The Twisted Move: Thiago França

Thiago França: saxophonist, flautist, side-man extraordinaire, and one active recording artist. Not including the numerous side sessions he does, França is a leader/co-leader of five groups (Metá Metá, MarginalS, Sambanzo, Space Charanga, A Espetacular Charanga do França) in addition to his solo works. MarginalS is his modern jazz group, Sambanzo focuses on Afro-Brazilian jazz, Space Charanga on Brazilian jazz, and A Espetacular Charanga on Brazil’s brass band traditions. Those distinctions sometimes obscure the breadth of França’s talent, but they also allow him to zero in on specific aspects of Brazil’s rich jazz and horn tradition to which he gives his own spin. (I’ll review Metá Metá, which he co-leads with Kiko Dinucci and Juçara Marçal, later.)

All recordings can be downloaded for free (via Mediafire) from França’s website.

Thiago França, Na Gafieira (2009) – If someone claimed this debut was a B+, I’d disagree, but wouldn’t object. The playing is strong. França establishes himself well as the focal point without obscuring the contributions of the supporting musicians, and the songs are fine in the background. Well, they would be if you were eating at a restaurant. And there’s the objection. For all the strengths, there’s a blandness to the overall project. Pleasant, but not engaging. Lively, but not so much as you’d be pulled out from what you are doing to listen. Classicism as comfort rather than dragging the past into the present to remind us why it mattered. In other words, again, restaurant music. Now where’s a churrascaria, which I’m suddenly craving? Grade: C+

Sambanzo, Sambanzo EP (2010) – The stilted classicism of the debut is gone, replaced by four lively Brazilian jazz tracks drawing rhythms from across the Caribbean. Juçara Marçal provides a nice guest vocal on “Faraê”. Here França shows that he’s not just a guy who plays a mean horn, but can—with his writing, arranging and selection of bandmates—provide those skills a compelling musical context. Grade: B (original grade = B+)

MarginalS, MarginalS (2011) – Teaming with bassist Marcelo Cabral and drummer Tony Gordin, França leaves the classical and Brazilian behind for a more modern, edgier sound. Cabral’s elastic bass and França’s space sax are often filtered through electronic distortions. (Sometimes França plays an EWI, electronic wind instrument, that sounds more like a keytar, I mean keyboard, than a reed.) Gordin tends to click, pop and roll rather than swing or rock, which means Cabral is left to anchor the songs and move them forward. Sometimes they get a nice groove going (“Parte 1, Parte 2”, “Parte 2, Parte 2”), but elsewhere atmospherics that never get pretty (or ugly) enough fail to maintain the momentum. Grade: C+ (original grade = B-)

Sambanzo, Etiópia (2012) – Afro-Brazilian jazz with plenty of Kiko Dinucci guitar to noise up the fun. Marcelo Cabral (bass), Samba Ossalê (percussion) and Welington Moreira (drums) whip up a frenzied groove, and França just blows and blows. Minor key melodies and rumbling beats evoke North Africa, but França doesn’t limit his sonic grabs to that region. Throughout França establishes that his own work is as valuable as his contributions to Metá Metá or his burgeoning sideman career. Grade: B (original grade: B+)

MarginalS, MarginalS 2 (2012) – Diminishing MarginalS return. Slightly freer and more straightforwardly jazz than the debut, but also less interesting. Or maybe I just mean beyond my competence as a listener. The tastiest bits are the more minimalistic pieces, often repeated notes/beats with slight variations, that appeal to my rock and roll heart. Although I find parts to enjoy, an album like this makes me empathize with jazz dissenters. França does pull off the flute solo in “VII”, however. Grade: C+

Thiago França, Kiko Dinucci and Sérgio Machado, Fun Fun Sessions (2013) – Three pretty, enjoyable and pretty enjoyable versions of “Ngoloxi”. That’s right, three. Grade: B-

MarginalS with Thomas Rohrer, Ao Vivo No Espaço Soma; MarginalS with Guizado and DJ Marco, Ao Vivo No Espaço Soma; MarginalS with M. Takara, Ao Vivo No Espaço Soma (2013) – Three live sets from 2010-11 all at Espaço Soma, which might be a club or a yoga studio or a combination of the two based on inconclusive Google searches. What I can say is that the aural differences of these three sets are outweighed by an improvised soundscaped sameness. The Rohrer set aims for pretty with sections of flute and string, but the rhythm section does nothing to anchor the sax and guitar/violin, and it drifts off into an unfocused haze. But then the Guizado/Marco set aims for funky and the top end players do nothing with the beats, so everything ends up acid jazz, although those Pharcyde/GZA samples that opens the show were nice. The Takara concert, with its mellow, fusiony sound, strikes a balance between the other two. It’s pleasant enough, and I can imagine enjoying it (and maybe the Guizado/Marco set) fine at the show, but sitting at home, everything’s half-baked. Grades: Rohrer: C-, Guizado/DJ Marco: C, Takara: C+

