Saxophonist and multi-talented musician and bandleader Khris Royal will be joining BrasilNola, one of the city’s hottest new acts, on Thursday night at D.B.A. Expect a blend of the lush rhythms and harmonies of Brazil with the booty shaking funk and brass of New Orleans. It’s a New Orleans samba dance party!
BrasiNola evolved out of the varied musical interests of Danny Abel, the guitarist in Khris Royal and Dark Matter, bassist Ron Johnson (Warren Haynes, Karl Denson), and Brazilian keyboardist and vocalist Eduardo Tozzatto.
While there have been plenty of purely Brazilian acts on the scene in New Orleans, BrasilNola is a new concept that brings the dance rhythms of Brazilian music from the 1970s (a heyday if you ask this Brazilian music fan) into the mix with the funky sounds of the same period in New Orleans (the heyday of the Meters, Allen Toussaint, Lee Dorsey, and so many of the greats).
While the songs of BrasilNola, sung with power and soul by Tozzatto, may not be as familiar as the work of those songwriters, Brazilians in the crowd seem to know every word of classics from the pen of legends like Djavan, Gilberto Gil, and João Bosco. You will soon be singing along.
With Royal and Abel, musicians who know each other so well on the bandstand, expect to hear some incredible funky jazz solos while the band’s relentless groove keeps the dance party going. This is truly music that defines the famous maxim from George Clinton—”Free your mind and your ass will follow.”
