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Joyce, Director of Publicity & Promotion
Cuneiform Records
joyce@cuneiformrecords.com


ROB MAZUREK / SÃO PAULO UNDERGROUND
bring their groundbreaking blend of
JAZZ / TROPICALIA / ELECTRONIC / EXPERIMENTAL
to cities across NORTH AMERICA
SEPTEMBER 2012

"Limitless in its possibilities." - Rolling Stone

"...I can't think of another album that does quite what São Paulo Underground's latest does. It's very melodic and full of rude noise, often at the same time. The music can be as dense as a Sun Ra freakout and sunny as a Pat Metheny tune. ... This record's got it all, all at once." - NPR

"Post digital, post industrial psychedelia." - The Wire

"A modern approach to Brazil's tropicalia, that takes into account advances in sound manipulation and engineering. It is street music from the Brazilian subterranean avant-garde and it is confusingly wonderful." - All About Jazz

"Rob Mazurek returns to Brazil and floats his cool blue cornet over a spellbinding collage of saturated textures, syncopated rhythms and sundry electronics." - Time Out Chicago

"São Paulo Underground are one mind blowing group and the trio’s stature has risen yet another level with the release of their latest full length... This album is huge and one that I think will grab the ears of many different types of people. Tropicalia never sounded this modern and alive post 70s." - Sound Colour Vibration

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São Paulo Underground :: Três Cabeças Loucuras
Cuneiform Rune 325, CD (jewel case) & LP,
Genre: JAZZ / WORLD / EXPERIMENTAL

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD: "Jagoda's Dream"

The São Paulo Underground sound dares you to define it, knowing that even when -- not if -- you fail to do so, you’ll still be so deliriously immersed in the group’s dizzying swirl of styles that you’ll simply be happy to surrender to its unnamable charms. Along the way, you’ll reach for such sonic signifiers as “jazz,” “Brazilian music,” “avant-garde,” and “electro-acoustic” in an attempt to tag Três Cabeças Loucuras, the ensemble’s third album and first for Cuneiform. Sure, when American cornetist Rob Mazurek gets together with his Brazilian buddies Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics), Mauricio Takara (drums, percussion, cavaquinho, electronics) and “fourth member” Richard Ribeiro (drums), all of the aforementioned flavors are on the musical menu, but ultimately, it’s best to just term the end result a kind of joyful “chef’s surprise” that gleefully upends expectations.

Mazurek, a fearlessly forward-looking musician, has been battering down the borders between musical genres since the ‘90s, recording with everyone from Stereolab to Tortoise, and leading Isotope 217, the Chicago Underground collective, and the Exploding Star Orchestra, among other things. But it was only after his move to Brazil in 2000 that Mazurek began to follow the path that would lead to the formation of the São Paulo Underground. The journey began in earnest when the cornetist/composer found a kindred spirit in Mauricio Takara, and they released the first SPU album, 2006’s Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres, together as a duo.

After adding Guilherme Granado and Richard Ribeiro into the equation, an expanded Underground unleashed Principle of Intrusive Relationships two years later. But in the creation of Três Cabeças Loucuras (Portuguese for “three crazy heads”), the group pushed towards an even more expansive approach.

Mazurek’s jazz-schooled cornet skills come to the fore on the album, with a fiery force that echoes everything from the frenetic, freewheeling fusion of Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis to bop masters like Art Farmer (with whom Mazurek has studied), but he claims avant-jazz trumpet legend Bill Dixon as his main inspiration, declaring “His absoluteness is a constant feed.” When Mazurek’s hard-driving hailstorm of cornet lines collides with the polyrhythmic percussion and electronic textures of his Brazilian compatriots, a new paradigm is created, where Brazilian grooves, ambient atmospheres, and post-bop harmonic leaps come together for a vital, vibrant feel.

In making Três Cabeças Loucuras, the Undergrounders didn’t close the door to the outside world, either - along the way, contributions from bassist Matthew Lux (Iron and Wine), vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz (Exploding Star Orchestra, and Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown, a jazz group that records for Cuneiform), Tortoise drummer John Herndon, and Brazilian guitarist Kiko Dinucci (Paulistano) all add to the exhilarating experimentation and strangely spiritual glow of the proceedings.

Note: Três Cabeças Loucuras is also available in a high-quality, limited edition (Only 500 copies!) vinyl pressing that includes a download code for the digital version of the album.

www.robmazurek.com

www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/saopaulo.html

FOR A PDF OF THE COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE/BIO, click HERE

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SÃO PAULO UNDERGROUND
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES


September 8
Guelph Jazz Fest
Mitchell Hall, St. George’s Church
99 Woolwich Street
Guelph, Ontario, Canada

September 11
Casa del Popolo
4873 boul. St-Laurent
Montréal, QC, Canada
(514) 284-3804

September 13
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
715 West Main St.
Louisville, KY
(
502) 589-0102

September 14
(Lois & Richard Rosenthal) Center for Contemporary Art
44 East Sixth Street
Cincinnati, OH
(513) 345.8400

September 15
Strange Beautiful Music V
Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art
4454 Woodward Ave.
Detroit, MI
(313) 832-6622 / info@mocadetroit.org

September 16
The Wind Up Space
12 W. North Ave
Baltimore, MD 21201 
(410) 244-8855

September 19
Philly Fringe Live Arts Festival
Crossroads Music
801 South 48th Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 729-1028

September 20
FONT (Festival of New Trumpet Music)
Speyer Hall, University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street
New York, NY

September 21
Andy Warhol Museum
117 Sandusky Street
Pittsburgh, PA
(412) 237-8300

September 22
Boomslang Festival
Artsplace
161 N. Mill St.
Lexington, KY
(859) 233.1469

September 23
The Wexner Center for the Arts
1871 North High St
Columbus, OH

September 24
The Stone Fox
712 51st Avenue N.
Nashville, TN
(615) 596-0949

September 28
Lawrence University - Esch Hurvis Room, Warch Campus Center
711 E. Boldt Way
Appleton, WI
54911
(with Ahleuchatistas)

September 29
The Mill
120 E. Burlington St.
Iowa City, IA
(
319) 351-9529

September 30
Old Town School of Folk Music
1519 W Irving Park Rd 1
Chicago, IL
(773) 857-2331

October 3
Wire Magazine's Adventures In Modern Music Festival
The Empty Bottle
1035 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL

For tour updates, see:
www.cuneiformrecords.com

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PRESS & RADIO
If you would like to request a promo of
Três Cabeças Loucuras for potential review/airplay or would like to set up an interview with the band, please contact:

Joyce, Director of Publicity & Promotion
Cuneiform Records
joyce@cuneiformrecords.com
tel. 301-589-8894 
p.o. box 8427,  silver spring, md 20907
[washington, d.c.]

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Cuneiform Records
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