Pagode de Mesa - great live samba album!
I. Chung | Japan | 11/17/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Pagode de Mesa is one of the best live samba albums I have come across in my modest samba collection of 20 to 30 CDs. To start with the least important reasons: normally the crowd noise in live albums - especially samba live - gets in the way of listening but thanks to impeccable editing the crowd in this album blends in with the music perfectly. Then there is the superb recording quality that is usually lacking in live CDs, but thankfully that is not the case here. But all it comes down to is Beth Carvalho and her first-rate samba musicians, presenting the pagode samba tunes magnificently with traditional instruments and percussion (i.e. no electronic synthesizers that cheapen the samba sound). And the well chosen selection of sambas that range from energetic, highly danceable numbers to beautiful ballads make it an invaluable member of my samba collection."