A Baden Powell Festival !

Hi guys ! Here is a 7cd package of the legendary Brazillian master-guitarist and composer Baden Powell, delivered to us by our good friend LAZZ (a jazz vocalist and songwriter himself) - He has included the introduction below, scans and extensive notes, for your enjoyment - Please remember to thank him for these rare gems.

BADEN POWELL

Baden Powell de Aquino was born in 1937 to a father who was a scouting enthusiast.  Hence the name.  He studied guitar with leading Chorinho player Jayme Florence in Rio, taking part in local rodas de choro where he was apparently regarded as a prodigy as early as the age of six, working professionally by the age of fourteen or fifteen, and then earning a reputation on the after-hours jazz scene.

While in his early twenties, an already established singer called Billy Blanco was encouraged to write lyrics for one of his tunes.  The resulting “Samba Triste” became

a popular success, often recorded, and broadened his recognition and fame.

At the age of twenty-five, he embarked on a collaboration with the poet Vinicius de Moraes which steered a separate course from the prevailing current of bossa nova by drawing upon deeper African roots of the city’s samba culture instead.  He was undoubtedly assisted in this direction through studies in advanced harmony with Moacir Santos.  "Os Afro-Sambas de Baden e Vinicius", from 1966, is the significant product of these years.

He had toured Europe frequently during the ‘60s, and made many recordings for various European labels, eventually relocating to Paris by ’68.  “O Universo Musica de Baden Powell” pulls together tracks from 1964 to 1972 on Barclay and between 1970 and 1977 on Festival – both French labels.

“Baden Powell Quartet” is a 2CD set from sessions at Studio Barclay-Hoche in Paris on 10^th, 11^th and 12^th of December, 1970 – on which the quartet is occasionally augmented by flute, tenor, trombone or singer Janine de Waleyne.  These tracks represent the final recordings of the quartet and probably their finest. There appears to be a Volume 3 in this series, but I don’t have it and haven’t heard it.

Smoking and drinking and staying out all night became predictably deleterious to his health at around the same time as audience tastes started to leave him behind somewhat and he spent most of the ‘80s in semi-retirement.

Recorded in Sao Paulo in February 1988 , “Seresta Brasileira” is unaccompanied, full of soulful melancholy, and very beautiful.  And his home crowd was beginning once more to recognise the true greatness of his work.  In the ‘90s he moved back to Brasil to carry on playing and recording.                                  

He contracted evangelical religion in his closing years and died in September 2000 of pneumonia brought on by diabetes.

Pianist son Philippe Baden Powell collaborated with Mario Adnet to release “AfroSambaJazz” in 2009.  As a tribute to the maestro, the project features re-interpretations of four of the original Afro-Sambas from Baden e Vinicius, plus previously unknown compositions found at the family home, and other songs recorded by other artists but still generally associated with the Afro-Sambas suite.

As profound an influence on the art of the instrument as Jim Hall or Jimi Hendrix, every student of the guitar should be aware of him and study his work.  There is an awful lot of it.  Some - at least - of the best of it is contained here.