Customer Reviews

Bossa Project

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was well worth the wait. Mr. Lamm's mature voice lends itself well to these wonderful Bosa Nova classics. His own compositions such as "The Possibility Of Life" sound as though they could have been written years ago.

What a great thing to have for the summer ahead. A word of warning to current day Chicago fans. There are no power ballads. No high pitched hootin' and hollerin' about lovin' someone forever because they're your hero. It's subtle. Turn your baseball caps around the right way, listen and enjoy!

Our home is FILLED with die-hard Chicago fans, who also follow all of the diverse solo work by members of this very talented group. Robert Lamms' Bossa Project is fresh and feels good. His smooth voice is just what this music calls for. While perfect for background music, take the time to just listen and absorb without distractions. Beautiful and unique. The power of the music can relieve the days tension and bring back the smile. You can't help but sing/him along, tap your feet, or in our case, bounce around the house! So glad it's finally out! Enjoy!

I had high hopes for Lamm's Bossa Project when I first heard about it maybe 18 months ago. I'd heard cuts from it on his MySpace and was impressed; yet it seemed, from the length of time it took for it to be released on disc, that Lamm had trouble selling this project. The Bossa Project is unlike anything Lamm has recorded before, and certainly a departure from his work with Chicago. Lamm admits to a long love of bossa music, popularized by the likes of Stan Getz, famous for Girl from Ipanema back in the 1960s.

This collection of covers interspersed with originals is a worthy addition to Lamms' legacy, showcasing his unmistakable style as a composer, but also the lower range of his voice, which is a perfect fit for this genre. Notable cuts include covers of A Man and a Woman, Aguas de Marco, Nice "n' Easy and Girl Talk (although the latter, by today's standards, might be a touch politically incorrect!), Samba in Your Life, as well as the Lamm originals Send Rain and, particularly, The Possibility of Life.

Kudos, Robert, for once again pushing the envelope of contemporary music! Highly listenable and recommended.

Got mine on 5/28. Ripped open the plastic (pesky though it was) and played it. I have listened to the versions on Mr. Lamm's myspace site for these past months but hearing these tunes sonically perfect was great. My six-year-old (whose favorite Chicago tune is Saturday in the Park) liked it. As a sax player, Larry Klimas's solos were sublime. And the flute. Fantastic. One of the underrated treats of this recording is its acousticiveness. (Yeah, I just made that up.) Sure, the 'orchestral programming' was computer generated but the rest of the CD sounds warm, immediate. There are places where you can hear JVE's fingers sliding over the strings. That warmness is what is missing from lots of overproduced music nowadays.

Another thought: Lamm took a chance with this CD. Other singers took creative chances (Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions; Sting with the lute CD; Elvis Costello with the Brodsky Quartet) and are better artists for it. In this day and age, with the fading of radio's influence, it's nice to see artists recording projects they want to record. It's nice to have CDs like The Bossa Project. ([...])

The songs chosen are very nice. The backround musicians are very nice. But for me the voice is completely inappropriate for the music. Great -he's famous for singing in Chicago. However that doesn't mean that he'll do the best version of "Nessun Dorma" either. I have a lot of Chicago records. I have over 200 Brazilian records. I've played a lot of Brazilian music in clubs on guitar. Like a lot of people who didn't review this record, I prefer brazilians playing Brazilian music the most. And french people playing French music the most. Cut one is Francis Lai's "A Man and a Woman"; I can't imagine a musically literate person liking Robert's version more than Francis Lai's original definitive version off the soundtrack recording. My guess it that the other reviewers never heard the original. "Waters of March" is one of my favorite Brazilian songs of all time. But check out the definitive version on Sergio Mendes and Brazil '77's "Vintage 74" recording before assuming that Robert's is so amazing. Robert's monotone version is every bit as captivating as Jane Monheit's lounge version of "the Very Best of Jane Monheit". The one chord intro of Robert's version sounds pathetic next to the gorgeously orchestrated beginning (by no less than film composing heavyweight Dave Grusin) to Sergio's version. Rather than slam me here, fact check first what I am saying by listening to the other two versions first (Lai & Mendes). If you want monotone, check out Art Garfunkel's better version of Waters of March. If you want almost as good as Sergio's '74 version, check out "Elis & Tom"'s brazilian version. If you like only americans singing non-american music, this Lamm CD could be the record for you. If you like listening to the best possible versions of the prettiest songs, maybe not.

This CD was definitely NOT up to my expectations. I have always liked Robert Lamm as a soloist with Chicago and thought his voice was perfect for bossa nova. Boy, was I wrong. Very flat. Every song sounded the same.

