Apr 11, 2017

RhoDeo 1715 Roots

Hello,

The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history, Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as samba, bossa nova, MPB, sertanejo, pagode, tropicalia, choro, maracatu, embolada (coco de repente), mangue bit, funk carioca (in Brazil simply known as Funk), frevo, forró, axé, brega, lambada, and Brazilian versions of foreign musical genres, such as Brazilian rock and rap.


Today's artist is a Brazilian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion style. She became prominent for her part in Return to Forever with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. She has recorded and performed with numerous artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Opa, Stan Getz, Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, Santana, Jaco Pastorius, and her husband Airto Moreira. In 2002, she was the recipient of one of Brazil's highest awards, the 2002 Ordem do Rio Branco for Lifetime Achievement. She has been called "The Queen of Brazilian Jazz"....  N'Joy

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Purim was born in Rio de Janeiro to Jewish parents who were both classical musicians: her father Naum Purim played violin and her mother Rachel Vaisberg was a pianist. Flora discovered American jazz, when her mother played it while her husband was out of the house. Purim began her career in Brazil during the early 1960s. During this period, she made a recording, entitled Flora e M.P.M., in which she sang bossa nova standards of the day by Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal. Later in the 1960s, Purim was lead singer for the Quarteto Novo, led by Hermeto Pascoal and Airto Moreira.

After reaching young adulthood, Purim mixed jazz with radical protest songs to defy the repressive Brazilian government of that time. A 1964 military coup in Brazil led to censorship of song lyrics, and she later commented on this period of her life as follows: "I wanted to leave Brazil. There's a river there called the San Francisco River. I used to sing to the river, that, as it flowed out to the ocean, it would take me to America."

Shortly before leaving Brazil, Purim and Airto Moreira married. Around 1971, their daughter Diana Booker was born. In 1998, Diana married Krishna Booker, son of jazz bassist Walter Booker, nephew of saxophonist Wayne Shorter and godson of pianist Herbie Hancock. Diana later described life with her parents as "[growing] up on the road traveling the world like a gypsy".

Arriving in New York in 1967, Purim and Moreira became immersed in the emerging Electric Jazz. They toured Europe with Stan Getz and Gil Evans. In 1972, alongside Stanley Clarke and Joe Farrell, they were, for the first two albums, members of Chick Corea's fusion band Return to Forever, which released first a self-titled album, Return to Forever, in 1972, followed the same year as Light as a Feather; both received glowing reviews. In 1973, Purim released her first solo album in the United States, titled Butterfly Dreams. It was well received, and soon after she was chosen by the Down Beat reader's poll as one of the top five jazz singers. Purim also worked with Carlos Santana and Mickey Hart at outdoor festivals and on jazz and classical albums through the 1970s. Purim was imprisoned at Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California in August 1974 for cocaine possession; she was given the inmate number 2775. During her year and a half imprisonment from 1974 to 1976.

Throughout the 1970s, Purim released a string of albums for the Milestone label. She and her husband Airto were also involved with the Uruguayan band Opa (which means "hi" in Uruguay), Purim collaborated in vocals in the band's second album Magic Time, and in return, Opa played in "Corre Niña" on Flora's album Nothing Will Be as It Was... Tomorrow (Warner Bros. Records). On the other side of the globe, her biggest solo hit in Asia, particularly in the Philippines, is "Angels".

In the 1980s Purim toured with Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra, culminating with Gillespie's Grammy Award-winning album Dizzy Gillespie and the United Nation Orchestra – Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London (June 10, 1989) released in 1990, and then in the 1990s sang on the Grammy Award-winning album Planet Drum by Mickey Hart, the former Grateful Dead drummer. Later in the 1990s Purim released her own album and world tour, Speed of Light starting with a month at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho, London, with a new band with contributions from Billy Cobham, Freddie Ravel, George Duke, David Zeiher, Walfredo Reyes, Jr., Alphonso Johnson, Changuito, Freddie Santiago, and Giovanni Hidalgo, with important writing and performing contributions from Chill Factor and Purim's daughter Diana.

Through the 1990s, Purim worked on a number of broader projects. One such project was a heavy Latin jazz group called "Fourth World", which consisted of her, her husband Airto Moreira, Gary Meek, Gary Brown, Jose Neto and Jovino Santos-Neto. In 1996, Purim and her husband Airto collaborated with P.M. Dawn on the song "Non-Fiction Burning" for the AIDS-Benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization. They released a number of albums and 12" singles: "Fourth World", "Encounters With the Fourth World", "Last Journey" and an album featuring remixes to their songs by several popular electronic DJs from around the world called Return Journey. The band's last album release was in 2000.

