Flora Purim Sings Milton Nascimento

Flora Purim

Sings Milton Nascimento

Narada Jazz - Advance Copy

Flora Purim, vocals; George Duke, Airto Moreira, guests; Musicians otherwise unlisted

What do we say? Brazilian funk? But nothing without an underlying feel of the purest quality. Since we are hardly adept at the Romance languages, we understand not a word of what is sung. Ms. Purim and Mr. Nascimento are both Brazilian, but friends insist that the language sung is Spanish, not Portuguese. Thus, the perfect chance to test our theory that lyrics are generally little more than a vehicle for the human voice (although we would regret the absence of Frishberg and Co.). In other words, the "stories" have all been told, but we hope we have yet to use up all of the melody available to us.

Determined to enter into any depth to be found, we found plenty of it, some of it positively suicidal. Suffice to say Ms Purim has a very strong voice, the musicians are truly masters at what they do - and on occasion they groove. One can't help noticing a leaning to the canon of Ancient Music in one or two places. We hear Autumn Leaves (sung in French), listed as track 10 and titled Cais. There is an extra track (11), however, that is not listed in the CD notes, and its power booms. Many of the arrangements are enchantingly weird. Strange sounds - sounds from a resonant inner world. There is much to discover here. A new approach to the expression of emotion, perhaps.

by Lawrence Brazier

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