Every so often when I'm listening to the radio while driving, something catches my ear to such an extent that I have to literally pull the car over and concentrate on what I'm hearing. Then I usually will jot down the information that satellite radio provides so that I can search it out more on my own.
This happened to me again just the other night. I was driving home from a long day at work, and I was listening to the jazz station on XM/Sirius. I heard an arrangement of Steve Wonder's "As", from his seminal Songs in the Key of Life album, and it was played in a brilliant latin arrangement by a guitarist I had never heard of before: Chico Pinheiro from Brazil. I went home that evening and looked him up on YouTube, iTunes, etc...and have been digging his stuff all weekend long (in between rooting for the SF Giants winning the NL West, and bemoaning the state of the SF 49ers...but that's for another type of blog...).
While I couldn't find any videos of Pinheiro's arrangement of "As", I did find a video of him playing another of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs: "Send One Your Love" from the "Secret Life of Plants" LP (come to think of it, I don't think I have a non-favorite Stevie Wonder song). Turn down the lights, put on some headphones and turn up the volume (the sound is a little low on this one). I especially like the soloing he does about 2 minutes in, as he weaves his lines around what the singer is doing...enjoy:
I just really dig this guy's style of playing. I found a few more videos that showcased his band playing live. Here's one more for your enjoyment - he's playing electric on this one (looks like some kind of Gibson ES jazz guitar series...I didn't look too closely). He can certainly hold his own on electric as well. I don't really know what the song is about - and I think I'm probably wrong in thinking she is really singing about "Cassius Clay" the boxer, but I'll just claim ignorance of the language and instead enjoy the groove and the playing on this one:
What really bums me out is that this band just played at Yoshi's in Oakland about a month ago - I would have loved to see that show.
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