"Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing." - John Erskine
Every now and then I want to listen to something different. I listen to a whole lot of music because I am very intrigued by the way that it just grasps me. And then I come across an exciting modern sound with an old soul and who would guess, it would be the music of Yo-Yo Ma.
Yo-Yo Ma is a classical cellist. He plays with total freedom. I can feel the flavor that is enmeshed in the smoky play that he surrenders with big sounding vibrations. His voicing comes with an incredibly warm sound and has been seasoned with love.
Obrigado Brazil is a great album. It is comprised of 16 songs. Beautiful sounds of music swell from the CD. Yo-Yo Ma had a pretty eclectic repertory. Some of the songs on the album are filled with well versed melancholy. Some are rapidly moving, high energy songs of celebration with syncopated rhythms. Others are slow expertly crafted passages that speak to you like a dramatist with tenderness and emotion. But the musical collective is delightful. He plays insanely intense and the dynamic musicians that accompany him and lace the rhythms with very close voicings that are both liberating and versatile. The sounds gracefully took my heart as gracefully as a shower of rice.
I never heard anybody play their instrument with so much ferocity as does Yo-Yo Ma and his accompanist. Within the midst of the soft, baritone voice of the orchestra were bass runs buzzing with fervor like a bumblebee, warm whispers of a flautist, the fancy feast of the most fierce piano playing I have heard in a long time to make the entirety of the album, an electric performance. Every time they took the songs to a climax, my heart was beating as hard as a kalimba drum.
It had bounce. It had style. It had energy to keep me awake and listening and I enjoyed every bit of it. It was excitement with a bounce and I liked it. It was a fancy feast of astounding chemistry. It was fun voicings percussively sound. And it all started with a pantomime show Cristal with all the melodic fling, catchy runs and trills my heart could ask for. But nothing could top the emotional fervor of Alma brasileira going from a gut wrenching sad sound to a fast pace of anticipation to the sound of soft wonder to understanding almost to what I believed to be the sound of the end of all things. It was like a story filled sonnet; a song a ballerina could easily dance to and it was beautiful. The whole album was beautiful. I recommend Obrigado Brazil to all listeners.
Track List
1. Cristal
2. Chega de Saudade
3. A Lenda do Caboclo, W 166
4. Doce de Coco
5. Dansa brasileira
6. Apelo
7. Dansa negra
8. Um a zero
9. Menino
10. Samambaia
11. Carinhoso
12. "Alma brasileira"
13. O Amor em Paz
14. Quatro Cantos
15. Brasileirinho
16. Salvador
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