Via D'uscita

2009 release from L'Arpeggiata, the French-based ensemble directed by Austrian-born harpist and lutenist Christina Pluhar. L'Arpeggiata has made a speciality of exploring and exploiting the close links between Baroque repertoire and the traditional music of the Latin world and its characteristic forms such as the tarantella, the folia or the canario. On Via Crucis, 'the way of the Cross', the focus is on the pervasive presence of religious feeling in Southern Europe. The Passion of Christ evokes the same fervour in composers such as Giovanni Felice Sances (1600-1679) or Tarquinio Merula (1594-1665) - both active in northern Italy – as it does in the streets of Naples or the villages of Corsica. The two main works in the collection are Sance's extraordinary Stabat Mater and Merula's Hor ch'e tempo di dormire, in which the Virgin Mary lulls her baby to sleep while weeping for his future suffering and both enthrall the listener with a basso ostinato and hypnotic swaying rhythms.

This rare album from singer/pianist Tânia Maria, backed by bassist Hélio and drummer Boto, documents that in the mid-'70s, the swinging samba-jazz interpreter was already developed - even if still closely emulating Elis Regina. The album opens with the heavy pounding of "Samba de Orly" (Vinícius de Moraes/Chico Buarque de Hollanda), and the same atmosphere follows with a Jorge Ben medley, giving room to the lyrical "Até Quem Sabe" (Lysias Ênio/João Donato). "Abre Alas" traces very closely Elis Regina's take. Another Ben classic, "Fio Maravilha" (which was written in homage to the celebrated soccer player Fio, from Botafogo, who later sued Ben for using his name, which is the reason why this song is currently interpreted as "Filho Maravilha") restores that heavy swing…