Band Leaders Marino, Pisano Sail Along With a Brazilian Style

It’s often said that converts to a particular religion are more zealous in their practice of the newborn faith than those born into it.

Similarly, bassist Jose Marino likes to quip that though John Pisano, his guitarist and co-leader of the Brazilian music group Velas, was born in New York of Italian ancestry, he could just as well have hailed from Rio de Janeiro.

“John is more Brazilian than I am,” said Marino, 51, whose first name is pronounced Joe-zeh. Born in a small village near Sao Paolo, he has worked with such Brazilian greats as Milton Nascimento, Bola Sete and Walter Wanderly.

Pisano, who became infatuated with Brazilian music as a child listening to Carmen Miranda’s Bando Carioca on film soundtracks, has heard this kind of stuff before.

“When I was playing with Sergio Mendes in Brazil a few years ago,” Pisano recalled, “people would look at Sergio and point at me and ask, ‘Brasileiro?’ (‘Brazilian?’).” Pisano has also worked with guitarist Joe Pass, drummer Chico Hamilton, Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass and the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut.

“My main energy has been into Brazilian stuff for years,” said the guitarist, 60.

Pisano’s affinity for the music of Marino’s native land sparked an immediate camaraderie between the two when they first played with Brazilian pianist Joao Donato in a reggae/Brazilian band in Los Angeles in the early ‘70s.

Marino and Pisano became fast friends, and though they worked together infrequently, they always wanted to start their own band someday.

Velas, which means “sails” in Portuguese, is that band. The group, with original member Frank Zottoli (keyboards) and guest artists--drummer Claudio Slon (subbing for charter member Everaldo Ferreira), singer Carol Rogers and saxophonist Teco Cardoso--appears Monday at the Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood.

Marino said the same simpatico that he and Pisano discovered while playing with Donato also exists with the members of Velas, which was formed in 1986 and which has just released its first album, eponymously titled, on the Voss label.

“Every time we sit down to play, we don’t have to say anything, even with a new piece nobody’s seen,” Marino said in a recent conversation at Pisano’s hilltop home above Studio City. “We all seem to go in the same direction, and it’s the right direction feeling-wise, groove-wise.”

“A rhythm section like this one, where you don’t have any grating edges, it’s like a cloud,” Pisano said. “You sit on top, and you’re free to do what you want.”

“We have fun. That’s why we play together,” Marino said.

The bassist describes Velas--which can range from four to seven players, depending upon the engagement--as a group that plays Brazilian music, and mainly bossa nova, the jazz-influenced style of samba that was in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s by such artists as Antonio Carlos Jobim and ccent,on Joao Gilberto.

“But we don’t play straight bossa nova,” Marino said. “There are a lot of other flavors, including American jazz.”

On the new album, completed in the spring, the band is augmented on various tracks by such musicians as singer Kevyn Lettau, drummer Michael Shapiro, guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves and reedman Gary Meek. The tunes, mostly originals by Marino, Pisano and producer Yutaka Yokokura, have a subtle, delicate air, with dulcet melodies in the forefront and a gentle, buoyant rhythmic feel.

That’s just one side of the band, Pisano insisted.

“We get hot, too. We like to play with a lot of energy,” he said.

Velas came about when Marino--who, since leaving Donato in 1972, has free-lanced with a variety of artists from Tony Orlando and Dawn to Willie Bobo--got a call from the Nucleus Nuance on a Friday to put together a Brazilian group for the next Wednesday.

“I called John, Frank and Everaldo, and in 20 minutes I had the group,” he recalled. The musicians had a rehearsal or two, playing a lot of arrangements of Brazilian tunes that Pisano had written, and then played the engagement.

“One Wednesday led to another,” Marino said. “We ended up working there for five months. And the band jelled so fast that we thought, ‘Hey, let’s keep this going and see what happens.’ ”

At first a lot did. The band worked successfully at area clubs, including the Nuance, Donte’s and Alphonse’s. Then, with the onset of the recession, things slowed down, as they have for so many musicians and music venues. This year, the band has worked sporadically: The Catalina date is its first since a three-month stand of Wednesdays at Drake’s Restaurant in Glendale in June, July and August.

There was, however, a successful three-week tour of Japan in the spring--Velas’ album was originally released by the Japanese-based Pony Canyon label and is distributed in the United States by Voss.

“Demand is great in Japan for Brazilian music,” said Pisano, “more so than in Europe.”

“We walked into a record store in Tokyo, and there was a huge wall devoted, top to bottom, to Brazilian CDs, a lot from the 1940s and 1950s,” Marino said, his face brightening. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Marino and Pisano hope to take Velas back to Japan in January or February.

Marino started playing music at the age of 7, and when he moved with his family to Sao Paolo as a teen-ager, he found he was drawn to such American jazz players as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Bill Evans. He came to the United States with organist Wanderly in 1966, and moved to Los Angeles soon thereafter. He recorded Nascimento’s famed “Courage” A&M; record--it features the classic “Bridges”--and went on to play with Sete, Bobo and others. Currently, he works on occasion with pianist Guilherme Verquiero and Katia and Mario Moraes’ The Rio Thing.

Pisano first studied piano, then, as a teen-ager, guitar. In 1956, he joined Chico Hamilton, replacing Jim Hall, and appeared with that group in the 1957 film “The Sweet Smell of Success.” From 1965 to 1969, Pisano was a member of Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, and his tunes “So What’s New” and others became minor hits and earned him substantial royalties.

“I still get checks,” he said with a laugh.

In the early ‘80s, Pisano was heard with Mendes and other Brazilian groups. This year, he has appeared with Pass at Elario’s in La Jolla and has played several dates with the Juggernaut, where his ability to play rhythm guitar is employed. He can also be heard on two releases with Pass: “Summer Nights” and “Appassionato,” both on Pablo Records.

Though Pisano and Marino aren’t happy about the lack of work for Velas, they look to a brighter future. But no matter what, they say, they will keep making music.

“We get together and play or eat beans, or whatever,” Pisano said, smiling. “We’re musicians. We like to play just for the fun of it.”