Yo-Yo Ma - Obrigado Brazil
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Yo-Yo MaEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-07-29
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Cristal
- Chega de Saudade
- A lenda do caboclo
- Doce de coco
- Danga brasileira
- Apelo
- Danga negra
- 1 x 0 (um a zero)
- Menino
- Samambaia
- Carinhoso
- Alma brasileira
- O Amor em Paz
- Bodas de Prata & Quatro Cantos
- Brasileirinho
- Salvador
Free Music Notes for Obrigado Brazil
Free Music Review: Yo-Yo's best "classical crossover" CD yet.
Hit: 5 Stars
It's been enjoyable for me to experience Yo-Yo Ma's excursions into "not quite classical" music, and to take note of how much better he gets with each such foray, and how those forays have introduced me to other great musicians.
It was through Yo-Yo's first such foray, "Appalachia Waltz," that I initially became familiar with the fiddling of Mark O'Connor and the bass playing of Edgar Meyer, two artists I've since become well-acquainted with, collecting all of their works. And, if this early foray of Yo-Yo's was somewhat tentative on his part, in terms of adapting to new styles of playing, he has only gotten better - measurably better, in fact - since then.
"Obrigado Brazil" is the sequel to Yo-Yo's wildly successful "Soul of the Tango" album, and I think it surpasses it in every respect, not least of which is his constantly improving skill at absorbing and subsuming "world music" genres and styles. Moreover, the variety of Brazilian music on this album is far wider - and the music itself much more laid-back - than the tangos of that earlier effort. (There is a near-monochromatic tension in the rhythms and sharp accents of the tango, as a musical form, that can tend to give the music a sense of "sameness"; a little can go a far way. This is hardly the case for the mellower range of styles present in Brazilian music, which is much more of an amalgam of the many cultural styles of Brazil than the more restricted - and heavily stylized - tango form.)
For this project, Yo-Yo has brought along a few artists who collaborated on the "Soul of the Tango" project: Kathryn Stott, the pianist on both, and Oscar Castro-Neves, the great Brazilian guitarist who not only got in some of the best guitar licks on "Tango" but produced that album as well. Other well-known Brazilian and world music artists include Cyro Baptista, Paulo Braga, Romero Lubambo and Nilson Matta (who collaborated with Oscar and with Paul Winter on their "Brazilian Days" album), the guitarists Sérgio and Odair Assad, Rosa Passos (a wonderful Brazilian vocalist seemingly the equal of Astrud Gilberto or Luciana Souza), Paquito D'Rivera on clarinet, and, last but far from least, Egberto Gismonti, a phenomenally gifted composer and instrumentalist, here offering up two of his own works in duets with Yo-Yo (one on piano and one on guitar and flute).
With sixteen great tracks (not a one of them less than outstanding), it is very hard to play favorites. But there are a few that stand out above the others for me, so I'll say a few words about these. First would be "Chega De Saudade" by the great Antonio Carlos Jobim, with Rosa Passos on vocals and guitar. "Saudade" is a uniquely Portuguese word for "longing" that has no direct English equivalent; the music, however, says it all.
Second would be the well-known Heitor Villa-Lobos tune "Alma Brasileira," arranged as a duet for cello and piano (Kathryn Stott). Anyone familiar with the work of Villa-Lobos, Brazil's greatest composer, would recognize this track even without referring to the track titles.
Third, simply because it is simply "great fun," would be "Brasileirinho," a "street samba" (common at Carnival time), arranged for cello, clarinet, piano, guitar, bass and lots of riotous percussion. A typically joyous Carnival "romp."
And finally, what I believe to be the very best track on the album, "Bodas De Prata & Quatro Cantos," an extended (nearly 10-minute) work by Egberto Gismonti for cello and piano (with Gismonti on keyboards). I first ran across the music of Gismonti when a friend, knowing that I liked Brazilian music, "gifted" me with a few of his albums acquired while he was in Brazil. Gismonti is a prodigiously talented composer and instrumentalist who needs to be better known in the U.S. Perhaps this track on "Obrigado Brazil" will be the key that opens the door for American listeners. The work is virtuosic in every respect (Yo-Yo and Egberto pull out all the stops in performing it), and it certainly engaged my "classical" side for its full duration.
"Obrigado Brazil" samples all of the multicultural styles of Brazilian musics. But, if there is a "spiritual godfather" overlooking the artistic efforts and the perfecting of Yo-Yo's Brazilian styles, so that he is "at home" with the genres (particularly Bossa Nova and samba) in this project, I think that godfather is Oscar Castro-Neves. I sense his artistic influence throughout, most particularly in Yo-Yo's very Brazilian way with phrasing and articulation. And why not? They worked so closely together on "Tango" that such a relationship is both understandable and natural.
In an earlier review, of Regina Carter's "Paganini: After a Dream" album, I had offered up the opinion that Ms. Carter had the best inside shot at a "best classical crossover" Grammy. Hmm... Now I'm not so sure. But I'm sure that the Grammy race for this category will be interesting, with both Yo-Yo and Regina having such great albums for the event.
Bob Zeidler
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