The new millennium saw the release of two recordings: Perpetual Emotion (2001) and a crossover homage to one of Brazil's great composers, Flora sings Milton Nascimento (2000). In 2002, during a residency at Ronnie Scott's in London, Purim and her husband Airto, collaborated with British producer Darren Allison and renowned flamenco guitarist Juan Martin on the latter's Camino Latino album. In 2005, she reunited with her old Return to Forever bandleader, Chick Corea. As of 2010, Purim is still actively touring.

One of her major musical influences is the Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal. Purim has said that Pascoal "play[ed] the Hammond B3 organ, flute, saxophone, percussion, and guitar. He is one of the most complete musicians that I ever met." He also helped train her voice. She also owes a great debt to Chick Corea, discovering the fusion jazz style for which she is best known when Corea asked her to add vocals to some recordings of his compositions.

Purim has a rare six-octave voice. Her vocal style is influenced by Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald,[9] which drifts from lyrics to wordlessness without ever losing touch with the melody and rhythm. She expanded her vocal repertoire during early tours with Gil Evans. While touring the world for three years with Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra in the 1980s, she broadened her repertoire to include traditional mainstream jazz, bebop, and doing numbers in 4/4 time instead of the traditional Brazilian 2/4 beat.


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As an original member of Chick Corea's group Return to Forever, Purim subsequently drew praise as a solo act. Recording for the jazz label Milestone since 1973, Purim's sensual and strong voice was singular enough to withstand the pitfalls that hampered the work of many Latin jazz fusion artists. Open Your Eyes You Can Fly represents a commercial breakthrough, and has the artist again supplemented by adventurous players and top-notch songwriting. The best of the three Chick Corea tracks is the title song. With it's emotive and stinging guitar solo from David Amaro, it features Purim at her most accessible and charming. The remake of "Sometime Ago" has one of Corea's more accessible melodies, as Purim turns in one of her more sweet and fulfilling vocals. The melodic and soothing "San Francisco River" has the artist writing solely with frequent Corea collaborator Neville Potter on the evocative track. Despite the great work here, Open Your Eyes You Can Fly, lacks consistency. But with the great talents assembled and great voice, it's easy to overlook that fact. Hermeto Pascoal's "Andei (I Walked)" has a great synthesizer solo from George Duke and a flute solo from Pascoal. "Ina's Song (Trip to Bahia)" features Purim singing in Portuguese, starting off slow but then enlivened by her passion filled vocalizations. Produced by jazz producer Orrin Keepnews, this features the artist more lucid and joyful than some of her other work. For the reason it is recommended.



Flora Purim - Open Your Eyes You Can Fly (flac  255mb)

01 Morse 3:34
02 Super-God 3:09
03 Tema Dos Deuses 2:53
04 Make Believe Waltz 2:22
05 Pantera 3:39
06 Sábado 2:45
07 Nepal 5:02
08 Feira Moderna 3:45
09 Hey, Man! 3:00
10 Poison 2:31

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This is Purim's first album for Warner Bros. after spending 1973-1976 with Milestone. While Purim's last dates with Milestone began to reflect a more commercial jazz sound, the style came to fruition by the time of this 1977 album. Drummer Leon "Ndugu" Chancler is listed as producer, and George Duke is also here, under his alias of Dawili Gonga. Given that fact, this effort sounds like a Duke production job, and like one of his late-'70s classic albums. Patrice Rushen's meditative "You Love Me Only" strikes the delicate balance between Purim's singular phrasing and persona and more streamlined production values. Earth Wind and Fire members Al McKay and Phillip Bailey contribute "Angels," and it has the sound of period EWF juxtaposed to Purim's patented and sensual wordless vocalizations. Although the artist adapts to each style, Nothing Will Be As It Was...Tommorow also has her covering the work of Brazilian artist Milton Nascimento, who co-wrote the title. Nascimento's whimsical "Fairy Tale Friend" gets a funkier treatment, as the song's lyrics lose nothing in translation. The album's most poignant track from Nascimento, "Bridges," has a doleful arrangement and a gentle vocal from Purim. Although this effort seemed to get lost in the shuffle, it is well worth seeking out, especially for lovers of late-'70s jazz fusion.



