Supergenerous

Supergenerous

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B00004WGEH
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #198,275 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Super sessioneers Kevin Breit (guitar) and Cyro Baptista (percussion) have recorded and worked with everyone from Holly Cole, Cassandra Wilson, and K.D. Lang to Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, and John Zorn. But none of their credits can prepare you for the sonic shindig of their debut as Supergenerous. Using their collection of guitars, otherworldly percussion, and original instruments, the pair make fiery, joyous, highly improvisational music that is also quite mad. Recalling the Latin Playboys, but with a much wider stylistic palette, SG's songs are full of lonely vistas, strange sendups, and utter weirdness that is refreshing. Like High Plains Drifters lost in time, SG work the theme of dislocation with such song titles as "Dreamin of a Train" and "God's Parking Lot." They turn "Caravan/Camel, Sand and Caravan" into an unrecognizable improv, and feature Cassandra Wilson on an earthy but ultimately unmoving "Home on the Range." Better is the 22nd-century boogie of "Sao Paolo Slim," the Mexicali romance of "A Sigh in a Shiver," and the freak mambo of "Marisa O'Brien." The album closes with a wonderful rendition of "Love Is All Around," a.k.a. the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme. As Breit snappily unveils the familiar melody, Baptista surrounds him with an atmospheric barrage of oddball scratches, zings, and hand jives. It's a magical end to a curious, creative, and unique album. --Ken Micallef

From Rhythm Magazine
Supergenerous-Canadian string wizard Kevin Breit and Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista-saunter into town, slinging a clang-and-twang cornucopia that spills like welcome rain across a dusty tumbleweed planet parched with its own deranged ambitions. Theirs is a found-sound journey that may leave the saddle-weary wondering just what controlled musical substance spikes this genre-bending, neo-western sarsaparilla. A stringed-instrument arsenal and percussion fusillade signal the earthy atmospherics of Craig Street, producer of vocal stylists k.d. lang, Meshell Ndegiocello, Susana Baca, and Cassandra Wilson. The latter has a vaporous cameo on "Home On The Range," proffering an obscure but majestic verse against the wind-worried sound of the high lonesome plains. "God's Parking Lot" is a gamelan-fevered launch pad for Pluto, segueing into the gut-plunking blues of "Steinbeck," and the cartoonish surf-guitar traffic-jam berimbau of "Marisa O'Brien." A menacing National steel guitar extracts unforeseen marvels from "Caravan" in a down-home Delta-Algerian blues. Wrapped with a zany "Love Is All Around" and a samba-wheezing "Whistling In The Rain," Supergenerous is enchanted music for disenchanted times. -Michael Stone

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utter Musical Genius, August 27, 2002

By	Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Cyro Baptista, percussionist extrordinaire and brain behind one of the three greatest jazz beat albums ever--Vira Loucas--here teams with stringman-without-peer Kevin Breit to produce a disc that defies catagorization and, almost, description. Undaunted, I'll give it a go.

A photo on the back of the jewel-case insert kinda gives the game away: seemingly randomly placed are 50 or more musical instruments, about half guitar-family, half drum-family. Many are obscure or unrecognizable (at least to a non-specialist like me). That two players would even have vague familiarity with--let alone mastery of--such a wide assortment of instruments boggles the mind. But they do.

Strangely, given the surface esotericism, this music is eminently listenable. Yeah, it gets weird, yeah, it's beyond category--sorta folk-jazz-world-bluegrass-Brazilian-old-timey-blues-cowboy--but it's never not accessible, if you've got big ears. And there are moments of sheer beauty, such as about the last minute and a half of Dreaming of a Train/Take the A Train, and Cassandra Wilson's strangely artless and moving singing on Home on the Range.

In the hands of lesser musicians, an endeavor of this sort would degenerate into mere oddness; with their rare combination of savvy, acuity, and largesse, Baptista and Breit have created a cultural artifact that is, indeed, supergenerous.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kevin Breit, the most underrated guitarist alive? Maybe., November 1, 2000

By	Richard J Gebhard (Manistee, MI United States) - See all my reviews

Virtuoso Kevin Breit (Holly Cole, Cassandra Wilson, many more) finds even more space to fill with his off-beat, sometimes intricate, sometimes dissonant, jazzy style. He is truly a brigh spot among the often stagnant guitar world.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, January 31, 2007

By	Jose F. Bacelar "cpxiexie" (Brasilia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nice discovery for me, this duo makes music from odd instruments, strings and things. Check their vids on U-Tube, and you will see how weird and capturing their music is.