Baden Powell Music

This is a fantastic CD! It has all the familiar samba elements -- i.e. the upbeat, infectious rhythm, the melacholic melodies -- and so much more.

This was recorded in 1990, and is actually a re-working of the groundbreaking "Os Afro Sambas", recorded in 1966 with legendary Brazilian poet/songwriter/beatnik Vinícius de Moraes (with vocal help from the wonderful Quarteto em Cy, as on this new work). Unfortunately, Vinícius had passed away by the time Powell got around to re-recording their masterpiece. Powell's reason for re-working this was because the sound quality of the original sessions wasn't the best, as well as the fact that everyone was drunk and sloppy! The original recording is great--and this is an amazing re-working. I'm a huge Powell fan, and this is among his best--he hasn't lost his touch. Amazing guitar work, strong compositions, and top-notch production. The style is a blend of samba, African rhythms and a touch of classical guitar. (By the way, in case you're looking for the original "Os Afro Sambas", the CD by the same title on Amazon is actually a French pressing of the newer CD--this is the one I own. I think the only available copies of the original are imports from Japan).

Great music, the guitar is incredible, the vocals are subtle and haunting!!! My brother had a copy in South America, and I have been looking for it a couple of years with out luck!! Today I just click it and there it is...

I bought the CD on the strength of the first reviewer's recommendation, and immediately found why it was sought for so long. This is a refreshing departure from the well-established samba mold. It is more than well-played, well-arranged music. It has a raw, mystical power rare in modern commercial music. Five stars for sure!

I got this CD as part of the Baden Powell Box with 13 Baden Powell's classic CDs released a few years ago in Brazil (and sadly unavailable since then). But you can find all of them separately, I believe...

Here we have two discs in one. The first is Os Afro-Sambas de Baden E Vinicius and A Vontade

But as I say on the title, the first (tracks 1-8) is one of the most important ever released in Brazil. And it brings eight major songs sung by Vinicius and featuring the female ensemble of voices Quarteto em Cy (who later came to enjoy their own share of success in many other artists' recording as well as their own).

All the songs here are composed by Powell and Vinicius and all of them are known as Brazilian standards today - and here you get THEIR original versions.

The lyrics (in Portuguese) are stunning and unparalleled anywhere. They reflect Afro-Brazilian stories of love and sadness and constant relationship with the gods. Here are some of my favorite verses...

From TRISTEZA E SOLIDÃO (track 7)
Ela não sabe (She does not know)
Quanta tristeza cabe numa solidão (How much sadness fits into a solitude)
Eu sei que ela não pensa (I know she does not think)
Quanto a indiferença (How much such indifference)
Dói num coração (Hurts in a heart)

From TEMPO DE AMOR (track 5)
Ah, que não seja meu (Oh, let not be mine)
Um mundo onde o amor morreu (A world where love has died)

Isn't it beautiful???

Also, here you have a fabulous little ensemble of 12 top musicians with Brazilian instruments... all arranged and conducted by Guerra Peixe who, back in the 60's worked with several top Brazilian performers. The sound is rich, deep, sharp, colorful and trend-setting in may ways.

Both the Bossa Nova and Samba sounds we all know and hear today can be traced back to this album.

CANTO DE OSSANHA (track 1) is a major standard already covered by many artists like Elis Regina (many times), Toots Thielemans, Maysa, Tamba Trio, Toquinho and Chico Buarque. It's lyrics are among the finest ever written in Portuguese language. And the music will be echoing in your mind forever.

The other set of recordings, A Vontade (tracks 9-18) is a great blend of songs with a few gems on their own coupled with some standards. Recorded in 1967 and produced by legendary Brazilian producer Aloysio de Oliveira, we have beautiful versions of THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA, SAMBA DO AVIÃO and SAMBA TRISTE. Again we hear Baden in peak form.

This is one of the best CDs of Brazilian music you'll ever find.
Close your eyes and get this album. You're in for a big, unique ride.

I got this CD as part of the Baden Powell Box with 13 Baden Powell's classic CDs released a few years ago in Brazil (and sadly unavailable since then). But you can find all of them separately, I believe...

But as I say on the title, this CD is one of the most important ever released in Brazil. And it brings eight major songs sung by Vinicius and featuring the female ensemble of voices Quarteto em Cy (who later came to enjoy their own share of success in many other artists' recording as well as their own).

All the songs here are composed by Powell and Vinicius and all of them are known as Brazilian standards today - and here you get THEIR original versions.

