Maria: Vinyl LP

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Far Out Recordings
Release Date: 12th June

Luxurious, dappled in strings, dancing rhythms which swing and loop around each other, the liveliness of a thriving street but as played on keys and bursts of brass. MOYSES DOS SANTOS is an esteemed Brazilian player who finally presents his debut solo album and it's an MPB force of nature.

Maria is the debut album from renowned Brazilian electric bassist
and composer Moyses Dos Santos. A homecoming for the London-
based artist, Moyses’ debut reconnects him with his North-Eastern
roots while assembling an international cast of collaborators
including legendary Brazilian arranger Arthur Verocai, US trumpet
sensation Theo Croker and London-based vocal star Lynda Dawn.
After relocating from Brazil to London in the early 2000s, Moyses
quickly became one of the capitals’ most in-demand players,
sharing stages, studios, and writing credits with best-selling artists
including Nile Rodgers, Janelle Monáe, Emile Sandé, Gregory Porter
and Omar.
In 2022, Moyses toured with Brazilian jazz-funk legends Azymuth,
completing the rhythm section alongside Brazilian drumming master
Ivan “Mamão” Conti. “It felt like he was my wise Brazilian grandfather
figure.” Moyses recalls. “When you spend so many years working
internationally, you unconsciously start to leave certain parts of
yourself behind. Mamão encouraged me to reconnect with Brazilian
music, and that’s where this record really began.”
Brazil’s North-east, where African, indigenous and European
traditions collided and fused most intensely, produced a musical
heritage unlike anything else on earth, Moyses dos Santos is a
product of this syncretism. On Maria, named after his mother,
Moyses brings the musical vocabularies of his youth to the fore.
From the soul of the church band where he began to learn his trade
as a musician, to the rolling batucadas – maractus, baiaos, sambas
and frevos – which he played throughout his teenage years.
Drawing on the lineage of North American electric bass giants like
George Duke, Jaco Pastorius, and Stanley Clarke, Moyses runs
Brazilian musical traditions through jazz, funk, soul and disco:
his sound charged with the cosmopolitan energy of London’s
contemporary jazz scene.
Lead single and album opener “Boa Viagem’ is joyous, carnivalesque
dancefloor jazz: a timeless groove for the nightclub and street party
alike. Calling directly to a higher power “Brazilian Spirit” is an astral-
jazz phenomenon, featuring the transcendent trumpet playing of
Grammy nominated Theo Croker. On “Saudade” Moyses calls upon
iconic Brazilian maestro Arthur Verocai, whose signature string
arrangements cascade around the divine vocals of ascendant
London artist Lynda Dawn.