Karrin Allyson w/Rosa Passos: A Kiss for Brazil

Bossa Nova / Wokalistyka jazzowa
premiera polska: 2025-04-07
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: Digisleeveowe etui
opis:
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Pięciokrotnie nominowana do Grammy Award w kategorii Best Jazz Vocal Album amerykańska wokalistka Karrin Allyson to artystka o ogromnym wdzięku i urzekającym, zmysłowym głosie, w którym zawsze pobrzmiewa nutka bluesa. Uwiodła jazzową publiczność programami w repertuarze Great American Songbook. Śpiewa po angielsku, francusku, portugalsku, włosku i hiszpańsku, co sprawia, że jest doskonale przyjmowana na całym świecie.
Jej najnowszy album wydany w barwach oficyny Origin Records to swoisty dźwiękowy list miłosny do brazylijskiej muzyki, w szczególności do miękko brzmiącej bossa novy. Doskonałym pomysłem było zaproszenie na sesję nagraniową gitarzystki i wokalistki Rosy Passos. Do tego zaciąg brazylijskich instrumentalistów w osobach pianisty i akordeonisty Vitora Gonçalvesa, gitarzysty Yotama Silbersteina, perkusisty Rafaela Barata i legendarnego kontrabasisty, współpracownika Ala Cohna, Zoota Simsa, Mose Allisona, Gila Evansa, Lee Konitza, Sheili Jordan - Harvie'go Swartza.
Karrin Allyson śpiewa swobodnie, łagodnym głosem, pomimo raczej stałego tempa wybranych piosenek udaje jej się nadać im oryginalną architekturę. Zachwycająca jest piosenka "Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)" pełna zrelaksowanych dźwięków, doprawiona pełnym wigoru scatem. W "So Many Stars" doskonale odnajduje się akordeon Vitora Gonçalvesa. Szlagier Luiza Bonfy "Manha de Carnaval" wprawi w doskonały nastrój największego smutasa.
Jak napisał Bob Doerschuk w najnowszym magazynie DownBeat "Wszechstronność Karrin Allyson sprawia, że każdy może delektować się jej wokalnym kunsztem. Wystarczy posłuchać jej głosu, jego rzadkiej czystości i dźwięcznej barwy... Jej sztuka wokalna wydaje się wynikać z uśmiechu..."
autor: Mateusz Krępski
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Editor's Info
Adding to her lovingly-long list of Brazilian repertoire and recordings, five-time Grammy Nominee Karrin Allyson embarks on yet another inspired Brazilian adventure, this time including a very special pairing with the legendary singer, composer and guitarist Rosa Passos. Long admiring each other’s work, this vocal match made in heaven features Ms. Passos on two songs with Karrin - her own composition “Dunas” (with new English lyrics penned by Karrin) and the classic Vinicius de Moraes song, “O Grande Amor.” Karrin and her stellar band of Brazilian instrumentalists - Rafael Barata on drums and Vitor Gonçalves on piano and accordion, along with guitarist Yotam Silberstein and bassist Harvie S - unfurl gorgeous classics such as "So Many Stars," "The Island," "Manha de Carnaval," "Flor de Lis," "Wave," and "Only Trust Your Heart," in a luxuriously grooving, sonic love letter to Brazil.

“There are so many ways to savor Karrin Allyson’s artistry. Start with her voice, its rare clarity and resonant timbre….Everything she sings seems to rise from a smile.”

