Butterfly is Azymuth’s eighth studio album with Far Out Recordings, coming thirty five years after defining their own particular brand of jazz, funk and samba that they like to call samba doido – crazy samba.
For those passionate about the Azymuth sound this album presents ten more fantastic tracks showcasing the band at their best, weaving together a series of beautiful jazz motifs mirroring the brightly coloured wings of the butterfly. With light free-flowing compositions such as Meu Doce Amigo whose lofty flute sees our butterfly soaring away, a poignant track, translated simply as ‘my sweet friend’, dedicated to bass-player Alex Malheiros’ beloved son who passed away in 2003.
Co produced with David Brinkworth (Harmonic 33) the result is perhaps the purist synthesis of the Azymuth sound during their 14 years of recording with Far Out Recordings. As David recalls it was a natural process of creation, ‘they are really so experienced musically that they can take an idea you may have and transform it in seconds into something beyond your original starting point. They know how each one of them thinks, even before they strike a chord or hit a beat’.
Mamao is quick to add that the process is totally democratic, ‘When we start a track each one of us offers our opinion. We start with the swing, Bertrami creates a melody and Alex (on bass) composes his part and then spontaneously for my part I come in with the chorus. That was how Os Caras La was born.’ The result is a boogie jazz funk monster proving that the band has not lost any of their deftness in forging a pop/ jazz dance hit.