From Envy to Admiration

I recently heard a quartet playing mainly Brazilian music, led by the singer, guitarist, and composer Fernando Seixas. He is a charming man and a fine musician. The drummer who played with him, Avinoam Maraton was excellent, as was the bassist, Eve Glula. Fernando's son, Gabriel, in his early twenties, played tenor sax and flute. At first he didn't play very much, and I wasn't impressed. Then he got into it, playing melodiously and confidently, and fitting in perfectly with the ensemble, not trying to dominate it the way a tenor player can.

He never looked at a bit of written music throughout the whole evening. Since it was a planned performance, he had plenty of time to learn the songs by heart, but only a musician with a good ear and a good musical memory could have carried it off the way he did.

Any tenor sax player performing Brazilian music has to have Stan Getz hovering over his shoulder, and Gabriel wasn't intimidated by Getz's ghost. Rather, he was inspired.