Bob Doerschuk, DownBeat
All About Jazz
Allyson's third release to feature Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio, Concord, 1999; Imagina, Concord, 2008), and her first to showcase Brazilian musicians: Vitor Gonçalves on piano and accordion, Rafael Barata at the drums, plus the acclaimed singer-guitarist and songwriter Rosa Passos. First-call New York-based guitarist Yotam Silberstein and bassist Harvie S complete the group. The album sprang into being spontaneously, in response to a concert Passos had scheduled in New York, Allyson's home base. Allyson contacted Passos—a friend and admirer—and booked studio time with the only real plan being "to document the music." The program she decided upon is mainly bossa nova standards, including Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Wave," Luiz Bonfa's "Manhã de Carnaval" and Sergio Mendes' "So Many Stars" (lyric by Marilyn and Alan Bergman). Passos sat in for two tunes, "O Grande Amor" (Jobim and Vinicius De Moraes) and Passos' own "Dunas," which form the heart of the project.
"Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)" is easily—unassumingly—the high point. Passos cowrote "Dunas" with the poet Fernando de Oliveira for the album Festa (Velas, 1993). With the help of Barata, Allyson created an excellent new English counterpart to the lyric, which speaks of the many natural wonders of Bah'a at summer's end. Passos sings the Portuguese, Allyson, the English, in a setting that swings gently around Passos' rhythmic guitar, the wispy timbres and luxurious phrasing of the two singers echoing one another as Gonçalves weaves a languid throughline with his accordion. Together, they create an ambiance that is effortlessly appealing and warmly gracious.
American jazz musicians have long been attracted to Brazilian songs, adapting them by (among other things) creating a substantial body of English lyrics that, frankly, tend to fall short of the mark as art and craft, with notable exceptions. Susannah McCorkle, who was fluent in several languages and worked as a translator, wrote sensitive and nuanced English lyrics, some of which can be heard on her Sab'a album (Concord, 1990). Jobim penned powerful English translations of his own words. "Inútil Paisagem" springs to mind first, along with "Águas de Março" and "Triste." With her refreshingly lucid lyric to "Month of March in Salvador," Allyson situates herself among the exceptional few.
"The Island" is Alan and Marilyn Bergman's English version of Ivan Lins' "Começar de Novo," a story unto itself. Lins recounted the song's history in a 2014 social-media post. To encapsulate, he wrote "Começar de Novo [Beginning Again]" in 1979, with his longtime collaborator Vitor Martins. The Globo network had commissioned the piece for the telenovela Malu Mulher (1979-80). Martins' lyric speaks of starting over after a relationship has ended, summoning one's courage, contemplating lessons learned; all themes addressed in the novela. But, as Lins pointed out, there are lines between the lines. In 1979, Brazil was still under military rule, led by President João Figueiredo, a cavalry man who—a year earlier—had publicly expressed a preference for the smell of horses over that of the people ("o cheirinho dos cavalos é melhor do que o cheiro do povo"). When Martins wrote about making a fresh start "without your dominion, without your spurs," he was—indirectly, metaphorically—addressing Figueiredo as well, whose term would drag on for another six years. Working with Martins' lyric, Lins struggled to create music that expressed the whole ball of wax, personal and political. He planned to show it to Elis Regina, but Brazilian popular singer Simone got there first (Som Livre, 1979). It boosted her career and turned out to be his most enduringly popular tune.
"Começar de Novo" has taken on a life of its own since then. In addition to its place as the theme song for Malu Mulher, it served as the soundtrack for a groundbreaking—and much discussed—sex scene in the series, complete with on-screen feminine orgasm. It is this ethos that the Bergmans pursued in writing "The Island," supplanting the Martins lyric with a forthrightly libidinous invitation to tryst on a fantasy island. Allyson sets the scene perfectly, singing seductively and sincerely, with Gonçalves tendering a rhapsodic piano solo over Barata's sizzling cymbals. She ends in a barely audible whisper ("we're almost there"). The performance is charming, but her chops would have allowed her to include the Portuguese lyric as well, for a deeper resonance.
Allyson did not intend for A Kiss for Brazil to be—as she put it—a "deep dive" into Brazilian music, but more "an act of affection" for what it has given her, and for Rosa Passos, her guest artist. Working with Passos was "a breeze," she emphasized, "like a Brazilian breeze on the beach," a warm sentiment that pervades the program.
BY Katchie Cartwright

