Ryan Keberle & Collectiv do Brasil - Choro das Aguas

GA Russell · 2025-05-22T21:11:51Z

Ryan Keberle &

Collectiv do Brasil

Pay Tribute to Ivan Lins

On "Choro das Águas,"

To Be Released July 18 by

Alternate Side Records

Trombonist & His São Paulo-Based Combo

Put Their Distinctive Spin on 8 Songs by the Living Legend of Brazilian Music,

Two Compositions by the Leader

May 22, 2025

Trombonist Ryan Keberle and Collectiv do Brasil explore the music of one of the world’s greatest living musical masters with Choro das Águas, set for a July 18 release on Alternate Side Records. The album—Keberle’s third with the São Paulo pianist/arranger Felipe Silveira, bassist Felipe Brisola, and drummer Paulinho Vicente—features compositions by Brazilian jazz and popular music tunesmith Ivan Lins, marking the composer’s 80th-birthday year, along with two of Keberle’s unique original compositions. (Lins and Keberle share a June 16th birthday.)

“Ivan Lins’s songwriting stands among the giants … his music a masterful fusion of sophistication and soul,” Keberle explains in Choro das Águas’ liner notes. “I chose eight of my favorite songs—hidden gems, even to many Brazilian music fans. Collectiv do Brasil brings these songs to life with fresh, inventive arrangements.

“The result is something beyond category,” he adds. “A sound that is entirely its own.”

L. to r.: Paulinho Vicente, Felipe Silveira, Ryan Keberle, Felipe Brisola.

One certainly can’t fit these renditions into any recognizable box. For all the rhythmic assurance and assertiveness put into Lins pieces like “Essa Maré” and “Lua Cirandeira,” they are offset by the delicacies of “Saindo de Mim” and “Tens—Long Life” (a medley deftly combining Lins’s “Tens” with pianist Lyle Mays’s “Long Life”). In fact, one of the special gifts of this formidable quartet is their ability to balance strong grooves with fragile melodicism, as they do on “Rei do Carnaval,” “Sai de Baixo,” and the exquisite title track.

Not to be outshined, however, are Keberle’s own compositions. “Quintessence,” a staple of the trombonist’s repertoire (and always one with a strong clave component) here takes on an upbeat samba feel, adding a layer of radiant joy and palpable excitement to the tune. An effective counterpoint comes in “Simple Sermon,” a gorgeous ballad with Silveira’s yearning chords playing off Keberle’s thoughtful melodic statement—another supple demonstration of the sense of balance the musicians bring to this music.

Indeed, the real jewel of Choro das Águas lies in the empathy and chemistry between the foursome who perform it. Keberle and Silveira’s interplay is one stellar example; Brisola and Vicente’s deft lock-in all throughout the album is another. More potent still is the angular but shrewd collective improvisation that the whole ensemble plays during Lins’s “Noites Sertanejas”: their joint creation couldn’t be more different than the composition, yet their sensitivity to each other and to the material make it work brilliantly.

Lins himself waxes rhapsodic about Keberle and the Collectiv’s work on the album. “Muito bom mesmo!!!!” (“Very good indeed!!!!”) he said upon hearing it. “Tocam muito. E têm estilo próprio. Jazz de primeira linha!!! Adorei!!!” (“They play a lot. And they have their own style. First class jazz!!! I loved it!!!”) So will you.

Ryan Keberle was born June 16, 1980 in Bloomington, Indiana, but he grew up in Spokane, Washington. The Keberles are a musical family: Ryan’s father, Dan, plays trumpet and chaired the Whitworth University jazz studies program for 38 years, while his mother Ann taught piano and directed a church choir. Their son began taking lessons with his mom at four years old, then transitioned to the trombone at ten.

He distinguished himself as a student trombonist first in high school, then in college, earning diplomas from the prestigious programs at both the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. He also became an instructor at the former school, and for 20 years has directed jazz studies at Hunter College.

But jazz education is only one aspect of a very busy and successful career. Keberle made his debut as a leader in 2004 as the artistic director for Jazz Band Classic, the youth jazz ensemble associated with the New York Symphony. It was the first of several big bands in which he made a name for himself; Keberle has also been a star soloist and ensemble player in big bands led by Miguel Zenon, Rufus Reid, David Berger, Ryan Truesdell, Maria Schneider, and Darcy James Argue, among others.

In 2006, Keberle completed his first album as a leader, the self-titled album by the Ryan Keberle Double Quartet. (They recorded a second album, Heavy Dreaming, in 2009.) In addition, Keberle leads and has recorded five albums with the indie jazz quartet Catharsis, three with the chamber-jazz trio Reverso, and three with Collectiv do Brasil, giving him an array of projects in which to explore his prolific and diverse musical concepts.

“Saindo de Mim” has been released as the first single from Choro das Águas, with “Sai de Baixo” to follow 6/6 and “Rei do Carnaval” on 6/27.

Brazilian dates in support of the new album include the following, with more to be announced: 6/27-28 Clube de Jazz, Belo Horizonte; 7/3 Soberano, Rio de Janeiro; 7/5 Jazz B, São Paulo; 7/6 Rabeca Cultural, Sousas. Keberle and Collectiv do Brasil will also be appearing at Small’s, NYC, 9/24; and the Cooperage Project, Honesdale, PA, 9/26.