Let’s be clear: there will never be another performance of Milton Nascimento’s “Travessia” quite like the one by David Ryshpan’s Trio Bruxo with bassist Nicolas Bédard and drummer Mark Nelson on Canada’s National Day at the Montreal Jazz Festival.
At the beginning of this performance the weather was uncertain, hedging its bets. But about half way through this tune, the skies above Montreal unleashed the kind of storm you’d definitely call tropical, possibly even biblical. The arrival of the rain meant that the set was curtailed before its due time
Trio Bruxo, is David Ryshpan’s Montreal-based group, an instrumental Trio which celebrates and keeps the flame alive for the pantheon of Brazilian jazz. ‘Bruxo’ means a sorcerer, and is a reference to Hermeto Pascoal, for whom, let’s face it, veneration and adulation are natural, necessary, unavoidable.
The group plays originals, but also versions of Brazilian classics. I particularly enjoyed their take on “Nada sara como antes” from Nascimento’s classic album “Club de Esquina”… as seen through the prism of Radiohead and Robert Glasper.
