Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Jazz Conception: Piano: Keyboard/Piano Book & CD

This collection stands apart because Brandão doesn't just hand you 15 tunes and a backing track. Each tune includes substantive harmonic analysis and targeted exercises that deepen your understanding of how these styles actually work, supported by liner notes that explain the rhythmic and cultural foundations. Your students get to play with world-class Brazilian musicians (Leandro Braga on piano, Xande Figueiredo on drums, and others) who lock the grooves with authentic pocket and feel.

Infectious. The grooves bounce with the kind of rhythmic ease that makes you want to move; the melodies have memorable hooks without sacrificing sophistication. There's a warmth to these tunes that comes from their roots in dance and community celebration, tempered by the harmonic depth and contemporary arranging sensibility you'd expect from a jazz educator.

Pianists and keyboardists with solid jazz fundamentals who want to expand beyond the standard straight-ahead vocabulary into the grooves and harmonic colors of Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music. This works equally well for self-directed study and as a structured resource for jazz improvisation classes.

• Spend time with the style introduction before tackling the tunes. Understanding the rhythmic DNA of samba, frevo, and son will make your phrasing and articulation feel natural rather than imposed.
• Use the included exercises between tune sessions to build facility with the specific rhythmic cells and voicings that appear in the solos. They're not busywork; they're designed to solve problems you'll actually encounter.
• Pay close attention to how Leandro Braga voices the chords on the recording. The piano comping is a masterclass in how to accompany these styles; learn his approach and adapt it to your own playing.
• Treat the rhythm section recording as a learning partner, not just a playback device. Play through with it multiple times, focusing on different elements each pass: groove alignment, harmonic accuracy, solo phrasing.

Reserve this for the second half of your jazz curriculum, after students have established comfort with swing and blues changes. It works beautifully as a capstone unit for intermediate players, or as the foundation of a full semester on Latin jazz. You could also extract individual tunes to program on jazz combos or small ensemble concerts, pairing them with contextual liner notes to educate the audience.

• Samba, frevo, and son rhythm patterns; recognizing syncopation across different metric contexts
• Comping voicings specific to Brazilian jazz; shell voicings and extensions in motion
• Improvising over two-bar and four-bar harmonic cycles common in Latin tunes
• Phrasing and articulation in Afro-Cuban and Brazilian styles; where to place notes in the groove
• Harmonic analysis of jazz charts with non-functional harmony and modal interchange
• Listening discrimination between regional Brazilian styles and their performance practice