In the liner notes to his latest release, the aptly titled
Bill in Brazil,
Bill Cunliffe relates the amusing story of his numerous logistical misadventures in South America. Setting out for Rio so as to lend a cultural authenticity to his Brazilian jazz venture, the pianist found out he needed a visa as well as a passport and had to divert to Buenos Aires for a weekend while waiting to straighten things out at the Brazilian embassy. Then a local terrorist attack closed the airport and he spent another night just wandering the city and hanging around jazz clubs. Finally, after surviving a psycho cab driver and a wild World Cup parade,
Cunliffe defied exhaustion and set to work with some of Brazil's top musicians, creating an album of extraordinary beauty ("Long Time Coming"), demonic jazz energy ("Belinda"), and friendly tributes (
Jobim's "Surfboard"). Recorded in both Rio and Los Angeles, the disc features
Ricardo Silveira,
Oscar Castro-Neves, drummer
Elio Cafaro, pianist
Marcos Ariel, and
Alex Acuña. The experience also inspired
Cunliffe to write four of his own tunes, in addition to Brazilian staples and pop treasures like "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and
Paul Simon's hooky "She Moves On."