The New York City Jazz Record
There's a catchy earworm refrain for "Wave", a consequence of Antonio Carlos Jobim writing the English version of "Vou te contar". the music and lyric of "the fundamental loneliness goes when two can dream a dream together" helped nudge a sly, sibilant tsunami throughout global music in the '60s via the new form of bossa nova. In A Kiss for Brazil, five-time Grammy nominee Karrin Allyson catches this wave with the grace and gusto of a Rio surfer, her third album dedicated to Brazil's musical glory, with her widely-spaced prior albums being From Paris to Rio (1999) and Imagina (2008).
The genesis of A Kiss for Brazil began when Allyson learned that rosa Passos was passing through New York, and so invited the veteran Brazilian singer guitarist-composer to cut a few tracks. the result was Passos contributing to two of the album's ten racks.
"Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)" is a relaxed, breathless bouncer, with Passos wistful yet piquant and both amiably weaving scat on the fade. Passos sings Jobim's "O Grande Amor", fragile and resilient as an orchid, while Allyson translates on the second chorus as Passos floats a wispy vocal filigree, leading to a graceful sharing of the final chorus. the opener, Djavan's "Flor de Lis", unveils Allyson's meticulous command of the Brazilian ethos, a tender-tough vibe with impassioned scatting. Other hits emerge as the band cozies up: a smoldering "the Island", a lilting "So Many Stars" by the Bergmans and late Sérgio Mendes (sweet accordion!), and Allyson running kittenish to joyous shout on Luiz Bonfá's mega-hit "Manha de Carnaval". Your reviewer first encountered the redoubtable, exuberant bassist Harvie S in 1975, deeply engaged in another power duo-with vocalist Sheila Jordan. Then as now, S responds all-in with empathy and passion, and solos on "the Gift" and the warm coda, a duo (Allyson on piano) of benny carter's "Only trust Your Heart". (the bassist also recommended the studio and even pitched in with the mixing.) Graciously complementary bandmates are Vitor Gonçalves (keyboards, accordion), Yotam Silberstein (guitar) and Rafael Barata (drums). "Antigua",
a particularly juicy exercise in Jobim's lyric-free pixellic acrobatics, elicits the band's best: Barata's cymbal wash, Gonçalves' delicate piano, Silberstein's gently bluesy guitar.
Each track brings smiles to the ear and celebrates Brazil's musical buoyancy, catching Jobim's wave and dreaming their dreams together
BY Fred Bouchard

L.A. Jazz Scene
Karrin Allyson's annual visits to Catalina Bar & Grill are always well worth attending. While she recorded her debut album back in 1992, she is still very much in prime form 32 years later. At Catalina's she was joined by the very talented pianist Miro Sprague, bassist Karl McComas-Reichl, and drummer Dan Schnelle.
Since the singer's most recent album is A Kiss For Brazil, she included several Brazilian numbers that she sang in Portuguese and English including Ivan Lins' "The Island," "Wave," "Double Rainbow," "So Many Stars," and "Manha de Carnaval." In addition to her always very alluring voice, Karrin Allyson showed that she remains one of jazz's top scat-singers, utilizing scatting to uplift and add excitement to some of the songs. On a few numbers she played piano while Sprague switched to an electric keyboard; their trading off and interaction on "Double Rainbow" was particularly memorable. In addition, Ms. Allyson performed a few non-Brazilian tunes including the blues strut "You've Got To Be Taught," the pop ballad "I Can Do Anything As Long As I Know You Love Me," her joyous original "Wrap Up Some Of That Sunshine," a cooking "Happy Talk," and a duet with Sprague on a heartfelt version of "Say It Over And Over Again."
Karrin Allyson should never be taken for granted. She remains one of the greats.
BY Scott Yanow

The New York City Jazz Record
Karrin Allyson has long been a fan of singer-composer Rosa Passos (and vice versa), so when Passos was passing through New York in March 2023, Allyson took the opportunity to record with the Bahian legend. The two tracks they laid down then became the launching pad for A Kiss for Brazil (Origin), an album that encapsulates Allyson's decades-long appreciation for Brazilian music.
Of the album's ten songs, Allyson and Passos sing in duet on two: a Brazilian standard and one original. On the former, Antônio Carlos Jobim's ballad "O Grande Amor", Passos, singing in Portuguese, establishes the tune's gentle mood, while Allyson, in English, delivers its rueful message. Of special note, however, is their co-written "Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)", a joy-filled bossa full of bright imagery across the two languages. Beyond this gem, Allyson pulls out Brazilian standards including Jobim's "Antigua" and Djavan Caetano Viana's "Flor de Lis", her textured voice and breezy scatting perfectly suited to this hopefully romantic material. Allyson celebrates the new album at Birdland (Oct. 29-Nov. 2).
BY SUZANNE LORGE

muzycy:
Karrin Allyson - vocal, piano (8,10), shakers (7)
Rosa Passos - vocal (2,4), rhythm guitar (2)
Vitor Gonçalves - Fender Rhodes (1,9), piano (3,4,5,6,7), accordion (2,3,7,8)
Harvie S - bass
Yotam Silberstein - guitar (1-9)
Rafael Barata - drums (1-9)

utwory:
1. Flor de Lis (05:19)
2. Month of March in Salvador (Dunas) (feat. Rosa Passos) (05:11)
3. The Gift (Recado Bossa Nova) (04:04)
4. O Grande Amor (feat. Rosa Passos) (04:58)
5. Antigua (03:58)
6. The Island (04:57)
7. Manha de Carnaval (04:58)
8. So Many Stars (04:38)
9. Wave (04:45)
10. Only Trust Your Heart (03:40)

wydano: 07/03/2025
more info: www.originarts.com