Here’s a disc you weren’t expecting. In light of the World Cup being held in Brazil this year, Sony Legacy has taken hit songs from artists ranging from Billie Holiday to Andy Williams and flew them down to Rio for modern musicians to play completely re-arranged backgrounds. Some of these are perfect fits and others, well, at least they tried!
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, Mel Torme’s Gilberto-ish voice is perfectly matched in a 60s bossa nova groove on “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and Andy Williams goes Iglesias on an upbeat Music to Watch Girls By.” A pleasant surprise is that Sly Stewart’s semi-conscious mumbling works amazingly well with loose rhythms on “Family Affair” and Marvin Gaye is celebratory on “Sexual Healing.” Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” works, yet it doesn’t as they happiness is a bit too coy, while The Isly Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing” doesn’t quite fit around the arm pits and Johnny Nash loses his urgency on “I Can See Clearly Now.” Nina Simone gets goosed just right as she sounds actually upbeat with some horns on “ I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel TO Be Free” and Carmen McRae’s earthy “Take Five” rolls together like red clay. Intriguing outing-a definite party album.
Legacy Recordings