Thursday, May 5, 2011

"O Grande Amor" - Rifftides review

http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2011/05/recent-listening-james-farm-allen-anschell-et-al/

Peter Schärli, Ithamara Koorax, "O Grande Amor" (TCB)
Reviewed by Doug Ramsey on "Rifftides," voted best jazz blog of 2010 by the Jazz Journalists Association Poll

Koorax’s soft voice is an instrument of tonal precision, innate swing and a variety of emotional inflection. She joins Swiss trumpeter Schärli’s trio (pianist Hans-Peter Pfammatter and bassist Thomas Dürst) in a collection of songs mostly by writers from Koorax’s native Brazil. The exception is Pfammatter’s “Wedileto,” which holds its own with pieces by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ary Barroso, Vinicius de Moraes and other major Brazilian composers. Koorax and Schärli share the use of quietness to achieve expressive power. Each of their solos on the title tune is a prime example of that ability. The way the Swiss swing with Koorax through the samba rhythms of Baden Powell’s “Deixa” and Fernando Lobo’s “Zum Zum” suggests that there must be favelas in Geneva, Bern and Zurich.

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