Walter Wanderley - Batucada

Styles: Latin Jazz
Year: 1967
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:28
Size: 85,3 MB
Art: Front

(2:39)  1. On The South Side Of Chicago
(3:01)  2. O Barquinho
(2:09)  3. Batucada
(2:09)  4. It Hurts To Say Goodbye
(4:24)  5. Os Grilos
(2:44)  6. Minha Saudade
(3:31)  7. E Preciso Cantar
(3:08)  8. So What's New
(3:14)  9. Wave
(3:17) 10. Ainda Mais Lindo
(3:27) 11. Ela é Carioca
(2:40) 12. Jequibau

Fortunately, Walter Wanderley sticks mostly to Brazilian standards on Batucada, and though his lounge-organ sound occasionally veers close to the edge where cool jazz becomes easy listening, the album is well-recorded. His organ is occasionally more reminiscent of a hockey rink accompanist than a jazz improviser, but he slips and slides around on the keys and employs an endearing and quintessentially Brazilian less-is-more approach. 

Brazilian mastermind Marcos Valle guests on guitar, and percussion is well-handled by Paulinho, Dom Um Romao, and Lu Lu Ferreira. Talya Ferro's vocals on "Wave" are solidly in a jazz vein, though rather transparently postured to captivate an American crossover audience. Obviously, an album like Batucada isn't a prime example of Brazilian pop, but fans of Wanderley's work on Astrud Gilberto's A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness will enjoy this as background music. ~ John Bush https://www.allmusic.com/album/batucada-mw0000360989

Personnel: Organ [Electric], Piano – Walter Wanderley; Bass – Jose Marina, Sebastian Netto; Drums – Dom Um Romao, Paulinho; Guitar – Marcos Valle; Mixed By, Arranged By – Marcos Valle, Walter Wanderley; Vocals – Claudio Miranda, Talya Ferro 

Batucada

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Venissa Santi - Bienvenida

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:34
Size: 122,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:55)  1. Tender Shepard & Little Girl Blue
(5:07)  2. Convergencia
(3:56)  3. Lucerito de mi Amor
(5:50)  4. Talkin' To You
(5:50)  5. Embraceable You
(9:39)  6. Columbia pa' Miguel Angel
(4:51)  7. Como Fue
(5:26)  8. Tu Mi Delirio
(4:04)  9. Wish You Well
(4:53) 10. Cumpling Cumpling

The high art of Bienvenida is no accident. This is because its principal performer is the miracle behind it all. Venissa Santi is one of those supremely talented new vocalists who blazes comet-like, across the musical horizon but once in a lifetime. She joins the likes of Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln, Sheila Jordan, Elis, Rosa, Celia and Flora Purim as the highest practitioners of the art of vocal music.  Santi is a sublime artist whose voice floats on the lyrical music that it inhabits. She can flutter like a bird, often appearing to glide on the song like as if she were on the wings of the songs thermal it's burning, beating heart. She often performs unbelievable vocal gymnastics shooting, in a rush of apparently hot breath, ever so high, soaring momentarily before diving on the slide of a sudden glissando to hover and ululate in a throaty gush of scatted babble. But all this is performed with so much apparent mathematical precision so as to appear to conjure the ancient wellspring of pitch and tonal color. And speaking of pitch, Santi appears to pay little heed to convention. She does not need to; she can break fresh ground in chromatic harmony, as she is capable of singing myriad quarter notes, diving into the very heart of each note's tone, hitting them with the precision of a sorceress. On the face of it Santi is a Latin artist who reaches across diverse universes to pluck idioms from Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean music, swishing them across and melding them with blues and jazz. 

She is playful with classical musical forms just as likely to slide through a bolero on "Convergencias," as she is to deconstruct it on "Como Fue," which she turns into a devastatingly beautiful blues (incidentally with breathtaking, gurgling guitar work from Jef Lee Johnson). Then she turns to son, breaking down into danzon in a gorgeous rendition of "Lucerito Di Mi Amor," (a "Love Star,") written by her grandfather, celebrated Cuban musician, Jacobo Ros Capablanca. And then, on "Cumpling Cumpling," a rumba that brings a rush of blood to the head as she imitates the sound of a bell pealing "pling...plang, cling," clanging her way wordlessly surely to the unbridled delight of church steeples somewhere. 

Her mastery of vocalese is quite unmatched. She might even take on the great Jon Hendricks. "Embraceable You" is a quite memorable example where Santi double-times the music in the second chorus, bending and twisting notes like a vocal alchemist. And then there is the standout track of the record, "Columbia pa Miguel Angel," sung in 6/8 time. It's a tribute to the music of the Matanzas and is a rumba and Afro-Caribbean Columbia of breathtaking beauty. This beguiling track celebrates the griot tradition, delves into the spiritual realm of Ogun and flirts also with a kind of Afro-blues. The musicians rise above themselves for this session. A debut record? How about a musical miracle? ~ Raul D' Gama Rose https://www.allaboutjazz.com/bienvenida-venissa-santi-sunnyside-records-review-by-raul-dgama-rose.php

Personnel: Venissa Santi: vocals; Michael Rodriguez: trumpet; Robert Rodriguez: piano; Yunior Terry: bass; Francois Zayas: drums and percussion; Cuco Castellanos: congas; Jef Lee Johnson: guitar and bass; Barry Sames: Hammond Organ; Daoud Shaw: drums; Chris Dockins: background vocals.

