Where else would you expect to get first rate Brazilian music except from Austin, Texas? Well, that’s where Paula Maya is from, and this most recent session of hers with Joe McCrearydr, Brad Taylor/b, Art Carvajal/g and Bruno Vinezof/perc has the leader sing in both Portuguese and English on this fragrant set of (mostly) originals.
Her warm voice floats on the breezy “Iluminar Voce” and the gently samba’d “Tarde em Itapoa” with Carvajal’s guitar, while a bit of Cajun and Zydeco wake things up a bit when Maya pulls out the melodic and teams up with Vinezof on “Menina Bonita” and “Baiao de Cabo Frio.” The team shows its jazz chops on the hip bossa “Julia” and gets int a reggae groove on “So In Tune,” and she goes English on “The Rain” which has some Eastern African guitar sounds that are quite irresistible. The way she blithely mixes and matches sounds and grooves makes you feel you are in the musical kitchen of a master chef who adds a dash of this and that to each meal, making for a tasty treat.
Yellow House Records