At the age of 44, Rio De Janeiro bassist-producer extraordinaire Alexandre Kassin has worked on about a hundred records over the course of his nearly three-decade spanning career, but is still relatively unknown to many English-speaking music lovers. The native Carioca first got his start in the local Rio scene performing in Acabou La Tequila and later in the more production-experimental trio X+2. Kassin was the one to conceptualize the internationally-renowned big band Orchestra Imperial, who he continues to perform with but today Kassin plants another seed in his solo career.
Finding inspiration in dreams and the surreal but anchoring itself with trusty production techniques, Kassin’s full-length Relax features eleven new tunes that sonically flow between traditional Brazilian pop, soul and classic Latin rhythms while lyrically addressing issues like politics, substance abuse, and mortality. Relax was released just today, so wrap up the work week by streaming the whole album but start off right now with a deceptively upbeat arrangement coupled with Kassin’s haunting tale of dodging fate by missing a flight on a plane that crashed in 1996 with “Momento De Clareza”.
–Jack Anderson (Host, Monday-Wednesday 8-11pm, Saturday 6-10am)
