Mystery and Manners: The Improvisations of Vinicius and Nene is the latest release by John Rapson, composer, trombonist & Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Iowa School of Music. It features new compositions built from the free improvisations of Brazilian musicians Vinicius Dorin and Nene Lima.

From the liner notes:
"These pieces are derived from the masterly intuitions of Vinícius and Nenê. At my bidding, they accompanied Rafael dos Santos to record “free” solo and duo improvisations. I expected they would send me a series of fragments, which I
planned to transcribe, edit, and assemble into compositions, as I had previously done for projects with Anthony Braxton and Billy Higgins. But Vinícius and Nenê did not follow the script. Instead they sent fully realized complex compositions that put the fear of God in me."

Past Praise for John Rapson's Recordings:
"Rapson's music extends and elaborates several trends that were first demonstrated by Charles Mingus and George Russell ... imaginative compositional forms with improvisations that are intelligently and organically interwoven ... the most exciting jazz I've heard in twenty years."   Mark Gridley, JAZZ STYLES

"Rapson cites Elington's 'communal composition as precedence, but I know of no other music fashioned quite like this. Dances and Orations is beautiful and unique.'
Graham Locke, GRAMOPHONE GUIDE TO JAZZ

"Why, oh why isn't composer John Rapson better known, even in the hepcat, 'in-the-know' jazz circles? Water and Blood has tremendous cohesiveness and lyricism ... it's almost as if Rapson composed 16 little soundtracks to movies that haven't been made yet."
Mark Keresman, JAZZ REVIEW

"Rapson's arrangements display a number of characteristics ... a blending of orchestration that recalls Gil Evans, pastoral settings that wouldn't sound out of place in a Fauré composition ... and the ghost of Mingus, ever present in the dynamic range and frequent drmatic spikes. The result sounds organic and interactive as if Higgins were present at all the sessions." James Hale, DOWNBEAT