One day, the cavaquinho player Márcio Marinho called me saying he wanted me to be the bassist of a quartet he was planning to set. I promptly accepted the invitation and we formed the Galinha Caipira Completa (Márcio Marinho – cavaquinho, Rafael dos Anjos, acoustic guitar, Hamilton Pinheiro – bass, Rafael dos Santos – drums).
The idea of the group was to play arrangements and original compositions with no limits to our creativity. We explored our musical strengths and influences and defined a new sound to the group’s instrumentation, which is normally attached to a choro group.
The Galinha Caipira Completa’s core was the Brazilian music, but we embodied several influences. The group could be easily tagged as a world music group instead of a Brazilian music one.
When working on the repertoire, the group’s dynamic was very fruitful because everybody contributed with ideas to finish the arrangements. We used to spend weeks on just one piece and the result was astonishing. A set of intricated arrangements and compositions.
One year after we formed the group we got a grant from the Brazilian Culture Ministry to record our first album named Galinha Caipira Completa.
The name of the group is kinda weird. It is a name of a traditional Brazilian dish. For around two months, we were unsuccessfully struggling to find a name for the group. We got in a situation that we had a concert booked in a jazz festival, but without a name to the group. One day, we decided to have a lunch to find a name. At the restaurant, the drummer Rafael dos Santos said “I will open the restaurant menu and I will find the perfect name for the group.” The first lunch dish was Galinha Caipira Completa.
Deezer: http://www.deezer.com/album/14
Itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id1512329591
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/
Featured tracks
Mensageiro dos Ventos is a Rafael dos Anjos’ composition based on an ostinato guitar pattern. It has several parts, with different time signatures and textures. It is almost like a musical trip and I love this tune.
The bass solo was one of my biggest shots. It came out on the very first take we recorded. Although we tried another takes, no one got better than the first on.
Samba do Grande Amor is a Rafael dos Anjos’ arrangement of a Chico Buarque’s composition. The original composition is already complex, but Rafael went further. It is a very intricate arrangement, with complex chord changes and couterpoint melodies. The track’s climax is the solo section where each musician goes to different places having just the bass line to connect them.