Voo Voo

The Neville Brothers made a bid for pop/rock stardom with this well-produced album for A&M, their first under a new pact with the label inked in the late '80s. It was certainly as solid as any they cut for A&M; the vocals were both nicely arranged and expertly performed, the arrangements were basically solid, and the selections were intelligently picked and sequenced. The album charted and remained there for many weeks, while the Nevilles toured and generated lots of interest. It didn't become a hit, but it did respectably and represents perhaps their finest overall pop LP.

Light as a Feather is simply the first version, a little over half of what would become Azymuth's fine Outubro album. It opens with the weakest cut, the ten-plus minute faux disco "Jazz Carnival," with awful drum effects and popping, funky-yet cliched basslines by Alex Malheiros. After this there is much to like, however, in the breezy execution of the title track that is nearly as beautiful as Return to Forever's, and features a fine jazz-samba number that evokes both Walter Wanderley and Tom Jobim in Jose Roberto Bertrami's "Fly Over the Horizon," as well as a beautiful version of Toninho Horta's "Dona Olimpia."

Azymuth is a three-piece electric funk jazz group from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Formed in 1972, the members are Jose Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Alex Malheiros (bass, guitars), and Ivan Conti (drums, percussion). They call their music "Samba Doido", which means "Crazy Samba". From 1979 to 1988, they released many albums for Milestone Records. They have been releasing albums for various labels steadily since. They had a major hit with "Jazz Carnival" in 1979.

A superb vocalist even at the age of 13, Helen Humes rarely left that peak of performance, appearing in front of some of the most swinging jump tunes as well as the most affecting jazz ballads during her long career. Like Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington, Humes was an early resonator with the blues, which allowed her the intensity of feeling to carry across any type of material with conviction and passion. Jazz Factory, the superb Spanish reissue label, obliged fans of Humes and vocal music alike with a three-disc collection of recordings from the first quarter-century of her career. While still a teenager, she sounded very mature (artistically and otherwise) for a series of ten 1927 risqué blues titles like "If Papa Has Outside Lovin'" and "Do What You Did Last Night"…