Amaro Freitas

Amaro Freitas is a Brazilian jazz pianist and composer whose sound is rooted in the folk and ceremonial rhythms and harmonies from his country's northern region. His 2016 debut, Sangue Negro, showcased a percussive approach to the instrument that prizes the Afro-Brazilian maracatu rhythm, the high-intensity carnival rhythms of frevo and baião, the bop innovations of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and the post-bop and modal sounds of John Coltrane. 2018's Rasif employed baiao and a particularly Brazilian strain of post-bop that swung so hard it sounded like dance music. 20...