Customer Reviews

Last Journey

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Fourth World consists of Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Jose Neto and through the years has had a great deal of other musicians contributing. Of course, Flora Purim and Airto Moreira are no strangers to Brazilian music, jazz and fusion as they've been around (same with Fourth World's other musicians and Jose Neto) for ages. But this album, Last Journey, was a pretty special recording that is loaded with emotions and is one of my all-time favorites. In this cd you can actually feel how much they believe in the music they're playing and singing - particularly in Light As a Feather and Silvia.

The CD starts out with a cross-genre bending song in English, "Within Your Mind". Electronics flow throughout, an afterthought between the percussion pieces and Flora's unique voice. That's followed up with what is my favorite rendition of "Light As a Feather". From the sax solos to Flora's voice, its' just dripping with spirit - the song gives me chills. "Terra Mae" is a song of pride, of difficulty - "Vencedora de Demanda"... my land... unreal. "Snake Bite" features traditional percussion by Airto Moreira and Giovanni Hidalgo before "Razao De Viver", a slower and albeit sad song follows. Other songs that stood out to me were "Fica Mal Com Deus", although this wasn't my favorite rendition of the song. This one was actually given a remix on the rare Kyoto Jazz Massive series from 2000 "Crossbreed". It's given a pretty neat vibe and feel, however with the voice pattern of flora and the guitar work by Jose Neto. But the real song on this one that blew me away was "Silvia". The music, the words, the singing... it's a song so strong to me that I remember where I was the very first time I heard it.

I highly recommend this cd. Again it's one of my personal favorite cd's, which is one reason why it's taken some time to review it... without also wanting to be too political, as I loved their border breaking music and concept. I didn't think that all the songs were as strong as Silvia or "Light As a Feather". But the musicianship in this cd is stellar, I love it... the music is more than fusion or jazz.

This recording is stunning. Flora Purim's recent solo work is excellent, but her work with Fourth World sounds even better to me. More of a jazz, world beat sound. Her remake of Light as a Feather is especially notable.