Amaro Freitas’ New Single “Y’Y” (Feat. Shabaka Hutchings)
February 27, 2024 - By Psychic Hotline
Acclaimed Brazilian composer and pianist Amaro Frietas shares the title track “Y’Y” (featuring Shabaka Hutchings) from his upcoming album, Y’Y, out this Friday on Psychic Hotline. The track, which features Hutchings on flute in a duo alongside Freitas’ on piano, is inspired by Freitas’ enchantment at the beauty of the meeting of the Solimões and Negro rivers, where he felt that this record would be in reverence to the waters and forests. From this process came “Y’Y,” a word written in the Sateré Mawé dialect, an ancestral indigenous code that means water or river. In this song, the duo translates the ancestral strength of the meeting of these waters into two opposing movements. The first showcases flowing tones of a more agitated, abundant, muddy river: the Solimões River; while the second movement bathes in the dark, meek, and silent infinite mantle of the Rio Negro.
Listen to “Y’Y” (Feat. Shabaka Hutchings) by Amaro Freitas
Named one of Pitchfork’s Most Anticipated Albums of 2024, Y’Y (pronounced eey-eh, eey-eh) is “a call to live, feel, respect, and care for nature, recognizing it as our ancestor,” says Freitas. He continues, “it is also a warning about the need to be aware of the impact we cause, based on the concepts of civilization and modernity that keep us away from this connection, and its importance for the balance of life on the planet.” Y’Y speaks to the importance of the water, the river, and our environment and how the conservation of the Brazilian rainforest is an answer to the reality of our climate struggles.
Featuring additional contributions from Jeff Parker, Hamid Drake, Aniel Somellian, and Brandee Younger, Y’Y serves not only as an expression of connection to the earth and to the ancestors, but as proof of connections between the global Black avant-jazz community. This album is an artful conversation between those traditions, rooted in the unique sounds and rituals found in Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cultures. With Y’Y, Freitas further codifies his fresh, “decolonized” interpretation of Brazilian jazz, one that may well shatter preconceived notions of what jazz can be.
For those in the New York City area, Freitas will perform his first US show in support of Y’Y at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Tuesday, March 5th. Tickets are on sale now and available for purchase here.
