Search - Eumir Deodato :: Ideias

The Roots Of A Brazilian Wunderkind

Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 07/12/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I thank God for technology, for without the advances of the past 40 years music lovers would likely not be exposed to obscure titles such as Ideias unless they happened to be in the right place when they were originally released. Those of us who grew up during the heyday of the vinyl album can remember how hard it was to find a title that was older or out of print. Most music stores had these ponderous yellow books filled with the names of albums and of artists whose work was putatively available by special order. If you chose to order, the wait was often long and the price high. And you never knew if your order would actually arrive. Today albums by your favorite artists that you had no idea existed are being remastered and becoming once again available via the internet.

Several years ago, Eumir Deodato's early Brazilian albums started to appear on the market. I always knew he was Brazilian, but until those albums were remastered and released in the US, I was always under the impression that Prelude was his first album. So I eagerly snapped up what Brazilian releases became available and so then thought my early Deodato recordings were complete. Now along comes Ideias to put the lie to that.

Ideias apparently was originally released circa 1964/1965 and when you listen, you will hear the musical roots of a very young man who was to become the a wunderkind of Brazilian then later American jazz. You'll notice that unlike some of his later work, the arrangements and the interpretations are fairly straightforward and unadorned. But it is still very listenable with an even quality throughout. Those familiar with bossa nova will know most or all of the tunes here. Though nothing really grabs me the way some of his later work does, I find Samba de Verao and Ela E Carioca to be the best.

If you are expecting the keyboard wizardry of the years of Deodato's US debut, you are not going to hear it on Ideias. But if you are keen to explore Deodato's musical roots then by all means add this to your collection. It will never be my favorite, but it is good enough to merit an occasional place in my CD rotation."