Bar del Mattatoio / Seigen Ono


Listening to "Bar del Mattatoio" is a unique experience, and Seigen Ono immediately places us in a landscape both human and geographic that overflows with sensuality, sweetness and melancholy. This blend of intense pleasure in life and vague sadness at recognizing our inability to organize it -- something Brazilians are perhaps known for -- is captured here with extraordinary poetic aptness.

A sentimental melody, like those in Fellini's movies, seems more remembered than heard as it emerges from the sea, through a crowd that scatters across the beach and moves over the asphalt, up onto the sidewalk and rises towards the blue sky, where the sun seems to shine exclusively for the city of Rio de Janeiro. But it is not the visual impression evoked by the sound of voices, the waves and the notes that is the point here. The phrases and noises are not heard as if they were the soundtrack for a film whose images are invisible. What dazzles us is the understanding of the power of sound.

This very subtle mixture of the cries of vendors, telephone conversations and waves performs perfectly in the service of the chosen timbres of the accordion, the saxophone and the violin. In the often repeated theme -- a mixture of Cuban bolero and toada from Northeastern Brazil -- sentimental variations reveal the sweet irony that travels through the entire record. That is why when a little later a comical tuba is heard playing bass to the gamboling of a droll violin we immediately sense that all of this is passing through the filter of nostalgia, one whose object we cannot be sure of. The music and these sounds reach us through a conception of the world, of entertainment and of music that is always beyond, or in another place, from the composition we are hearing. One thinks of Nino Rota and of the music of Ozu's films. 

Later, over a track of the conga drums, bass and funky horns, we hear guitar and saxophone improvisations, but we don't feel like we are listening to conventional jazz-fusion. Instead it is easy to imagine ourselves in a hotel in a small European town during a jazz festival overhearing a band playing outside in the town square. The violins seem only to confirm that commentary and evocation are most important here.

It is not just the mixture and the playing styles that give us this impression: the techniques of montage as it is applied to these styles, that sometimes give contrast during a single passage, lead us into critical thought as easily as they do into memories of other possible musics and sounds not present.

The voices of children that speak and sing, some in French and others in Japanese, rise above noise and become music: the gracious melodies and near rhythm of speech mingle to form a message (the message of all the characters and ghosts of the record), a message of which the children are messengers.

Perhaps another message is in the tango that is in fact a samba that is in fact a game that carries sadness and happiness and that we are invited to think about.

The sound of street percussion from Bahia on another track appears to be dislocated, almost  discarnate, but is treated with a mixture of intelligence and purity of heart. Perhaps this notion explains the entire record.

Refinement of intelligence and purity of heart. In everything -- and so much of Brazil in all this -- is the touch of Japan. The xylophones, vibraphones and pianos in combination, the Oriental intervals that appear among the melodies that are too Western, like candy that is too sweet, the wisdom that seems like innocence. Real innocence. A strange modesty and a strange lack of modesty. "Bar del Mattatoio" is an original object.

Rio de Janeiro, October 1994 Caetano Veloso
(translation by Arto Lindsay)

Recorded in New York, Tokyo, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Milan,1988~1994
1 Bar del Mattatoio
2 I Am a Good Fish
3 Monica Tornera Domenica Sera
4 Suzuki-Sensei-Sansei
5 Fernando de Noronha
6 I Do Love You a Little
7 Gol de Placa
8 Reached Moon Tower
9 Nick & Kiriko
10 Genova
11 It’s So Far to Go
12 Covenant of the Rainbow
13 Vida Boa

SD-1004

Montreux 93/94 / SEIGEN ONO ENSEMBLE


Recorded live at the 27th and the 28th Montreux Jazz Festival, 1993 and 1994

For the past 10 years, the Montreux Jazz Festival has kept the tradition of closing the festival with never-ending night. When Seigen Ono came to perform for the first time at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 17, 1993, he was the last to leave the stage of the Miles Davis Hall at 6 o'clock in the morning. Seigen's band, with its amazing mixture of musicians of all nationalities, fresh approach to arrangements, and the incredible variety of rhythms, produced unique sounds that surprised everybody. When Seigen's show ended, the window curtains were drawn for the audience to witness the sunrise over the Lake Leman. It was a magical moment.

For the first time after 27 festivals, I invited an artist on the spot to come back the next year to perform this time on the bigger stage of the Stravinski Auditorium. Everything worked out and Seigen Ono and his multi-national band hit the stage after midnight on July 11th, following the performance of Lalo Schifrin with the Mnchner Rundfunk Orchester, featuring guest stars, including Grady Tate, Ray Brown, Slide Hampton, Paquito D'Rivera and Jon Faddis.

This year, Seigen set up a full-size Brazilian cafe on stage, next to the musicians and when the band started to play, two women started to mix the national drink of Brazil, Caipirinha.; This was offered first to the musicians, visibly enhancing their enthusiasm and then to members of the audience, some of whom were invited to join in a dance marathon on stage. After two caipirinhas and one hour of Seigen Ono's music, I found myself on stage, dancing the tango with a Brazilian lady.
Seigen Ono's music cannot be described, it must be listened to. Its original flavor, the magical atmosphere, the delicacy of the melodies, the quality of the musicians and, above all, the gentle way Seigen Ono conducts all his projects, made it a night to remember.

Montreux, October 1994. Claude Nobs
(Director and Producer of the Montreux Jazz Festival


Recorded live at the 27th and the 28th Montreux Jazz Festival
1 Bar del Mattatoio
2 Something to Hold On To
3 I Do Love You a Little
4 Malu
5 Vida Boa
6 Nick & Kiriko
7 Enishie
8 It’s Denise
9 I Am a Good Fish
10 The Green Chinese Table
11 Julia