"Brazilian Butterfly" review - "JazzTimes"

CD Reviews from the February 2007 issue of Jazz Times magazine (USA)
Vox Column
http://www.jazztimes.com/reviews/cd_reviews/detail.cfm?article_id=17732

ITHAMARA KOORAX
Brazilian Butterfly (Irma)
Produced by Arnaldo DeSouteiro

The Brazilian fire that is Ithamara Koorax blazes more intensely than ever on this 11-track explosion of energy, recorded between 2002 and 2005 in Rio, Rome and London and dedicated to five seminal figures: arranger Lindolpho Gaya, folk singer Stellinha Egg, percussionists Dom Um Romão and Eloir de Moraes (both featured on the album) and bassist Manuel Gusmão best known within their native Brazil. Hotter than an Ipanema beach at high noon and wilder than a Rio dance club as dawn breaks, Butterfly is one riotous ride. Typical of Koorax, whose musical tastes lean heavily toward the grandiose and unorthodox, Brazilian Butterfly is dramatic in scope and includes solos of rain forest density, hypnotic spoken passages, impassioned sighs and primal screaming. The cumulative effect is like trying to compress all of Carnaval, with its four days (and sleepless nights) of glitter, garishness, sexual fervor and uncensored joie de vivre, into 80 pulse-quickening minutes.

-Christopher Loudon
©2007 JazzTimes, Inc.

Personnel: Ithamara Koorax: vocals, percussion, mouth percussion; Dom Um Romão: drums, percussion, vocals; Paula Faour: electric piano, keyboards, arranger; Manuel Gusmão: acoustic bass, arco bass; José Carlos Ramos: flutes, baritone saxophone; Arnaldo DeSouteiro: percussion, arranger, producer; Eloir de Moraes: percussion, cymbals, bass drum, vocals; Carlos Fuchs: acoustic piano; Jorge Pescara: fretless bass, electric bass; Raul de Souza: trombone; Gonzalo Rubalcaba: acoustic piano; Ron Carter: acoustic bass; Laudir de Oliveira: percussion; Jadir de Castro: percussion; Nelson Angelo: acoustic guitar; Sidinho Moreira: bongos, percussion; Marcelo Salazar: congas, bongos; Francesco Gazzara: acoustic piano, rhodes electric piano, nylon-string guitar, arranger; Massimo Sanna: bass; Mauro Mirti: percussion; Eduardo Piloto Barretto: percussion; Thiago de Mello: acoustic piano, organic percussion, vocal effects, acoustic guitar, berimbau, arranger; José Roberto Bertrami: rhodes electric piano, arranger; Alex Malheiros: electric bass; Ivan Conti: drums; Carlos Malta: bass flute; Azymuth, performer.