CD review: Duduka Da Fonseca & Helio Alves – Samba Jazz & Tom Jobim 2019: Video, CD cover

In the late 1950s, Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto and pianist/composer Antônio Carlos (Tom) Jobim revolutionized American music with the introduction of the bossa nova and the samba to the jazz lexicon.

America’s love affair with these lyrical rhythms has never gone away—in fact, we continue to discover more about these jazz innovators and their influence through albums like Samba Jazz & Tom Jobim (Sunnyside).

Three Gilberto/Jobim devotees—drummer Duduka Da Fonseca, pianist Helio Alves, and singer Maucha Adnet—form the creative team behind this release; the recording draws from the trio’s show by the same title, presented at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola annually since 2007. An even mix of vocal and non-vocal tracks, the album showcases Adnet on all of the Jobim titles and two powerhouse trumpeters on two of the non-Jobim instrumentals: Claudio Roditi on his own high-velocity samba, “Gemini Man,” and Wynton Marsalis with a more straight-ahead take on Raul de Souza’s “A Ventade Mesmo.”

Rio de Janeiro-born Adnet, who sang with Jobim’s ensemble Banda Nova for the last 10 years of his life, upholds the bandleader’s legacy on a smattering of his well- and lesser-known bossas, among them the lusciously arranged “Dindi”; a lilting, flute-accented “Pato Preto”; and a brief, fluttering “A Correnteza,” all in the original Portuguese. Adnet also tosses in an outlier: a disarmingly emotional rendering of the English-language “I Love You, Porgy” from the Gershwins’ American opera, Porgy and Bess, with only the lightest touch of a Brazilian groove in the drums.

Da Fonseca and Alves, from Rio and São Paulo, respectively, contribute their own originals to the album: Halve’s dynamic “Untitled” and frenetic “Helium,” and Da Fonseca’s intriguingly outré “Alana.” These three modern tunes serve as a reminder that not all Brazilian jazz today is bossas and sambas: Gilberto and Jobim started something that is still unfolding.

 Samba Jazz & Tom Jobim: Gemini Man; Alana; Untitled; Pato Preto; Dindi; A Correnteza; Pedra Bonita Da Gavea; Helium; Você Vai Ver; Polo Pony; A Vontade Mesmo; I Loves You Porgy.

1. Gemini Man (feat. Claudio Roditi) (06:01)
2. Alana (06:28)
3. Untitled (07:02)
4. Pato Preto (03:58)
5. Dindi (06:50)
6. A Correnteza (02:50)
7. Pedra Bonita Da Gavea (06:04)
8. Helium (06:00)
9. Você Vai Ver (03:56)
10. Polo Pony (04:55)
11. A Vontade Mesmo (feat. Wynton Marsalis) (04:50)
12. I Loves You Porgy (Bonus Track) (06:27)

Billy Drewes – saxophones & flute (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12)
Romero Lubambo – guitars (1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11)
Hans Glawischnig – bass
Maucha Adnet – vocals (4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12)
Helio Alves – piano & Rhodes
Duduka Da Fonseca – drums
Claudio Roditi – trumpet (1)
Wynton Marsalis – trumpet (11)