Ricardo Bacelar is a Brazilian pianist, composer, and producer based in Fortaleza, Brazil, and the founder of Jasmin Music and Jasmin Studio. His collaborative album Maracanós, released April 24, 2026, is a cross-generational encounter with one of the most significant figures in the history of Brazilian and global jazz: percussion pioneer Airto Moreira, whose credits include recordings with Miles Davis, Chick Corea, and Stan Getz. The album features a special appearance by legendary vocalist Flora Purim, Moreira’s longtime musical and life partner, on the track “Voo da Tarde.”

Recorded in 2024 and 2025 at Jasmin Studio in Fortaleza across two separate sessions, the project grew organically from studio visits that expanded into something much larger, including a feature-length documentary currently in production and directed by Jom Tob Azulay. The Kalimera String Quartet from Rio de Janeiro appears on two tracks, with orchestral arrangements by Liduino Pitombeira. Released simultaneously across Brazil, the United States, Portugal, France, Germany, China, and Japan, the album arrives the same month Moreira received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, the highest official recognition in American jazz.

Track by Track

1. Pe no Chao

The lead single and the album’s opening statement. The title translates roughly to “feet on the ground,” and the track delivers exactly that rootedness. Brazilian rhythmic traditions anchor the piece while Bacelar’s piano and Moreira’s percussion build a dialogue that feels simultaneously structured and completely free. A companion video was released alongside the single on April 24. It is a strong, assured way to open a record of this ambition.

2. Mestre Novo da Guine

A three-way composition credited to Moreira, Bacelar, and Luis Lima Verde, this track pushes further into experimental territory. The title references a “new master from Guinea,” and the piece carries an African rhythmic influence that sits naturally within the album’s broader palette of Brazilian and global musical traditions. The percussion work here is among the most intricate on the record.

3. Bumbo Meu Boi

A more percussively driven piece that draws on the deep tradition of Brazilian folk and carnival music embedded in the album’s DNA. Moreira’s influence is at its most visceral here, with the rhythmic architecture of the track taking the lead while the harmonic elements move around it. It is one of the most purely physical listening experiences on the album.

4. Voo da Tarde

The album’s centrepiece and its most emotionally expansive track at over seven minutes. This is the piece that features Flora Purim’s vocal performance, and her presence transforms the sonic atmosphere entirely. The title translates to “afternoon flight,” and the track earns that sense of suspended, unhurried movement. Purim and Moreira have been musical and life partners for decades, and the chemistry between them and Bacelar’s production is palpable throughout. It is the kind of track that justifies an entire album.

5. Maracanos

The title track is compact and focused, a distillation of everything the album is reaching for in under four minutes. The interplay between Bacelar’s piano and Moreira’s percussion is at its most conversational here, two musicians genuinely listening to each other in real time. The Mysoftmusic influence that underpins the record’s production gives the piece a spaciousness that keeps it from ever feeling crowded despite the density of ideas within it.

6. Submersivos

One of the more atmospheric tracks on the record. The synthesizers take a more prominent role here, creating a submerged, aquatic quality that contrasts with the more rhythmically assertive tracks around it. It is a reminder that Maracanós is as much a work of sound design as it is a jazz record, and Bacelar’s production instincts keep the two impulses in productive tension throughout.

7. 3 Minutos de Paz

The title translates to “3 Minutes of Peace,” and it is the album’s most deliberately restful moment. Short and spare, it functions as a breath before the closing track, a space where the record pauses and allows everything that has come before to settle. The string arrangements from the Kalimera Quartet lend it a chamber music delicacy that sits beautifully within the album’s broader sonic world.

8. Pau Rolou

The album closes with an energetic, rhythmically propulsive piece that brings the record full circle. After the stillness of “3 Minutos de Paz,” this one reasserts the vitality and playfulness that has been present throughout. Moreira has spoken about using his voice on the record alongside his percussion, and that organic, spontaneous quality is particularly evident here. It is a joyful and confident way to end what is, in every sense, a landmark collaboration.

Final Thoughts

Maracanós is a rare kind of album. It sounds like it could only have been made by these specific people, in this specific place, at this specific moment in time. Ricardo Bacelar has built a production environment that honors the freedom and experimentation that define Airto Moreira and Flora Purim’s legacy, while bringing a contemporary compositional sensibility that keeps the music from feeling like a tribute or a retrospective. It is a living, forward-looking record made by artists who have nothing to prove and everything to say.

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