Friday, June 08, 2007

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77 - Love Music (1973)

I had no option except showing Loronixers the album included on our last challenge. Sergio Mendes is really popular among Loronixers, several answers were posted as soon as the challenge was made available. Thanks everybody and thanks Beto Kessel, The Ambassador, the first to wrote the right answer. This album also ends my Sergio Mendes "graduation", and to summarize my findings I just want to say he is a really professional musician, in control of every aspect of his career with no fear of making changes when needed. Let's now see why people got so thrilled by the challenge.

This is Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77 - Love Music (1973), for Bell. This is perhaps the first Sergio Mendes album with no Brazilian songs I see. I don't know if it is the only exception, but it seems to me that we have an effort to make Love Music a blockbuster, all songs are very popular, you will probably have the feeling that you heard everything before. This is certainly a transitional album to the further "pop" phase.

Love music is infectious from the start to end, the girl's vocals works very well and the percussion on top of the pop arrangements are also very nice. Personnel listing was already built on last challenge, but I will list it again, Brazil '77 features top-notch musicians. One last thing, don't let the cover - on a really bad shape, almost dissolving in my hands - cheat you, the vinyl was near mint and the sound is good. Tracks include:

Personnel

Sergio Mendes
(piano, electric piano)
Bonnie Bowden and Gracinha Leporace
(vocals)
Oscar Castro Neves
(violao, guitar)
Sebastiao Neto
(bass)
Claudio Slon
(drums)
Laudir Oliveira
(congas, triangle, percussion)
Paulinho da Costa
(bongos, congas, percussion)

Track List

01 - Where Is This Love (MacDonald / Salter)
02 - Put a Little Love Away (Lambert / Potter)
03 - Don't Le Me Be Lonely Tonight (James Taylor)
04 - Killing Me Softly With His Song (Fox / Norman Gimbel)
05 - Love Music (Lambert / Potter)
06 - You Can't Dress Up a Broken Heart (Lambert / Potter)
07 - Hey Look At The Sun (Ângelo)
08 - Walk The Way You Talk (Burt Bacharach / David)
09 - I Won't Last a Day Without You (Nichols / Williams)
10 - I Can See Clearly Now (Nash)

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