Sao Paolista Tomaz di Cunto aka Toco is
a new name to me. Although he had been playing acoustic guitar
from an early age and was involved in musical and TV productions
in Brazil in the late 90’s, it wasn’t until he moved
to Italy and met electronic keyboardist and programmer Stefano
Tirone that the idea for this CD was born, a tribute to samba
and bossa nova. Toco composed, sings and plays guitar on all 7
titles while Stefano takes care of the production and programming
duties. A quintet of very fine Italian musicians follow the minimalist
less is more philosophy feeding beautifully played sax, flute,
bass and piano into the consistently pumping mix of samba and
bossa rhythms. All the compositions are memorable and link together
in a unified work, which coasts along like a seductive snake.
Tomaz’s vocals are both intimate and forceful and remind
me a little of Caetano Veloso.
Track 4 Roda 22 is actually a more wistful recomposition of the
delightful opener Instalacao do Samba which also closes the CD
as a 13 minute trippy remix of cuica dotted samba and bossa beats,
but déjà vu is skilfully avoided by the sheer musicality
and textural care invested in the project. If any fault can be
found it is that the whole work clocks in at little over half
an hour, including the extended remix where the listener might
mistakenly hit the eject button as the ghost of John Cage casts
a three minute long pall of silence before the piece resumes in
overdrive. But hey…some affairs are brief and this one is
sweet while it lasts. RJ
