Customer Reviews

Brazilian Dreams

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

 

 

What a superb collaboration with New York Voices and Claudio Roditi. Good melodies and harmonies. Listen every track especially "Jobim masterpiece" songs and you will not regret to buy this cd.

It's fairly rare for a vocal album, especially an vocal ensemble album, to come out without loads of cringe-worthy Manhattan Transfer cheese. At best, you usually get one or two just okay tracks in a sea of crap. This album is a full on exception to the rule.

The Jobim cuts are uniformly very interesting and well put together. The Manaha de Carnival/Gentle Rain pairing is also very nice, despite lagging behind a bit in the ensemble writing, and "One for Tom" contains some phenomenal ensemble writing that somehow makes the handful of musicians sound like a big band.

The ensemble is a mix of the Pittsburgh crowd, the New York Voices, and of course Paquito and Claudio on the reeds and trumpet. It's recorded at MCG (a surprisingly decent venue for a place with the jazz scene of Pittsburgh).

Don't miss this one. It's worth it for the ensemble writing alone.

Agreed, The Jobim masterpieces are the highlight of this album and it's worth buying for the first four cuts. Considering the many times that Corcovado and Desafinado have been covered, you'd think that there was no room left for new ideas, but these two versions are truly delightful. The NYV are great as usual and Claudio Roditi makes a typically great contribution, too. After those first four tunes, though, the energy escapes and downtempo disease sets in, together with some half-baked charts. I'd like to hear the rest of the concerts, because I'm sure these great performers offered better material than, say, cut 6, which sounds like a bad version of Baroque Samba. Snow Samba redeems things, though, and all ends well.

How can a group of artists be so totally in sync with each other! The inter-relatedness and interplay results in a lush harmonic tapestry. In addition the sonic quality is excellent. The vocalist is outstanding.

So easy to listen to, Highly recommended!