Guitarist Joe Carter, a Bridgeport native who fell madly in love with Brazilian music on a life-changing night in a club in Rio de Janeiro, has over the years transformed himself into one of the premier samba jazz guitarists either north or south of the border.
In the consummate jazz and Latin guitarist鈥檚 newest project, he premieres his Joe Carter Intercontinental Quartet 鈥� a combo featuring the great German-born harmonica player Hendrik Meurkens 鈥� on Sunday, November 13, at 6:00 pm at Bethel鈥檚 sizzling jazz and pizza bistro, Pizzeria Lauretano, 291 Greenwood Avenue.
Rounding out Carter鈥檚 international foursome 鈥� a venture uniting his passion for Brazilian music with his knack for forming simpatico alliances 鈥� are noted Brazilian musicians, bassist Leco Reis and percussionist Fernando Saci.
Originally, a strictly straight-ahead improviser with crisp, clean ideas and a fluent sound on his nylon string guitar, Carter had for years 鈥� before that magical night in Rio 鈥� kept his artistic sights focused on modern jazz with bebop roots.
The guitarist/composer, who is the head of the music department at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, won acclaim for his mainstream performances and recordings with such legendary figures as Art Farmer, Lee Konitz, Bill Hardman, Cecil Payne, Junior Cook, Steve Kuhn, and the late, great, sadly underrated pianist Don Friedman, who died recently.
But while the Nutmeg guitarist and University of Bridgeport grad was busily touring on the international circuit in the 1980s and 鈥�90s playing smart modern jazz choruses from Paris to Mumbai, his globetrotting pilgrimages led to Rio and a dramatic conversion to Brazilian music. His moment of truth occurred when he first heard the music played by native musicians in Rio where he was greeted as a visiting Yankee jazz musician with impressive mainstream credentials.
What he experienced while listening and sitting-in that night was nothing at all like what he typically heard back home in the States: a watered-down, domestic brand of faux Brazilian sounds, ranging from bland bossas to pale, threadbare portraits of 鈥淭he Girl from Ipanema.鈥�
After a taste of the real deal in Rio, Carter wanted to create bona fide Brazilian music both as an instrumentalist and as a composer. He compares his transformative experience at that first Rio session to the sort of epiphany a European musician would undergo upon walking into the Village Vanguard only to discover that he鈥檚 going to play with drummer Jimmy Cobb and bassist Ron Carter as the opening act for the legendary Bill Evans Trio.
More trips to Rio, his new fount of inspiration, whetted the avid acolyte鈥檚 appetite even more for mastering Brazilian music by jamming with and eventually making his own fine recordings with recognized Brazilian masters, elevating the Trumbull resident to international recognition.
With Meurkens, who has been hailed by critics as the greatest harmonica player since Toots Thielemans, Carter is matched up with a kindred lover of Brazilian music.
Meurkens, a native of Hamburg, Germany, was a successful two-mallet vibraphonist when he became so inspired by the evocative sound that the Belgian-born Thielemans created on harmonica that he taught himself how to play the instrument.
Similar in ways to Carter鈥檚 Rio conversion, Meurkens became smitten with samba and bossa nova and all things Brazilian. So devout was the new true believer, he moved to Rio in the early 鈥�80s to experience total immersion in Brazilian music and culture.
Since then he鈥檚 made a host of eloquent jazz and samba recordings, bringing his unique sound and jazz chops to bear on a tradition seemingly as remote from Hamburg, Germany, as it is from Bridgeport, 黑料吃瓜网.
Carter and Meurkins, two co-religionists and fervent believers who bring their jazz sensibilities to bear on Brazilian music, have recorded together before.
So, when they figuratively go flying down to Rio on Sunday evening at the jazz-friendly pizzeria, it should be a smooth flight fueled by classy sounds, many bright moments of improvisation and interaction, and what have become Carter鈥檚 personal hallmarks, elegance, and empathy.
Information: $15 music charge/$10 minimum. Reservations: (203) 792-1500. Information on the contemporary Italian bistro and its ongoing Sunday jazz series:
Celebrating City鈥檚 Jazz Artists
Andres Chaparro, a mixed-media artist whose imaginative, expressionist works have an unmixed message spelling out the Hartford-based artist鈥檚 passion, eye, and ear for jazz, celebrates the opening of an exhibition of recently created paintings and collage works with a reception on Wednesday, November 9, from 5:00 to 9:00 pm at Hartford鈥檚 Passages Gallery, 509 Farmington Avenue.
Making its public debut is the commissioned painting 鈥淧B,鈥� a work inspired by the late legendary jazz bassist and concert producer Paul Brown. Known affectionately as PB, Brown was the founder of the Monday Night Jazz Series in Bushnell Park and launched the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz, free events transforming Bushnell Park into a regional hotbed for jazz outdoors.
The painting has been loaned by the Brown family for the exhibition which, Chaparro said, 鈥渋s an homage to the influential musicians to come out of and/or have a connection to Hartford.鈥�
In an artist鈥檚 statement for his exhibition called 鈥淗ome,鈥� Chaparro declared:
鈥淭hese artists have not only impacted and inspired our local landscape, but are bringing musical joy and the Hartford sound all over the world.鈥�
Among many other capital city jazz worthies represented in the exhibition are: Jackie McLean, Dezron Douglas, Josh Evans, and Nat Reeves.
Visual analogues of sound and feeling, Chaparro鈥檚 works emit a sense of creativity in flight in the existential moment. They鈥檙e all about journey, discovery and surprise.
As he has explained of using his art as his instrument, 鈥淢y work is heavily influenced by jazz music. It inspires me, and like jazz, my art is improvised," he said. "I never start out actually knowing where the painting is going and when it will end.鈥�
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