Interesting but not great.
Paulo Leite | Lisbon, Portugal | 10/05/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"As a brazilian, I love brazilian music. I bought this cd because I loved Salome de Bahia's "Outro Lugar". The song in itself is not great, but Salome's performance is. She has an energy and a feel that one can only find in brazilian music. At home I got to listen to the rest of the cd (they're two). The other tracks are easy to like and listen... and here lies the issue: this cd was made by people (europeans and japanese) who probably never heard from Brazilian music more then those classic tunes from Tom Jobim, João Gilberto. To me it seems they do not know the richness of brazilian music as much as I expected. In their attempt to get (let's say) a "Bossa Nova 2000" feel, they ended up with something much closer to simple easy listening then to Jazz (or Bossa Nova). The music seemed to me very well produced, performed, nicely melodic but also too easy and commercial. One thing that annoyed me very much was the deliberate use of brazilian elements that were clearly misused: Some words in the titles of a few tracks (portuguese words) are simply misspelt and that left me with the idea that the people who made this cd have no idea what they are naming their music after (laughs). It seems to me they just did it because it would look great to have their music named in portuguese and (laughs) that would make them look more brazilian. But it doesn't. I tried to find brazilian elements that would denounce the presence of someone able to deliver what the title on the cover suggests. But after listening to it I found only 10% of it brazilian, 10% Jazz and 80% easy listening. To me this is clearly something designed to look like something it isn't. ANYWAY it sounds good, it is very nice, it is moody, it has atmosphere, it is catchy... but it is not brazilian, it is not Bossa Nova (in any way) and I think it is certainly not Jazz either. Plus: I still haven't figured out what that multimedia section has to do with anything..."
Good Double Disc Set
bordersj2 | Boston | 11/29/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This cd brings back great memories. I remember the day I picked it up in the record store - I think it was about 3 years ago, figuring that if I liked the first Bossa Mundo, it would serve me well to check this one out too. And while I listened to Bossa Mundo, it was really this release here that got me interested in Tom & Joyce and a few other artists featured.What you have here is a sort of global influence on dance and bossa from 1999-2001. The style that was in at the time, but this one has a noticeably high Japanese influence to the cuts with the beats and simply with the artists included. It's almost like one massive collaboration of great musicians! You have Tom & Joyce with a rare acoustic remix of their extremely popular "Vai Minha Tristeza", St Ernesto with his beat heavy and dark "Easy In" and Salome De Bahia pumping in a upbeat dance track of her own with "Outra Lugar". Also featured is Compost's own Kyoto Jazz Massive.I definitely recommend this cd. The second disc has some different mixes of tracks on CD 1 and a few originals. I'm a big fan of the Bossa Mundo and Bossa Tres... Jazz series and recommend their releases - at least the 4 that I know of. And if you like Salome De Bahia, do note that besides vinyls, she has a cd out there titled "Cabaret" that's quite good too, but a bit difficult to find. And finally if you liked this particular release, check out Boss-A-Troniq vol. 1 if you can along with the second Bossa Tres... Jazz release."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1