Customer Reviews

Rio

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i was startled by them, like unexpected loud knocking on my door. why should i be startled by african drums in brazilian music? probably because as a north american hearing brazilian music i've grown use to expecting sexy sambas, picturing a man in an expensive suit strolling across the floor of a casino toward a woman wearing pearls and a black dress, and that same couple later in a bedroom with champagne.

uri caine includes those kind of tunes as well on rio, but he also takes a trip outside in the streets and to bars. and in the streets, between tunes, a car driving from hotel to small club and muted drumming and murmuring are heard, a point well made by caine.

on some numbers shouts mingle with loud drums, in a way no north american musician who plays jazz has ever done, except archie shepp, shepp's yasmina is well worth checking out if you like the drums and shouts on rio.

caine also brought home his point about brazilian music by not including horns, and i say this as a listener who loves horns. whenever i encounter the words 'horns' and 'brazil', here's another picture: stan getz. i love stan getz's brazilian album. unfortunately, for the longest time, though, i've come to believe that what getz did was the total of brazilian music, that and those sexy soundtracks for spy movies.

and then there's churo, a form of brazilian music i've never heard or paid attention to until yoyo ma. a churo, at least one, is included by caine.

and he doesn't stop there, combatente sounds like a hip.hop rap version of a brazilian form.

(only) A bit dissapointing. This time Uri didn't change the original brasilian tunes too much, as you could expect from his "clssical" records. In fact, he is playing piano with few native drummers, the sound is powerfull, music enjoyable, but it's not very original. In addition, it's recorded int he vein of "real place" like some other records by Winter & Winter, between tracks you can hear the people crowded in the bar (fake bar, actually it was recorded in a studio) and the sounds of the streets of Rio. Maybe that was the concept: inexpensive journey to Rio? You can defenetly feel the atmosphere of the city, on a hot, summer day, just imagine the hills around the city, and Uri will take you there.