A Espetacular Charanga do França, A Espetacular…Ataca Novemente! (2013) – Adding some cumbia and mashing up some ragga with axé, this debut EP is the most engaging of França’s three Espetacular releases. On the closer, “Pedra do Rei”, he throws in some jazzy dissonance to mix it up.  All of which means it’s the least carnaval sounding one. Grade: B+

Thiago França, Malagueta, Perus e Bacanaço (2013) – Bringing together França’s wide stylistic ambitions, MPB works as a kind of career summary of a guy who’s been all over the sonic map. Opening with a six-minute drunken horn groove, he proceeds into percussion frenzy, Kiko Dinucci touched avant punk, chill sambas, noir soundscape and so forth. França’s record are rarely less than engaging, and often close to excellent, but his tendency to segregate styles by albums/projects obscures his talents. By mixing it all together, he helps you hear why he’s a sought-after session player, had an album named after him by Passo Torto, and is rightly seen as a singular figure on the Brazilian music scene. Dizzying and delightful. Grade: B+

Sambanzo, AH! (2014) – Unrehearsed live show in Rio with pick up band playing the material for the first time. Even if these tracks don’t supplant originals, they are strong, and as the band stretches out an improv, you might begin to think they supplant those studio versions after all. One of those wish you had been there live albums. Grade: B+

Space Charanga, R.A.N. (2015) – Starts with a mournful, dissonant “Ngoloxi” that transmutes into the chaotic title track (which stands for rhythm and noise). Then moves into the tight, funky “Abdu” where the horn section punches and dances a nifty head arrangement around the rhythm section and solos sizzle in the spaces between. After that, nothing else shines as brightly as those two, but everything works. Probably the straightest jazz album he’s done. Grade: B+

Sambanzo, Coisas Invisíveis (2015) – Paring back the instrumentation to sax and a group of hand percussionists, França emphasizes the (North) Afro in his Afro-Brazilian group. Arabic sax wails twist around popping, rolling percussion in a kind of Brazil-goes-Morocco fusion. He breaks up the hard-driving rhythmic grooves with brief, reflective solo pieces. The formula wears a bit thin on the second half, but the run on the first four tracks, anchored by the manic, whirling trance of “Jacutá”, are aural manna from the, well, invisible things (coisas invisíveis). Grade: B

Instituto with Thiago França and Duani, O Roubo da Taça EP (2016) – A soundtrack for a movie about a famous football (i.e., soccer) theft. This brief collaboration has França and team sounding like John Lurie doing samba jazz in Minutemen length tracks. Which I’m guessing you realize is a good thing. Grade: B+

A Espetacular Charanga do França, O Ultimó Carnaval de Nossas Vidas (2016) – The title tries to say it all, but I’m guessing the ultimate carnival of my life would be if I could actually visit Brazil during the festival. Absent that, however, this album isn’t a bad half-hour time investment to lift the mood a bit. França’s São Paulo allies (Kiko Dinucci, Rodrigo Campos, Juçara Marçal, Tulipa Ruiz) are all over the record, and even try adding bits of modern touches, especially Dinucci’s guitar, but the horns swallow up all competition. The result is probably more conventional than França envisioned, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun in its brassy way. Grade: B

A Espetacular Charanga do França, Chão Molhado da Roça (2017) – Another EP, and slightly stronger than the full album, which may just mean that my patience for brass bands isn’t the most impressive.  At 17 minutes it may be enough carnaval for those of us who can’t make it. Grade: B

A Espetacular Charanga do França, Bomba, Suor e Bapho (2017) EP – Of all the units Thiago França leads, this one has, to my surprise, emerged as my favorite. Where this brass-plus-percussion band first reminded me of a really good college marching band, familiarity—and appreciation of how, whether dancing or doing dishes, moving to this music opens up its pleasures—has bred enjoyment. It helps, too, that França tends to stick to EPs with this outfit: brass and percussion alone have a rather limited sonic palette, so the shorter length helps ensure the sound doesn’t wear thin. So if you have some quick sweeping to do, here’s a 20 minute boost to get you through the chore. Grade: B+

