Personnel:
Arthur Verocai (g, arr), Altair Martins (tp), Johnson de Almeida (tb), Ricardo Pontes (as), Ze Carlos "Bigorna" (ts, bs), Dirceu Leite (cl), Paulo Guimaraes (fl), José Roberto Bertrami, Itamar Assiére (Fender Rhodes), Alex 'Funkista' Pilkington (g), Alex Malheiros, Luiz Alves (b), Ivan Conti (d), Robertinho Silva (perc), Gabriella Grossi (harmonica), Ivan Lins, Clarisse Grova, Marcio Lott, Ronaldo Barcelos, Tavito (vcl), Déborah Cheyne, Nayran Pessanha (viola), Ana de Oliveira, Andre Cunha, Catherine Hazan, Léo Ortiz, Marluce Ferreira, Mauro Rufino (violin), David Chew (cello)
Reference: FARO 122 CDX
Bar code: 5060211503382
In the mid-2000’s, following on from Marcos Valle, Joyce and of course Azymuth, Arthur Verocai joined the long-line of Brazilian musicians whose music was to be introduced to a whole new legion of fans by Far Out. The story of Encore of course begins with Joe Davis, Far Out’s head honcho who stumbled upon Arthur’s debut in a dusty record store in downtown Rio in the late 80s. At the time of its release in 1972 critics panned Arthur’s debut and both the album and artist subsequently vanished into obscurity. Fast forward to winter 2004 and Joe’s at the studio of Far Out Recording artists Harmonic 313 – aka production duo Mark ‘Troubleman’ Pritchard and Dave Brinkworth – playing them some of his favourite Brazilian albums. Dave recalls the moment Joe put on Arthur’s debut, “As soon as the needle hit the record and we heard the fantastic arrangements, songs and sounds, Arthur completely blew our minds”.
Three months later and Joe and Dave were in Brazil with Arthur and the plans for what was to become Encore were being laid down. Seeking to re-create the sound of his first album, they invited in as many of the musicians who played on Verocai's debut as possible, including Robertinho Silva, Paulinho, Bigorna, and this time, the added bonus of all three Azymuth members, as well as horn and string players from the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Produced by Brinkworth, Encore sees Arthur on incredible form, the 35 plus years between the recording of his debut and this the follow-up just melted away as he picked up the (conductor’s) baton once again to create 11 epic tracks of stirring samba-soul and experimental cinematic movements for a record to rival his debut.
Born in Rio de Janeiro on 17 June 1945, Arthur Verocai began his professional music career in 1969 and over the next few years he was responsible for the orchestration of albums by Ivan Lins, Jorge Benjor, Elizeth Cardoso, Gal Costa, Quarteto em Cy, MPB 4 and Marcos Valle, among others. In the 1970s he was hired by Brazil’s biggest TV station, TV Globo, as musical director and wrote the arrangements for many of the stations biggest shows. In 1972, following the success Arthur had with the production of Ivan Lins 1971 album "Agora", Arthur recorded his self-titled debut album on Continental Records. ‘Arthur Verocai’ challenged the musical conventions of the day, combining Brazilian influences with folksy soul and lo-fi electronic experimentations of American artists like Shuggie Otis or the orchestration of producer Charles Stepney.
