João Bosco Quarteto
Birdland, Through June 8
‘João Bosco e Orquestra Ouro Preto: Gênesis’
Musickeria

With a Brazilian singer-songwriter-guitarist leading his own quartet at Birdland, you may think you know what to expect. You are likely wrong. 

When João Bosco took the stage at the early show on Thursday, I was expecting basically a program of Brazilian music, which is to say mostly sambas. Fast sambas, slower sambas, and those somewhere in the middle.

Mr. Bosco delivered all that, but also a whole lot more: The first couple pieces — “Incompatibilidade de Gênios,” “Prêt-à-Porter de tafetá” — were the expected sambas, brilliantly played. Yet even here, Mr. Bosco’s quartet has its own approach.  

The leader sings his own songs with his own guitar accompaniment, and the roles of the other musicians are clearly defined. Guitarist Ricardo Silveira plays mostly octaves, á la Wes Montgomery, in the ensembles and behind Mr. Bosco, but switches to more of a single-note-driven style in his solos.  Guto Wirtti accompanies Mr. Bosco both on electric bass and in singing harmony. Drummer Kiko Freitas plays a conventional North American trap kit on which he alternates between sticks, brushes, and open-hand playing, usually combining all three.

The basic sambas were sufficiently entertaining, but a half hour or so into the set the quartet began to drift into other directions — even while all the works were Mr. Bosco’s, all sung in Portuguese, and the beat was consistently Brazilian. One piece careened in the direction of backbeat-driven funk; other pieces stretched out in the manner of Pink Floyd and other progressive rock bands — in fact, the music grew more progressive as the set progressed. Others were open-ended soundscapes that reminded me of Bill Frisell.  

At least one piece seemed to be a spoken monologue — again, in Portuguese — set to music. Other numbers were slower and more contemplative, though there was nothing that landed on the ears like a traditional ballad. At least one number was a full-on 12-bar blues, more representative of the American South than South America.

Mr. Bosco’s current album, “Gênesis,” contains even more different kinds of sounds. It was recorded at least partially live with Orquestra Ouro Preto, the same ensemble that released an acclaimed album of large-scale orchestrations of Beatles songs in 2015.  Here, Mr. Bosco has the opportunity to perform his sons stretching out in front of a full symphonic-sized string section.  And yes, sambas with strings, like “Bala com Bala,” which quotes the 20th Century Fox opening titles fanfare — and which he also performed at Birdland with his Quarteto — can be exhilarating.

“Corsario” opens with what sounds like a paraphrase of one of the most famous pieces of contemporary classical music, the “Concierto de Aranjuez.” After we hear the iconic opening motif by  Joaquín Rodrigo — this piece really is the Spanish equivalent of the “Rhapsody in Blue” — there’s a spoken section by Mr. Bosco; this is followed by a dark-ish instrumental passage of mostly lower strings. Eventually, the mood lightens and gives way to Mr. Bosco playing and singing over a string background.

The only thing I did wrong was failing to order a Caipirinha cocktail in order to have some kind of appropriate alcoholic accompaniment to the music. I’m grateful to producer Pat Phillips for bringing João Bosco and his extraordinary Quarteto  to America; this was my first in-person experience of his music, but it certainly won’t be the last.