New York, USA – Rosa Passos’s new CD, Amorosa (Sony Classical) is a tribute to the legendary Joao Gilberto Brazilian classic album Amoroso. For this recording, Passos sings new arrangements of four signature tracks from Joao Gilberto’s classic 1977 album Amoroso, plus other songs closely identified with Gilberto, such as “0 Pato” and “Lobo Bobo.”
Amorosa will be released on Tuesday, August 17, 2004.
The legacy of Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim – the two creative figures most directly responsible for the birth of bossa nova – inspired the young Rosa Passos when she was a teenager in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is widely agreed that Gilberto’s sinuous, less-is-more vocals, over a quiet pulse of guitar, virtually define the cool soul of bossa nova. Passos pays a personal tribute to Gilberto on Amorosa with her own original song “Essa e pr’o Joao.” Jobim’s “Wave.” “Voce Vai Ver” and “Retrato em Branco e Preto” (the last in collaboration with Chico Buarque de Hollanda) are included on the new recording, as well as Gilberto favorites “0 Pato” (Jayme Silva/Neuza Teixeira) and “Lobo Bobo” (Carlos Lyra/Ronaldo Boscoli). Passos also sings “Eu Sambo Mesmo” (Janet de Almeida) and “Pra que discutir corn Madame” (Janet de Almeida/Haroldo Barboso), both closely associated with Gilberto.
The engineer on Passos’ recording is 11-time Grammy winner Al Schmitt, who was also the engineer on Gilberto’s recording. Passos’s special guest on Amorosa is the 87-year-old French chanson and bossa nova singer Henri Salvador, who joins Passos in the Charles Trenet classic “Que reste-t-il de nos amours,” with Salvador singing in French and Passos in both Portuguese and French.
A native of French Guyana but a Parisian since childhood, Salvador began his career as a teenager inspired by the great Django Reinhardt, with whom he eventually worked. Salvador lived in and toured Brazil during World War II, returning to France in 1945 to build a solo career that has been one of the longest, most varied and most remarkable in French pop music.
Other special guests joining Passos are jazz clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera and percussionist Cyro Baptista, who first collaborated with Passos on cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s Obrigado Brazil projects for Sony Classical. Also returning from Obrigado Brazil for Amorosa are the acclaimed Brazilian musicians, pianist Helio Alves and drummer Paulo Braga, who toured for 15 years with Jobim. New to the ensemble are the Brazilian tenor sax player Rodrigo Ursaia.
In the spirit of Gilberto’s classic recordings with the late tenor sax legend Stan Getz, and Brazilian bassist Paulo Paulelli, who also offers an extraordinary bit of mouth percussion on “Pra que discutir corn Madame.”
Though most of the songs on Amorosa are in Portuguese, Passos sings an English-language version of the Gershwin standard “‘S Wonderful” and Consuelo Velázquez’s sensuous Spanish classic “Bésame Mucho.”
Passos herself created the arrangements for Amorosa, with Jorge Calandrelli arranging “Que reste-t-il de nos amours” and adding the orchestrations for “Bésame Mucho,” “Retrato em Branco e Preto” and “‘S Wonderful.” Calandrelli’s charts are an affectionate tribute to the lush, atmospheric arrangements by Claus Ogerman that backed Gilberto on Amoroso.
A beloved figure in the music of Brazil, Passos tapped a broader, worldwide audience last year performing on Sony Classical’s triple-Grammy-winning Obrigado Brazil with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and in the international concert tour that followed the release. Passos also appears on Sony Classical’s live sequel recording Yo-Yo Ma’s Obrigado Brazil Live in Concert, released in February of 2004.
Author: World Music Central News Room
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