Brazil's Greatest Hits

Walter Wanderley | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 9, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: GNP Crescendo Records
• ASIN: B000001OW1
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,377 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #48 in Music > Indie Music > Pop > Instrumental Pop & Lounge

Track Listings

1. A Felicidade

2. Wave

3. Tristeza

4. Meditation

5. Recado

6. Feelings

7. Baia

8. Carnaval

9. Mas Que Nada

10. The Girl from Ipanema

11. Canto de Ossanha

12. Triste

13. One Note Samba

14. Quiet Nights

15. Berimbau

16. Desifinado

17. Summer Samba (Samba de Verão)

18. How Insensitive

19. Samba de Orfeu

20. Brazil

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This just isn't Walt..., March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Brazil's Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

If you are a fan of Wanderley's trademark sixties organ-bossa sound, avoid this cd at all costs! Though the liner notes do not indicate the recording date, it is clear from the pictire inside, as well as the nausea-inducing presence of a cheap ARP synthesizer, that this was recorded sometime in the eighties! Not that this would automatically make it awful; it's just awful period. The group DOES hit some nice grooves occasionally, but Walt's unmistakeable organ sound has all but vanished in place of a smoother, more homogonized tone that could just as easily come out of a Casio keboard; in additon, all the percussion sounds exceedingly bright to the point of annoyance. Over all, this collection completely lacks pretty much everything that makes the rest of Walt's work enjoyable. For die-hard completists only.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best compilation of Walter Wanderley's music, January 9, 2003

By 

Guillermo (Santiago, Region Metropolitana Chile) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brazil's Greatest Hits (Audio Cassette)

Walter Wanderley is one of the greatest Brazilian Hammond Organists and was a pioneer of Bossa Nova that he preferred to call Jazz Samba. This compilation includes his latest versions recorded in the USA with a wonderful set of musicians and a great Hammond B3 sound

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Waning Wanderley, March 24, 2006

By 

Dr. Pangloss (Decatur, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brazil's Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

It should be said at the outset that WW was a "keyboardist," not just an organist. He actually started out playing piano in Sau Paulo and Rio clubs before he moved to the organ. So it's not really a departure for him to play the ARP, the Fender Rhodes electric piano, piano, and B3 organ on this compilation. That said, it should also be known that WW died from alcoholism not long after he cut these tracks, so that they don't sound like the "vintage" WW might reflect a man on his way out, both musically and literally, rather than his being affected by 80s culture.

It's rather odd that in Brasil, most folks have never heard of Wanderley; they remember the wife he left to come to America, Isaura Garcia, but not the man who was "discovered" by Tony Bennett and handed over to Creed Taylor at Verve (1966). Summer Samba put WW on the map here in the USA, but his successive output never reached that level of popularity, and in the 1960s American music business, if you're not popular, you're not going anywhere economically speaking. I've heard stories of WW playing drunken gigs in San Francisco tranny bars, and they might be true considering the sad anonymity that became his life. This collection should be considered the last musical gasp of a once popular star. It's really not all that bad, despite the more restrained keyboard style noted in another review. You can hear the earlier WW in a few tracks. I have nearly all the output of WW, including the stuff he realeased in Brasil (Sao Paulo used record stores), so I kinda had to buy this one. If you had to buy a compilation, get the Verve one with the bacon and coldcuts on the cover.