Bienvenida

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Jackie Cain & Roy Kral - Lovesick

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz 
Year: 1966
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:05
Size: 94,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:24)  1. Lovesick
(2:22)  2. Samba Triste
(3:22)  3. Mimosa and Me
(3:44)  4. Quiet Nights (Corcovado)
(3:42)  5. Such a Lonely Girl Am I
(2:12)  6. A Big Beautiful Ball
(3:13)  7. Let's Begin
(2:16)  8. I Wonder What's the Matter with Me
(3:11)  9. If You Could See Me Now
(2:22) 10. Mountain Greenery
(3:34) 11. You Really Started Something
(2:36) 12. The World Is Your Balloon

Jackie and Roy was an American jazz vocal team consisting of husband and wife singer Jackie Cain and singer / pianist Roy Kral. They sang together for 56 years and made almost 40 albums. Kral's obituary in The New York Times said: "Their voices had similar ranges but were an octave apart, creating unusual harmonies." They first joined forces in 1946, and in 1996 they celebrated their 50th anniversary as a vocal duo. Jackie and Roy's stint with Charlie Ventura's band in 1948 and 1949 brought them recognition; Lou Stein's "East of Suez" was an unusual feature for their voices. Shortly after leaving Ventura in June 1949, they were married and worked together on a regular basis thereafter. Jackie and Roy had their own television show in Chicago in the early 1950s, worked in Las Vegas from 1957 to 1960, settled in New York in 1963, and appeared on some television commercials. They recorded many performances for a variety of record labels through the decades, and performed until Roy Kral died in August 2002. Fairly early in their career, Jackie and Roy were befriended by composer Alec Wilder, who wrote the liner notes for one of their earliest albums, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral (1955). They had always favored Wilder's songs and, ten years after his death, paid tribute by recording an entire album of them, An Alec Wilder Collection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_and_Roy

Personnel: Vocals – Jackie Cain; Piano, Vocals – Roy Kral; Bass – Don Payne; Drums – Don McDonald

Lovesick

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Hampton Hawes - I'm All Smiles

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1966
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:01
Size: 89,4 MB
Art: Front

( 7:38)  1. I'm All Smiles
( 5:35)  2. Manhã de Carnaval
( 5:11)  3. Spring Is Here
(10:04)  4. The Shadow of Your Smile
(10:31)  5. Searchin'

Pianist Hampton Hawes led a trio during the 1960s and '70s that remained popular without compromising its sound or musical integrity. His phrasing and voicings could entice or amaze, and he displays great range, rhythmic vitality, and harmonic excellence during the five selections featured on this 1966 live date now reissued on CD. Hawes moves from the Afro-Latin feel of "Manha de Carnaval" to the brilliant chordal exposition on "Spring Is Here" and "The Shadow of Your Smile," before concluding with a flourish on "Searchin." Hawes is backed by wonderful bassist Red Mitchell and steady drummer Donald Bailey, who had both been with him for over a decade. They are not just a cohesive unit, but an intuitive team, maintaining a communication with him that is amazing even within a genre that demands it. ~ Ron Wynn https://www.allmusic.com/album/im-all-smiles-mw0000623559

Personnel: Hampton Hawes - piano; Red Mitchell - bass; Donald Bailey - drums

I'm All Smiles

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Passport - Iguaçu

Styles: Jazz Funk, Fusion
Year: 1977
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:08
Size: 95,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:50)  1. Bahia do sol
(4:09)  2. Aguamarinha
(5:38)  3. Bird of Paradise
(4:32)  4. Sambukada
(8:48)  5. Iguaçu
(3:01)  6. Praia leme
(4:33)  7. Heavy Weight
(4:34)  8. Guna Guna

Something strange happened when Passport went to Rio de Janeiro to cut the Iguacu album they seemed to forget the entire basis for their previous success. The trademark Klaus Doldinger sax sound is muted and diluted by the attempt to fit the band into a Brazilian jazz mold, and the result sounds eerily like a pretty good lounge jazz band trying to sound like Passport. The long, liquid melody lines are gone, replaced by up-tempo but unmemorable frameworks for full-band jams. Guitarist Roy Louis plays an unusually large part, Doldinger an unusually small one, and the tracks with the local Brazilian musicians are energetic but unfocused. This is one of the least compelling Passport albums, one without a single tune that stays in your head long after you hear it. ~ Richard Foss https://www.allmusic.com/album/iguacu-mw0000116765

Oersonnel: Klaus Doldinger - soprano & tenor saxes, RMI organ, Moog synthesizer (07), flute (04), producer; Curt Cress - drums, berimbau; Elmer Louis - percussion; Roy Louis - guitar; Kristian Schultze - Fender piano, acoustic piano, Yamaha organ; Wolfgang Schmid - bass; Mats Björklund - guitar (08); Wilson Das Neves - atapaques (congas), pandeiro (04); Roberto Bastos Pinheiro - surdo (04); Noel Manuel Pinto - cuica (08); Clélio Ribeiro - berimbau (04); Marcello Salazar - percussion (04); Pedro "Sorongo" Santos - percussion, whistles (08)

Iguaçu

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