Flora Purim - Nothing Will Be As It Was...Tomorrow (flac  232mb)

01 You Love Me Only 5:36
02 Nothing Will Be As It Was Nada Sera Como Antes 5:02
03 I'm Coming For Your Love 6:22
04 Angels 3:35
05 Corre Niña 6:30
06 Bridges 5:16
07 Fairy Tale Song 4:06
08 Angels (Reprise) 1:25

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This two-disc set by vocalist Flora Purim and percussionist Airto Moreira includes the Grammy-nominated album The Magicians and the rhythmically vibrant The Sun Is Out. The albums, originally released in 1986 and 1989 respectively, give listeners the full benefit of authentic Brazilian jazz and rhythms sung and played by two of the country's most innovative and imaginative artists. Among the favorites are "Esquinas," written by Djavan, and Purim's own "Midday Sun" -- both passionate accounts of the Brazilian world and jazz styles.

One of mainstream-minded Concord's few so-called crossover projects -- hence the separate label -- this isn't a very successful venture, a hodgepodge of this and that, recorded with a flat commercial sheen. Misleadingly, the album opens with Flora singing the blues on the Cheathams' "Sweet Baby Blues," upon which Airto plays straight traps. But while "Garimpo" gets the album back on the Latin track, the energy and quirky inventiveness of the Moreiras is mostly out to lunch, buried under the in-your-face sound and dissipated among a variety of instrumental lineups. "Jump" does get some sharp Brazilian funk going, and the title track has some of the old Airto craziness, enough to get a Grammy-nomination .



Flora Purim and Airto - Wings of Imagination   (flac  523mb)

Flora Purim and Airto - The Magicians

01 Sweet Baby Blues 4:29
02 Garimpo 4:32
03 Esquinas 6:16
04 Bird Of Paradise 3:26
05 The Magicians 2:59
06 Jennifer 5:25
07 Jump 4:08
08 Two Minutes Of Peace 3:04
09 Love Reborn 3:34

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Flora Purim and Airto - The Sun Is Out

01 Samba Do Cantor 4:35
02 The Hope 3:53
03 Viver De Amor 3:28
04 Pablo Sereno 3:51
05 The Sun Is Out 3:56
06 Lua Flora 5:59
07 Asas Da Imaginação 3:45
08 Forever Friends 3:52
09 Midday Sun 3:30
10 Olivia (Changes) 4:38

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The title of the disc implies that the acclaimed Brazilian vocal legend is simply paying tribute to her old friend Milton (who happens to be one of that country's most influential songwriting masters), but she prefers to see it as "a declaration of unconditional love." With the beautiful musical backing of an all-star cast featuring George Duke, saxman and flutist Widor Santiago, and her drummer/percussionist husband Airto Moreira, Flora Purim creates a lush valentine that can be appreciated by more than Brazilian music fans. "Maria Tres Filos" has an hypnotic tribal quality, with her ethereal vocals soaring over an increasingly bold percussion forest and throbbing bassline. "Encontos E Despedidas" opens with a soulful sax run that would be at home in smooth jazz, then evolves into a gentle, intimate piece focused on "Purim"'s rich vocals and "Luiz Avellar"'s lush piano. There is an overall sense of romantic adventure, best typified by tracks like "Canto Latino," which eases along on a drifting bluesy groove -- complete with soaring male vocalese -- and rolls faster with fiery percussion as it goes by. Yet her vocals are swaying and sensuous. Even though the production leans to the more traditional acoustic side, "Gira Girou" stands out in that its centered around a crunchy, almost hip-hop ambient vibe, with "Purim" backing up Moreira's guttural wailing. Just as when Keely Smith sang songs popularized by her friend Frank Sinatra, Purim has more than just a legacy to live up to. And she delivers magnificently.



Flora Purim Sings Milton Nascimento (flac  336mb)

01 Maria Très Filhos 4:57
02 Encontros E Despedidas 4:04
03 Tudo Que Voce Podia Ser 4:54
04 Nuvem Cigana 5:59
05 Canto Latino 4:52
06 Nada Sera Como Antes, Amanhã 5:23
07 Gira Girou 4:55
08 Nós Dois 6:12
09 Cravo E Canela 5:24
10 Cais 6:16

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5 comments:

Guitarradeplastico,scraping oddities said...

wov, many thanks for the flac, great musics in the albums

Anonymous said...

Hi. I've spent much time reading your blog and listening to some of your music selections. Just wanted to say 'Thanks' for exposing me to a wider world.

I was wandering back through your posts (back in 2008)and came across the audio play 'Starship Titanic'. I remember reading this as a kid and I still remember laughing out loud at some of the quirky notions. Any chance of a re-up?

Thanks, Ben

Rho said...

Ben oh Ben how often must i repeat that request for repostings need to made at the page said is posted , as for a series like the Titanic audioplay any will do i will re-up the complete series at the final page..

Cass said...

Not sure how I missed this post, but about to check out the artist! Thanks for the intro.

Anonymous said...

Madeye - Is it Possible to re-up Flora - nothing will be as it was lp