Customer Reviews

Brasil: A Century of Song, Vol. 3: Bossa Nova Era

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

 

 

Generally speaking, bossa nova is a little bit more 'pop' than my personal tastes run. But then, generally speaking, Brazilians tend to do a lot of things better than their corresponding equivalents here in the States, so pop doesn't track so cheesy there as it might here. There is an easygoing-ness in this music that one's hard put to find in ours, which, except in some of its best moments, tends to be/have a bit of a harder, hollow commercial edge, except in its most soulful moments. By contrast, bossa nova very often has a rather soft, smooth, delicious quality to it.

I'll comment some on the 5-star efforts here:

#4: Gorgeous, sultry slow vocal, with acoustic guitar accompaniment.

#6: Tremendous horns, strings, and backup singers.

#7: Male duet with acoustic guitar accompaniment.

#9: Vocal quartet, spread evenly across the stereo field, with studio electric guitar accompaniment. This one's jazzy but mysterious, with seamless, shifting meters and terrific background percussion.

#11: Starts (uncharacteristically for bossa) with a full 'samba school' percussion section, then segues into a section with guitars, and awesome choral fanfares in the minor mode, before all the instruments and singers come back in. This one's an awesome dance number.

#14: Amazing stereo mix, with especially well-played horns; tremendous female lead singing, and, really, all the instrumentalists cook in a very jazzy way. Great cuica riffs (cuica is a 'friction drum', i.e. one which has a stick through the middle of its drumhead - it's played by rubbing the stick with a soft, damp cloth, thereby creating the barking and whining "dog" sounds characteristic of the instrument)!

#15: Sophisticated vocal harmonies with scat ostinado. Then, tenor singers double the electric bass. Percussion includes drum kit and congas.

Even the [4 stars] (= #'s 1, 3 and 5) and the [3 stars] (= #'s 2, 8, 12 & 16) and #13 [2 stars] are not without their good points.

#8 is a male/female duo, with accordion and percussion accompaniment.

#12 sports a very full arrangement for a progressive jazz piece, including old-style samba flavorings provided by cuica 'barkings', cavaquinho ostinados (cavaquinho is a small ukelele-like guitar), and berimbau beats (berimbau is a musical bow, or, technically speaking, a one-string bow zither). This song is potential fodder for astoundingly articulate and soulful solo (or group) dance improvisations and/or choreography.

#13 is almost Flamenco-like.

Let's not forget that Brasil as a nation is as large as is the U. S., both geographically and in terms of population. Please take this opportunity to feast your ears, and every other part of you!

I love this album, it compliments several other Bossa Nova albums in my collection; some people expected nothing but Bossa Nova out of this album, but probably overlooked the word <era>; in other words, a new Bossa era. This is, includes some fantastic Bossa Nova gems like Joao Gilberto's "A Felicidade" or Toquinho-Vinicius de Moraes' "Canto de Osanha"; and at the same time includes more recent Bossa Nova-ish recordings. The interpretations and Artists are fantastic such as Quarteto Em Cy, Leni Andrade, Toninho Horta, etc. Worth checking if you are into Bossa Nova - Samba, Brazilian Jazz and/or Brazilian music in general.

This is great Bossa Nova. In the past, I have listened mostly to Soca, Calypso, Reggae, and Light-Brazialan Jazz. This CD gave me a new appreciation of music of Brazil. My first CD got damaged by a CD player gone bad/mad. So I had to get a new one. I had a few of the tracks on other CD's from the original artist. But, there is nothing like having all these tracks on the same CD, blasting while driving on open road; with the sunroof open. Again Great, Great, Great CD!!!!