Gatos do Sul

One of the highlights of the 2023 Big Ears festival was the early Friday set of Gatos do Sul by pianist Brian Marsella and his ensemble. 

The music was quick-paced jazz with a Latin flair, witty, exciting, and inventive. The musicians looked like they were having fun onstage, and I can assure you those of us in the audience were having fun, too. It was my favorite set of that day, and possibly of the entire festival.

But when I returned home, I couldn't find anything online, neither to stream nor to buy, by the band. I found a few clips on YouTube of a performance in Brooklyn shot from the audience by fans, but that was about it.

What I didn't fully realize is that "Gatos do Sul" isn't the name of the band but the name of a 2020 album credited to Marsella.  Further, while in retrospective I should been able to connect the dots, the album is a release on John Zorn's Tzadik label (this year's festival was in part a celebration of Zorn's 70th birthday). More specifically, the Gatos do Sul LP is part of Tzadik's Spectrum Series of works by various artists from across the globe.    

And then this week, my world changed when the near entirety of the Tzadik label output was finally released to streaming.  All of those wonderful releases by Zorn and by all of the myriad ensembles and bands he assembled to perform his music were suddenly available.  After being initially overwhelmed and more than a little bewildered by the sheer immensity of music available, I was able to drill down a little bit and found Gatos do Sul on Spotify.   

Wonderful album.

What's more, the streaming release wasn't merely to Spotify alone. The Tzadik catalog is now also on YouTube.  I understand it's also on Apple Music and other platforms, too. I don't know why it's not yet on Bandcamp, where Zorn can actually make some money on CD and digital sales, but I imagine it's only a matter of time. 

But YouTube enables us to share the music online on sites like this, so here's the track Meu Doce de Abóbora ("My Pumpkin Compote") from Marsella's Gatos do Sul.  That lovely Brazilian percussion starting the track (and throughout the rest of the song) is by Cyro Baptista, seem in the white jacket on the right in the picture above. The other musicians are (l to r) Jorge Roeder, Itai Kriss, Ches Smith, Jon Irabagon, and then Baptista.