Frederico Heliodoro Quartet, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 17/09/2026

Frederico Heliodoro – electric bass, Laurie Milton – keyboards, Tom Ford – electric bass, Nathan Shingler – drums

Tonight’s performance represented an extra-curricular event in the Music Spoken Here calendar, but the opportunity to host a band led by the remarkable Brazilian bassist and composer Frederico Heliodoro was much too good to resist.

Heliodoro is currently on tour in Europe and tonight’s show was one of only two British dates, the other being at the prestigious Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston, London. Bringing him to Worcester certainly represented quite a coup for MSH instigator Dave Fuller.

Heliodoro, aged thirty nine, was born in Rio de Janeiro but was raised in Belo Horizonte in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte is a city with a strong musical tradition and Heliodoro’s father was a guitarist and songwriter.

The young Frederico began on guitar but his love of The Beatles saw him taking up the bass at the age of nine, initially inspired by Paul McCartney. He later discovered the music of Weather Report and Jaco Pastorius, another, more currently discernible,  primary influence. In addition to British and American rock and pop Heliodoro also draws inspiration from numerous genres of Brazilian music.

Heliodoro has been a recording artist since 2011 and has recorded five full length albums plus a number of EPs and singles. The only item for sale at the merch desk at his UK shows was “Selected Works”, a compilation album. This also features Heliodoro as a vocalist, but he has now abandoned singing to focus exclusively on his astonishing bass playing.

In 2016 Heliodoro played in guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Caipi band, an experience that was to prove highly influential for him. Rosenwinkel frequently deployed an octave pedal or pitch shifter to alter the sound of his guitar. Heliodoro applied this to the electric bass, giving the instrument a higher pitched sound that allowed him to sound almost like a guitarist. As a soloist he found this extremely liberating and for the past decade or so he has been performing music that features four string electric bass as the lead instrument, continuing to deploy effects pedals but resisting the temptation to add extra strings.

In addition to his work with Rosenwinkel Heliodoro has also toured with the great Milton Nascimento, one of the absolute giants of Brazilian music. Meanwhile the “Selected Works” album includes contributions from such US jazz heavyweights as saxophonist David Binney and keyboard player Chris Fishman, the latter a member of Pat Metheny’s Side Eye group. Other collaborators have included pianists Olivia Trummer and Aaron Parks and saxophonist Seamus Blake.

In recent years Heliodoro has added a second electric bass player to the line-up, the second player focussing on the rhythmic duties of ‘holding down the bottom end’ and thus freeing up Heliodoro as a bass soloist.

Such was the case with tonight’s line up, which featured Tom Ford, best known as guitarist, on second electric bass. As a guitarist Ford had visited MSH as the leader of his own band in September 2025, a group that also included tonight’s drummer Nathan Shingler, plus Knats bassist Stan Woodward. The Ford group’s repertoire on that occasion included Heliodoro’s composition “I’m Too Hype”. My review of that performance can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/tom-ford-music-spoken-here-the-marrs-bar-worcester-25-09-2025

Heliodoro and Ford first met online via Instagram and Ford later visited Brazil to play with Heliodoro and others. Ford was therefore Heliodoro’s first call when it came to getting a band together for the UK leg of the Brazilian’s European tour. In addition to Shingler tonight’s group also included keyboard player Laurie Milton, who also plays with rising star British drummer Lox.

Heliodoro opened the proceedings with an unaccompanied electric bass rendition of one of his favourite jazz standards, “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”.

This segued almost imperceptibly into “Salao Brasil” as drums, keyboard and that second electric bass were added. Heliodoro’s solo embraced that high pitched, guitar like sound, allied to full chording, with Heliodoro’s astonishing playing combining elements of both guitar and bass techniques. It should be noted that he also plays guitar and piano and is also a respected educator. When Milton eventually took over at the Nord Stage 4 keyboard he deployed an acoustic piano sound as Shingler drove the music along via his increasingly dynamic, hip hop inspired grooves. The leader then took over once more, again delivering that high pitched, guitar like bass sound, further embellished by the judicious use of effects.

“Ciclo do Leme” also commenced with a passage of unaccompanied bass from Heliodoro, who later shared the solos with Milton, the keyboard player now adopting a mix of electric piano and synth sounds. Once again the speed and fluency of Heliodoro’s bass playing was truly remarkable with “Swallow on Steroids” and “Beyond Jaco” two of the phrases I jotted down to describe the brilliance of his playing.

