Customer Reviews

Love Dance: The Ballad Album

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What a great surprise! I just purchased LOVE DANCE and I am completely in love this album. Listening to the songs while reading the Ira Gitler text in the CD booklet, I felt deeply moved by Koorax's performances. It's intrusctive to note that this brilliant NY-based Brazilian singer was acclaimed as one of the world's Top 4 jazz singers in Down Beat's 67th Annual Readers Poll, in December 2002. I agree with Mr. Gitler, probably the most important jazz critic alive, when he writes: "Koorax is her own woman. She is multi-faceted and multi-lingual, comfortable in all situations and expressive in a variety of languages. Her range and technique are remarkable but you don't necessarily take time out to marvel at her technique until later on because you are too absorbed in her musical message". Musical magic, indeed!

Kooraax's new album, Love Dance, is decidedly much more challenging than her previous solo effort, Serenade In Blue. She is often likened to Astrud Gilberto. But Koorax is gutsier. There is a fire in her belly that melts those icy Astrud edges. Singing in Portuguese, English and Spanish, this great singer tackles an international playlist that extends from the misty splendor of Jobim's Ligia to the moody iridescence of April in Paris. Like I wrote when reviewing this album to the September 2003 of JazzTimes magazine: "Legendary guitarist John McLaughlin enables Koorax to transform the contemplative majesty of his "Man Alone" (dedicated to the tireless scrapper Jimmy Scott) into 10 minutes that redefine Brazilian beauty."

Gorgeous versions of standards from GAS (the Great American Songbook). Koorax's performances on The Shadow of Your Smile, Moon River (only voice and harp!) and Glenn Miller's swing hit Serenade In Blue are outstanding. But the album masterpiece is the opening track, Jobim's elegant bossa nova Bonita.