Search - Ipanemas :: Afro Bossa

Afro Bossa

sagebrusher | 07/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the 2nd record Os Ipanemas have recorded for Farout. I think it's on par with their "Return of.." cd from 2001. It has the typical clean, thick, modern FarOut production style and they successfully expand their sound in terms of instrumentation in places with trumpet, flute, piano, strings etc. But they still retain the heavy duty lean swing they're famous for. Of course Wilson das Neves' malandro swagger is as bad as ever. Neco's guitar and Mamao and the other percussionists also deserve alot of attention. The playing is deep and you can learn alot about samba and Brazilian music in general from the way these guys play together. Especially notable in this regard is the all percussion track "Afro". The songs are memorable and stick in your head. Several of them, like "Musica Profissional","Bambui", and "Suspieta" unexpectedly have parts that recall Herb Alpert's music, from both his TjB days and his mid-70's work with Hugh Masakela. The only drawback for me were the three songs written by Jorge Helder which I found kinda boring, surprising because the song "Icarai" that he wrote for the previous album was a highlight. He's a great sounding bass player regardless. So even though I only play nine of the twelve songs, I still give it five stars because the rest are that good and there's really nobody who sounds like this. I also recommend checking out the remix of "Suspieta" on 'Brazilian Love Affair 5', also on FarOut."