Brasileira

Gabriela Anders got her big break singing a duet with soft jazz giant Michael Franks, and like that new age patriarch, Anders wraps laid-back vocals around even more tranquil rhythms. It's all very calming and proficient and breezy. Wanting, her debut album, mixes bits of her Argentine heritage with late-'70s California jazz, so Brazilian music coasts along with soft and hazy saxophone fills and tapping percussion leads. It all can be very pretty, as the opening "Fire of Love" represents Anders at her most relaxed and relaxing.

Bollani is no stranger to Brazilian music, having previously recorded an entire album of Jobim's music, Falando do Amor (Venus Jazz, 2003) and the enthusiasm and panache of his playing here reveals an obvious love for, and affinity with the music. The choro and samba which spawned bossa is represented here in all its diversity, and Afro-Cuban rhythms, tango and European styles which have all shaped the development of music in Brazil, color the material on Carioca.

Em comemoração aos 200 anos da chegada da Família Real Portuguesa ao Brasil, a Prefeitura do Rio patrocinou a série de 5 CDs "A Música na Corte de D. João VI". Faz parte da série "Missa de Nossa Senhora da Conceição", do Padre José Maurício Nunes Garcia, gravado na Sala Cecília Meirelles, entre os dias 3 e 6 de março e na Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo da Antiga Sé, nos dias 07 e 08 de março de 2008. A gravação é da Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira e o Coro Calíope, sob regência do Maestro Roberto Minczuk, com os solistas Rosana Lamosa, Lina Dias, Adriana Clis, Fernando Portari, Homero Velho e Rafael Thomas.

This is Djavan's first album as an interpreter in 34 years of career. There are classics and also compositions brought by his emotional memory. The album is unusual for its instrumental lineup, small and vigorous, but aesthetically liberating with Djavan's acoustic guitar, Torcuato Mariano's electric and acoustic guitar, the acoustic bass of André Vasconcellos, Marcos Suzano's rich percussion and also the participation of Marcos Lobo and Leonardo Reis. The result: formal jazzy recordings, loose melodies, as if they were flying over rhythmic and harmonious bases.

The outstanding program spotlights cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Kathryn Stott plus classical guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad, all of whom played on both Soul of the Tango and Obrigado Brazil. They are joined by percussionist Joseph Gramley, who appeared on Ma's gold-certified Songs of Joy & Peace album.