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Annotations on Airto's

Javier Moreno | San Francisco Bay Area, California | 02/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the spring of 2001, I went to Airto's class of Brazilian percussion at UCLA, and I shared a couple of hours with two dozens of students playing percussion with one of the greatest percussionists of all time. It was pretty fun, and after the class I asked Airto for an Autograph on this CD's sleeve. He seemed, at a moment, not to like this collection. Obviously he didn't feel Sony put his best efforts on this record. He signed the booklet drawing a smile, and I told him that I was looking for one of his early albums (1973's Fingers) but I couldn't find it. Moreira, I guess, was flattered.The songs here are pure beauty, and even Airto himself can't deny it: "Tombo in 7/4" is a tune I liked to play at some dorm parties back in an international students housing association, and everybody seemed to like it. "Romance of Death" is another samba tune with exquisite vocal arrangements, and "Lydian Riff" is haunting and middle-easterned; but somehow it was recorded with not too much volume. (Mind note to Sony: A remastered version can pump up the volume on this one, really). The two last songs "Parana" & "O Galho Na Roseira" are live performances at a Deodato Concert. He opened for his country fellow and these two songs were included in a CTI vinyl record called "Deodato/Airto in concert"; now available as an expanded version of the Deodato performance ("Live at the Felt Forum"). Airto's songs were unavailable on CD until 1994, year when this CD was released.Somehow, this CD, part of a collection called "The Latin Jazz Series" with artists as Irakere and Charlie Byrd, turned to be a frequent visitor to my CD players. Now my version has an Airto autograph, and I won't sell it nor trade it for anything."

One of my earliest introductions to WORLD MUSIC

COMPUTERJAZZMAN | Cliffside Park, New Jersey United States | 11/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Back in the 1970's, I had all the Airto albums that this compilation is comprised of. He is a Brazilian percussionist, a founding member of Weather Report, and played with a lot of great jazz/fusion musicians back when that kind of music was popular. Many of the songs feature his wife, the great singer Flora Purim, they recorded a lot of stuff together. If you want to hear some exotic percussion music and other sounds, you will enjoy this music."