NEW ALBUMS
ROGÊ
Curyman II DIAMOND WEST
Brazilian expat’s second sumptuous set with orchestrator Arthur Verocai.
By Will Hermes
NATALIE JOHNS
9/10
GREAT artists usually seek great teachers. Dylan visited Woody Guthrie at the Greystone Park psychiatric hospital; Patti Smith danced to The Velvet Underground at Max’s Kansas City. Sometimes, students and teachers even make great art together.
Rogê – aka Roger José Cury – is a leading light of a new generation of Brazilian traditionalists, one who has built his career in part on inspired collaborations with teachers, or “older brothers”, as he calls them. His 2015 album with pagode giant Arlindo Cruz, Na Veia, won a Latin Grammy and put Rogê on the map internationally. It was followed by Seu Jorge & Rogê, a team-up with a fellow Rio De Janeiro carioca who also has a knack for collaboration (see his Bowie-crooning star turn in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). For last year’s extraordinary Curyman, Rogê collaborated with Arthur Verocai, the great composer-arrangerorchestrator, whose self-titled 1972 LP, largely overlooked at the time, proved to be a touchstone of 20th-century orchestral pop. With sweeping strings and choral vocals added after Rogê’s initial tracking, Curyman was buoyed by Verocai’s magic; cratedigger emeritus Gilles Peterson declared it a “modern Brazilian masterpiece”.
Created in a similar manner, Curyman II is every bit its equal. If anything, Verocai’s arrangements feel more baked-in this time, shaping the melodies and hugging Rogê’s playfully darting tenor and fragile falsetto.
SLEEVE NOTES
1 Curyman
2 100% Samba
3 A Lendo Do Abaeté
4 O Topo Do
Conqueiro
5 Rio de Janeiro a Janeiro
6 A Força
7 A Rã
8 Old Diamond West
9 A Revolta Dos Malês
10 Vida Voa
Produced by: Thomas Brenneck Recorded at: Diamond West Studios, Pasadena, CA; Cia dos Tecnicos Studio, Copacabana, Brazil Personnel includes: Rogê (vocals, acoustic guitar), Thomas Brenneck (synth, drum machine), Abe Rounds (drums), Chester Hansen (bass), Roger Manning, Will Shalda (keyboards), Gibi Dos Santos, Stephane San Juan, Andre Siqueira (perc), Dave Guy (trumpet), Leon Michaels (sax)