Baden Powell

When it was originally released in 1964, this set of music was a bit of a hit, selling over 100,000 copies. In the early '60s when many Brazilian musicians brought bossa nova to the United States, classically trained guitarist Baden Powell took his guitar to France. Hence, the rest is history, as this Brazilian artist infused his hybrid jazz/classical/bossa nova articulations into the European scene. On various works, Powell melds a distinct sense of classicism with buoyancy and sophistication.

Only 38-minutes long, Canta Vinicius De Moraes e Paolo Cesar Pinheiro is one of the truly great Baden Powell recordings. Long before alcoholism took its toll on the great guitarist and composer, he recorded this set in 1977 for the Festival label at the behest (read: strongarm tactics) of Jacques Lubin, his A&R man at Barclay, as a tribute to the two great lyricists and collaborations in his life. Powell is supported on this program buy a small group of truly sympathetic studio musicians who held him in awe. His small, tender, but deeply moving voice on such classics as "Labaréda," and "Samba de Bênção" - both of which are based on the chants, rhythms, and melodies of the Afro-Brazilian Candoble religion - that holds the magic…