Vivendo de Pao - grupo musical; grabación de sonido - TT: Vivendo de Pao - TA: music group; sound recording - Artículo Breve

Latin Beat Magazine, Nov, 1999

Scratch Cooking Vol. 1

(VDP)

If you have not had the pleasure of experiencing Vivendo De Pao (Living On Bread), you're missing an insatiable fusion of Brazilian grooves textured with jazz and funk. It's a sound that they've honed performing Tuesday nights at the Elbow Room that features the compositional passion of its guitarist-leader Kevin Welch and a great banal with intense spirit. Now four years after their founding, the group is at a juncture and hopes to break out beyond their Bay Area roots with Scratch Cooking Vol. 1, their second self-produced album. A collaborative production effort between Welch and the band's multi-instrumentalist and saxophonist Richard Howell, this album is subtitled "Excerpts From The Bryant Street Sessions" and makes no buts that it was recorded on an "antiquated 8-track cassette recorder." But there is a life to the selections that's very personal as Welch testifies on Meu Samba Nao Foi Importado (My Samba Was Not Imported), that tells how the samba came into his life along the banks of the Amazon River.

With soulful delivery Welch's voice cries with a bluesy articulation that grips you when listening to him singing his songs. But it's the percolation of the rhythm section --David Ewell (bass), Eddie Torres (drums), Wilson Low (percussion), Walter Mackins (percussion) - that gives the music its authentic rhythmic base.

Eurydice Arising has a fascinating 6/8 rhythm played with a reggae emphasis that adds punch to its chorus of "rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up, don't let them hold you down." Currently there's a Brazilian music renaissance happening in the Bay Area, led largely by non-Latins like Welch, singer Sandy Cressman, and mandolinist Mike Marshall. While there are those with nationalistic tendencies who would criticize this, I say if it sounds this good what does it matter. It's music with heart, soul, and a consciousness for the greater good.