Hop Off - Portena Jazz Band 1972
An unbelievable band.
I have seen many great revival big bands. But this group, virtually unknown in North America is something else, especially playing here in the early seventies. The intensity, the jazz feeling and the talents of the individual players, to me is pure magic, the kind of stuff you don’t see or hear any more.
Portena came from Buenos Aires Argentine and this was recorded in a studio in Sao Paulo, Brasil. This recording I just received from a friend in Brasil. At the end of the tune one notices an interviewer for a few seconds. It appeared to be a clarinet player I had met in 1975 in New Orleans. Tito Martino is the leader of the Original Traditional Jazz Band from Brasil and when I wrote Tito he confirmed that it was indeed him. He had managed to bring the Portena Jazz Band over to play concerts together with his band. Tito also supplied me with more information about this fabulous band.
This is for me the first time I heard Hop Off other than on the Time Life recording I have of Coleman Hawkins as a member of the Fletcher Henderson Band recording of November 1927. Portena more or less follows the Henderson arrangement but their individual approach makes the overall feeling different and certainly their own.
