Sabá explains how Jongo Trio became Som Três

At 74 years-old and nearly six decades as a musician, bassist and vocalist Sebastião Oliveira da Paz, a.k.a. Sabá, says that the repercussion of the trio assembled in 1965 with pianist Cido Bianchi and drummer Toninho Pinheiro still surprises him. "The interest raised by Jongo is astonishing. What's there that keeps the public interested after 35 years? When the three of us perform together, something happens, and we can't explain", goes Sabá, referring to the two successful concerts that the trio played last year in São Paulo. It is at least ironic, considering that the original trio lasted less than one year.

Sabá was living in São Paulo for 13 years when Toninho Pinheiro found him in a nightclub in 1965. The drummer invited him to assemble a trio that should be similar to Tamba Trio (from Rio, led by pianist Luiz Eça). The three started rehearsing with Bianchi. In a couple of months, the bossa nova repertoire was tight. Famed songwriters like Dorival Caymmi, Johnny Alf and Vinicius de Moraes appeared alongside newcomers like Hermeto Pascoal, Théo de Barros and Marcos Valle. In the meantime, they named themselves Jongo Trio, as suggested by pianist Vera Brasil.

After much struggle, Jongo managed to perform one song as the opening act for a star-filled concert. They picked Menino das Laranjas (Théo de Barros) The feedback was so good that the director of the show made them do other seven numbers. A few days later, they were performing with Baden Powell. Besides the instrumental excellence, what called people's attention about Jongo Trio were the bold vocal arrangements. Regardless of the experience accumulated by Sabá in groups like Os Modernistas, he credits that to Cido Binachi. "He had a privileged voice and used to sing perfectly. Cido wrote the arrangements for 80% of our vocals", acknowledges the bassist.

Dismissing Chico Buarque
Soon, an invitation came up for them to make an album on the label Farroupilha (Jongo Trio, available on CD on the label Mix House). One day, they were introduced to a student who had the reputation of being a good songwriter. "We looked at him from head to toe and asked him to play something. We were disturbed because he was a really bad instrumentalist and an even worse singer. We dismissed the guy. The guy was Chico Buarque", tells Sabá, laughing and recalling that he had also dismissed Adoniran Barbosa in the 50s, while performing with Os Modernistas.

Another milestone in Jongo Trio's history were the concerts with Elis Regina and Jair Rodrigues, in April of 1965. "Much to our surprise, it was pure madness. We did not understand why the audience would get so excited", he says, revealing that, although the theater was packed every night, the Trio never got a penny for it. "All we got was a bouncing check from the producer". And it wasn't any different when the album with the live recording of the show (Dois na Bossa, originally released on Philips) came out. Besides not making any money from it, Jongo Trio wasn't even mentioned on the back cover - at the time, it was common knowledge that the album had sold most copies than any other, that year.

Som Três comes to life
In spite of the good feedback gotten with Jongo Trio's debut album, the group would be facing their first crisis in 1966. Oblivious to the real dimension of the trio, Sabá and Toninho Pinheiro began practicing with a young pianist, César Camargo Mariano. That's how the trio which would later be called Som Três (after the North-American group The Three Sounds) was born.

The new trio was immediately hired to perform on a TV show. The star was Wilson Simonal, very popular at the time. "He went nuts with our group", says Sabá, explaining that the trio was turned into a back up band for Simonal for almost six years, going out on several world tours. Som Três ended up backing up Chico Buarque (Roda Viva), Roberto Carlos (Maria Carnaval and Cinzas), Beth Carvalho (Andança) and others. "I reckon that Som Três was a lot better than Jongo Trio.

"Celso Bianchi is a fine pianist, but César really is a phenomenon", analyzes Sabá, who claims to have unssuccessfully tried talking the rest of the group into recording more songs with vocal parts. "I thought it was good for us, commercially speaking, but César disagreed. When Som Três would sing, as opposed to Jongo, it did nothing to the audience", he accepts.

Som Três split up soon after returning from a tour with Wilson Simonal around Mexico, during the World Cup in 1970. Elis Regina invited César Camargo Mariano to join her band for a series of shows in Rio, but Sabá and Toninho decided to stay in São Paulo. It was the end of the trio that had just released the LP Um É Pouco, Dois é Bom, Este Som Três É Demais on Odeon.