Customer Reviews

Minas

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

 

 

For those who haven't yet discovered this Brazilian music artist's vocals, this is one of the top three best of his CD's. The music is upbeat and uplifting, a cornucopia of rhythms and vocal registers. He breaks away from from the traditional Brazilian jazz vocals by incorporating folk music melodies with modern jazz modifications. All the tracks are exciting, with some duets. Seriously, you will not just not be disappointed, you'll be feeling its awesome.

I loved it one bit less than Clube and Geraes.
Look for Elis Regina's recordings of the same songs.

At first my reaction to this album was mediocre at best. I thought there was some good stuff but the chorus singing that opens up the album was re-sampled to death and the style changes were a little overwrought as well, possibly to cover-up some inadequacies of the musicians. About the third time I listened to it I began to think about certain tensions being played out between the music and that vocal sample. It's overuse was just so blatant and so jarring at times, despite how good it is. I slowly began to put together an idea of what I thought was going on, and by now, I am almost at the point of thinking that it's a concept album. The music competes with and meditates on the simple purity of just a few girls singing "Na Na Na"s, and questions whether there is anything that can compare to that minimal, understated beauty. It's almost an existential struggle, Milton sacrificing himself at the altar of the sample's perfection, throwing himself up against it again and again in any and every way he can think of. The music played and sung by the band is the boat or the sea who's waves crash up against the unshakable rocks where the sirens make their home. (Okay, I realize that maybe I'm reading a little too much into this.) It's quite epic if you give it the chance to be. Through the course of the album Milton Nascimento and his band work their way through a variety of styles and end in a compromise. In the end Milton makes some capitulations and sings along with the sample, sort of bittersweet, but more sweetbitter if you ask me.

I have three Nascimento disks and this is definitely the one I like least. "Clube da Esquina" is experimental (for its time, 1972) but joyously musical and engaging, while "Minas" tries to take the experimentation a bit further but runs off the rails. "Minas" just doesn't gel as a musical experience for me -- and certain touches like the children singing/chanting in track 1 and then intermittently in other tracks are especially offputting and, at least from today's perspective, cliched.

"Travessia" is a great disk in the more "traditional" or "vintage" Brazilian music mode (from 1967). So if you don't like experiments so much as a more traditional vintage sound "Travessia" will probably work for you. "Clube Da Esquina" experiments but focuses on offering great music and succeeds at that. "Minas" is not successful musically or experimentally, in my opinion.