Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Various Artists: Acoustic Brazil

215

Various Artists: Acoustic Brazil

By

View read count
Various Artists: Acoustic Brazil
Brazil has one of the most active and dynamic popular music scenes on the planet, which is reason enough for Putumayo to revisit the country for a fourth time. This update presents unplugged performances by megastars like Caetano Veloso as well as other artists with a lower global profile. It's a warm, liquid, romantic tour of samba, bossa nova, and beyond that rewards repeated spins.

Acoustic Brazil does its subject justice, to the extent twelve tracks can adequately represent the music of a couple hundred million people. The focus is on song, which has a few implications: the pieces are short, only one longer than four minutes; they emphasize melody and lyrical content in intertwined combination; and they showcase vocal talent as a centerpiece for instrumental presentation. Provided you're on board with that scenario, there's a lot here to like.

A sense of mellow contemplation, bittersweet love, and restrained celebration characterize most of this material, but it's not drippy, weak, or bland in any sense. Therein lies the magic. Listen to samba veteran Paulinho da Viola sing the delicately simmering "A Voz do Povo"—the lush instrumental accompaniment buoys up a lilting melody that masks a somber message of weakness and rebirth:

I am the flower that the wind tossed to the ground
But a bud still remains
So another flower can grow


Minutes later, Ana de Hollanda's feathery voice wafts in and around clarinet counterpoint, bathing her "Samba Triste" ("Sad Samba") in ironic joy. Her brother, Chico Buarque, appears down the road in a swirl of romance and quiet passion. If all this heavy stuff weighs you down, check out Monica Salmaso's minimal, roots-oriented "Moro Na Roça" and Rita Ribeiro's affirmative "Tem Quem Queira." There's a little of everything here. At a brief forty minutes, the running time is the only real drawback.

Track Listing

Aquele Frevo Ax

Personnel

Gal Costa; Paulinho da Viola; Ana de Hollanda; M

Album information

Title: Acoustic Brazil | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: Putumayo World Music

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Various Artists Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.