Ars Nova Workshop presents the innovative Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas at Solar Myth on Tuesday, October 8.

Born in the slums of Recife in Brazil’s northeast, Amaro Freitas is now one of the most acclaimed pianists in world jazz. It was in church that he discovered his passion for music. When he was introduced to Chick Corea, his life changed completely: Amaro was to become a jazz musician. Acclaimed by the international press, Freitas’ musical approach breaks away from the clichés that cling to Brazilian jazz. Venturing far beyond bossa sounds, his polyrhythmic explorations draw equally on maracatu, frevo, funk and the playing of the great jazz pianists.

Continuing to intwine ancestral knowledge into his music, Amaro Freitas brings his fresh, “decolonized” interpretation of jazz to his new album Y’Y, an “homage to the forest, especially the Amazon Forest, and the rivers of Northern Brazil” and “a call to live, feel, respect, and care for nature, recognizing it as our ancestor,” as he explains. Y’Y expresses lessons Freitas learned in the Amazon about the incandescent power of enchanted spirits who intervene on behalf of the community in times of struggle and 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. Freitas steps into a new realm of musical creation that’s rooted in magic, possibility, and stewardship for the earth, changing what the genre can be.