Customer Reviews

Rio

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first bought this album on vinyl sometime in 1983. To date it has been the best £2.00 I ever spent! Rio was my first introduction to two artists; Lee Ritenour himself, and Joe Sample, who wrote 'It happens everyday'. The acoustic guitar playing and delicate keyboards combined with the Brazilian elements create a wonderfully evocative album. It was well worth replacing on CD when it finally wore out!

To name Rio is to remember one of the most memorable works done in the 80 `s by Lee Ritenour .

Impressive and high mood . Specially in Rio Funk ; the lovely ballad It happens everyday , the opening track Rainbow a special rendez vous to Rio , his people and its landscapes.

The Major league musicians who accompanied to Ritenour the legend : Marcus Miller : the ineffable Dave Gruisin in the keyboards shinning in Rainbow , San Juan Sunset and Rio Funk , Luiazo Nieves in the bass with Rainbow . Listen to Steve Forman in the percussion in Ipanema Soul and Alex Acuña in the drums for instance .

This album is a must for all lovers of the Brazilian music and above all the Jazz fusion

One of the five best album of Jazz Fusion in the eighties .

The magic acoustic guitar of Ritenour in Simplicidad is filled of Saudade and those erotic effluvious floating in the atmosphere .

And finally this excellent piece A little bit of this and a little bit of that , where the bass of Marcus Miller sounds terrifically expressive and with glorious musical curtains . Rubens Bassini is OK too .

The only complaint I have is the album was very short in its dimensions . I `d rather and I think to be the real spokesman of thousand and thousand people who expected some more of this inspired and mesmerizing album .

A winner work!

This is for me the best cd of Lee Ritenour. This latin jazz fusion cd where Lee used a nylon string guitar all through out is very relaxing.

This is for me the best cd of Lee Ritenour. This latin jazz fusion cd where Lee used a nylon string guitar all through out is very relaxing.

Este cd, que es una remasterización del álbum realizado en 1979 y donde apreciamos al gran guitarrista dela GRP, Lee Ritenour tocando guitarras acústicas y con tres bandas diferentes en Brasil, New York y los Angeles!!!

En el primer tema, "Rio Funk" y en el tema "Ipanema Sol", apreciamos un excelente solo del legendario bajista Marcus Miller. Excelente intervención también de los percusionistas brasileros en el tema "Rainbow". Ademas es muy interesante notar una interpretación extensa en la flauta de unos de los mejores saxofonistas de USA, Ernie Watts, en el tema "Ipanema Sol". Todos estos temas , influidos por excelente ritmo de la época, el disco-funk. Un disco de una calidad maravillosa.

This brazillian influenced album has long been one of my all time favourites, and one I've had for well over 20yrs.

An absolutely glorious,sensuous,seductive album, with no clever,flashy solos, just simple,down to earth,understated playing by everybody, and some of the finest, mesmerising,delicate, brilliant percussion you'll ever hear.

Listening to the album is like listening to a story which ends beautifully (on the record version) with a song called It Happens Everyday

As for the song Rainbow, when it comes to the percussion section, turn up the volume and be entranced and blown away,with the most brilliant policeman's whistle playing you'll ever hear ,period.

There's one major problem. I'm talking about the vinyl version of this album.

In my oppinion, the cd version is awful. I brought it thinking it will be like the record. Alas, to my horror it wasn't. The tracks have been resequenced and some tracks remixed, and the guts of the album removed.

The remixed songs sound tinny and feel different and the beautiful percussion I mentioned gets lost in the mix, the warmth of the record is gone, and the story -like feel of the record version is gone too. Once you've heard the vinyl version, there is no going back to the cd version.

If you can find the record,or the tape on the internet, , my advice is to buy that, and transfer it to cd.

Don't buy the cd of this album, unless you are left with no choice but to do so.

Buy this magnificent album on vinyl and never ever look back

Lee Ritenour is a musician who is usually listed ammong the earliest smooth jazz artists so it makes sense that on this 1979 album,recorded with a whole cast of Brazillian musicians in Rio De Janeiro itself this album by and large presents a series of breezy Brazillian samba's played in Lee's fusion style and filled with his masterful,playful and very entertaining guitar solos. Thanks in large part to the popping bass of the always wonderful Marcus Miller the percolating,happy grooves of "Rio Funk" and the likewise funk of "A Little But Of This And A Little Bit Of That" bring a likewise upbeat party atmosphere into the proceedings.As far as the ballads go Eumir Deodato's relaxing "San Juan Sunset" (a PERFECT song for this kind of album featured by it's writer on his own Love Island,which is also worth checking out) as well as "It Happens Everyday" and "Ipenema Sol",the latter of which benifits from Abe Laboriel's fancy,quick fingered way on bass."Simplicidad" is by far the most obviously jazzy tune here with the percussion of Armando Marcal guaranteed to induce at least a little movement in you.The only drawback one might find on 'Rio' is Dave Grusin's cutesy strings with don't rear they're head long enough,even on each song to merrit a star deducted.Nevertheless for those who can appreciate Brazillian music and the concept of "smooth jazz before it was called smooth jazz" style of this album you'll find it extremely enjoyable.