Customer Reviews

Viva Maria

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

 

 

These are Tania Maria's first two sessions(albums), and also her very best(other then Come With Me & Wild, which are also both worth acquiring) re-issued on this two cd for the price of one set. Maria is heard in prime form stretching out and improvising on keyboard, and her vocal quality is wonderful swinging and unique(sounds a little like Carmen McRae with a Brazillian accent), she scats like nobody else, a true jazz great. Just listen to her scat her way thru "Yatra Ta" the 1st track, and the energy and fun never end. Maria also sounds great on "Cry Me A River" and a Brazilian version of "The Island" which Sarah Vaughan would later imortalize in english! Lot's of fun, and lot's of great jazz vocal and piano, not the mention her great sidemen. Definately worth picking up, and a great place to start.

You either love her or don't. I have most of her albums and love her style. If you like Brazilian music, she is a must!

This is a great value CD with two albums in one; "Piquant" and "Taurus" from 1981 and 1982 respectively. I only bought this for "Tranquility" - a song I'd had on cassette for years - but there's lots of other good stuff on here. I've always loved the way the lady sings along with her piano improvisations and I can now see that it's her trademark. I'm not such a huge fan of her straight ahead singing, such as she does on the John Lennon classic "Imagine" for instance, but thankfully she doesn't try that very often. When she sings on "It's Not For Me To Say", for example it clearly sounds like she's singing with tongue firmly in cheek and with a wry smile on her face and that's totally okay with me.

Great Brazilian-influenced jazz-funk. Before Eliane Elias, there was Tania Maria, apparently.