MARCIO PHILOMENA – A Troubadour’s Trail

’Trails’ features two groups, with Helio Alves (piano), Peter Slavov (upright bass) and Rafael Barata (drums) appearing on ‘Vibraçōes’ and Julian Shore (piano), Rick Rosato (upright bass) and Roberto Giaquinto (drums) on all the other tracks.

The album begins with ‘Bourbon’, a traditional jazz waltz immersed in melancholic allure that weaves tender melodies and is reminiscent of 70s-era Jim Hall Trio. “I wanted the opener to set the mood, like a good glass of bourbon,” he explains.

Elsewhere, ‘Oak Street’ – streamed over a million times on Spotify – takes us down the tree-lined road in Brooklyn where he now lives, while by contrast ‘Rio Branco’ is named after a neighbourhood in his home city and is “a sort of Baião, a rhythm originated in the northeast of Brazil.” Another previously issued single, ‘Nana’, is “a tribute to Brazilian singer Nana Caimmy and her signature style of interpreting Bossa novas. I wanted to capture her understated interpretation of melodies and the tranquil atmosphere of a Rio de Janeiro based soap-opera soundtrack.”