Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(38 customer reviews) 90 of 93 people found the following review helpful
Soul Food,
November 7, 2002 Mark Hoover (Lansing, MI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Morelenbaum (2)/Sakamoto: Casa (Tribute to Jobim) (Audio CD)
If you're here on this page today, then there's a day in your past when you were first aware that the beautiful and seductive song you suddenly could not get out of your head was written by someone named Jobim. For me, it happened while driving in the small hours of a long-ago November night, listening to a program on a faraway radio station called "Night Flight." This album was recorded in Jobim's own house, and Jobim's piano responds to the hands of the masterly Ryuichi Sakamoto with as much rich emotion and dulcet tone as it once yielded to its former master. Like so much of Jobim's music, the arrangements here are spare and winsome, shot through with silky beauty and underpinned by emotional tones that recall the first time you gasped upon finally realizing what it means to be in love.Perhaps you sometimes long again for the shiver that inevitably followed those first, early Jobim record purchases. Finally, here is an album that delivers the goods. I cannot imagine a more...Read more
44 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Magnificent, one of the most exquisite CDs I know,
October 4, 2002 Adam Cohen (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Morelenbaum (2)/Sakamoto: Casa (Tribute to Jobim) (Audio CD)
This CD is a must-have for any serious music lover, a true masterpiece melding Jobim's timeless compositions--some of which are virtually unknown even to major fans like myself--with brilliant and perfectly rendered arrangements for piano, cello, and voice. Paula Morelenbaum sings on most cuts with what to me is the purest, sweetest voice of any female vocalist treating Brazilian popular music, if not any music. The arrangements are unique and somewhat surprising at first, but then one quickly realizes that they reveal the amazing emotional depth of Jobim's musical ideas in a way that has never been done before. If you love jazz, classical music, and of course, Brazilian music, you will not go wrong with this recording and may, like me, find it almost impossible to stop playing again and again.
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
ANOTHER GEM...,
September 11, 2002 Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Morelenbaum (2)/Sakamoto: Casa (Tribute to Jobim) (Audio CD)
...and I was sure that the Morelenbaums couldn't easily top their previous album (QUARTETO JOBIM-MORELENBAUM). This new release finds Paula and Jacques joined by the amazingly talented Japanese pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto -- and if you think that's an inappropriate addition, wait until you hear this beautiful recording. Sakamoto's work has long been considered some of the best around -- his soundtracks alone are enough to cement his place in music's hall of hallows -- and his creativity and sensitivity are well-spent on these tunes by Brazil's legendary songwriting master, Antonio Carlos Jobim.Paula's vocals are stunning in their emotion and loveliness, and Jaques' cello is perfect in every way. There are several notable 'guests' on the recording as well: Paulo Jobim, a member of the aforementioned Quarteto, adds his tasteful guitar work; Ed Motta duets with Paula on vocals on one track; Luiz Brasil is along on guitar; Zeca Assumpcao delivers on bass; and the astonishing (but...Read more
