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SILVANA MALTA AND
THE DANISH RADIO BIG BAND : FLOR DO VERÃO
Rainbow RAINCD 8004 2003
SONGS
1. Vivo Assim 5:26 - featured song
2. Flor do Verão 7:41
3. Jogral 7:35
4. Paz de Algodão 7:10
5. Suingando 6:07
6. Back to Brazil 7:39
7. Feitiço da Lua 7:30
8. From 3 to 4 7:36
All music arranged and conducted by Steve Sacks
REVIEW Big band jazz with a Brazilian twist
"Mixing Brazilian music with a modern big band jazz sound doesn’t sound like the most obvious thing to do, but The Danish Radio’s Big Band has earlier had success working with Brazilian music in a recording with the componist and pianist Eliane Elias. This time the band has joined forces with Silvana Malta, who lives here in Denmark. She is a singer who also has worked in the jazz community, and whose voice resembles Elis Regina.
The band is in very good form and plays with ease, as with the material, which appears genuinely Brazilian. The songs and the obvious have to a high degree been pampered, and have actually been written by a Dane, Torben Westergaard. It is a very successful meeting between two worlds, and the audience must have had a great experience at Trommen, the concert hall in Hørsholm. One would think that the blend was a Danish phenomenon, patented by The Danish Radio’s Big Band."
REVIEW Danish Big Bands
Three new CD’s with big bands. And all three are most excellent. The cooperation between the local Brazilian singer Silvana Malta, her husband Torben Westergaard, and the American saxophonist and arranger Steve Sacks, which in 1997 resulted in the exceedingly pleasant CD “Back to Brazil”, recorded by a small crew, has now been followed up on “Flor de Verao”, where Sacks dropped the saxophone to take over the direction of the Radio’s Big Band. When I again mention that Westergaard’s melodies have obvious pop qualities, it is, also this time, a definite compliment, considering that we are in a musical universe, with Antonio Carlos Jobim as the guiding star.
And in the way that Sacks has arranged them, he has not only made sure that they have kept a Brazilian authenticity, which successfully expresses itself through Malta’s singing, but also that they take part in a perfected union with a Northern American Big Band Jazz tradition. Again resulting in a number of excellent individual performances, among these two tenor soli need emphasizing, in “Jogral” and “From 3 to 4”. Both Bob Rockwell and Tomas Franck are in the saxophone group."
REVIEW by Gaffa
The Brazilian singer Silvana Malta has lived in Denmark for so long, that she has become an established part of the Danish jazz scene. She has become well known for her Brazilian vocals. And for the rather unusual – the combination of Brazilian singing and American/European bigband music – a combination that is non-existent in Brazil, let alone in Denmark. The basis of the music on Flor Do Verao is Brazilian harmony, the traditional Brazilian ways of combining chords. Because of this, one hears immediately that the big band is in uncharted waters.
But the combination appears very strong, among others thanks to the American arranger Steve Sacks, who is an old acquaintance of both Malta and her husband Torben Westergaard, the bass player, who has written the majority of the numbers. The lyrics are written by among others Celso Adolfo and Fernando Brant, two of Brazils leading songwriters. And even if you don’t understand Portuguese, it is easy to understand the facetting, fascinating and seductive universe that Malta and the bigband introduce. Malta is one of the most interesting “Danish” jazz singers of our time."