Natalie Cressman and Ian Faquini: 'Lavagem de Conceição'

The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.

San Francisco’s Natalie Cressman and Berkeley’s Ian Faquini album called, ‘Guinga,’ was released on April 12 on GroundUp Music and is a tribute to the legendary Brazilian composer, guitarist and vocalist, Guinga.

Faquini, born in Brazil and raised in Berkeley and Cressman, born and raised in San Francisco, met at an annual Brazil Camp in Cazadero, Calif. It’s also where they met teacher and collaborator Guinga. Cressman plays trombone and Faquini plays guitar.

Their song featured in the Sunday Music Drop honors Conceição Damasceno, an important figure in the Bay Area Brazilian culture scene. They described how every year after Brazil Camp, they would attend a party called Lavagem. They named the song ‘Lavagem de Conceição.’

“It literally means washing, so it’s a kind of a religious Afro-Brazilian ceremony,” Cressman said.

The lyrics describe the dream of a grief-stricken guitarist with images of a spider crawling on the guitar, tuning pegs and obscuring his vision.

“It felt so somber,” Cressman said. “We were trying to come up with ways that the trombone could be kind of like wailing.”

They both come from musical families. Cressman’s father is a trombonist who plays Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music. And her mom is a jazz vocalist who specializes in Brazilian music. Faquini’s father is also a professional musician who plays blues and rock.

And they both value time spent in Brazil as well as their upbringing in the Bay Area. “I think it’s extremely valuable to just be in the space where a lot of this music was created,” Cressman said. “There’s such a melodious aspect to the language of Portuguese that I feel like learning it helps me understand the music better.”

Both Cressman and Faquini say the Bay Area influences their music.

“Who I am now is a product of growing up in the Bay Area,” Cressman said. “There’s not very many places in the United States where there is this beautiful cross-pollination of American music and musicians from Cuba and Puerto Rico and Brazil.”

“It’s a super special place that I’m happy to be a part of,” Faquini said.

Their song ‘Lavagem de Conceição’ features vocals by Brazilian master guitarist Guinga, with Anna Paes and Sandy Cressman providing vocals. They will perform at San Jose Jazz Summer Fest on Aug. 10. Guinga is also visiting the Bay Area this summer, performing on Aug. 15 at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco and Aug. 16 at the Soundroom in Oakland.