U n v a n i t y C a s e S i n g l e s S e r i e s

V i l l a g e V a n g u a r d

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 09:59] 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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{Note by P.S.P. -

U N V A N I T Y
C A S E
S I N G L E S
S E R I E S,

Eight releases that portray, among many glimpsed, a Melgacian sonorous fantastical microcosm.

Symphony, suite, sonata, cantata, pastoral, madrigal, sarabanda, fantasia, fugue, rhapsody, capriccio, passacaglia, berceuse, tombeau, lied, concertino, gimnopedia, oratorio, mass, operetta, opera ... are customary part of the compositional vocabulary of Otacílio Melgaço. Here and now we come in contact with other perspectives (with one or two exceptions) that are beyond the frontiers of modern classical genre. Extrapolations already contained in several albums produced by him and which are also treasures of his vast discography but never before gathered in a Series.

An image full of perspicacity when we think of a portable ´compendium´ of quite personal complementary aesthetic man-made objects (and here I´m referring to the adaptation of the term by Mr. Melgaço), the Vanity Case is a small handbag used for carrying cosmetics or toiletries.

Unvanity Case (Singles Series). It´s possible to perceive at least two fundamentals embedded in the O.M. wordplay. There´s the properly denial of ´vanity´ (the dictionarist meaning: excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements; the quality of being worthless or futile. So he invents a neologism to reveal this clear denudation) and also the symbolist recognition of artifacts gathered in the same casing as is the special case, for example and in addition to others, of a mirror.

In a fashion, the message that the composer and multi-instrumentalist conveys to us is clear:

He looks at himself, limpidly. Something a great artist is often doing. Yes, paradoxically, Melgaço does not give up (peer through the subsequent figures of speech) ´cosmetic & toiletry´ elements of music (timbres, harmonies, durations, pauses, melodies, dynamics, rhythms, pitches, articulations, textures, technicalities, arrangements, mixes, masterings ...) and, consequently (as expected and desired): he shows himself to us. Something that often a great artist should do with transparency and, of course, a certain mystery. Another paradox. He shows himself to us just as in Greek tragedy/comedy, the Mask (again: ´cosmetic & toiletry´) does not hide: it brings even more to light who the character is.

And, resuming the title exegesis, reflecting on the portable character: in the condition of ´perpetuum mobile´, every EP brings us to a peculiar place (situated in some historical snapshot) in one of the four corners of the world or even orbiting the planet earth. This conceptual ballast, therefore, is a mention of travels and journeys and trips and gigs (and rays and twinkles) and sagas perpetrated by the artist. I draw attention to the fact that the relationship between the niche itself and the respective musical proposal is direct, bright. ´Moto perpetuo´ as much as the experiments with his music as being a restless, challenger creator - who takes risks in constant search and daring -. Creator in its integrity/fragmentation, complexity/plainness; O.M.: an ontological mosaic, a kaleidoscope in person always in displacement and in our direction, provoking us but, I have no doubt, in humanistic celebration. This, citing only one of the facets of an Art-in-Magnification as is the Melgacian.

´Everything is metaphor´, Otacílio usually utters. And when we realize the polysemous richness of his inventions (nor need I say that the vocable 'case' is equally read as ´an instance of a particular situation; an example of something occurring´), we can conclude how absolutely everything that the/this artist plays can be an exciting, constructive and Graceful fluxuosity. Through the looking glass, the reflector, the speculum! And who inhabits the other side of the mirror?

Eight times,
the response that - hitherto - echoes eight times,
Ladies and Gentlemen, is:
E a c h O n e O f U s.}

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"Mr. Melgaço (a)live [& shining] at (his) villAge Vanguard(ist)." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"G o l d e n T r i a n g l e

1 - For years prior to 1935, the Vanguard’s proprietor, Max Gordon, strove to run a successful nightclub. His first attempt at a Village Vanguard opened in 1934 on Charles Street and Greenwich Avenue. Gordon intended for the Vanguard to be a forum for poets and artists as well as a site for musical performances.

Like its prototype on Charles Street, the Vanguard was initially dedicated to poetry readings and folk music. Frequenters of the club in the thirties and forties would hear poetry read by poets such as Maxwell Bodenheim and Harry Kemp; they would hear folk music ranging from Lead Belly’s southern U.S songs to the Duke of Iron’s Caribbean calypso. Painters would go there to have discussions regarding the Spanish Civil War. Political posters dotted the walls, enhancing the atmosphere of intensity and discourse. Yet throughout the thirties and forties, amidst the neo-bohemian culture that flourished in the Village, jam sessions were making their presence known at the Vanguard. The rest is history.

