ANATOMY OF AN IMPROVISER: THE STYLE OF NAILOR AZEVEDO “PROVETA
Manuel Silveira Falleiros
2.2 Musical Analysis
If we intend to verify that Nailor inaugurates a distinct poetics in Brazilian instrumental music, his work cannot be subjected to an analytical approach limited to classifying, enumerating, and presenting how musical elements combine to form his musical identity. After all, his creative practice operates at a more advanced level, and artistic creation is not confined solely to the universe of discrete musical elements.
Musicians of the generation preceding Nailor generally found in bebop phrasing interwoven with Brazilian rhythms a solution for genuine creation, addressing this group’s expressive needs. Moreover, bebop’s impact on instrumental music as a genre has left its mark worldwide to this day, often becoming the benchmark for improvisation. In short, references regarding the most advanced construction of improvised melodic lines—at least within popular music—originated in North American culture. Alongside this, scholars and practitioners in the United States were global pioneers in pedagogy in this field, establishing themselves as the primary reference. It is common to observe that in most publications on the subject, or at least those most widely circulated in this musical circle, there are detailed guidelines for using harmonic and melodic elements such as chords, arpeggios, scales, patterns, and pre-established phrases. These guidelines are highly specific; however, this is generally not the case when addressing rhythm, accentuation, and inflection, which play a decisive role in characterizing a musical genre. Another factor to consider, which may have occurred concurrently, is that, as we know, not all musicians are fully equipped to comprehensively absorb information contained in instructional manuals written in a foreign language.
We must understand that there is a fundamental distinction between rhythm and accentuation: the same rhythmic pattern can assume a completely different genre character if a different accentuation scheme is applied to it. This could readily occur with a Brazilian musician who internalizes bebop phrasing and adaptively superimposes accentuations appropriate to Brazilian popular rhythms.
We can thus confirm that specific rhythmic and accentual patterns characterize the genre of Brazilian improvisational music. But what of the melodic line? Unlike the previous generation, Nailor absorbed the necessary knowledge to transcend these established schemes and, as he himself noted, his generation was able to reflect more critically on the music they were creating. Therefore, we intend to investigate, through analysis of his output, what types of strategies Nailor employs to construct his improvised melodic lines.
At this juncture, we encounter a material-level problem: as noted in the previous chapter, Nailor’s musical output still lacks systematic organization that would allow for a comprehensive overview of his career. The recording of his work to date has focused predominantly on his role as arranger with Banda Mantiqueira rather than as a featured soloist. Despite his recognized importance as an arranger in Brazilian music, his most explicit personal expression becomes diluted when sharing the spotlight with other ensemble members. Other recordings, difficult to access and produced in a rudimentary, artisanal manner, rarely possess sufficient archival relevance or audio quality and will therefore be used only as auxiliary material. We have thus identified, in a separate album, the material that will provide the most substantial grounds for analysis, where Nailor’s presence as protagonist is markedly more prominent.
The material to be analyzed consists of audio recordings from the album Forças D’Alma, directed by drummer Tutty Moreno, performed by Rodolfo Stroeter on double bass and André Mehmari on piano; released by the label Sons da Bahia, and recorded live at the ACBEU Theater in Salvador, Bahia, in April 1998. From the live recordings, we selected a single solo due to its structural and expressive relevance to this study.
Having resolved this material issue, a second problem arises, this time of a methodological nature. At present, there are no established or specialized analytical frameworks for improvised solos in Brazilian instrumental music. We must therefore adapt analytical tools from other contexts, which will require specific modifications and theoretical caveats. Our solution was to treat the improvised solo fundamentally as a melody.
Structurally, melody suggests a type of contour characterized by the following features: wave-like motion primarily through stepwise or closely spaced intervals rather than wide leaps, avoidance of unresolved dissonances, and inherent singability. In other words, we will consider melody as a specific type of contour that phrases assume. While melodies may exhibit countless contours, they are generally all composed of shared constitutive elements.
We will consider the term phrasing as inherently related to a musical style; that is, a melodic contour that retains the stylistic markers of a given genre.
While phrasing suggests the contour, the phrase in turn suggests discursive completeness, possessing a coherent identity guaranteed by the appearance of a motive.
The motive is a compact musical unit in which rhythm predominates, as rhythm is the element that most strongly confers its identity. To construct a phrase, the motive must be repeated with specific alterations.
We must make an important caveat, as we will be working with material that was not subsequently revised: improvisation itself. This means we must account for performative aspects that extend beyond notation, and in this context especially, we are engaging more directly with the subjective cognitive processes of the improviser. In this domain, it is often inappropriate to apply rigid analytical rules. We will frequently need to attribute certain musical choices to spontaneous creative impulse or situational contingency, which does not preclude verifying the underlying coherence that confers character and intelligibility upon the material.
If Nailor, in his improvised solos (due to the very nature of improvisation), draws upon accumulated knowledge, retrieves it through memory mechanisms, and organizes it musically into melodic form following experiential rules, we will be able to trace the workings of this process through close analytical examination of these solos.
Finally, to better illustrate and comment on the details with greater contextual depth, let us proceed to the selected solos: a) Introductory solo to Só Louco, by Dorival Caymmi, b) Solo in A Lenda do Abaeté, by Dorival Caymmi, c) Solo in João Valentão, by Dorival Caymmi, d) Solo in Um a Zero (1×0), by Pixinguinha.