Toninho Horta - Diamond Land (1989)

Here we have an artist that everybody asks for an album at Loronix. It took a long time until we have the necessary to make available one of his works, but the long waiting really worth, this is one of the best albums recorded by Toninho Horta and it is amazing that Diamond Land never had a CD issue, being out of print on "CD era", at least the far as I could search.

This is Toninho Horta - Diamond Land (1989), for Philips, featuring a true legend of the Brazilian guitar, Toninho Horta, backed by several renowned musicians, including the acclaimed Wayne Shorter. It's very hard to describe Toninho Horta, so I'm taking the liner notes of Diamond Land, written by Pat Metheny. I could never make better. Tracks include:

"Musicians everywhere love Toninho Horta's songs. Through his work with Milton Nascimento, his own recordings and the cover versions of his tunes that have appeared on various albums throughout the past decade or so, Toninho has emerged as one of the most harmonically sophisticated and melodically satisfying Brazilian composers of recent times.

Somehow, he writes chord progressions that defy gravity, moving up when you think they're going down. His melodies stay with you for days; you're sure you've heard them before, but they are brand new. And as an arranger, he's a master. (Not just with his own music either - check out what he does here with "Diamond Land"). As a guitarist, he's one of the world's great "compers" on viola. (That's a nylon-string guitar to us gringos). He plays such great voicings with such a cool time feel... (I've often described him to other musicians as the Herbie Hancock of Bossa Nova guitarists). His love of jazz guitar playing is well represented here, as is his excellent singing.

In short, Toninho Horta is an incredible musician, the rare guitarist who understand harmony in its most intimate ways and - above all - one of the finest and gentlest people I've ever had the good fortune of knowing. This record, DIAMOND LAND, is a great addition to Toninho's ongoing work, and will also serve as an excellent introduction to those listeners not yet familiar with his music."

-Pat Metheny

Personnel

Marcio Mallard, Jacques Morelenbaum
(cello)
Armando Marcal
(percussion)
Marcio Montarroyos
(trumpet, flugelhorn)
Nivaldo Ornelas, Mauro Senise, Carlos Watkins
(sax)
Giancarlo Pareschi
(spalla)
Arlindo Penteado, Frederick Stephany
(viola)
Jose de Aguiar Ribeiro
(cymbals)
Robertinho Silva
(percussion, drums)
Ronaldo, Wanderley Silva, Laudir de Oliveira
(percussion)
Victor Santos, Robertinho Brant, Ricardo Villas, Paula Morelenbaum, Andrea Daltro, Quique Azambuja, Maria Fattoruso, Silvana Matta, Nelson Angelo, Bepa Nobile, Joyce
(vocals)
Flavio Venturini
(synthesizer, vocals)
Alfredo Vidal
(violin)
Arthur Maia, Iuri Popoff, Nico Assumpcao, Jamil Joanes
(bass)
Felipe Doyle
(horn)
Paulo Guimaraes
(flute)
KenwoodDennard, Teo Lima
(drums)
Helvius Vilela
(synthesizer)
Jim Beard
(keyboards)
Hugo Fatturuso
(synthesizer, vocal)
Toninho Horta
(synthesizer, vocal, guitar, violao, arrangements)
Wayne Shorter
(sax)

Track List

01 - Mountain Flight (Toninho Horta)
02 - Ballad For Zawinul (Iuri Popoff)
03 - Raul (Toninho Horta)
04 - Girassol (Lô Borges / Márcio Borges)
05 - Luisa (Toninho Horta)
06 - From The Lonely Afternoous (Milton Nascimento / Fernando Brant)
07 - Pilar (Toninho Horta)
08 - Waiting For Ângela (Toninho Horta)
09 - Diamond Land (Diamantina) (Juarez Moreira)
10 - Beijo Partido (Broken Kiss) (Toninho Horta) with Joyce