Bola Sete – Samba in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966 – 1968)
Tompkins Square – Out Now
Born Djama De Andrade in Brazil in 1923, nylon string guitar (violão in Portuguese) maestro Bola Sete left his home country in 1959, never to return. His travels eventually brought him to the United States, where he worked for the Sheraton hotel company and signed for Fantasy records and Takoma after winning the admiration of solo acoustic guitar pioneer and loose cannon John Fahey. The extensive and fascinating sleeve notes to Tompkins Square’s three-disc release of Sete’s live shows at the famous Penthouse jazz club in Seattle will provide the listener and reader with oodles more information than the above, plus a wealth of music spanning three years of concerts.
Carlos Santana, another high profile admirer of Sete’s, once hailed him the Hendrix of nylon string guitar; slightly unimaginative perhaps, but still praise indeed and the nifty playing across these twenty-nine tracks will back the claim. Accompanied for the most part by double bassist Sebastião Neto and drummer Paulinho Magalhães, the music is broader sounding than Sete’s beautiful solo records, but sparer than his later, more expansive setups. That said, the ability and skill of Sete and his backing duo are such that the music fills the ear, spinning, twisting and turning continually; such is the energy present in all of the sets. Tunes like Valsa de Uma Cidade are started softly with muted string plucks until Sete kicks into some amazing solo picking, with the band confidently keeping pace and providing their own licks.
Further on, The Shadow of Your Smile takes its time to play out, with easier bass and minimal percussion framing a slightly more relaxed guitar part until a more energised and playful final third. Sete’s take on Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Prelude in A Minor is just wonderful; his patient arpeggios are spacious and clean, and the decision to play the piece solo accentuates the space between the notes and nicely contrasts the other tracks, where the playing is more robust (Flamenco Fantasy, for one) and the rhythm section have room to shine. In fact, Sete’s interpretations of Villa-Lobos’ music are my favourite tunes here; his Prelude No.1 is another elegant beauty, played slightly more flamboyantly than Prelude in A Minor but perhaps even more precisely. In short, this generous set of discs are stuffed with splendid music from a real master and surrounded by a wealth of literature, including interviews with Carlos Santana and Anne Sete, plus essays by John Fahey and Greg Caz, among others. Samba in Seattle is an indulgent and immensely satisfying collector’s piece that will provide much entertainment.