4.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet, old-fashioned Brazilian samba, April 14, 2003
This review is from: Seu Jair Do Cavaquinho (Audio CD)
Do Cavaquinho, a central member of the Portela samba school's "velha guarda" (old guard), is celebrated and spotlighted on this fine, affectionate album, which is, amazingly enough, his first solo album. The driving force behind the album is Phonomotor label head, Marisa Monte, whose father was head of the Portela escola in the 1960s, but while she bankrolled the project, she remains very much in the background, singing in the chorus, but content merely to document, not to dominate. All the songs were written or co-written by Jair over his decades-long career, and samba fans may recognize many of them from other artist's albums. The arrangements by Pedro Amorim warmly frame Do Cavaquinho's now-frail voice. These songs don't barrel along at lightning speed, but they also don't have to: the honied lyricism and gentle nostalgia are enough to evoke the style's glory days. A nice record; if you enjoyed the Velha Guarda da Portela album that came out a couple of years earlier, then you should definitley track this one down as well.
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