BRAZILIAN LOVE AFFAIR: Richard Sorce: Samba Para A Vida

Here’s a guy who brings a fresh set of material to the Brazilian jazz scene. Pianist Richard Sorce wrote and arranged all of the material here, and it’s all strong and impressive stuff. He mixes and matches his arrangements with Sue Williams/b, Don Giunta/dr, Dave Yee/perc, Rob Reich/g, Mark Friedman/as-fl, Fred Maxwell/tp-fh and Brian Bonvissuto/tb as well as adding some rich string work. Earth tone vocalist Iara Negrete turns up for almost half of the tunes, and she’s a treat with her flexible voice  as on the brassy “Escrito No Vento” pastoral with strings “Antes De Te Conhecer” and poppish “Danca So Sol.”
Sorce’s piano is  velvety on “Say it Softly” and longs during “Forever Again” while the team stretches out on a lovely “No One Else But You´”which features Rob Reich’s delicate guitar. The arrangements vary intelligently, with peppy horns on ”It’s Always New” to wispy flute on “Seu Oolhar” with Nagrete’s coaxing. A strong, modern and richly enjoyable day in the sun.

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