Tania

In the early '80s, Tânia Maria burst upon the U.S. music scene, playing an exuberant blend of Brazilian pop and jazz. Her first few recordings for Concord Picante (of which Come with Me is the third) remain her most rewarding sets. Maria's spirited vocals and hyper keyboard work star throughout the date (which finds her interpreting seven of her originals and "Embraceable You"), supported by a sextet including both Eddie Duran and José Neto on guitar.

The time I felt an explosion of musical love, was when through the hands and sounds of my favorite Brazilian pianist Luis Eca, I saw, heard and felt a colored flash of beauty, harmonious, sensual, loving, sweet, bitter, irritating. We discovered that music was a woman; assertive, urgent, possessive, dominant, explosive, but always bringing and explosive, powerful discovery, that by mixing bodies and souls without hesitation, you reach that desired target. Even today I'm fascianted by the strength and power of the musicians sounds in relation to our sensibility.

Tania Maria's debut is a mix of hushed bossa numbers and up-tempo, jazz-inflected sambas that show off the prowess of her nine-piece band. "Zé," which belongs to the latter category, is an original tune that begins with Maria's slightly over-the-top scatting and builds into a kickin' samba jam; on "Para Chick," a Tom Jobim instrumental, the group is at its most improvisational, with Maria herself (on piano) dishing out some fine solos; and on the tempo-shifting "Ideias E Ideias," Maria manages to sound like Astrud Gilberto and Ella Fitzgerald within the span of a few chord changes. Though it's heavy on the standard bossa/samba fare, it's also a uniformly solid album and a fine introduction to Maria's catalog.

Tania Maria's debut American release helped introduce her to U.S. audiences. Joined by a quintet that includes guitarist Eddie Duran, the exuberant vocalist and pianist performs four of her colorful originals, a couple of obscurities, and a song apiece by Jobim ("Triste") and Ivan Lins. Maria's mixture of Latin jazz with Brazilian pop is quite appealing and helped make her a popular star; this was one of her better efforts.