D a n d e l i o n

- E x p e r i m e n t a l
I n d o J a z z M u s i c -

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 32:42] all rights reserved

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The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"Indo jazz is a hybrid musical genre consisting of jazz, classical and Indian influences. The structure and patterns would be based on Indian music with the improvisation typical to jazz overlaid. The term might be comparatively recent, but the concept dates at least to the mid-1950s. Musicians including John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef and others showed Indian influences. The Mahavishnu Orchestra might be an early example of a jazz group with Indian influences as John McLaughlin at that time was a devotee of Sri Chinmoy. Others found the improvisational elements already in some Indian music to fit well with jazz. Although John Mayer and Joe Harriott are perhaps the most important influences in the movement. In addition Alice Coltrane is also known for relational work.

And now Otacílio Melgaço provides a valuable contribution to this crossbred ´dialect´. His experimentalist spirit endowed with exciting polymorphism & provocative amalgamation; fluxuous versatility & cosmopolitan miscegenation ... and plus: I call, figuratively, his ´alchemical´ mastery (O.M. as originator, multi instrumentalist, arranger, conductor, mixing/mastering engineer ... & extra: art designer - impossible to remain silent before one of the most beautiful album covers I've seen in my entire life - etcetera) et cetera: all this - and much more - transforms ´Dandelion´ in an enchanting and definitive crisscrossed proposal - considering its fluidic and expansive contemporaneity." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"The album title - here in focus - is fascinating and the stunning image revealed on the cover not let me lie.

Taraxacum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae and consists of species commonly known as dandelion. They are native to Eurasia and North America, and two species, T. officinale and T. erythrospermum, are found as commonplace wild flowers worldwide. Both species are edible in their entirety. The common name

D a n d e l i o n

(from French dent-de-lion, meaning ´lion's tooth´) is given to members of the genus. Like other members of the Asteraceae family, they have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower in a head is called a floret.

Eleven tracks, eleven florets.

´Silent music! Music to see;
The growing of beautiful melody!
Flowers are the music of the ground
From earth's lips spoken without sound;
Flowers are as music, silent, deep.
Music men keep
In pots and vases, beds and jars
Music as though they were bundles of stars!´ (Edwin Curran)

The Melgacian Experimental Indo Jazz can be soundly sprinkled in our ears the most pollinator (and bewitching) way. The Melgacian Experimental Indo Jazz is a sonic expression that has the biter power of a high royal feline as is the lion (and his snap thousand teeth - even winged if under the Melgacian fecundating musical blowing). Metaphors are several - from the fertilizerly poetic up until the ubiquitously pregnanter - and always bring to light the allure afforded by the O.M.´s creations.

'Faith means unflinching trust in something sublime', inspiring quote from The Bhagavad Gita. I have a sublime faith in ´Dandelion´." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - The English name, dandelion, is a corruption of the French dent de lion meaning "lion's tooth", referring to the coarsely toothed leaves. The plant is also known as blowball, cankerwort, doon-head-clock, witch's gowan, milk witch, lion's-tooth, yellow-gowan, Irish daisy, monks-head, priest's-crown, and puff-ball; other common names include faceclock, pee-a-bed, wet-a-bed, swine's snout, white endive, and wild endive;

II - In the early 1970s, L. Subramaniam pioneered a new movement of Indo-Jazz fusion, which he called "Neo-fusion." It became very popular in which he collaborated with musicians including Stephane Grappelli, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Larry Coryell, Emil Richards among others;

III - It´s also worth mentioning Shakti. Shakti was a group which played a novel acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz. Its leading members were the English guitar player John McLaughlin and Indian violin player L. Shankar. It also included Zakir Hussain (on tabla), Ramnad Raghavan (on the Mridangam), and T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram (on Ghatam). In addition to fusing Euro-American and Indian music, Shakti also represented a fusion of the Hindustani and Carnatic music traditions, since Hussain is from the North while the other Indian members are from the South. It came together in 1974, after the dissolution of the second incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and toured fairly extensively during the period 1975-1977; it made only sporadic appearances (with personnel changes) thereafter.

..for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

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Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.