Customer Reviews

10 Anos Despois

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Based on the previous review, I had avoided this disc for a while. But once I heard it, it started to grow on me, until it's become one of favorite Jorge Ben recordings.

For starters, it's a little strange, at least to an American listener, to hear a greatest hits record that is a re-recording of the old and new hits in the current style of the performer. Why do that? But then, why not? To me it shows that Ben's relationship with his back catalog was an evolving thing (much as Bob Dylan's is to his), and since I can hear most of these songs in their original format already (or should once they re-issue the other J. Ben gems), why not hear them as they were performed circa 1973, which was part of a great period for Ben.

The arrangements are in style halfway between 1972's Ben and 1974's A Tabua de Esmeralda. And like those two, they display a completely original, mostly-acoustic approach to Brazilian pop. The band is brilliant, exhibiting stop-on-a-dime tightness combined with almost improvisational flow. The drummer deserves some kind of medal. I'm surprised folks like the Wu Family haven't picked up on some of these rhythms, which could be turned into killer underground hip-hop tracks.

Ben's performances are as intense as they are on Ben and Tabua, which is to say almost as if he's possessed. On tracks like Agora/Charles/Caramba and Pais/Fio Maravilha/Taj Mahal, Ben starts out in a bouncy mood but progresses through the songs towards a religious ecstacy by the end (and Caramba and Taj Mahal are among his most spiritual songs). Of the many recorded versions of Taj Mahal, this one is my favorite, and it includes a beautiful choral section which is not found in the others.

This looks like a compilation disc, but it's actually a studio album from 1973. It is sort of a back-handed best-of, featuring several "popourri" medleys of Ben's greatest hits. Even though his band is very tight, for the most part these tracks lack the rhythmic grace and general ooomph of his best work from the same period. Seems like sort of a contractual obligation/general holding pattern kind of album.

This recording is a studio album of the wonderful singer/songwriter Jorge Ben [Benjor] in a series of medleys. O.K. but why bother? Get the original recordings! Medleys really should be used in tv shows or stage reviews like, "it was 1982 and then I wrote etc." but go to the original albums.