Rive Gauche Rio

Celso Fonseca | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 10, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Six Degrees
• ASIN: B00080Z76O
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,359 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While songwriter Celso Fonseca hasn't gotten the same kind of recognition as modern day bossa nova classicist Rosa Passos or electro-modernist Bebel Gilberto, he's truly a bossa nova talent worthy of much wider recognition. His last album, Natural, was a potpourri of tasteful sounds anchored by his guitar playing as well as samba percussion. On Rive Gauche Rio, Fonseca ups the ante with a sound that is more seamless and wholly unified. The heartbeat of the 12 songs here is still Brazilian and the acoustic guitar is ever present, but he gracefully broadens his palette with tasteful touches of flute, multi-tracked vocals, upright bass, electric piano and hand percussion. His voice is as warm and sensual as ever, and equally at home in his native Portuguese or English – he does a lovely samba version of Damien Rice's "Delicate." Opener "O Rio Para Tras" is a stunning example of this album's panoramic elegance; it also emphatically announces the arrival of one of the best Brazilian albums of 2005. –-Tad Hendrickson

Product Description

On Celso Fonseca’s previous Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees release, the luminous "Natural", he soulfully revisited the very roots of pure bossa & samba. With this second international release, the seductive singer/guitarist,who has been a regular collaborator of such classic artists as Gilberto Gil, Marisa Monte and Caetano Veloso continues to cement his reputation as one of the most exciting new voices in Brazilian music.

"Rive Gauche Rio" features nine new haunting Celso Fonseca compositions, two unusual covers (a reinterpretation of British singer-songwriter Damien Rice’s "Delicate", a Portuguese version of French crooner Henri Salvador’s "J’ai vu"), and a refreshing duet -in Spanish- with Urugayan singer/guitarist Jorge Drexler (on the latter’s composition "Don de Fluir").

The instrumentation on this new album is a touch fuller than on "Natural" with several songs featuring a definite ‘band’ sound fleshed out with drums, bass, a ‘60s-style Fender Rhodes piano and touches of woodwinds. However, the tasteful atmosphere and mood of "Rive Gauche Rio" is an extension of Natural’s warm, elegant and sensual sound, all dominated by Celso’s caressing voice and splendid guitar playing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The coolest sound from Rio, July 21, 2005

By 

Doc Meter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rive Gauche Rio (Audio CD)

The second Celso Fonseca album comes as a nice surprise to me. The first didn't impress me that much, but this contains high quality songs (well unless you are tired of the bossa nova stereotype) and a great voice, really a bit too much similar to Caetano Veloso but this is not a fault but a pleasure to me.

Two of the songs are really wonderful,"Rio para tras" and "Um mondo estranho". Not that peculiar the cover of Damien Rice and the instrumental "Atlantico". Very nice the duet with Jorge Drexler and the cover of Henri Salvador. Probably a bit too much all in the same mood but very classy. The production is minimal but when the songs are good they don't need much more than a voice and an acoustic guitar.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rive Gauche Rio, January 15, 2011

By 

Luiz Carlos M. Magalhães (Rio de Janeiro, RJ BRAZIL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rive Gauche Rio (Audio CD)

Celso Fonseca is one of best Brazilian singer/composer who has came around last years in Brazilian music scene. He sings very well, his music has a sophisticated approach. Although he is considered a newcomer in Brazilian music industry I consider him one of those guys who has been much influenced by Bossa Nova style, which is in my opinion the best kind of music which has ever appeared in Brazil in many years. In Rive Gauche Rio he keeps offering us all of his best. So, I can only give a 5 star rate.

Luiz Carlos M. Magalhães

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you like elegant, sensual, seductive, beautifully melodic music..., September 21, 2009

By 

Terence Erkkila (Manhattan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rive Gauche Rio (Audio CD)

Celso Fonseca is a major find, a first rank musician in every respect. He is a superb singer, composer, song writer, recording producer and guitarist, and if you love the music of Jobim, you're sure to love Celso Fonseca. I have seven of his albums, and rank Juventude (Slow Motion Bossa Nova) and Paradiso as his best, although I wouldn't part with any of them. Rive Gauche Rio is a first rate addition. I discovered his CDs in Rio at a little record store in Ipanema a block and 1/2 from Jobim's old hangout. Rive Gauche Rio and Natural are available in the US, but Amazon is the only source I have found that regularly offers Celso's Brazilian CDs in the United States. If you like elegant, sensual, seductive, beautifully melodic music, Celso is your man. I caught his solo performance in New York at the Blue Note, which was a sold out success, and he's a terrific performer. To paraphrase an early enthusiast (and it's only slightly hyperbolic), "Celso is guaranteed to have you and your lover horizontal before the album ends." In short, he's a major event, the real thing, and Brazilian music at it's best.