We should be very happy to have Robert Lamm around! He still keeps people happy touring and playing with Chicago, but has a wonderful, inventive, creative solo career, even if the majority of the listening public has little, if any idea that he is out there!! I, like many people who have written reviews before me, have been A Chicago FREAK since 1970!! Robert Lamm is one of the most talented and creative forces in 1970's music, in my humble opinion. Dialogue, Part 1--is brilliant, for the simple reason that it is MORE relevant today, than back in 1972 when it was on Chicago V. But, let's talk about the Bossa Nova Project!! It is wonderful!! "Waters of March", Girl Talk, A Man and a Woman--these are all marvelous. And the songs that he wrote by himself--they may be EVEN better! On "Gimme/gimme" on the album Subtly and Passion he says "Give me a place in your hall of Fame". Robert-- you are too talented to be in the Hall of Fame along with so many "clowns". Keep working!

Robert Lamm's smooth baritone is well suited to this style. The arrangments are, for the most part, understated and accessible. I am particularly impressed that the original tunes hold up well next to the standards. My wife and I especially enjoy listening to this CD during our drives in the country. Nice to hear a pop/rock star venturing successfully into another musical genre. I could do without the remixed tunes at the end of the CD...much rather have three more selections.

I won't go into a lot of analysis of tracks and other detail here. This is, simply, a wonderful Robert Lamm excursion into the studio that emerges as a solid showcase of smooth, listenable music. The CD is a 50/50 mix of classic bossa nova and samba jazz standards and originals, penned by Robert and producer John van Epps. Although aside from sax, flute and guitar, all instruments are electronic, Lamm and van Epps have achieved a nice warm and organic sound. Robert Lamm's vocals may not be Sinatra, but the material is a perfect fit for his familiar and comforting voice. "The Bossa Project" is a terrific gift from Lamm to all of his fans that clearly comes from a pure love of music from one of the great pop songwriters of our time. Wonderful.

The Bossa Project displays enchanting ways by which music travels deeply into and across cultures. It is truly inspiring when an artist who has proven to be extremely successful with the public and the critics alike takes a chance by landing in considerably new territory. In truth, though, the group Chicago's career and Robert Lamm's particular history of daunting crossovers and fusions of various pop genres and jazz (within and without the band) have subtly prepared us for the unpredictable, for the novelty that is fresh and authentic in its bold flight beyond previously established musical boundaries.

Lamm's new release inspires us into that artistic courage while confirming our trust in his ability to breakthrough, to visit, to take risks, to mingle, and to come out anew, more creative and more convincing in his honest approach to making art music. Opening with a fabulous bossa nova rendition of "A Man and a Woman," the main theme of a French romantic feature movie that helped launch worlwide the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luís Bonfá and Vinicius de Moraes, The Bossa Project is not just bossa nova, even though bossa is huge anyway, whether one likes it or not. By the way, celebrating 50 years of existence now, this Brazilian style is no passing fad in the sublime hands and horns of a Stan Getz, or the like. It remains an emotionally vibrant and yet gracefully seducing type of musicality with an open door to multiple explorations, including unheard-of mixing with contemporary trends in jazz, funk, electronica and so-called world music.

Lamm goes beyond bossa nova by including three remixed tunes or by mixing it with jazz in multiple cuts, especially in "Haute Girl," co-written with band partner (and arranger) John Van Epps. The Chicago founder artist (actually born in New York City) also encounters and excels in nothing but samba, which is no easy terrain for any musician not born, raised or intensively trained in Brazil. He does it marvelously in Van Epps' tune "Samba in Your Life" or in his own delightful composition, "Send Rain." Since bossa is undeniably rooted in samba, a musical dialog between the two music styles (or two points in the musical development lane that keeps stretching forward in time) can be enchanting in João Gilberto or Rosa Passos, but so is it in "Speak Low," by Kurt Weill and Odgen Nash.

For Brazilian music fans, here is a tip: Lamm's rendition of "Águas de Março" ("Waters of March"), the only original tune from Brazil in the disc, would make Jobim rejoice with us. It is, of course, not your average song. Several years ago jazz critic Leonard Feather argued that Jobim's stylized samba had the most complex harmonic structure among all popular tunes he knew. He then placed "Waters of March" among the top ten compositions of all times. Superbly recorded in 1974 by Elis Regina and Tom Jobim, "Águas de Março" was also chosen by thousands of the influential newspaper Folha de São Paulo's readers as the most beautiful Brazilian song ever written. Flutist Zé Luis helps, but it is mostly due to Lamm's credit (with his soothing voice naturally resembling that of our beloved Ipanema genius) that an unforgettable, world-class masterpiece continues to entrance us, as it wears new hats and new clothes on international shores from time to time.

-- Dario Borim Jr, UMass Dartmouth Professor and WUMD Radio Producer/Host of Brazilliance