I’ve mentioned before that what Blue Note Records used to be to jazz, Adventure Music Records is to present day Brazilian music. This label consistently puts out exciting and fresh sounds that are as varied as they are melodious. This one by guitarist/composer/arranger Mario Adnet may be the Magnum Opus. It’s a luscious labor of love, a tip of the hat to the Amazon River and its environs, done in a way that is like a musical excursion in a hollowed out canoe. Including material by Villa-Lobos, Jobim, Caymmi and Donato among others, Adnet combines orchestral sweeps, sensuous rhythms and enticing voices to make you feel as if you are experiencing the colors, flows, sights and smells of the Brazilian rain forest.
Instrumentals like Adnet’s own “Forest Trails” ”Saudades Das Selvas Brasileiras” include delicately phrased woodwinds and strings, caressing the graciously sweeping rivulets of rhythm. Vocal pieces like “Borzeguim,” “Os Rios” and “Porpoise” range from a single pedal of a rose wisping through the air to complex, with a tune like “A Ra” including almost staccato refrains that peep in and out like detectives and culprits in a Pink Panther hotel lobby sketch. Many of these songs are very familiar to fans of bossa nova and samba, but Adnet presents them on a new plate, with new herbs and spices, making a well known fare taste even better. Here you’ve got a disc that captures the wonders of both nature, nature’s God, and the music that is inspired by both. What a joy!
Adventure Music Records