Ralph Peterson 35th Annual Student Music Awards - Downbeat

Marisa Monte
O Que Você Quer Saber
De Verdade
BLUE NOTE 27208
★★★1/2
The last time we heard from Brazilian vocalist
Marisa Monte, she gave us two full albums.
That was six years ago, and now she’s returned
with a more modest but no less compulsively
listenable offering that finds her working with
a large cast of collaborators.
The album’s title means “What You Really
Want To Know” and any language barrier
melts for the music. Though she’s classically
trained, Monte has become one of the most
significant inheritors of the legacy of Música
Popular Brasileira, the strain of pop that grew
out of bossa nova in the late ’60s. Here, her
take on the genre is elastic, incorporating lush
orchestration from three different arrangers,
backing from Argentinian tango group Café
de los Maestros on the cinematic “Lencinho
Querido (El Panuelito)” and a bit of clavinet
from Bernie Worrell.
It always sounds and feels fundamentally
Brazilian, though, and a little samba slips into
the rhythm of the accordion-driven “O Que Se
Quer.” If the record has a flaw, it’s that it is fairly
uniform in tone—the tidy production could
stand a few woolier edges. —Joe Tangari
O Que Você Quer Saber De Verdade: O Que Você Quer Saber
de Verdade; Descalço No Parque; Depois; Amar Alguém; O Que
Se Quer; Nada Tudo; Verdade, Uma Ilusão; Lencinho Querido (El
Panuelito); Ainda Bem; Aquela Velha Canção; Era Óbvio; Hoje Eu
Não Saio Não; Seja Feliz; Bem Aqui. (45:19)
Personnel: Marisa Monte, vocals, percussion, ukelele, guitar, melodica,
harmonica, Hammond organ, steel drums; Dadi, ukelele,
percussion, bass, electric piano, guitar, Hammond organ, pignose
guitar, Rhodes, vibraphone, mandolin; Thomas Bartlett, piano,
Rhodes, keyboards (1, 3, 4); Pupillo, drums; Lucio Maia, guitar;
Dengue, bass; Waldonys, accordion (5, 6, 12), percussion (5);
Bernie Worrell, Hammond organ (2, 3), Clavinet (2), Moog (2);
Gustavo Santaolalla, ronroco (9, 12), nylon string guitar (9, 14),
sitar guitar (12), pump harmonica (14); Miguel Atwood-Ferguson,
violin (2, 3, 7), viola (2, 3); Marty Ehrlich, bass clarinet (1), alto flute
(11); Joyce Hammann, violin (1, 10, 11); Cornelius Dufallo, violin
(1, 10, 11); Lois E. Martin, viola (1, 10, 11); Erik Friedlander, cello
(1, 10, 11); Domenico Lancellotti, drums (2); Vinicius Cantuária,
percussion (2); Money Marc, Wurlitzer (10), Rhodes (11), Hammond
organ (11); Andricka Hall, backing vocals (3); Renee Ternier,
backing vocals (3); John James, backing vocals (3); Jesse Harris,
guitar (4); Rodrigo Amarante, guitar, keyboards, bass, drum machine,
percussion (5); Robby Marshall, clarinet (7); Cezar Mendes,
nylon string guitar (7, 12); Fernando Suárez Paz, violin (8); Raúl
di Renzo, violin (8), Sergio Polizzi, violin (8); Cláudio Melone, viola
(8); Miguel Angel Vervelo, bandoneon (8); Aníbal Kerkel, keyboards
(9); Maico Lopes, trumpet (9, 13); Adriana Morejon, bassoon (11);
Arnaldo Antunes, lead vocal (12); Pedro Baby,shaker (13); Daniel
Jobim, piano (14).
ordering info: bluenote.com
JUNE 2012 DoWNBEAt 69