What can happen when 4 saxophonists from very different trajectories meet in space-time? When do asteroids collide in the range of sounds projected by powerful breaths? The answer is sound: music!
SÃO PAULO CREATIVE 4 emits the spark of musical creation in its purest state and that reaches us through powerful rhythmic and melodic waves where our imagination is allowed to fly and the soft emotion of the note suspended in the throat lands on planets that shiver the skin.
Composed by musicians Ivo Perelman, Livio Tragtenberg, Rogério Costa and Manu Falleiros, São Paulo Creative 4 explodes in short Supernova in live improvisation in vibrant performance.
We followed their sonic trajectories in and out of surprising black holes, a musical encounter, and what an encounter!
Livio Tragtenberg
Recorded at Estúdio dos Lagos, Itapecerica da Serra/SP-Brazil on July 20th, 2022. Mixed and mastered by Beto Machado.
Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone;
Lívio Tragtenberg: bass clarinet, alto saxophone; Rogério Costa: soprano and alto saxophone; Manu Falleiros: soprano and baritone saxophone.
Ivo Perelman in his youth, Perelman learned to play guitar, cello, clarinet, trombone, and piano, concentrating on tenor sax since age 19. He attended the Berklee College of Music for one semester and then dropped out, moving to Los Angeles in 1986. Perelman released his first album in 1989, which featured Peter Erskine, John Patitucci, Airto Moreira, Eliane Elias, and Flora Purim as guests. After the release of his first album he moved to New York City. Perelman has released many albums since then for a number of different labels, and has played with Dominic Duval, Borah Bergman, Rashied Ali, Jay Rosen, Marilyn Crispell, Matthew Shipp, Paul Bley, Don Pullen, Fred Hopkins, Andrew Cyrille, Joanne Brackeen, Mark Helias, Billy Hart, Mino Cinelu, Nana Vasconcelos, Reggie Workman, William Parker, Louis Sclavis, John Wolf Brennan, Elton Dean, and Joe Morris.
Livio Tragtenberg at 13, he taught himself to play drums, which led to a passion for music. He dropped out of high school to pursue a music career, releasing his debut album Ritual in 1980. In the 1980s, he composed operas like O Inferno de Wall Street and worked as a session musician. From the 1990s to mid-2000s, he released several albums and taught music theory at Unicamp and the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. He collaborated with filmmakers like Tata Amaral, composing soundtracks for films such as Um Céu de Estrelas (1996) and Hoje (2011). Tragtenberg also managed projects like the Blind Sound Orchestra and Orquestras de Músicos das Ruas de São Paulo. In the mid-2010s, he collaborated with Rogério Skylab on a trilogy of albums and continued working together on various projects. Tragtenberg is also a published author on music theory.
Rogerio Costa is an associate professor, composer, saxophonist and researcher affiliated with the Music Department at the University of Sao Paulo/Brazil. As a composer Rogério Costa has written compositions for various formations including octets, quartets, trios, duos, solo pieces for saxophone and piano. His compositions have been played by leading artists in Brazil and Europe such as Abstrai of Rio de Janeiro, Camerata Aberta of São Paulo and Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble of Vienna. He founded and was a member for more than 15 years, of the group of Brazilian instrumental music Aquilo del Nisso, with which he recorded 4 CDs. As a researcher Rogério Costa develops a research project on improvisation and its connections with other areas of study.
Manu Falleiros has taken part in various contemporary music festivals, such as the traditional Gilberto Mendes New Music Festival, Jazz at the SESC Pompéia Factory, Bienal da Música Hoje, Ibrasotope and ?Música?-USP, having performed with leading names in free improvisation such as Dror Feiler, Franziska Schroeder, Chefa Alonso, Alexandros Markeas, Gerard Assayag (IRCAM), among others. He holds a PhD from the University of São Paulo and his thesis presents an in-depth view of the creative process in contemporary improvisation. Funarte award winner has his work premiered at the XIX Bienal de Música Brasileira Contemporânea. Falleiros is currently the Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Nucleus for Sound Communication at University of Campinas, a research center that explores the intersection between art and science, with which he has been developing projects since 2015.
