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Karrin Allyson: A Kiss for Brazil

By Katchie Cartwright
May 10, 2024
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A Kiss for Brazil is Kansas-bred Grammy-nominated singer

Karrin Allyson

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Karrin Allyson's third release to feature Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio, Concord, 1999; Imagina, Concord, 2008), and her first to showcase Brazilian musicians:

Vitor Gonçalves

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Vitor Gon?alves on piano and accordion,

Rafael Barata

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Rafael Barata at the drums, plus the acclaimed singer-guitarist and songwriter

Rosa Passos

guitar and vocals
b.1952

" data-original-title="" title="">Rosa Passos. First-call New York-based guitarist

Yotam Silberstein

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Yotam Silberstein and bassist

Harvie S

bass, acoustic
b.1948

" data-original-title="" title="">Harvie S complete the group. The album sprang into being spontaneously, in response to a concert Passos had scheduled in New York, Allyson's home base. Allyson contacted Passos—a friend and admirer—and booked studio time with the only real plan being "to document the music." The program she decided upon is mainly bossa nova standards, including

Antonio Carlos Jobim

piano
1927 - 1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Wave,"

Luiz Bonfa

guitar, acoustic
1922 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Luiz Bonfa's "Manh? de Carnaval" and

Sergio Mendes

piano
1941 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Sergio Mendes' "So Many Stars" (lyric by Marilyn and

Alan Bergman

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Alan Bergman). Passos sat in for two tunes, "O Grande Amor" (Jobim and

Vinicius De Moraes

guitar
1913 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Vinicius De Moraes) and Passos' own "Dunas," which form the heart of the project.

"Month of March in Salvador (Dunas)" is easily—unassumingly—the high point. Passos cowrote "Dunas" with the poet Fernando de Oliveira for the album Festa (Velas, 1993). With the help of Barata, Allyson created an excellent new English counterpart to the lyric, which speaks of the many natural wonders of Bah��a at summer's end. Passos sings the Portuguese, Allyson, the English, in a setting that swings gently around Passos' rhythmic guitar, the wispy timbres and luxurious phrasing of the two singers echoing one another as Gon?alves weaves a languid throughline with his accordion. Together, they create an ambiance that is effortlessly appealing and warmly gracious.

American jazz musicians have long been attracted to Brazilian songs, adapting them by (among other things) creating a substantial body of English lyrics that, frankly, tend to fall short of the mark as art and craft, with notable exceptions.

Susannah McCorkle

vocals
1946 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">Susannah McCorkle, who was fluent in several languages and worked as a translator, wrote sensitive and nuanced English lyrics, some of which can be heard on her Sab��a album (Concord, 1990). Jobim penned powerful English translations of his own words. "In��til Paisagem" springs to mind first, along with "?guas de Mar?o" and "Triste." With her refreshingly lucid lyric to "Month of March in Salvador," Allyson situates herself among the exceptional few.

"The Island" is Alan and Marilyn Bergman's English version of

Ivan Lins

piano and vocals
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Ivan Lins' "Come?ar de Novo," a story unto itself. Lins recounted the song's history in a 2014 social-media post. To encapsulate, he wrote "Come?ar de Novo [Beginning Again]" in 1979, with his longtime collaborator Vitor Martins. The Globo network had commissioned the piece for the telenovela Malu Mulher (1979-80). Martins' lyric speaks of starting over after a relationship has ended, summoning one's courage, contemplating lessons learned; all themes addressed in the novela. But, as Lins pointed out, there are lines between the lines. In 1979, Brazil was still under military rule, led by President Jo?o Figueiredo, a cavalry man who—a year earlier—had publicly expressed a preference for the smell of horses over that of the people ("o cheirinho dos cavalos �� melhor do que o cheiro do povo"). When Martins wrote about making a fresh start "without your command, without your spurs," he was—indirectly, metaphorically—addressing Figueiredo as well, whose term would drag on for another six years. Working with Martins' lyric, Lins struggled to create music that expressed the whole ball of wax, personal and political. He planned to show it to

Elis Regina

vocals
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Elis Regina, but Brazilian popular singer

Simone

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Simone got there first (Som Livre, 1979). It boosted her career and turned out to be his most enduringly popular tune.

"Come?ar de Novo" has taken on a life of its own since then. In addition to its place as the theme song for Malu Mulher, it served as the soundtrack for a groundbreaking—and much discussed—sex scene in the series, complete with on-screen feminine orgasm. It is this ethos that the Bergmans pursued in writing "The Island," supplanting the Martins lyric with a forthrightly libidinous invitation to tryst on a fantasy island. Allyson sets the scene perfectly, singing seductively and sincerely, with Gon?alves tendering a rhapsodic piano solo over Barata's sizzling cymbals. She ends in a barely audible whisper ("we're almost there"). The performance is charming, but her chops would have allowed her to include the Portuguese lyric as well, for a deeper resonance.

Allyson did not intend for A Kiss for Brazil to be—as she put it—a "deep dive" into Brazilian music, but more "an act of affection" for what it has given her, and for Rosa Passos, her guest artist. Working with Passos was "a breeze," she emphasized, "like a Brazilian breeze on the beach," a warm sentiment that pervades the program.

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Track Listing

Flor de Lis; Month of March in Salvador (Dunas); The Gift (Recado Bossa Nova); O Grande Amor; Antigua; The Island; Manha de Carnaval; So Many Stars; Wave; Only Trust Your Heart.

Personnel

Karrin Allyson

vocals

Vitor Gon?alves

piano

Harvie S

bass, acoustic

Yotam Silberstein

guitar

Rafael Barata

drums

Rosa Passos

guitar and vocals

Additional Instrumentation

Vitor Gon?alves: accordion

Album information

Title: A Kiss for Brazil | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Origin Records

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