Photography by Lisa Schaffer.

Philadelphia's Ensemble Novo celebrates the windswept melodies and perpetual-motion rhythms of Brazil. The five-piece band explores samba, bossa nova and Musica Popular Brazil through the language of improvisation, creating a sound that’s simultaneously propulsive and chill.

Ensemble Novo was formed by by music journalist and saxophonist Tom Moon, a former staffer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, longtime contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered and author of The New York Times bestseller 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die. The five-piece band was initially inspired by Stan Getz’s landmark bossa nova collaborations of the 1960s. As the group has evolved, its catalog of songs has grown to include expansive updates of early samba classics, sentimental radio ballads and progressive regional styles from Northeast Brazil. This Is Ensemble Novo, the band’s most recent EP, includes a lush string-orchestra treatment of the bossa nova classic “O Grande Amor,” and a hypnotic expansion of Edu Lobo’s fusion-era samba “Ponteio.”

The roots of Ensemble Novo can be traced to a chance encounter at a jam session. Moon suggested a bossa nova, and guitarist Ryan McNeely, who was in his last semester in the music school at Temple University and had spent much of his college years studying Brazilian music, said "Which one?" McNeely and Moon began playing regularly, and pretty soon – after McNeely returned from his first visit to Brazil – Ensemble Novo was up and running with percussionist Jim Hamilton, a founding member of the popular Philly drum corps Alo Brazil, and vibraphonist Behn Gillece, an outstanding player and bandleader in his own right. Since its 2013 debut Blue Night, Ensemble Novo has released a series of acclaimed EPs, including Look To The Sky (2016) and Carinhoso (2021).

Whether playing originals or covers of alluring gems by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Egberto Gismonti, Ary Barroso or Milton Nascimento, Ensemble Novo creates a romantic ambience – the crystalline clarity of the vibraphone crossed with the husky introspection of tenor saxophone, the warmth of nylon string guitar woven into the crisp pulse of samba percussion. As is true of so much from Brazil, this is music that encourages dancing, but is equally suited to contemplative listening.

The Key, WXPN-FM’s music blog, described Ensemble Novo's music as “an inviting space of easygoing comfort, balmy and completely entrancing with rustling percussion and vibrantly subdued melodies.”