The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features

Various Artists | Tom Feminino/Tom Masculino

Universal (2008)
By GUSTAVO TURNER  |  October 22, 2008
3.5 3.5 Stars
varioustom1008inside.jpg
Historians have settled on 1958 as the official birth year of bossa nova — which means the immediately recognizable genre that put Brazilian music on the world’s hi-fi during the Kennedy era is turning 50. And that’s the occasion for a showcase of the immortal artistry of the great founding triumvirate of Jobim, Gilberto, and Vinícius. These two compilations of female and male singers addressing the Jobim songbook span five decades of idiosyncratic interpretations by a galaxy of mostly Brazilian stars. (The only two gringas in the mix are Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, so it’s all good.) Feminino kicks off with the unusual bossa funk of Elis Regina’s “Estrada do sol” (producers: sample alert), and it finds room for an unusually deconstructed “Garota de Ipanema” by Marina, Norman Ganz’s 1980 swinging (or coked-up) supper-club arrangement of “Favela” for Ella, and Sylvia Telles’s easy-listening “Bonita.” The boys are well represented with Caetano Veloso’s simple, loose-guitar-and-voice “Eu sei que vou te amar,” the gender-bending Ney Matogrosso stretching the definition of “masculino” with a heartbreaking piano take on the love song from the Gabriela soundtrack (only slightly tarnished by a Kenny G–esque clarinet), and a mesmerizing “Dindi” by Lúcio Alves, one of the most distinctive, influential, and underrated vocalists of the bossa period. The world might have preferred Sérgio Mendes’s jet-setting versions, but listen to Leny Andrade’s smoky “Samba do avião” (from a live 1963 recording) and you’ll experience Brazilian jazz in its natural setting: a dark club in a third-world Interzona as the Cold War raged on. Covertly, of course.
Related: Diana Krall | Quiet Nights, The rise of reggaeton, Various Artists | Boogaloo Pow Wow: Dancefloor Rendez-vous in Young Nuyorica, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Jazz and Blues,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

[ 11/10 ]   Jack Quartet  @ Institute of Contemporary Art
[ 11/10 ]   Neko Case + Calexico  @ Wilbur Theatre
[ 11/10 ]   Mili Bermejo + Patricia Elena Vlieg  @ Berklee Performance Center
[ 11/10 ]   Tom Bianchi  @ Toad
[ 11/10 ]   "Tuesday Acoustic Showcase"  @ Tommy Doyle's @ Harvard
ARTICLES BY GUSTAVO TURNER
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE RELATIVES | DON'T LET ME FALL  |  November 10, 2009
    Does the Devil really have all the best tunes? Go tell that to Bach, or the Sensational Nightingales, or Johnny Cash!
  •   VARIOUS ARTISTS | D-FUNK: FUNK, DISCO AND BOOGIE GROOVES FROM GERMANY 1972-2002  |  November 03, 2009
    If you have only a few bucks to add some delicious German funk to your collection and are tempted to shell out for the recent Funky Fräuleins on the strength of its amazing bodypaint cover, hold on there a sec.
  •   TROPICÁLIA STORM  |  September 28, 2009
    When Sérgio Dias takes to the Somerville Theatre stage this Sunday with the current incarnation of Os Mutantes, it's a safe bet he'll be beaming with gratitude. "I'm riding the same wave," he says of his band's legendary Brazilian albums, "but this time I have my eyes open."
  •   ENO MOEBIUS ROEDELIUS | CLUSTER AND ENO/AFTER THE HEAT  |  September 22, 2009
    Krautrock pioneers proved much more simpático musical partners than either the fractious Roxy Music or the British classical avant-garde milieu that thought of Eno as an untrained fanboy.
  •   REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS | TRU THOUGHTS COVERS  |  September 15, 2009
    Brighton-based label Tru Thoughts emerged at the dawn of the millennium with hit down-tempo/IDM acts like Bonobo.

 See all articles by: GUSTAVO TURNER

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group