Diego Figuieredo: Follow the Signs

Latin allure, anyone? Follow the Signs is a wonderful salute by guitarist Diego Figueiredo to the sunny and rhythmic music of Brazil, comprising an album of themes much like those he came of age listening to in his hometown of Franca, about four hours north of Sao Paulo. To carry out his plan, Figueiredo amplifies his core trio (bassist Eduardo Machada, percussionist Marcilio Garcetti) with a string quintet on most numbers to help underscore his melodious frame of mind.

Figueiredo was a teen-ager when he began to combine the Brazilian music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto and Baden Powell with the jazz stylings of Joe Pass, Pat Metheny, George Benson and others. After six years studying classical guitar, followed by ten years playing alone in his room for many hours each day, Figueiredo was ready to share his remarkable gifts with the world. Those talents include superlative technique, flawless timing, an inbred flair for the rhythms and intricacies of jazz, and an intellect that forges composing and arranging into impressive weapons in his arsenal.

Figueiredo wrote and arranged every number on Follow the Signs save one, Erroll Garner's durable "Misty," played in a Latin groove like everything else. Most tunes are sambas or bossas, written in the familiar style of his illustrious predecessors while embodying more than enough neology to keep things interesting. While there are tributes to Gilberto ("Dear John") and Jobim ("Jobim Forever"), the album is for the most part a tribute to the music of Figueiredo's homeland, performed with happiness and warmth by the leader and his colleagues. If a Latin pinnacle is the destination you have in mind, simply Follow the Signs.