São Paulo Underground

Cornetist <a href="spotify:artist:7uWd7df9GwjSZqo1cVF7Qs">Rob Mazurek</a> garnered wide attention after moving past his hard bop roots and becoming a guiding force in Chicago avant jazz with various <a href="spotify:artist:6iAtadHxtdxvcDfNnKXqf9">Chicago Underground</a> lineups in the '90s, also exploring post-rock, electronica, and more while adding <a href="spotify:artist:3WggbHDpj4rPKbL97zG5MQ">Tortoise</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:09Q4XEmbjQTQ8P36ZzVVLv">Isotope 217</a> to his résumé. He carried his expansive, inquisitive sensibility to South America upon moving to Brazil in 2000 and later in the decade formed São Paulo Underground, a tropicalia-influenced experimental duo with percussionist Mauricio Takara, which debuted with Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Aesthetics%22">Aesthetics</a> label in 2006 (both <a href="spotify:artist:7uWd7df9GwjSZqo1cVF7Qs">Mazurek</a> and Takara are also credited with electronics on the recording). For 2008's The Principle of Intrusive Relationships, also released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Aesthetics%22">Aesthetics</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:7uWd7df9GwjSZqo1cVF7Qs">Mazurek</a>-Takara duo expanded to a quartet with the addition of Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics) and Richard Ribeiro (drums), both of whom also appeared on the São Paulo Underground album Tres Cabeças Loucuras, issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cuneiform%22">Cuneiform</a> in 2011. The cornetist also tapped Takara and Granado to be members of his Rob Mazurek Octet (a band including members of the Chicago-based <a href="spotify:artist:40u4eoB8qj551Cquf3zlEe">Exploding Star Orchestra</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:68G3tt6UWlzCVDarpB4LqR">Starlicker</a>), which recorded Skull Sessions live at a 2011 <a href="spotify:artist:0kbYTNQb4Pb1rPbbaF0pT4">Miles Davis</a> exhibition in São Paulo. An exuberant melding of <a href="spotify:artist:7uWd7df9GwjSZqo1cVF7Qs">Mazurek</a>'s São Paulo and Chicago music worlds, Skull Sessions was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cuneiform%22">Cuneiform</a> in January 2013. Featuring a trio lineup of <a href="spotify:artist:7uWd7df9GwjSZqo1cVF7Qs">Mazurek</a>, Takara, and Granado, São Paulo Underground's second <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cuneiform%22">Cuneiform</a> album, Beija Flors Velho e Sujo, arrived in June of that year. In 2014, a live recording appeared from Clean Feed. Entitled Pharoah In the Underground and co-billed to São Paulo Underground and Spiral Mercury Chicago (featuring members of <a href="spotify:artist:6iAtadHxtdxvcDfNnKXqf9">Chicago Underground Duo</a> and SPU) in collaboration with saxophonist <a href="spotify:artist:3JLUCojZaHrX2LaUkSj7Ud">Pharoah Sanders</a>. In addition Return the Tides: Ascension Suite and Holy Ghost, a <a href="spotify:artist:7uWd7df9GwjSZqo1cVF7Qs">Mazurek</a> side project on Cuneiform also showcased the band's alter ego, <a href="spotify:artist:7fjzgls2XryfciB8Q3YXeT">Black Cube SP</a> (that includes the Swiss-born multi instrumentalist Thomas Rohrer, who also resides in Brazil). São Paulo Underground's fifth album, Cantos Invisiveis also featured Rohrer on several tracks. it was released in October of 2016. ~ Dave Lynch, Rovi