Customer Reviews

Brazil's Greatest Hits

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

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

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.

These are not the original versions Walter Wanderley recorded but the sound is rich and renovated. Wanderley keeps his own style and more modernized. All melodies included are excellent, very interesting, in a romantic style to be enjoyed with a coup of coffee and a delicious cake and ice cream. If you like brazilian sounds, I recommend this album, there are a lot of these instruments, such as the berimbau, introducing a song with the same title. The synthethizer has susbstituted today many musical instruments, but this instrument in particular may become a whole orchestra conducted by one indiviudual. All brazilian music fans must include this album, in their collections. Don't forget to buy it.

Great organ music with many songs being as good as, if not better, than Summer Samba - a song practically everyone has heard but, since it's an instrumental, you may not know its name.

If you like "perky" organ music, this is for you!

This is a good middle-of-the-road Bossa Nova organ combo, but it is not Wanderley's best. The earlier records made for the Brazilian market really cook! 'O Samba E Mais Samba' is an excellent example the sort of wide-awake, high-energy Samba Jazz that made Wanderly something very special! Now that that is off my chest, if you like the smoother, almost perky, style of his Verve recordings then this one is fine.