CD Reviews

Sergio Mendes

TIMELESS | Concord/Picante

By KEN MICALLEF | January 23, 2006

3.5 Stars

Better known for packaging ’60s samba and bossa nova into stylized, radio-ready novelties for the US market than for breaking any new ground, venerable piano wiz Sergio Mendes enlist Sergio Mendes - Timeless

s the cream of contempo hip-pop/R&B (the Roots, John Legend, Q-Tip, Justin Timberlake) for this comeback album. Santana’s Supernatural created the rule book for this sort of project, but Mendes is no rock-star hack. Crossing booming hip-hop rhythms with even deeper Brazilian surdo and batucada, and using the layered vocals of Jill Scott and Erkyah Badu to recreate the exquisite sound of original Brazil ’66 vocalists Lani Hall and Wanda da Sah, Mendes finds a new wrinkle to exploit. Old- school Brazilian fans may not warm to dancehall monotony dropped over hallowed Brazilian songcraft, but the fission that occurs when bossa/samba flies over a bed of hip-hop is striking. Stevie Wonder wails beautiful harmonica over a buoyant “Berimbau/Consolacao”; Jobim’s still exotic “Surfboard” is given a wonderfully deranged treatment by the Black Eyed Peas’s will.i.am; and India.Arie sounds peacefully earthy and at home on the heavily programmed but still humanized title track.

Various Artists | Tom Feminino/Tom Masculino
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.
Bachata Roja: Acoustic Bachata from the Cabaret Era
The bachata genre comes from the Dominican Republic, and since the 1980s it has become a globally popular party music.
Rio representing - side
Diana Krall | Quiet Nights
Jazz as the language of love is the theme of this hitmaker's 12th album, an achingly pretty tribute to the spirit, pace, and sound of the bossa nova.
Various Artists | Boogaloo Pow Wow: Dancefloor Rendez-vous in Young Nuyorica
There's been a continuum of Latin music in the US for as long as there've been Latin musicians in the US — that is, pretty much since forever.
The rise of reggaeton
That beat you’ve been hearing — the steady boom-ch-boom-chick rattling the trunks of passing cars and moving masses in the club — isn’t just another fleeting hip-hop trend.
Brazilian punk
That rumbling, booty-shaking bass, the whip-thwap drums, the familiar melodies with Portuguese lyrics. It’s called baile funk, and if you’ve been to a hip DJ show lately, you’ve probably heard it. Edu K, "Hot Mama (Bonde do Role mix)" (mp3)
El Mondonguito
I keep finding good, inexpensive food in Boston in unlikely places: a commercial shipyard, a construction-company lot, a mall food court, and what looks like someone's house in a residential neighborhood.
Edu K
Edu K may be among the first of a wave of Brazilian artists to bring the recently popularized style of bass music to the States via domestic release, but don’t call it “baile funk.”
Rio representer
It was 2002 when the then unknown DJ Diplo first started throwing his Hollertronix parties in Philadelphia.
No identity crisis
If great art and great artists are supposed to contain multitudes, then in music, at least, pianists have the edge: 10 fingers theoretically capable of 10 different simultaneous paths for the music to take. Of course, it's not that simple.
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