JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
Rating: 
So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer (on the Intuition Music label) is certainly Brazilian music first, but it has a heavy jazz element, and even some elements of modern classical music, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s world fusion.
The first thing you have to say about So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer is that it’s relentless in it’s complexity. Hermeto Pascoal takes traditional Brazilian rhythms, slices and dices them, and then reconstructs them in dizzying pastiches. He adds jazz harmony, which is frequently discordant or non-function chromatic harmony. Hermeto frequently includes sounds which would not normally be considered musical, which serve as an odd sort of percussion. And the energy of the music is astonishing. When Hermeto Pascoal recorded So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer, he had already been playing professionally over 30 years.
Which is not to say that the music on So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer isn’t tuneful. There’s an abundance of melody.
Another feature of So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer is the tremendous instrumental variety, including saxophones, keyboards, bandoneon (a kind of accordian), shoes, flute, flugehorn, bottles and so on.
If there’s a problem with So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer, it’s that the invention and energy is so relentless that your brain might start to get a little charred around the edges before the CD is over. For me, the cure for that is to put it on with four other CDs and play it randomly.
Imagine if you can a Brazilian Frank Zappa (circa 1971, the time of Roxy and Elsewhere and Apostrophe), and you’ll come pretty close to what you’ll find on So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer.