Search - Walter Wanderley :: Walter Wanderley: Talkin' Verve

Verve, Show Some Respect!

Jazzcat | 08/24/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The reason this only gets two stars is that whoever it is at Verve whose lap this project fell into obviously treated it as a joke, as exemplified by the garish cover with the slices of cheese and the rather snide tone of the liner notes. I'm certain that the original Brazilian recordings of several of these songs that are on here, while excellent, are only there by mistake, as if the guy couldn't tell it wasn't the actual Top 40 hit version of "Summer Samba" and didn't really care. This benefits the collectors among us but probably wasn't by design. Also, loads of great tracks from "Kee-Ka-Roo," "Chegança" and "Batucada" are glaringly absent. Listen, Verve, if you're gonna go to the trouble of reissuing an artist you don't personally care for, at least have the decency to bring in someone with some knowledge on the subject, who will show some respect towards a deceased artist who pleased many people in his day, and still has a following. I'm disappointed in this coming from such a famously classy label."

Some of the coolest music you can think of !!!

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 09/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was the first Wanderley record I did buy, it happened many years ago. Unfortunatly the reissues of the original Verve albums were unavailable at the time and today they are quite expensive so actually I have not bought them. Here in Italy Walt's music has always been impossible to find so I had to buy this one, and lucky me I found it. I never saw again this album in most recent years in Italy so I guess I've been lucky to find at least this one. When I did buy this one Internet was only a dream so ... In my opinion this collection is done very well. Five stars are absolutly not enough for Walt's music even considering the weaknesses of a single compilation (every compilation of every artist naturally has weaknesse). But let's talk about the music. This music is stellar! Cosmic! Crazy! Unreachable!! If I'm missing some even more beautiful music from Walter's Verve albums I could do nothing but to be sad but nevertheless this album gives me an incredible enjoyment!! Walter's music is truly UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE !!! It's not an overstatement believe me. I own all the coolest music imaginable. This music ranks among the overall best.



Walter's music is really something of the highest musical caliber and at the same time something that noone with enough musical ear and sensibility could dislike. Absolutly. This music is also some of the coolest music ever recorded in my opinion, Jazz masters included. It is a fantastic mix of Jazz and brasilian elements with accent on syncopation at a point where entertainment is so high that it has never been reached again by any other western musician after him. Sadly syncopation has never been explored enough by western musicians, I don't know why. In Jazz for example after Bird noone reached his level of comprehension of syncopation and after Coltrane the thing itself has been almost forgotten. Maybe it's a gift only few musicians have and it is a too difficult thing to emulate if you don't have that feeling naturally.



However Walter had syncopation. You can bet on it. And an immense musicality. His interpretations of brasilian standards and pop favorities are crazy. Fantastic. I can't use nothing but superlatives here. No cool discography is good without Walter's music. I can't say more than this. Sometimes I find myself listening to a single Wanderley's tune in loop because it entraps me deep in it. I can't listen to nothing else for some time. It happens to me with a lot of tunes contained here "Crickets sing for Ana Maria", "Summer samba", "Batucada surgiu", "Taste of sadness", "Music to watch girl by" ... many of them ... this morning for example was "Crickets" time. I woke up, started up my laptop, put the headphones on, pumped up the volume and I began to listen letting my mind go. "Crickets" sent me thousands of good vibrations down my spine! It's ridicolous!! I was dancing in bed!! If people knew what music can really do for their mental health and wellness if they simply take the time to listen carefully and to dive deeply in it letting imagination go, they would forget drugs, medicines and stuff! Music is that powerful!



I love Wanderley's music! It's a sublime trip in the beauty of music and life !!!"

Fine, but with reservations

R. Riis | NY | 02/23/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While the performances are great, I was a little disappointed with this disc. There are a few too many vocals and supplementary instrumentalists for my taste; I would have preferred more of the Trio recordings. Although all the tracks are vintage-era (1966-1967), a few are not the versions I would have chosen as representative ("Summer Samba", for instance, is not the familiar version but a more jazzy version recorded a little later). The liner notes could have been beefed up as well. Overall, a very good jazz or lounge CD with good quality sound, but somewhat less appealing in my book than "Rain Forest" or "Beach Samba"."