The Room Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel

• 1Foi Boto03:17
• 2Capricho04:26
• 3Astral Flowers02:42
• 4Kewere04:03
• 5Cores03:30
• 6Txera02:29
• 7Até de Manhã02:29
• 8Poeira04:12
• 9Tupi02:48
• 10Daiana04:50
• Total Runtime34:46

Info for The Room

This is The Room, an album of instrumentals by Brazilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento and American saxophonist Sam Gendel. Ten tracks, each rendered remarkable by originality, mastery and singular beauty, by technical precision, shared creative vision and the players’ empathetic, even telepathic, coming together.

The Room is there, then, at the intersection of Nascimento’s atmospheric seven-string guitar playing and the flute-like harmonics of Gendel’s soprano saxophone. It’s a space magicked by serendipity, talent, belief: “In 2011 I was in a Latin jazz group called Triorganico,” says do Nascimento, who was born into musical family in Rio de Janiero, attending the Conservatório de Música Brasileiro before relocating to LA. “We had a gig at a restaurant owned by Sam’s cousin, who invited him along. Sam brought his sax and sat in.”

Do Nascimento had begun developing his own language on guitar aged 10 under the eye of his late uncle, Sao Paolo-based bassist/composer Lucio Nascimento. The largely self-taught Gendel picked up his chosen instrument at around the same age, going on to explore the oeuvres of horn players John Coltrane and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and the lesser explored folk music of South America.

Both had travelled extensively throughout Brazil and Colombia, were into environmentalism and ecology. Both were super fans of Hermeto Pascoal, the iconic experimentalist from Northeast Brazil, and had grown up with relatives who had the 1964 albums Baden Powell A Vontade by guitarist Baden Powell, and Getz/Gilberto by American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, on repeat.

This was before Gendel would go on to work with artists including Sam Amidon and Moses Sumney, tour with Ry and Joachim Cooder, or release a string of albums praised, among many things, for their genre-jumping audacity. Before do Nascimento’s collaborations with Brazilian percussion hero Airto Moreira (in a trio that included Gendel), with American DJ/producer Madlib or American chanteuse Claude Fontaine; prior to the solo records that resist classification while still celebrating his musical roots.

“We were making music that we had a real mutual appreciation for,” says do Nascimento. “I was always joking that Sam should play flute, and he tried multiple things before he got this unique [flute] sound out of his soprano. Most people don’t actually realise that it’s a saxophone.”

They recorded The Room in two days, in a basement studio in Pacific Palisades, a residential area tucked between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Each track its own dive into the rhythms and regions of a South America without borders. Many take their cue from indigenous melodies, and popular old Brazilian tunes.

Fabiano do Nascimento, 7-string guitar
Sam Gendel, soprano saxophone

Fabiano do Nascimento
is a Rio de Janeiro-born, Los Angeles and Tokyo based guitarist, composer, arranger and producer whose reputation has been forged by his stunning tapestry of intricately woven, multi-string performances. With the likes of NPR Music toting his music as “seraphic… hypnotic and transcendent”.

Fabiano is a contemporary artist who is deeply rooted in Brazilian heritage, while at the same time, ever-changing and constantly evolving, Fabiano’s music refuses to be constrained to a singular musical language.

However, what is constant is his ability to merge tradition with his own sonic palette, one that is free from notions of genre; and expansive by nature. Above all else, Fabiano is known for his unique compositions steeped in the traditions of Afro-samba and choro, fused with American jazz, experimental and electronica.

Fabiano’s musical journey began in Rio de Janeiro, growing up in a musical family with a lineage that dates back to his great grandfather ‘Ladario Teixeira’, a blind virtuoso saxophone player who forged a path for the instrument. While initially inducted into the art of classical piano and music from a young age, it wasn’t upon picking up the guitar at age ten that he committed his undivided attention to one instrument. Fast forward to his early teenage years, and Fabiano took one year off from high-school school to study under the mentorship and guidance of his late uncle, renowned bassist, composer, arranger, Lucio Nascimento.

In 2001, Fabiano left Brazil for Los Angeles, California. His unique sound and skills were quickly sought after, and he went on to feature in a plethora of projects and collaborate with numerous world-class artists from around the world, including Airto Moreira, Arthur Verocai, Sam Gendel, Carioca Freitas, Beirut, Aloe Blacc, Daniel Santiago, Itiberê Zwarg, Vittor Santos, and many more.

In 2005, he formed the critically-acclaimed Latin jazz group, ‘Triorganico’ alongside Pablo Calogero and Tiki Pasillas. Since then, he has launched a successful solo career that spans 5 full-length LPs released on NowAgain Records (‘Dança dos Tempos’, ‘Tempos dos Mestres’, ‘Prelúdio’, ‘Ykytu’ and ‘Lendas’). His music has attracted the attention of major media/entertainment publishers, with the likes of NPR bringing him and his band on for their renowned ‘Tiny Desk Sessions’.

Although breaching almost three decades of music making, Fabiano has only scratched the surface of his illustrious musical career. With the notable and world’s foremost Brazilian music record label FarOut Recordings calling Fabiano one of the most consistent (and busiest) Brazilian jazz artists out there with forthcoming of multiple more projects: ‘Das Nuvens’, (leaving records) ‘Mundo Solo’ (farout recordings), ‘Rio Bonito (rings-Japan)’, ‘The Room’ (realworld records), and many more upcoming unreleased projects.

Sam Gendel
is a musician and producer living in Los Angeles, California. He is most known for his work with the saxophone, though he is proficient on multiple instruments. His work is diverse and includes significant collaborations with a wide range of artists including Ry Cooder, Blake Mills, Sam Amidon, Perfume Genius, Moses Sumney, Knower, Vampire Weekend, and inc. no world.

“[Blueblue] feels like a purposeful statement, a concentration of his strengths as an instrumentalist in service of one sharpened, sustained mood” - Pitchfork

“Gendel’s Fresh Bread is a vast, endlessly fascinating project that not only underscores his skill on virtually any instrument he picks up but also outlines the sheer volume of melodic and structural ideas he can generate.” - LA Times

This album contains no booklet.