The secret ingredient across albums by Gal Costa, Emcida and João Donato as well as with his own group, São Paulo’s (Afro Brazilian take on) Afrobeat collective Bixiga 70, Fleury writes, arranges and plays in a dizzying variety of musical styles at the intersection of traditional and modern Brazilian musical traditions. Fueled by a wanderlust that only a global pandemic can inspire, with Revoada Mauricio and his trio transport listeners to far-flung destinations. “This record is about where I wanted to go without ever leaving my apartment.”
Recorded in Brazil and released by Altercat out of Berlin, this flock of songs migrated across oceans and timezones to eventually take flight to the rest of the world. The trio is completed with long-time collaborators, Fabio Sá on bass and Vitor Cabral on drums, who anchored Fleury’s frequent residencies at the São Paulo Blue Note in 2019 years, a creative phase when many of these songs first emerged.
Co-founder of Veneno Soundsystem, a São Paulo open-format all-vintage vinyl DJ crew, Fleury is skilled in the art of taking dancers (and wallflowers alike) on musical excursions to exotic, dramatic, and funky locales. The artful sequencing of these six songs across esoteric styles and vibrations uncovers a narrative dimension to the album’s theme of travel and migration.
Reinventing itself between tracks, the trio, (sometimes augmented by additional players), kicks off the set with some Anatolian Psych-Jazz-Funk in “Kadiköy.” Fleury countersteers into Donato domain on the swinging latin groove “Bandhado,” before arriving at the album’s titular centerpiece, “Revoada.” With the addition of brass and string arrangements, “Revoada” evokes Jobim on CTI vibes. Side B starts poolside, at the Riviera Bar, as referenced in the song’s title: “Tanto Faz (Riviera Bar),” a curiously grooving example of lounge funk with prominent flute over wah-wah clavinet, a signature Donato combination. Thunderous and moody, in “Jima,” Fleury’s piano stomps and swings effortlessly off-kilter over the undulating upright bass by the song’s author, Fabio Sá.”Briluz” turns the heat back up to close out the set, an Ayers-esque jazz funk dancer that struts itself right into the runout groove.
