Oscar Castro-Neves - Playful Heart

Styles: Vocal And Guitar Jazz
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:43
Size: 128,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:02)  1. Waters Of March
(2:52)  2. Groovin' High/Whispering
(3:48)  3. Watch What Happens
(3:46)  4. My Foolish Heart
(4:29)  5. Manha De Carnaval/Prelude #3
(4:23)  6. Four Brothers
(4:43)  7. The Fool On The Hill
(3:17)  8. Lorry's Swing/Autumn Leaves
(4:38)  9. Send In The Clowns
(4:00) 10. Everything Happens To Me
(4:48) 11. Twenty Year Love Affair
(5:32) 12. Wave
(6:21) 13. Caruso

The beloved Brazilian guitar legend's resumé is so chock-full of varied musical experiences  jazz, pop, film scoring, ten years with Sergio Mendes that his brilliant solo efforts can't help but include informal homages to different eras of his life. He starts out here getting straight to the heart of the matter, paying tribute to his fellow countryman Antonio Carlos Jobim with a self-contained plucky guitar/vocal duet of "Waters of March," which includes spirited scat passages. He moves into samba mode for a lively medley of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker tunes, "Groovin' High/Whispering," deferring to Toots Thielemans' always engaging harmonica for melody as he harmonizes gently; then they switch roles. His other medley is a wilder, more percussive mix of a standard and an original, "Lorry's Swing/Autumn Leaves." 

Mixing modes, tempos, and moods, he mines standards ("Watch What Happens," "My Foolish Heart") and Brazilian classics (more by Jobim and Luiz Bonfá), and offers a dreamy take on "The Fool on the Hill," the Beatles song that Mendes made a famous cover of. No matter the rhythm pattern, outside percussion influence, or ensemble contribution (Don Grusin and Gary Meek make notable contributions), the soul of each tune is Castro-Neves' precise, melodic strings. From the diversity of this disc, it's clear he has a lot of beautiful memories to play with. ~ Jonathan Widran  http://www.allmusic.com/album/playful-heart-mw0000323776

Personnel : Oscar Castro-Neves (vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass); Gary Meek (winds); Toots Thielemans (harmonica); Don Grusin (piano); Calos Del Rosario (bass, drums, percussion); Charlie Bisharat.

Playful Heart

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