LOVE COLE PORTER by Rick Anderson – CD Hot List

“What’s clear is the skill and the care Adolfo has put into these arrangements, which are endlessly delightful: from the laid-back toada/bossa mashup of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to the sprightly frevo and quadrilha of “Just One of Those Things,” the album never stops being both fun and impressive — exactly what one would hope for in any Cole Porter tribute.”
https://cdhotlist.com/ Everyone appreciates Cole Porter’s acerbic sense of humor; the witty lines from his songs could fill a book (other than the Great American Songbook, that is, which is already full of them). But we shouldn’t overlook his gifts as a melodist, or his more subtle achievements in harmony and song structure. With this album, Brazilian pianist and arranger Antonio Adolfo pays particular tribute to these aspects of Porter’s genius, demonstrating not only the sophistication of his writing but also its adaptability. For this program he selected songs that can fit particularly comfortably in Latin jazz settings, making use not only of familiar Brazilian genres like bossa nova and samba, but also toada, ijexá, and quadrilha. These subtleties may be lost on the average listener, but what’s clear is the skill and the care Adolfo has put into these arrangements, which are endlessly delightful: from the laid-back toada/bossa mashup of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to the sprightly frevo and quadrilha of “Just One of Those Things,” the album never stops being both fun and impressive — exactly what one would hope for in any Cole Porter tribute.