Rob Mazurek & São Paulo Underground

It’s a musical paradox that encounters between musical genres that usually inhabit different worlds —post-rock and jazz, say, or Brazilian rhythms and electro-acoustic experiments— usually produce a sonic result that defies categorization by form, style or aesthetic.

The first name behind tonight’s notes is Rob Mazurek who, after carving a significant niche for himself on the Chicago avant-garde jazz scene, moved to Brazil in 2000 and opened himself up to a whole new set of musical influences.

In so doing, he’d followed the advice of his mentor, Bill Dixon, to “Let your ear select where it wants to go”.