Ipanema Redux & Martina DaSilva

I’ve found nobody, not even the immortal Astrud Gilberto, sings “The Girl from Ipanema” as good as Martina DaSilva. I’ve also found she sings it a lot, which is great. Every rendition adds something new. Check out other versions here.

Martina is supported by Tony Glausi (trumpet), Liya Grigoryan (piano), Russell Hall (bass) and Charles Goold (drums). The song is by the great Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes.

Maybe Martina’s haunting vaporwave version with Adam Neely is still the best (to me at least).

Support Martina DaSilva on Patreon.

Flora Purim & Mountain Train

Over in his quadrant of cyberspace, my blogdaddy Nightskyradio has initiated his second annual Rocktober countdown!!!!!!!!!!!! with a new twist. Back over here, we have not shifted into Halloween mode yet, or even halfway out of our blog hiatus, but I do have a little music lined up which is also a blast from the past. This is a cut from Stories to Tell (1974), which I used to have on vinyl.

Flora Purim (lead vocals), Airto Moriera (percussion), George Duke (keyboards, synthesizer), Oscar Neves (acoustic guitar), King Errisson (congas), Ernie Hood (backing vocals, zither), Larry Dunlap (piano). Some time back, we featured one of the best ever versions of “How Insensitive” from that same album.

Chick Corea & Samba Song

Another amazingly good track from Friends (1978). With a great photo gallery of all the musicians, thanks to Youtube compiler Pampa777.

Chick Corea (piano), Joe Farrell (sax), Eddie Gomez (bass), Steve Gadd (drums). I haven’t followed Steve Gadd that much, but his drumming smokes all the way through this track, and especially from 8:15. Also, there’s some brilliant bass playing by Gomez from 4:49. I only know Eddie Gomez from his work with Bill Evans; subsequent work was a blank for me until I bumped into this album.

I don’t know why they had to give such a fantastic album such a dorky cover . . .