 The 96th release of “Jazz thing Next Generation” seems to be heading to Brazil, but singer Elsa Johanna Mohr is from Düsseldorf. But she already spent an exchange year in Brazil when she was in high school and fell in love with the music there. Studies of Portuguese and Brazilian literature in Munich, including a bachelor's thesis on the Brazilian composer Dorival Caymmi, followed, during which time she sang and played in various bands and then studied jazz singing in Osnabrück, where Simin Tander, Tobias Christl and Efrat Alony were among her teachers. She can now be heard together with the Brazilian guitarist Flavio Nunes on her debut album "Passadinha" (Double Moon/Bertus). "Flavio has lived in Germany for three or four years, and everything was just right when we jammed and had our first small performances," the singer recalled. "What makes Flavio very special is his sensitive way of accompanying. I feel very seen and heard by him because he is very sensitive." Together, the two have compiled a repertoire of Mohr's originals and various Brazilian classics, including "Fechado Pra Balanço" by Gilberto Gil and "Tempo de Amor" composed by Baden Powell. "We started with Brazilian classics, which can now also be found on the album," Mohr explained the song selection. "This includes 'A Menina Dança‘ (the dancing girl) by the group Novos Baianos. We made sure that we didn't only have Bossa Nova songs, but also sometimes a choro or something trendy." The clear diction and the informal style of Mohr's singing make “Passadinha” a small gem. The Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung has already certified that she sings “as if she had grown up on Sugarloaf Mountain”, to which Nunes, who can be heard on both the acoustic and the electric guitar, contributes a lot. He masters the most complex rhythms with breathtaking ease and adds depth and dimension to the laid-back singing. But the pieces that Mohr composed in Portuguese are especially striking and fit seamlessly into the series of Brazilian songs. The slightly ballad-like and melancholic sounding "Casuleira" – Mohr accompanies herself on the guitar on this song – plays with high-pitched tones. “The song is about a woman who cuts herself off from the world (‘Casuleira’ means as much as cocoon) in an attempt to avoid feelings in order not to get hurt," the singer explained. The bossa nova song “Gíria”, refined with subtle percussion, is about the language spoken in Brazil and its pitfalls. “Translated, ‘Gíria’ means colloquial language, and it's about my initial contact with Brazilian slang,” Mohr said. "I only learned the correct grammar during my studies and now I speak more correctly than many Brazilians." Of course, other pitfalls against which you have to defend yourself in life have to do with love. A story that the singer herself experienced is behind the transparent sounding title track. “’Passadinha” means as much as a short walk and has a rather dramatic background,” Mohr stated. “I once lived in a small village near Belo Horizonte. Someone fell in love with me there, who became very jealous when I was with someone else. He threw all my clothes out of the house at night, which then hung in trees." The pitfalls of jealousy also play a role in the slow-moving "Loop Infinito", which concludes the album. "The song is about an intrusive admirer who simply didn't want to hear no," the singer explained. "It was a kind of stalking, and my husband had to intervene."
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