Paulo Rego brings Brazilian music and chamber instrumentation as he is a saxophonist, flutist, composer, and arranger with a degree in Music from UFRJ. He has worked with the group No Olho da Rua since co-founding it in 1997. His catalog moves through samba-jazz, compositions for saxophone and string quartets, and combinations of piano, clarinet, cello, and winds. “Jamba” and “Malí na Roça” show two different ways he uses melody as the center of an ensemble.
Jamba
Paulo Rego gives “Jamba” the lightness of a melody that seems to arrive before the listener knows where it is going. The samba-jazz waltz begins with an intentionally ambiguous introduction, withholding the character of the main theme until flute and vibraphone bring it into focus together. From there, a simple melody floats above a bass and drum groove that remains steady beneath the changing voices.
The arrangement lets each instrument occupy its own space without losing the thread. A vibraphone solo gives way to a delicate flute passage, followed by bass and keyboard solos, before the main theme returns. Rego also places a tribute to Baleia’s “Jiraiya” inside the flute melody, making the piece’s gentleness part of a larger musical conversation. The groove does not need to change for the arrangement to keep moving.
By the time the coda arrives, “Jamba” has traveled through several voices without abandoning the melody that set it in motion. The opening ambiguity has done its work. What first seemed difficult to place now has somewhere to land.
Malí na Roça
Paulo Rego turns a child’s fearless game of soccer into “Malí na Roça,” a cheerful piece whose musical abundance mirrors the scene that inspired it. He wrote it for his eight-year-old daughter after watching her play with boys on a neighborhood field, holding her own with joy. Two flutes, keyboard, bass, and drums give the composition a bright ensemble sound, evoking the Sunday morning in the countryside that Rego had in mind.
The two flutes often move together, with Rego joined by Carlos Malta, reinforcing passages before separating into individual roles. Malta takes the solo, after which the two return as a duet for “Theme C,” then revisit “Theme B” before the piece moves into new material for its coda. The arrangement keeps adding melodic material without making the original scene disappear: a child playing, running, and refusing to treat the field as a place where she does not belong.
Rego describes the piece as being full of melodies, like a country breakfast spread. That image fits the music’s generosity. One plate arrives, then another, and there is still more on the table.
