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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

New Releases Marisa Monte's Popular Brazilian Music

Posted by Kathy Fennessy on Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 1:13 PM

Marisa Monte, O Que Você Quer Saber De Verdade, Blue Note/EMI

Blue Note/EMI
Photograph by Tom Munro

I've been following the career of Brazil's Marisa Monte since EMI issued Universo Ao Meu Redor and Infinito Particular in 2006. After the simultaneous release of those two complementary albums, she disappeared from the international music stage for six years, but now she returns with her ninth full-length, O Que Você Quer Saber De Verdade (Portuguese for "What You Really Want To Know").

If less adventurous than her last two outings, it's every bit as appealing. More than anything, it's Monte's warm, enveloping vocals that keep me returning to her work. She recorded O Que Você in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and New York with composer Gustavo Santaolalla, Brazilian trio Nação Zumbi, tango outfit Café de los Maestros, and Rodrigo Amarante of Little Joy, while Greg Cohen and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson provided the string arrangements.*

* Previous collaborators include Philip Glass, Naná Vasconcelos, Arto Lindsay, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Gilberto Gil, Seu Jorge, and Beastie Boys producer Mario Caldato, Jr.

Blue Note/EMI

Though she's sold nine million records and won three Grammys, few Americans seem to be familiar with her discography. Since Monte fits in with the coffee-shop stylings of label mates Norah Jones and Keren Ann, I don't see O Que Você winning over listeners who gravitate toward edgier Brazilian fare, like Os Mutantes or CSS, but fans of Bebel Gilberto and Juana Molina will find much to enjoy.

Those who've already fallen for the charms of her predecessors in the Musica Popular Brasileira movement, however—namely Jorge Ben, Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, and Maria Bethania—will find that she fits in with them, too.