Recording Fato Consumado (writen by Djavan Caetano Djavan)

Photo: John Watts & Luis Bonilla

I still remember how hard I worked on the recording the song "Fato Consumado", by the Brazilian composer Djavan... I was sick with a cold on the day of the recording and I don't know if it was the effect of the medication or pure excitement but ended up I counting the tempo too fast for the musicians. Afterwords I spent long hours learning how to be laid back in that fast tempo. It worked! And I had the privilege to have the trombone player of Paquito D'Rivera, Luis Bonilla, performing an amazing solo in it. I hope that if some day Djavan hears the recording he enjoys my new tempo!

Recording Inútil Paisagem (Written by Antonio Carlos Jobim)

Photo: Benny Golson & John Watts

It took us a long time to decide which instrument would do the solo in Inutil Paisagem and who would be the soloist. Then the idea of having Benny Golson doing it felt really right and we were thrilled when he accepted it. I wish I had filmed Benny Golson recording in our studio: Every take was perfect and completely different from each other. And the sensitivity was always present. His heart is completely comfortable filling every note he chooses to play.

Recording Amor até o Fim (written by Gilberto Gil)

Photo: John Watts & Rodrigo Ursaia

What a cool song! This one is a favorite of Brazilian musicians who like samba-jazz. I've heard many different interpretations of it and of course, we had to come up with one of our own...

Recording Canto de Ossanha (Written by Baden Powell & Vinicius de Moraes)

Photo: Helio Schiavo & Leco Reis



Canto de Ossanha, written by Baden Powell, is a song that evokes a lot of feelings in me. Being descendent of Africans e Europeans I find myself extremely connected with my African ancestors trough this song. I feel my feet on the ground and a strong sense of who I am. And I must count my blessings because the same drummer who recorded this song with Baden Powell was also my drummer. At the studio, we had so many musicians that there was no booth for me to record. I had to sing inside the engineer's room just to keep the tempo for the musicians. We liked so much my performance that we all decided to kept that way.