Space Charanga, Suîte Intergaláctica (2018) – In his hyperactive career, Thiago França’s jazz efforts have been among his least satisfying. While not bad, they tend to lack frisson of his work with Metá Metá or the joy of his street parties in A Espetacular Charanga do França. With Space Charanga’s first album, R.A.N., he had a bit of a breakthrough. This second effort, however, falls back into the pack with his other jazz work. The album includes the five-part title track plus “Júpiter Charanga”. Working mostly in a hard, free blowing style that emphasizes solos and forward momentum, what’s missing from the album that you will find in, say, Ornette Coleman is a strong sense of communication among the instrumentalists. Another interesting comparison is to play it back-to-back with the previous two Angles 9 albums, where the centrifugal forces of the players’ efforts hold together because of a strong commitment to the group project as a whole. This album might work better if the rhythm section were grounded rather than participating in the chaotic dance, because too often when you listen in hard, and it sounds formless and directionless. In the background, however, it shines. Moments burst out of the ambient noise to grab your attention before it all sinks again into delightful dissonances as you get drawn back to your surroundings. This album has grown on me as I’ve struggled to understand it, but after R.A.N., it’s a bit of a disappointment. Download free from the artist here. Grade: B-

Thiago França, Charanguina EP (2020) – Not billed to his group A Espetacular Charanga do França, this EP is in the same brass band tradition, with the vocals of Verônica Ferriani on three tracks the only thing to set it apart. França’s mastered this EP form with his charanga work: quick, punchy and gone before you feel like you are stuck in an eternal high school football half-time show. The soloists wail a little more wildly than is his norm and the beat has a little more punch. The only thing holding it back is Ferriani’s solid, but not espetacular, voice. If she’d been more than an average singer here, this might have been something really special. It’s still very good. Download from the artist here. Grade: B

Thiago França, KD VCS (2020) – Context is king. Recorded in September before anyone had heard of Covid-19, França made a literal solo album of himself in the studio sketching out sonic designs with his sax. In a different world, it might have been released and enjoyed as the curio it probably is on some objective level. But the album wasn’t released in that world. It was released in a world of lockdowns and social isolation. França’s soloing has usually worked best in the context of Metá Metá, where he weaves deftly among the racket of Kiko Dinucci, Marcelo Cabral and Sérgio Machado. While his jazz work has been fine, it’s rarely caught fire like it does in that alt-samba band. Initially these solos here followed that pattern and sounded too pro forma, an experiment that never caught fire. But as quarantine carried on, the isolation from other instruments sounded on point. França makes beauty within the limits of his aural loneliness. Who knows how this will sound in six months or six years, but right now this studio experiment-become-prophecy finds what’s both beautiful and mournful in this strange moment. Download from the artist here. Grade: A-

A Espetacular do Charanga França, Nunca Não É Carnaval (2021) – Another year, another brass band album from Thiago França. It’s not quite that clockwork, to be honest, but it’s close. One of the biggest transformations of my ears in four+ years of immersion in Brazilian music is developing an actual enjoyment of brass bands, which used to remind me of military music or high school hijinks. But there’s no martial in França’s march or amateur in his antics. These are best when he either grabs an undeniable Brazilian gem (the Orixas oriented “Obá Iná”) or mixes it up with some outside influences (the Dixieland of “Saída Bangu”), but even when not França and his collaborators have mastered the task of assembling a solid set to get your tail wagging or your feat tapping. Download from the artist here. Grade: B+

Thiago França & A Espetacular Charanga do França, The Importance of Being Espetacular (2021) – Collecting 12 tracks from six releases—plus a new track (a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”!) to lure in owners of those six—sax player Thiago França assembles a sort of best-of for his brass band. Sort of because it favors the handful of vocal tracks for this mainly instrumental outfit because França or the compilers know brass bands need all they help they can get in the market. While the band’s first three EPs make for a stronger set, this overview neatly presents a different angle on the band. But this is the one for sale, and since they guy still makes almost everything he’s recorded available for free from his website, do him a solid and buy this, then download those three and make yourself. When I started Brazil Beat, marching band was the least of my interests, but França has won me over, and outside his work with Metá Metá, A Espetacular is his most consistently engaging project. Buy here. Grade: B+