"Wonderful music to dream away, so Bossa Nova... the compositions go about the sun, the beaches, happiness, beautiful girls and the romance of Ipanema in the 60s, summer music so enjoy it!"
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Antonio Adfolfo's career spans a period of almost 60 years as a pianist, composer and arranger. He recorded more than 25 albums as a leader, on his last albums he focused on one particular composer such as Jobim Forever from 2021 and BruMa, Celebrating Milton Nascimento from 2020. It has been 65 years since Bossa Nova was born in the south of Rio, on this new album by Adolfo, the attention goes to two great composers who were at the forefront of the development of this popular and beloved music. Adolfo is a multiple nominee for the Latin Grammy and Jazz Grammy, he is an internationally recognized Brazilian jazz star, more than 200 of his compositions have been recorded by artists such as Sergio Mendes, Earl Klugh, Herb Albert and Stevie Wonder to name a few. Bossa Nova was probably the most important musical movement to come out of Brazil in the 20th century. There are many famous artists associated with Bossa, especially Antonio Carlos Jobim, but there are also others such as Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal. Adolfo considers Lyra, a singer and composer of many classic Bossa compositions, as his musical mentor and godfather. Menescal is a Brazilian composer, producer, guitarist, singer and pioneer of Bossa Nova, one of his most famous songs is the famous Little Boat. In 1965 Adolfo became a member of Menescal's popular group Conjunto Roberto Menescal in 1965.
The music of Adolfo has deep roots in the Bossa traditions, but his piano playing and harmonically complex arrangements are influenced by bebop, soul and West Coast jazz, which makes his music all the more interesting. "Bossa 65" was recorded in Brazil, apart from Antonio Adolfo (piano, vocal) we also hear excellent Brazilian musicians such as Lula Galvão (guitar), Jorge Helder (contrabass), Rafael Barata (drums, perc.), Dada Costa (perc. .), Jesse Sadoc (trumpet, flugelhorn), Danilo Sinna (alto sax), Marcelo Martins (tenor sax, flute) and Rafael Rocha (trombone). All the numbers presented here are originally sung, but Adolfo plays instrumental versions here. Opened the album with "Coisa mais linda" (Most beautiful thing) by Lyra. A typical Bossa Nova number with solos from Rocha on trombone and Lula on guitar and one vocal scat from Adolfo himself. Wonderful music to dream away, so Bossa Nova.
Adolfo began his professional career as a pianist for the musical Pobre Menina Rica (Poor rich girl), in which was the number "Samba do Carioca" by Lyra, the version here contains solos by Adolfo, Sinna on alto sax and Rocha on trombone. Another number from the musical "Maria Moita" (Marria shut your mouth) is also present here, it is a samba, it contains maracatu elements (Brazilian-Afro genre from Northeast Brazil). So there are still various nice songs from Lyra, the songs from Roberto Menescal contain a.o. "Bye Bye Brasil", written before the film with the same name, a smooth number, on which strong solos can be heard from Martins (tenor sax) and Galvão (guitar). "O Barquinho" (Little boat) has been recorded thousands of times by musicians all over the world, Adolfo's modern samba arrangement features an explosive solo from Danilo Sinna on his alto sax. "Tete" with solos by Rocha and Galvão is a romantic samba-cancao (Brazilian bolero) dedicated to a beautiful Namorada (girlfriend) of one of the composers.. And so one passes to the other Bossa Nova de revue, the compositions go about the sun, the beaches, happiness, beautiful girls and the romance of Ipanema in the 60s, summer music so enjoy it!