Customer Reviews

Fingers

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simply the best work of Airto ever! The musicians are the secret. The Fattoruso brothers and david Amaro Tha bass player Ringo Thielmann, this was his real group not a recording session studio group. I bouht it the first time in 1974 I was 11. This cd still is progressive jazz. Buyit and enjoy it. I like all the songs but my favorite is Fingers and Merry go round it gimes me a feeling of a little town Fiesta!

I heard this recording in the mid seventies and when the track PARANA came on I thought what a perfect piece of music.
Not only is the vocal arrangement excellent so is the rythmn to.
With his wife Flora and noted session musicians he conjours up some magic on this a must for everyone as far asI am concerned.
You must check out some of his other recordings like[THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS]FROM1992]also [PROMISES OF THE SUN]and [FREE]early recordings and [SEEDS ON THE GROUND]which is more percussion orientated you wont regret it.

This is a wonderful recording, one of the best works of Airto for sure.
The musicians that played in Fingers were the uruguayan band (based in USA) called "OPA", they were Hugo Fattoruso, George Osvaldo Fattoruso and Ringo Thielmann.
In Uruguay this is considered not just an Airto record, but also the first Opa recording, since half of the songs were written by Hugo Fattoruso, and the tittle track, Fingers, by other uruguayan: Ruben Rada.
Flora Purim also perform in this record, one of the best jazz vocalist of all times.
If you like this music, look for the solo Opa recordings: Goldenwings, Magic Time, and also for the demo recordings release, Back Home.
Opa also perform in one track in Flora's solo work "Nothing Will Be As It Was...Tomorrow".

Exactly what I was looking for...and I wasn't able to find it anywhere else.

I used to heard this albun, more than 25 years ago. During this time, I knew many others excellent artists like, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, etc,.
I Think this albun puts Airto beetwen the bests jazz artists in the world.

The man had already played with Miles Davis,Chick Corea's Return To Forever,Cannonball Adderley as well as on collaborations with his wife-the vocalist Flora Purim. Not to mention all the other jazz and Brazilian musicians he sat in with either. For someone whose solo career was,at this point not even a decade old Airto Moreira was certainly a busy musician. Even with the Brazilian music scene erupting at the time with folks such as Milton Nascimento and the Fania All Stars Airto and Flora both had a unique,creative bent to what they did. There was something deep and spiritual about it. Not because the music seemed exotic to outsiders but the fact that,pretty much by bloodline Airto understood the concepts of the funk rhythms he was embracing because of his strong roots in both the spiritual and in the Earth. And most importantly,how important melodic expansion was to bringing his music more directly to the people.

The opening title song is one of those grooves that keeps building-the opening rhythmic fanfare building throughout the song only coming to climax with it's keyboard based melody. On "Romance of Death" and the mildly Brazilian folk inspired "Merry-Go-Round",written with Flora the rhythm and melody is very steady and in a way almost poppy in that Brazilian way that would soon emerge on the early George Duke albums on which they'd both strong participate. On "Wind Chant" and "Parana" there's more jazzy soloing involved-in particular from keyboardist Hugo Fattoruso. Also Airto and Flora's distinctive type of harmonic "scat chanting" add another whole musical element to the instrumental aspect. Flora's composition "San Francisco River",a melodically swelling slow piece with some of the moodiest chord changes on the album again features the pair's impressionistic vocalese. The album concludes the way it began,another rhythmically building piece "Tombo in 7/4" only this time,it actually does build into something to a degree.

Unlike many other CTI albums by other artists at this time,the sextet Airto assembled for this album are given pretty much free reign to stretch out however they liked without the addition of a large string/horn ensamble. It showcases a musical approach that could just as easily have been done live without losing any of it's key elements. So far this is actually one of very few Airto solo albums that are actually available domestically in the CD format. And that's a pity because he has many. And in my opinion all of are of the highest quality. Because of their musical individuality Airto and Flora Purim became in great demand both in and out of Brazil. And even through much of their success on CTI might've had something to do with their appearances on Miles Davis early electric funk/fusion releases you could see it wasn't hard for their voices,rhythms and general musical ideas to get attention on their own. A truly great latin funk/fusion album with just a little extra magic in it.

I was aware of Airto as a sideman to Chick Corea and others before I heard "Fingers". This solo effort was an eye-opener to just how versatile and nimble the man is. The other musicians on this recording lend a hand on some of Flora Purim's records as well, and are a great unit. I still have the "Fingers" lp, but it's nearly translucent from being played repeatedly.

if there exists an album that celebrates life, this is it. thats all i can say.

Just like one of the reviewers, I've been digging really deep for this album for over 20 years. I first played it (LP format) in the 80's when I spent a weekend with my friends on the shores of Pacific Ocean. It was an awesome "soundtrack" of our care free days in the beach.
After a long quest I finally got it. Thanks to amazon.

I have been looking for a recording of this for about 25 years and finally found it. I love the musicianship on this Brazilian recording.