Mafalda Minnozzi: Riofonic

Singer Mafalda Minnozzi, who already had a solid recording career in Italy, went to Rio for a date in the late 1990s, stayed for a year, then decided to make it her home. Like many musical immigrants to that great city, she went to feel the salt air, to drink in the natural beauty and learn more about the sounds that had captivated her spirit. In her words, she was looking for something "that was not only what is written in books, that you can hear on an LP or a disk, but was really about understanding this green, this light..." (Meu Rio: A Documentary About Mafalda Minnozzi and Riofonic, YouTube).

She has found success in Brazil, charming audiences with her mixtures of Italian song, jazz and Brazilian music, receiving an Honorary Citizen of the State of Rio de Janeiro award and performing with such celebrated musicians as Milton Nascimento, Leny Andrade, Joao Bosco, Guinga, Andre Mehmari, Paulo Moura and Roberto Menescal.

Minnozzi features first-generation bossa nova guitarist-composer Menescal on Riofonic, singing with him and performing four of his compositions. She and New York-based guitarist and arranger Paul Ricci—whom she met in Brazil—assembled an all-star Brazilian ensemble for the recording: cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, electric bassist Kassin, double bassist Jorge Helder, drummer João Cortez, trombonist Rafael Rocha, flutist-saxophonist Marcelo Martins and trumpeter-flugelhornist Jesse Sadoc, all of whom offer seasoned musicality and genuine warmth.

The album is an appealing throwback to the halcyon days of bossa nova, with tunes mainly written in the pre-1964 period before Branco's military coup and ensuing authoritarian regime took hold. The lyrics are in line with what historian Ruy Castro calls the "linha amor-flor-mar" or "love-sea-flower theme" (Chega de Saudade, Campanha das Letras, 1990). These include Menescal and lyricist Ronaldo Bôscoli's biggest hit, "O Barquinho" (written in 1961), which Menescal sings on the album, plus their "Rio" (A Bossa Nova de Roberto Menescal e seu Conjunto, Elenco, 1963), "Telefone" (written in 1963) and "Você (You)" (1966).

And of course there is a healthy helping of Antonio Carlos Jobim's work, as sole composer ("Corcovado," 1961) and with lyricist Vinicius De Moraes: "Água de Beber" (1961), "Só Danço Samba" (1962) and "Garôta de Ipanema" (1963). The hefty 14-tune set list also includes hits by Johnny Alf, Luiz Bonfa and Carlos Lyra. Ricci and Minnozzi contribute two fine pieces of their own devising, "Café South American Style" and "Postcard from Rio," both with Minnozzi's quasi-autobiographical lyrics in English.

In what she describes as a "full circle" acknowledgement of her roots, Minnozzi includes a lovely Brazilianized version of Domenico Modugno's "Tu Si 'Na Cosa Grande" ("You Are a Great Thing for Me," lyric by Roberto Gigli). You may remember Modugno as the singer-songwriter of the perennial "Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu)."

As Martins put it, "Mafalda? She is Italian and she is Brazilian, too. So it doesn't become stereotypical. She sings like a Brazilian, yet it becomes a different thing." The subtle differences are what make it work.