An extended unaccompanied keyboard episode introduced “Verano”, the title track of Heliodoro’s 2013 album. Subsequently the leader launched into a muscular bass riff cum motif that somehow reminded me of Stanley Clarke’s “School Days”. This provided the platform for further solos from Heliodoro and Ford, both on electric bass. One didn’t envy Ford, primarily a guitarist anyway, having to follow the ridiculously gifted Heliodoro, but nevertheless he acquitted himself well and found plenty to say on his own account. Milton deployed a synth like sound for his keyboard solo before Heliodoro took up the lead again, fuelled by Shingler’s increasingly dynamic drumming.
I subsequently checked out the recording of this piece, which sounds radically different to tonight’s performance. In 2013 Heliodoro was playing acoustic double bass, and occasionally singing,  as the leader of a more conventional ‘piano trio’ alongside pianist Marcus Abjaud and drummer Felipe Continentino. It’s very different to what he’s doing now, but still very worthwhile and eminently listenable.

“Little Fake Bricks” was written as a reaction to one of the few genuinely ugly buildings in the vicinity of Copacabana Beach. Introduced by a passage of unaccompanied bass from the leader and featuring an ‘acoustic’ piano solo from Milton the music was rather more appealing than its subject, with Heliodoro also soloing with full band accompaniment.

The first set concluded with “A Vida Que Vem” a vocal piece sourced from Heliodoro’s most recent album recording “The Weight of the News” (2023). It also appears on the “Selected Works” compilation and features Chris Fishman. Tonight’s all instrumental version represented a rousing conclusion to a truly remarkable first set. I’d never seen bass playing quite like it, and that observation seemed to apply to just about everybody else in tonight’s audience.

Set two was to prove equally dazzling, kicking off with the dramatic dynamic contrasts of “Fantasia Carioca”, in which the series fiery interactions between Heliodoro and drummer Nathan Shingler was particularly compelling.

“Alterosa” represented a homage to Minas Gerais, the adopted home state of both Heliodoro and Milton Nascimento, who was also born in Rio before moving to Minas Gerais as a child. This piece was a genuine celebration of the region with buoyant grooves underpinning Heliodoro’s still astonishing bass soloing, including the rarely seen use of string bending techniques. Ford was also featured as a bass soloist as Heliodoro temporarily sat out. Ford subsequently established a funky electric bass groove that underpinned Milton’s electric piano solo, with Heliodoro eventually returning towards the close.

Urged on by Shingler’s dynamic drumming Heliodoro made his bass positively wail on “137CS”, sharing the solos with Milton’s keys before Shingler rounded things off with a hard hitting drum feature.

“Hit2”, a single release that also appears on “Selected Works”, featured Heliodoro’s bravura soloing underpinned by the sounds of Milton’s keyboard washes, Ford’s funky electric bass groove and Shingler’s sturdy backbeat.

Following the high octane energy of “Hit2” Heliodoro decided to close the performance with an as yet untitled “chill song” rather than the scheduled “I’m Tired of Being So Hype”. This was introduced by the sound of the two electric basses working in tandem, a rarity in any genre of music. I could only think of Gary Burton’s group with twin bassists Steve Swallow and Eberhard Weber, and Stourbridge indie rock favourites Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. Ornette Coleman famously deployed two acoustic bassists, Charlie Haden and Scott La Faro,  in his double quartet and I seem to recall British saxophonist Stan Sulzmann featuring one acoustic bass (Mick Hutton) and one electric bass (Patrick Bettison) on his 1990 quartet album “Feudal Rabbits”. Do let me know if you can think of any others.
Tonight’s “chill song” incorporated an extended solo from Ford, with Heliodoro adding a kind of ‘harmony bass’. Milton was also featured at the keyboard before a final bass excursion from Heliodoro himself, who still managed to generate a fair amount of energy even when nominally “chilling”.

Tonight’s show fitted neatly into two of MSH’s themes for its 2026/27 season, which includes a series of shows featuring electric bass playing leaders and the “A Brazilian Love Affair” series focussing on various genres of Latin music, which takes its name from the title of a 1980 George Duke album.

As I’ve said I’ve never seen bass playing quite as virtuosic as this, it really was a jaw dropping performance from Heliodoro. However, rather like last week’s event featuring the young, bass led Boomslang quartet it was all a bit relentless, with the emphasis on technical virtuosity rather than emotion.  Again a little light and shade wouldn’t have gone amiss and even the final “chill out” number wasn’t THAT relaxing.

Nevertheless it was undeniably exciting, technically dazzling and overall a terrific live music experience. Heliodoro is a monster bass player and it was his exceptional skill that carried the day here, and one can also make a strong case for him as a true musical innovator on his chosen instrument. It really was a privilege to be able to see him in Worcester.

Ford, Shingler and Milton offered excellent support and each enjoyed their own moments in the spotlight, but really it was all about the leader.

My thanks to Frederico for speaking with me after the show and for providing me with a copy of the set list.

This was one of the great MSH nights and will live long in the memory of all those that were lucky enough to be there.

I’ll leave the last word with Marr’s Bar proprietor - and guitarist - Brian ‘Marzy’ Maher – “blimey, if he can do that with four strings whatever would he do with six?”.

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