This disc is going to surprise you. A blond lady is on the front, and she’s not walking along the beaches of Rio in a bikini. She’s the leader of this wonderfully latin collection of salsa and samba, Laura Dreyer, who wrote most of the pieces and sounds great on flute and sax. She leads a team of Itamar Assiere/p, Davy Mooney-Bernardo Bososio/g, Jefferson Lescowich/b, Marcio Amaro/dr, Mila Schiavo/perc and Aldivas Ayres/tb through a cooking collection of (mostly) originals. Of the covers, she delivers a sweet reading of “Beauty and the Beast” on alto and brings her soprano to join with vocalist Debra Watts on “Vale La Pena El Placer.” The cheerful samba of “Spring St.” has Lescowich bouncing merrily and “A Somba Se Foi” includes some marvelous picking by Bososio. Besides the wonderful Brazilian grooves, some funky jams come to the crest on “Arcade” (which has some great interplay between bass and guitar) and “Beijo de Sol” which has Dreyer’s flute swoop over the waves like a pelican. The tunes are both classic in the sense of sound, but fresh in the sense of styling. Definitely one to look for!
Mayimba