Search - Toninho Horta :: Durango Kid

Singing from the heart of Brazil

Mark Thayer | 12/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having read several reviews of Toninho that pan his singing, I need to interject.



I've been listening to Pat Metheny's Brazilian jazz fusion for almost 20 years, where the non-verbal melodic vocalizations are at times impossibly mesmerizing. Compositionally, Metheny comes across as continually innovating sound and voice, through rock, bebop, KennyG-jazz, and wind-and-string modern classical. The Brazilian components Pat draws from come from the likes of Nascimiento and Horta; simple, pure, heartfelt musical primatives that sound like they come from the most remote parts of Brazil. I bought Toninho's Moonstone and Durango Kid because I wanted to hear more of these distant pieces that were driving Metheny in new directions. The part of Toninho's music I came to like the most is his singing, that non-verbal accompaniment to beautiful guitar playing.



About 20 years ago I saw Toninho in concert in Washington, D.C. , part of a Smithsonion music series. The venue was small, holding maybe 200 in the audience. About 20 seconds into one song, for no reason I could determine from the performance (not due to missed notes or poor timing -- neither occurred), he stopped, laughed openly, said something warmly in Portuguese to the audience, and then started again; the song was perfect. I can only think that he wasn't concerned about the polish, but rather that it just didn't feel right the first time.



These days, Metheny's polish seems redundant in some way. For now, the sound of Toninho singing and playing in Brazilian syncopation, as if sitting on his doorstep, singing about his children, about soccer, about the people he loves is for me a simpler but emotionally broader understanding of Brazilian music."

Toninho Horta

Carlos from Rio | 04/21/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard "Durango Kid" on a flight to Brazil, and fell in love with the song. Sort of mix of jazz/pop/rock/Brazilian beat. Lots of guitar. Very enjoyable."