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BEAUTIFUL BOSSAS FROM THE BRAZILIAN CHANTEUSE - ZIZI POSSI

RBSProds | Deep in the heart of Texas | 03/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Five Stars! Zizi Possi is marvelous. A lovely sight in her designer dress and the long gloves, the Brazilian chanteuse, with the deep Italian roots, gives a veritable seminar on the 'real' bossas of contemporary MPB. Not the heavy-handed sped-up US bossa rhythms of the 60's and 70's, these gentle, gravity-defying bossas are a pure joy when sung by the multi-lingual Ms Possi's sensitive soaring soprano voice. She also does those wonderful airy background vocals that add so much color. (And yes, she is the mother of the blonde singing sensation Luiza Possi, a musical force in her own right, who also has a presence here at Amazon.com.)



Singing in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, (and Italian, but not here), her calm soprano has a wonderful way with a song that leaps beyond the need for translation. For instance, she totally steals "Preciso Dizer Que Te Amo"(~I Need To Say I Love You) from Bebel Gilberto (the fabulous daughter of Joao and Miúcha) not once, but in both bookended versions of the song. It may take a couple of passes thru the CD to "get" Zizi Possi, but once you do, she's "got" you forever. And then you'll truly understand the awesome beauty of the gut-wrenching "Yo Tengo Un Pecado Nuevo" (I Have A New Sin), served up on a bed of soaring strings playing a great arrangement. "Ai, Carino", indeed.



Other 'Pieces De Resistance' are a beautiful bossa version of the McCartney/Lennon "Yesterday" sung in flawless, unaccented English. Not buried deep in the CD, but the second song in. Then she switches to flawless Spanish for a fabulous "Sabras Que Te Quiero" (You Will Know That I Love You). She also puts her own mark on a great English version of Sergio Mendes' "So Many Stars", with some killer harmonica work by Adam Glasser. "Caminhos Cruzados" (CrossRoads) is overpoweringly beautiful. Djavan's very hip "Capim" is like 'samba-school' bossa showing off her vocal gymnastics. Five Huge Stars!

(Thanks to Ivan Lins for introducing me to Zizi Possi thru his Latin Grammy-winning "Cantando Historias".)"