Beira Mar

Gilberto Gil - Unplugged (1994) {Warner Music Brasil 092746048-2 rel 2003}
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© 1994, 2003 Warner Music Brasil | 092746048-2
Jazz / Brazilian Jazz / Música popular brasileira / Brazilian Traditions / Brazilian Pop

This is undoubtedly the equivalent of Gilberto Gil "Unplugged" – Gil, his acoustic guitar, and a nonelectric five-piece band recorded live in a studio – and it is a thoroughly musical triumph as Gil mesmerizes his attentive audience for some 74 minutes. He starts out with the nearly pure reggae of "A Novidade," but before long, he establishes himself in a mostly consistent, loping set of intimate grooves thoroughly rooted in Brazil.

It's been far too long since the great Nascimento released an album of new material, but on the basis of this, he's completely on form, not losing his golden touch at all. Dedicated to his late stepmother, it finds Nascimento mining the themes of childhood and love that have always been the very heartbeat of his music. And to help him explore them, he's used some colleagues from the days of the classic Clube Da Esquina, people like Lô Borges and Eumir Deodato. While most of this album is made up of songs, letting Nascimento's brilliantly luminous voice shine, there's also an instrumental excursion, "Cantaloupe Island," that brings in American jazzers Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny. It's pleasant, but hardly up to the high standards of the rest of this disc, such as the glowing saudade of "Tristesse," as powerful a song as any in Nascimento's excellent canon.

Easily the most talented bossa nova group of the '60s, Tamba Trio perfected a breezy, swinging version of bossa vocal-pop that proved incredibly influential in Brazil and throughout the world. Comprising pianist Luizinho Eça, bassist Bebeto (born Adalberto Castilho), and drummer Helcio Milito, Tamba Trio not only played a wide range of instruments but also contributed incredibly close harmony vocals. (Most bossa nova groups specialized in either vocals or musicianship, but not both.) Taking their name from a type of drum used by Milito, the trio formed in the early '60s and rode a wave of bossa nova popularity through the rest of the decade…