Customer Reviews

Big Band Bossa Nova

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The delicate beauty of bossa nova and the brasher gestures of big band don't sound like an obvious heavenly match, and the relationship is sometimes awkward on this CD. A famous song like 'Bim Bom' doesn't gain a lot from the fusion, and loses much.

Tracks like 'Chega de Suadade' or 'Noite Triste' don't really sound like bossa nova at all, if we mean by that term a kind of music with a recognisable sound colour. If we mean by 'bossa nova' a certain way of playing jazz, a flexible, fluid yet tight rhythmic form, then they certainly are: both are terrific, cinematic in their expansiveness, soundtracks to a forgotten film noir, a menacing, anxious, probably French one. The elaborations conducted on 'One Note samba' are very exciting.

The high point, however, is Bonfa's 'Manha de Carnaval', which, along with Jobim's 'Insensatez', is the crowning glory of bossa nova. If it's a morning, it's one after the night before, opening with bleary quiet, before taking us on a steadily accumulating journey through Brazilian life just before the carnival explodes. Getz's playing is once again a marvel of expressive restraint.

I bought this LP years ago when I was building up a 1960s Bossa Nova collection, but didn't really like it at the time for some reason. Having just rediscovered it, I cannot believe how good this is. Stan Getz does his thing, but the genius of the recording lies in the orchestral arrangements by Gary MacFarland and his orchestra. Sparse, unexpected, consistently unpredictable, the familiar Bossa Nova 'standards' are reinterpreted in a new engaging way that is a delight to experience. Horns swell in and out at seemingly random points, single intruments throw up discordant harmonies that somehow resolve beautifully. The record flows yet surprises at every turn.
It's a kind of post-bop, experimental take on the more straightforward Ogermann and Jobim arrangements which works beautifully with the bossa nova straight 8th rhythm and adventurous chord progessions. In retrospect this is probably the most successful Bossa Nova/American Big Band LPs ever recorded.

Being a big fan off Gary McFarland I can only say this is a beautiful album with big band recordings. Highlight Manha de Carnaval.Pitty there are no (?) extra bonus tracks on this CD.
Highly recommended.

Getz other Bossa Nova album's are classics. Start with the delightful "Getz/Gilberto", the second best selling Jazz CD of all time, then "Jazz Samba", "Jazz Samba Encore". But by the time Norm Grantz at Verve pushed him into this, he was pretty tired of Samba.

"Chenga de Saudade" is definitely the best and "Niote Triste" is pleasant but this type of big band highly-scripted format wasn't his forte. It's Stan, so he's (almost) never bad, he puts on a brave face and does the best under the circumstances.

Inoffensive, but quite Pop and shallow.

Make sure you have the other albums above before you get this one.
Sorry they can't all be great. Tryin' to save you money.

Being a jazz and Getz fan, and having listened to Getz/Gilberto hundreds of times, never tiring of it, I was thrilled to find this album in a used record store. I listened to it 2 maybe 3 times and then threw it away. Can't even remember what made it so bad, it was just too awful to keep on the shelf and try to listen to once a year.