With his 2024 album "Y'Y" (pronounced "eey-eh, eey-eh"), Amaro Freitas enters a new realm of musical creation. A realm rooted in magic and possibility and borne of a sense of responsibility for the gifts of the earth. 

Side A is an expression of connection to the earth and the ancestors, a tribute to the forest and rivers of northern Brazil, both with the music and with the album title "Y'Y", a word from the SaterŽ-MawŽ dialect, an ancient indigenous code meaning water or river. And by bringing to life the lessons he learned in the Amazon about the fervent power of enchanted spirits to intervene in times of struggle on behalf of the community. On side B, "Y'Y" shows the connections between the global black avant-jazz community.

The music of multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings, harpist Brandee Younger, bassist Aniel Someillan, guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Hamid Drake creates an artful conversation by weaving together jazz traditions from around the world while remaining rooted in the unique sounds and rituals of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous cultures.

On "Y'Y" Freitas infuses ancestral knowledge into the music, bringing his fresh, "decolonized" interpretation of Brazilian jazz and presenting music that may well shatter preconceived notions of what jazz can be.