Interlúdio by Mazarin

We can’t say geography is determinant – some musicians from Mazarin arrived from Beja, others landed in the band from further south – but what’s relevant is where they crossed paths with each other, between academic studies advanced classical music studies, trips to Hot Clube in search of jazz wisdom and, specially, night clubs where they surfed the waves of contemporary hip-hop and multiple electronic speeds.

Vicente Booth (guitar), João Spencer (bass), Léo Vrillaud (keys) and João Romão (drums) are now a part of the Monster Jinx family, stepping into our purple universe with the release of a single that is the perfect indicator of the formula they have been peacefully developing in their laboratory, on western Lisbon. But the sound they dominate nowadays is the result of a troubled two-year path, filled with recordings, stages, roads and many tryouts.

The quartet showed itself for the first time in 2018, when Mazarin released their self-titled EP through Bandcamp, a work that clearly revealed the generation in which they were born, mainly by including a version of “Lavender Town”, a creation by japanese Junichi Masuda, known by many from Pokémon videogames. At the time of the presentation of Mazarin to Rimas e Batidas, the band claimed the cutout of their identity through the lens of references like J Dilla, DJ Shadow or BadBadNotGood, long before the arrival of the vibrations from the frequencies of “new jazz”, both to national and international antennas.

That first EP made way to festivals and events such as Zigur Fest, FNAC Live or Samsung Galaxy Live, and rushed to clubs like Crew Hassan or Musicbox – where they celebrated April 25th, the carnation revolution, with a little help from a 30-piece choir, by mixing José Mário Branco, Fausto and Sérgio Godinho with J Dilla, 8-bit funk and its elegant and subtly sophisticated vision of a free groove. Following this exciting period, a residency took place at Clube Ferroviário for many months, feeding a constant improvement of a formula-non-formula that goes through the ever-growing telepathic understanding between the four elements of the band and into a mindset that seems willing to admit every sound echoing through the Lisbon streets of 2020 (and beyond…).

And now it’s time to prepare the arrival of 2021, but not without a steady landing of feet in the weirdest of present times, with the launch of a single that includes the tracks "Vasenol” and “Batata Palha”. Recorded during their residency at ETIC, in Lisbon, this double declaration of intentions from Mazarin starts from jazz, surrounds a classic boom bap, but features a distinct musical identity resulting from countless hours on stage, in constant search of an unique, individual sound that doesn’t copy accents from Chicago or London, but that proudly dashes the southern palate, from where they come, and the capital’s contemporary swing, which they adopted. Mazarin are from here, no doubt about that, but we believe they are capable of going much farther.

www.monsterjinx.com

Vicente Booth
Guitar

João Spencer
Bass

Léo Vrillaud
Keys

João Romão
Drums

Francisco Bettencourt
Saxophone/Flute

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