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.

Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo: Jazz Bromance

This is eine kleine New Year’s music post over at BoFN.

Just to Say Goodbye & Flora Purim

Flora Purim, “Just to Say Goodbye,” from Stories to Tell (1974).

Emily Remler & Barbara Dennerlein & My Latin Brother

Emily Remler (guitar) and Barbara Dennerlein (organ) do “My Latin Brother,” by George Benson, with Sonny Fortune (flute). Other musicians unknown. The performance is probably from the 80s.

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.

Splendido Sundance & Al Di Meola

From Splendido Hotel (1980).

Al Di Meola duo with Al Di Meola! (This fellow is pretending to cover Al Di Meola here, but he’s just finger syncing. That’s pretty impressive in its own right, though.)

Flora Purim & Tomara

From Encounter (1976).

Tomara means “I wish.” Song by Novelli. McCoy Tyner on piano!

Pat Metheny Group & San Lorenzo

From Pat Metheny Group (1978).

Pat Metheny (guitar), Lyle Mays (keyboards), Marc Egan (bass), Dan Gottlieb (drums).

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 . . .

Chick Corea & Friends

From Friends (1978).

Chick Corea (keyboard), Joe Farrell (flute), Steve Gadd (drums), Eddie Gomez (bass). Never heard this before. The album cover has the Smurfs on it, which might explain why I never gave it a shot. But it’s got a nice steady latin groove and it floats along real good.