews are shallow, the music decontextualized, and when you think about it his catalog isn't particularly impressive in 2010 for anyone with access to a computer. It used to be one of the only English-language resources around for Brazilian music, but that was a long long time ago and it mostly sucked even then. I had imagined that the rise of Loronix was going to put an endto Joe S.`s misrepresentations of Brazilian music. Apparently it hasn't. I haven't dropped by there more than twice in the last two years and both those by accident — today I was looking for more complete release info on this titled and before settling on the (ever-coherent and informed, even when I don`t agree with him) Doug Payne, I unfortunately saw that J.S.P had a blurb about this one.
I have the Irma reissue of this album, with terrible artwork (see also Los danseros, reissued by Irma as well). Other than that, it's great music, you can't go wrong with Deodato anyway. Note that all songs from this album are available on YouTube, check out my Deodato playlist.
Toni, give this one a try, I am pretty happy with the audio on these Atração releases as well. They get it right, generally
Hey Flabber, the two files has the same size? Besides, the "FLAC" file don't download. What's wrong?
Thanks for this, F. I look forward to hearing it. This is a Deodato I haven't yet heard.
The flac link is the same as the mp3 link, though.
`Twas a simple cutting and pasting error my friends. sorry. Flac is
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OWNM6NOQ
I love the hammond on this, thanks flabbergast 🙂
Youngblood, you are one of the coolest dudes with and old soul's sensibilities. I have over fifteen hundred cd's and I can't get to them because what little time I have for r*cording music on my hardrive, I'm on your site! Irmãozinho, today I did my due diligence! Obrigado meu amigo!
I purchased the Ubatuqui reissue back in 2001 & the liner notes written by Deodato had a very interesting comment from him. He stated that the electric bass guitar had finally come into its own and that he decided to use it for this session. This is quite a statement. This is 1972. It took him this long to finally replace the up-right bass with an electric one? Such is the march of progress.
If you want proof of what I mean about Deodato's statement about finally including the electric bass on a session in 1972, then listen to "Barra Limpa" from 1967 by Luiz Henrique for Verve U.S. Luiz is busting out the electric bass in '67.
I don`t need any proof, JT, I trust you. Hell, you could list any number of Latin-soul and Latin jazz albums that had electric bass on them before 1970, but what I`m really curious about now is — Didn`t Deodato himself use electric bass somewhere before 73? He had already recorded for CTI by then.. Is it possible his memory/brain-cells are a bit confused?
I think he is sincere about his statement. The upright bass had been the standard for most of the history of Jazz, but Rock styles were not about upright bass. The electric bass influence is a rock style. Also, electric bass has more punch when properly recorded to tape. By 1972 Rock was exerting a big influence on recorded sound. Even if this is a Jazz outing, it is recorded in the era of Rock and its domination.