
At the end of 2022, after fourteen years of living in Brooklyn, Chris Bullock’s circumstances suggested it might be time to take a break; to venture out and experience life elsewhere for a while. Having some friends and contacts there, he booked a flight to Brazil with no clear plan or expectations. What he discovered was a vibrant and creative community of musicians, artists, and weirdos pushing Brazilian culture forward in various ways.
After spending three months immersed in the music culture of Rio de Janeiro, meeting, performing, and recording with a host of remarkable young musicians, Chris went back on the road with Snarky Puppy. At the end of a tour in South America in June 2023, Chris returned once again to Rio, and this time he brought along bandmate Justin Stanton. Chris’s idea was to spend a week recording a collection of new songs that he and Justin had each written, employing the talents of a precocious group of Carioca musicians who he had gotten to know. Among them were electric bassist Giordano Gasperin, saxophonist Tunicho Secchin, percussionists Juma Rodrigues and Boka Reis, guitarist Cello Cascino, drummers Claudio Lima and Gabriel “Barbeize” Barbosa, drummer and trombonist Antonio Neves, and vocalists Luciane Dom and Matu Miranda. Justin and Chris enlisted some longstanding friends and musical confidants as well, including Brazilian musical icon Carlos Malta (write something here about Carlos’s accolades). Playing a huge role in the genesis of this album was recording and mixing engineer Marcos Schaimberg, who offered his studio, Iglu Estudio, to document the music, and lended his engineering and mixing talents. Bernardo Aguiar, Chico Lira, and Haroldo Eiras also played a vital role in bringing this music to fruition (maybe say why here?… or do we need to recognize them in the album bio?).
Over the course of the week spent tracking the foundation of the music, different configurations of musicians were used in order to fit the vibe of the specific songs. Songs that might have been originally conceived with certain grooves and feels sometimes changed depending on the musicians in the studio on a particular day, lending fire and spontaneity to the interpretations and performances. Once the songs started to take shape, it was clear that there was a sort of theme of contrast between the respective songs of Justin and Chris. Justin’s tunes tended to have a lighter sound and feeling, while Chris’s had a darker, sometimes sinister, hue to the them. Uniting the contrasting songs were the performances of the young Brazilians as well as the decades-long friendship, strong working rapport, and mutual respect between Chris and Justin.
The album’s name, Claro e Escuro, comes from the Portuguese translation of the phrase “light and dark.” It’s a celebration of the vibrancy of Brazilian culture and music as well as a showcase of the marriage between that culture and two unique songwriting visions.
PHOTO BY
DARA MUNNIS