[It´s worth mentioning that - for O.M. - some of his greatest jazzistic references played there. Can I quote the names of Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian and Steve Kuhn];

2 - In the early days of the one that came to become a famous jazz room (known worldwide), there was a combination that lives up to the approaches made by Otacílio Melgaço to the music genre emerged among African Americans in New Orleans:

The poeticity;

The performative character;

Open dialogue with other artistic expressions (not only, also humanistic, philosophical, anthropological, metaphysical, etc.);

A certain undaunted attitude - and aesthetics - (which involves political-social awareness) inherited from the meanders of Free Jazz;

Neo-Bohemian traces permeating the libertarian spirit of jam sessions.

´Village Vanguard´ is a composition and interpretation that very well represents the advanced Melgacian outlook. I´ll highlight three examples (there are several) proving this: while drums and acoustic bass are extremely connected to the proposed language, string quartet and wind instruments belong neatly to a classical prism (all occurring simultaneously and in a vertiginous fusion); the Piece maintains a coherent flow but reveals crests and valleys that demonstrate quite peculiar ingenious dynamics; the insertion of effects that symbolize varnishes on the colorings (coloraturas) of the instruments is a plastic decision instituting new dimensions to our hearing and (more sophisticated) fruition;

3 - To be registered here, I think both words are of singular importance for Otacílio.

´Village´ and ´Vanguard´.

The ´Melgaço´ surname refers us to the Roman Empire (as its origin) and also has Celtic roots. But it was a village in Portugal that consecrated such term in the modern era.

And ´vanguard´, well, if it concerns someone or a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas, I believe that, in the case of t-h-i-s Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist, everything is said." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it featured many forms of music, such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957;

II - By 1957, one commentator writes, “Gordon reversed his policy, putting jazz at the top of the bill and letting the folknicks…and the comics…fill it out. Thus the Vanguard booked Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Jimmy Giuffre, Anita O’Day, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans (a regular), Stan Getz, Carmen McRae.” The booking of Thelonious Monk was a particularly interesting story that demonstrated the Vanguard’s ability to take a relatively unknown musician and help launch his career. The story of Monk’s introduction to the Vanguard began with the first ever encounter between Max and Lorraine. Max and Lorraine first met each other in the Bluebell Bakery, a “homey little Fire Island joint.” After she walked in and spotted Max (who she knew to be the owner of the Village Vanguard), Lorraine proposed to him that he showcase Thelonious Monk at the club for a week. He agreed and on September 14, 1948, Monk opened for the Vanguard. The reception was not ideal. “[N]obody came. None of the so-called jazz critics. None of the so-called cognoscenti. Zilch.” But Lorraine continued to sponsor Monk as a genius and through her persistence helped him grow into the pillar of jazz he is today. From the 1950s on, the Vanguard was the leading small venue for jazz, launching many celebrated careers and sustaining others that were already aloft. The Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra that eventually became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra played from 1966 to 1990 on Monday nights.

In 1989, Max Gordon died. The day after, Lorraine Gordon closed the Vanguard. The following day, she reopened it and has continued to run the place ever since. She has not made any alterations of any kind, and kept it how it was, how people liked it;

III - The Vanguard has helped launched many careers and has hosted many recordings that are regarded as masterpieces in its basement, making it now a club of international renown. On 3 November 1957, during some of the first recording sessions at the club, Sonny Rollins, a tenor sax player, recorded three LPs. These recordings were at the forefront of the hard-bop movement. The LPs documented two different saxophone-bass-drums trios. Rollins had shown an interest in smaller ensembles as early as 1955; in Paradox, he exchanged four-measure phrases with drummer Max Roach, with no other instrument taking part. In the Vanguard recordings we hear similar styles in arrangements. In the song "Old Devil Moon", Rollins is accompanied only by a bassist and a drummer. Musically, this song set the standard for the piano-less trio. Following Rollins, recordings continued; The Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band performed and recorded there in December 1960 after returning from a European Tour. Then there was John Coltrane's and Bill Evans's famed Vanguard titles, both from 1961 (Evans was extensively recorded at the Village Vanguard just three months before his death in 1980). Coltrane’s album was five titles taken from 22 recorded songs over four nights at the Vanguard. 1962 saw The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York. The Thad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra was a long running Monday Night fixture there beginning in 1965 recording several times and in 1976 it played host to Dexter Gordon's "Homecoming" performance with Woody Shaw.

There was Art Pepper's Thursday Night at the Village Vanguard in 1977, Tommy Flanagan's Nights at the Vanguard in 1986 and Wynton Marsalis's voluminous seven-disc Live at the Vanguard in 1999. "The words 'Live at the Village Vanguard' do have a direct and positive influence on an album's sales," claims Bruce Lundvall, head of Blue Note Records, a principal jazz label with more than a dozen "Live at the Vanguard" titles in its catalog.

...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.