Jazz Articles

Luiz Millan: Brazilian Match

by Chris M. Slawecki
September 20, 2023

Brazilian Match is a tour-de-force of classic and contemporary Brazilian music written by and featuring singer-songwriter Luiz Millan. Millan's fifth album is a leader is his first for Jazz Station Records and Brazilian jazz impresario Arnaldo DeSouteiro, whose storied history includes working with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Eumir Deodato, Dom Um Romão, João Donato, and other legends, and who called Millan “a composer's composer." “A great melodist who also happens to be a great poet, a fabulous storyteller; a ...

Rodrigo Lima: Saga

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 17, 2015

“I fell in love with the jazz guitar--all kinds of jazz guitarists, from Jim Hall to Pat Metheny to Luis Bonfá, by listening to their records," explains Brazilian composer, arranger, bandleader and guitarist Rodrigo Lima. Saga luxuriously extends this jazz guitar love affair across the American and Brazilian continents--it was recorded in New York, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba--and across the two CDs of Lima's utterly magnificent recorded debut. Producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro elegantly ...

Fabio Fonseca Trio: Opus Samba

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 20, 2008

Arnaldo DeSouteiro produced Opus Samba to feature Fonseca's funky Hammond B-3 organ in his trio with Pedro Leao (bass) and Mac William (drums). Though you won't hear any jazz standards on its set list or many harmonically adventurous jazz solos in its jams, the very musical way that Fonseca and friends blend together jazz, Brazilian, Latin and soft funk rhythms makes Opus Samba a nearly perfect jazz trio set.

“Samba de Nanh" crisply yet softly opens this Opus ...

Ithamara Koorax: Autumn in New York

by Chris M. Slawecki
August 14, 2005

Spilling over with jazz and pop classics, Autumn in New York is probably the best program yet from blossoming Brazilian vocalist Ithamara Koorax.

Like almost every other female vocalist from Brazil, Koorax sounds influenced by Flora Purim--heard, for example, in her fearless hopscotch jumps across the endpoints of her entire vocal range. Also like Purim, Koorax has been tinted by classic jazz harmonies and phrasings--and not just by vocalists (though Ella Fitzgerald and Shirley Horn are obvious influences), ...