Search - Jorge Ben Jor :: Acustico Mtv

Incredible live album from Brazilian great

Jason Shumate | GA United States | 01/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those who don't know, Jorge Benjor has been making music for about 40 years now in Brazil. He started as a bossa nova star and within a few years developed his own style, a kind of hybrid of samba, funk and rock. He has not been very active in the past
few years with this being his first recording since 1997. This CD set is from the Brazilian version of "MTV Unplugged" and was recorded in January of 2002. The first half of the show features a reunion of Jorge's 70's band Admiral Jorge V. The second half features his current band, Banda Do Ze Pretinho. The bands are backed by an orchestra, which adds a very tasteful touch to many of the songs.
As for the music, it's incredible. The CD opens with "Jorge De Capodocia", a song about a man glad to be in the same army as Jorge because he knows that Jorge will protect him. It's a powerful statement on blind faith, but it's sung with such urgency that you feel maybe Jorge can protect you too. The CD features a lot of Jorge's great songs from the 60's and 70's, with only one modern song, the early 90's hit "W/Brazil". Jorge is such an amazing lyricist, no one on earth writes songs like him. The subjects of songs on the set include a man who'd rather chase dragons than beautiful princesses ("Roberto Corto Essa"), a guy who thinks he has the greatest job in the world because all he does is sell bananas ("O Vendedor De Bananas"), a widow's boyfriend, who the whole town wonders if he's up to the task ("O Namorado Da Viuva"), bugs and biology ("Spyro Gyro"), alchemy ("Os Alquimistas Estao Chegando Os Alquimistas"), and soccer players ("Umbabarauma" and "Filho Maravilha"). The set ends with "Taj Mahal", a song which Rod Stewart ripped off to provide the music for "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy". This set is so good that I think it's the greatest live album I've ever heard and it definitely would make my list of discs to take with me if I was stuck on a desert island. The arrangments are perfect and both bands are so tight, it's impossible to say which band is better. Five stars is really not enough for this disk. I could not more highly recommend it. There is a DVD available of the show in Brazil that will play in all regions and it's well worth seeing if you can find it."