Customer Reviews

Cantando Historias

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

 

 

Five BEAUTIFUL Stars! Ivan Lins is Wonderful!! "Cantando Historias" ("Singing Stories") is a brilliant CD collection of updated Lins' classics, recorded live in Rio celebrating 30 years of musical excellence by Ivan and close lyrical colloborator Vitor Martins. This world famous Brazilian composer, singer, and pianist continues to grow in stature and success a full three decades after his start. This electrifying CD, recorded live in Rio De Janeiro, is an instrumental and vocal gem that drops us in the middle of an enthusiastic audience that can't help singing along. Singing complete verses, no less.

The CD was the surprise of the 2005 Latin Grammy Awards, taking the overall "Album of the Year", a first for a Portuguese singing artist. It also won the "MPB Album" Latin Grammy. The singing is in wonderful Portuguese, but the beautiful, powerful music will sweep you away without the need for translation. I speak no Portuguese and I love this music. There are also special guests on this CD: a smoldering performance by Simone (sporting a fetching short hairdo as seen on the CD insert), Jorge Vercilo in great form, and the elegant Zizi Possi, who add their special flair to this live performance.

My favorites, 'Pieces D'Resistance', are the joyous CD opener "Abre Alas" (Clear The Area), the beautiful gentle samba "Porta Entreaberta" (The Half-Opened Gate), Zizi Possi in duet with Ivan on the heartfelt "Bilhete" (Ticket), and the senusous Simone/Lins duet on "Começar de Novo" (Starting All Over, aka The Island). In addition, "Guarde nos Olhos" with Lins and Jorge Vercilo is spellbinding, as are classics "Madalena", "Dinorah, Dinorah", "O Tempo Me Guardou Voce" and a rocking "Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai". Five HUGE Stars!!

For new fans, Ivan is known outside of Brazil chiefly for a number of his famous compositions which have attracted major artists, including the Grammy-winning song "Velas" ('Sails'), which was beautifully recorded by Quincy Jones with Toots Thielemans; "Love Dance" (Lembranca) by Dianne Schurr and Vanessa Williams, "Before It's Too Late" (Antes Que Seja Tarde) by the Manhattan Transfer, "The Island" (Começar de Novo) by Sarah Vaughn & Barbra Streisand & Simone, the huge Elis Regina hit "Madalena" which Ella Fitzgerald fell in love with and recorded, "She Walks This Earth" (Soberana Rosa) by Sting, and "Dinorah, Dinorah", which was recorded by jazz man George Benson and Elis Regina. Very Talented Man!!

Amended from my original review on the British AMAZON website, amazon.co.uk

Ivan Lins appears to be little-known to most Western audiences- especially in Europe (apart from Portugal). Ivan's music could be described as pop-jazz, however this would be incorrect as Ivan Lins is actually classified under the heading "Música Popular Brasileira", translated as Popular Music of Brazil. This music is slightly jazz orientated, but with strong latin rhythms (mainly of bossa nova) and features influences from other types of modern Western music (such as pop sensibilities).

Ivan has recordings dating back to 1970 (although not released to worldwide audiences until 1975). In the last 38 years, Ivan has written and recorded many songs such as "Love Dance", otherwise known as "Lembrança" in Portugese, which has also been recorded by great Western jazz artists such as George Benson and Diane Schuur. Whilst this song does not feature on this recording, other songs such as "Comecar de Novo" (also recorded by Barbara Streisand, albeit with re-worded lyrics and re-titled as "The Island") are featured on this recording. Both of these songs are now known to many as light jazz standards.

Ivan Lins also contributed to the hard to find (at least in the UK) "Harlequin" album of 1985 by jazz/soundscore great Dave Grusin and the brilliant smooth jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour (one of the founding members of smooth jazz group "Fourplay"). Ivan has also featured on both the Lee Ritenour "Overtime" album and DVD of 2005 and has provided a source of inspiration for Lee Ritenour in Lee's explorations of Brazillian music.

