“Rovanio: The Music of Nanny Assis,” set to be released on June 23 by the German jazz label In+Out Records, is Assis’s second album. It showcases not only his versatility but also his love for collaboration, featuring a total of twenty guest artists — including esteemed figures such as Ron Carter, Randy Brecker, Chico Pinheiro, and Janis Siegel.
In summary, Rovanio is Assis’s true birth name. He has been known as Nanny since childhood; similarly, he is recognized as a samba guitarist, percussionist, and singer for most of his career. For Assis, however, both identities were not enough: he had much more to offer than a nickname and a single genre. “Rovanio: The Music of Nanny Assis” presents the full spectrum of who he is as a musician.
“Coming from Brazil, I have so many different styles and roots for my music; it’s very rich,” he says. “There’s so much information in one place, and it’s really strong in culture, dance, and music. And I think I’m the link that brings it all together.”
Indeed, despite its rainbow of sounds, rhythms, textures, and musicians, the album maintains an unshakeable (and unmistakable) Brazilian core. It serves as a constant reminder of the broad panoply that is Brazilian culture — and, in turn, Assis’s art.
There are, of course, traditional samba and bossa nova sounds in “Manhã de Carnaval” and “No Agora/Mr. Bowtie,” respectively. But Rovanio also offers the powerful flavor of West African music in “Amor Omisso,” the poignant ballad of “Proponho,” and the jazz pedigree of “Human Kind” and “The Northern Sea.”
Assis’s collaborators each add distinct touches to the music in unique and surprising ways: the melody of “Proponho,” for example, is actually Fred Hersch’s composition “Mandevilla,” and it is the pianist himself who performs the melody with new grace and sensitivity as a vocal accompaniment — with Siegel providing the harmony for that vocal. Carter appears at various points, perhaps most beautifully when he intertwines with drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. in the charming closing track “Intimate Acquaintances.” Assis’s own daughter, Laura, works with her father in two very different roles: as the lead vocalist on the captivating “Insensatez” in Portuguese, and as a lyricist (in English — and impressively sophisticated, considering she was six years old at the time) on the moving “Back to Bahia.” (Assis also duets with his son Dani on “Human Kind.”)
Ultimately, however, it is Assis’s stamp on the material that proves indelible. After “Rovanio,” no one will label him merely as Nanny Assis, samba musician.
Rovanio “Nanny” Assis was born on August 25, 1969, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. At the age of 7, he began playing drums and singing in the church choir where his father was a pastor. After learning the basics of guitar, he turned to the secular music world, playing fusion and samba with his friends and making his first forays into jazz.
He continued pursuing music even while obtaining degrees in linguistics and Portuguese literature at the Catholic University of Salvador, getting married, and starting a family. American music — and America itself — were his targets, achieved when in 1993 he joined the Austin, Texas-based Rolling Thunder as a percussionist. After six years of regular work in the U.S., he moved to New York with his family in 1999.
Assis continued to work in multiple genres, but increasingly found himself in the company of jazz musicians. He worked with singer Lauren Henderson, trumpeter Mark Morganelli, and keyboardist Pete Levin; collaborated with Eumir Deodato, Romero Lubambo, John Patitucci, Michael Leonhardt, and Erik Friedlander on his first album, “Double Rainbow” from 2006; and formed the Requinte Trio with Janis Siegel and John Di Martino (making a self-titled album with them in 2010). Jazz musicians also dominate the ranks of his collaborators on “Rovanio: The Music of Nanny Assis,” his second album as a leader.
“’Rovanio’ is my best musical work to date,” says Assis. “For many years I had the urgent desire to see this music materialize. It encompasses all my life experiences — rhythmically, harmonically, and melodically — since I was young.