Coffee with the Trio
There’s probably nothing more Brazilian than coffee and soccer. With Trio da Paz’s fourth release, Café, you will experience at least half of what is intrinsically Brazilian. This album is a knock-out production full of surprises.
Produced by Rick Warm and Trio da Paz, Café blends Brazilian classics and U.S. standards. You get the best of two worlds in one album with outstanding special guests to sweeten your palate. Diane Reeves brings her swinging, sexy vocals to “Love is Here to Stay” and “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise.” Joe Lovano delivers a potent sax solo in Jobim’s “Wave.” Last and most definitely not least, legendary keyboardist and arranger César Camargo Mariano completely wows you on the Hammond B3 in Brown’s classic “Blues Walk” and Bonfá’s “Gentle Rain.” And I have only covered a third of the album so far. In the words of Howard Mandel, Café can be summed up as follows:
As a unit, the Trio da Paz has established an immediately recognizable, winning sound, and an unforced style.
The opener “Saudade da Bahia” brings that undisputable sound that has now become a trade mark of the Trio da Paz arrangements: up-tempo sambas with authoritative guitar, powerful drum and bouncy bass performances. If you do not know what “samba jazz” is, here is your ticket. The lilting vocals by Reeves in “Love is Here to Stay” are exuberant as the Trio plays back and forth making this Gershwin classic almost Brazilian. Showing her diversity and switching from sassy to sultry, Reeves gives a moving performance in her other guest appearance in the album. The introduction combining Reeves’s voice and Lubambo’s acoustic guitar is nearly heavenly. Lubambo brings passion alive in this track as well as in Bach’s “Arioso.” “Baden,” a tribute to great guitarist Baden Powell, returns to the Trio’s scintillating “unforced style.” Bossa Nova is very well represented with “Wave,” “Influência do Jazz” and “Gentle Rain.” Lovano’s sensual sax is perfect in “Wave.” Matta’s bass solo carrying the melody in “Influência do Jazz” is bold and well delivered, of course. As the third very special guest in Café, César Camargo Mariano is responsible for introducing the most innovative sound for the Trio. Using the Hammond B3 in “Blues Walk” and “Gentle Rain,” Mariano leads the Trio into exploring new sounds. “Blues Walk” is ineffable ecstasy, and “Gentle Rain” is pure pleasure.
Trio da Paz is back in full force with Café. Whether you drink your coffee black or not or whatever your beverage of choice is, Trio da Paz’s Café is bound to quench your thirsty with this album.
ALBUM INFORMATION
Trio da Paz
Café
Malandro MAL 71019 (2002)
Time: 63’20”
Tracks:
- Saudade da Bahia (Dorival Caymmi)
- Love Is Here to Stay (George & Ira Gershwin) – w/ Dianne Reeves
- Arioso (Johann Sebastian Bach)
- Baden (Nilson Matta)
- Wave (Antonio Carlos Jobim) – w/ Joe Lovano
- Blues Walk (Clifford Brown) – w/ César Camargo Mariano
- Café (Egberto Gismonti)
- Influência do Jazz (Carlos Lyra)
- Softly as in a Morning Sunrise (Sigmund Rombert – Oscar Hammerstein II) – w/ Dianne Reeves
- 48th Street Baião (Romero Lubambo) – w/ Joe Lovano
- Gentle Rain (Luiz Bonfá) – w/ César Camargo Mariano
- Humpty Dumpty (Chick Corea)