The "Cantando Historias" album was recorded live in Rio de Janeiro in 2004 to mark a thirty year partnership between Ivan Lins and one of his long-standing lyricists, Vitor Martins. The album features great performances by the supporting band (the rhythmic backbone of Theo Lima on drums and the smooth bass of Nema Antunes, the subtle keyboards and accordian of Marco Brito, the brilliant guitars of Leonardo Amoedo- mainly electric guitar- and the gifted Ze Carlos- acoustic guitar, and varied latin percussion of Layze Sapucahy). Ivan Lins plays keyboard- mainly focussing on playing piano parts- and lead vocals.

This recording features most of Ivan Lin's more popular songs, though not all (as noted above) and vary from slow ballads to more up-tempo bossa nova-influenced songs. Whilst all songs on the album are sung in Portugese (and I unfortunately know little Portugese), the album still appeals with its strong latin rhythms, excellent musicianship of the performers and the brilliant material which the musicians have to work with. I am also compelled by Ivan Lins' performance of subtle vocals and brilliantly delicate keyboard playing, which is a pure joy to listen to. I personally find the arrangements of the songs on this album far more elegant and rich than the original studio recordings, which can sound a little clinically produced. The recording on this CD is excellent, with a great sense of space and clarity to the recordings and skilled mixing of the various instruments which provides a broad sonic soundstage whilst also allowing the listener to pick up subtleties in the recording (such as brushes on a snare drum).

"Cantando Historias" was the surprise winner of the Latin Grammy award in 2005 for best album.

If you purchase this CD, it is also possible (with some research) to source and import "Cantando Historias" as a DVD (region 0 e.g. plays on any DVD player, although the disc is encoded to NTSC format) from Brazil. If you do like this CD (as I do), the DVD brings several additional features, such as DTS and Dolby surround sound (as well as the stereo soundtrack heard on this CD), additional songs (I believe an extra 6 songs compared to the CD version of this concert) and a couple of great subtitle options. You can subtitle the DVD in English- very good to understand the poetry of the lyrics which would be missed unless you understand Portugese- and the other is to have musical chords displayed on screen with the orignal Portugese lyrics, which is great for any enthusiastic musician wanting to gain greater understanding of this great music.

Excellent! Polished yet relaxed and fun. Top notch musical performances all around. Ivan Lins at his best.

Ivan Lins and his band at their very best. It is a true feast of harmony, rhythm, and color. Two thumbs up!

I first heard of Ivan Lins from his work with Lee Ritenour back in the 80's. I've long been a fan of the rythms, interesting chord structures and the exotic sounding lyrics of MPB (Musica Popular do Brazil). I sensed a real drive to Ivan's music and a sense of urgency to get a message out through it, even though I didn't understand much Portuguese. I've since learned what a prolific song writer he is. I have only one other album of his, the one he did with a Brazilian Orchestra, but I sense that Cantando Historias is kind of a "best of" with some of his bigger hits. It's cool to hear the live audience singing along even on the verses, so you know he has a big following in Brazil. But then I learned his music has been recorded by other artists besides Lee Ritenour, like George Benson and Sting (She Walks the Earth). After having learned a little more Portuguese I've come to appreciate the poetry of his lyrics. But the music has a great feel to it with or without that. The chord progressions he uses are very interesting yet accessible.
Ivan may be past his prime vocally on this album, but having said that I always enjoy hearing the writer sing his own songs, and to his credit he does bring in three guest vocalists on this album who really do justice to the songs they are in. I find myself listening to this CD again and again. I liked it right off the bat and it grew on me from there. Each tune seems to follow the same progression, starting kind of mellow and building to an intoxicating mix of rythm, harmony and vocals at the end. I especially enjoyed the musicianship on "Ai Ai Ai Ai Ai".

I purchased this CD after watching "Masters of Jazz". I thought the music on this CD would be something similar. The music is OK, just not what I expected. I plan to pass this CD on to a friend.