The lyrics (in Portuguese) are stunning and unparalleled anywhere. They reflect Afro-Brazilian stories of love and sadness and constant relationship with the gods. Here are some of my favorite verses...

From TRISTEZA E SOLIDÃO (track 7)
Ela não sabe (She does not know)
Quanta tristeza cabe numa solidão (How much sadness fits into a solitude)
Eu sei que ela não pensa (I know she does not think)
Quanto a indiferença (How much such indifference)
Dói num coração (Hurts in a heart)

From TEMPO DE AMOR (track 5)
Ah, que não seja meu (Oh, let not be mine)
Um mundo onde o amor morreu (A world where love has died)

Isn't it beautiful???

Also, here you have a fabulous little ensemble of 12 top musicians with Brazilian instruments... all arranged and conducted by Guerra Peixe who, back in the 60's worked with several top Brazilian performers. The sound is rich, deep, sharp, colorful and trend-setting in may ways.

Both the Bossa Nova and Samba sounds we all know and hear today can be traced back to this album.

Close your eyes and get this album. You're in for a big, unique ride.

CANTO DE OSSANHA (track 1) is a major standard already covered by many artists like Elis Regina (many times), Toots Thielemans, Maysa, Tamba Trio, Toquinho and Chico Buarque. It's lyrics are among the finest ever written in Portuguese language. And the music will be echoing in your mind forever.

I love this album. Excellent blend of Brazilian, Latin and Jazz influences. Excellent musicianship and phrasing. Highly recommend this album, it has become one of my favorites.

Oh, I love this CD...that is why I kick myself everytime I think about how I lent it out, "Oh, don't worry dude, I just wanna burn a copy and then I'll give it right back. Honest. I swear..."

Well, I don't even have to tell you what happened, do I? I haven't seen that person or that CD in months, but I remember when I did have this CD, it was like Love at First Listen and that is unusual for a CD to take that strong of a hold on me on the first take. Usually I listen to an album three or four times and I "swirl" each song in my head and decide whether or not I like it, but with this one, I was able to unwrap the CD, put it in the stereo, sit back, and melt. I've never heard such gorgeous music in my whole life.

I don't know what genre this is classified as. Latin? Jazz? Latin Jazz? I really can't nor do I want to "peg" this recording. It almost seems kind of unfair to brand it and put it into a category. Let's just say that if you did manage to listen to all the samples without taking out your credit card and giving amazon your information, you're a pretty strong individual because I knew even before I had the CD in my hands that I had to have it.

And now it's gone and now I'm sad, but like with former lovers, sometimes the parting is just bittersweet. Yeah, I know I'm being melodramatic, but hey, this is my drama, okay?

Geesh.

So if you're reading this Mr. Sticky Fingers, and you know who you are, I hope you know that you brought a 6'1", 205lb man to tears. Just leave it on my doorstep and I won't ask any questions....

Sigh...

I'm gonna have to buy this again, huh?

Oh, well....


Peace & Blessings.

Peace

Baden Powell was probably the most important and brilliant brazilian guitarrist ever. He's absolutely original, passionate, intense, aggressive yet sweet and melancolic some times. He was one of the most renowned and influential guitarrists in the world during the 70's, while he was living in Europe, most of time in Germany and France. However, for some strange reason, after he came back to Brazil in the 80's, his name started loosing fame and prestige. This CD has a very interesting selection of some of his most important songs. Some tracks are especially important: "Lenda do Abaete" shows one of his most amazing guitar techniques: Baden had a special and unique kind of rasgueado (very different from Spanish Flamenco, though) and he was able to play melodies that way, resulting in a very vigorous and unbelievable playing. "Viagem", by its turn, shows a very romantic and sweet Baden Powell playing with an orchestra. "Samba Triste" is absolutely incredible in terms of harmony and beauty. Baden has released over 35 discs from 1963 through 2001, when we lost him. Don't miss this CD, as well as "The Frankfurt Opera Concert" (absolutely amazing), "Os Afro-Sambas", "Brazil Guitar Magic" (compilation with Laurindo Almeida) and "Suite Afro-Consolacao".

Mission: impossible. To put together the best of Baden Powell we would probably need the largest/longest CD ever. Dweller of the girl from Ipanema days, Baden joined the bossa-nova headquarters in its early years. A virtuose of the guitar, jazz, pop and afro-sambas with Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, repeated successful tours around Europe and USA, a forty years old musical career and a strong devotion to perfection lifts him up to the top level of cool. The album is definitly a must listen and the guys putting that compilation together were extremely fortunate.

If you have ears, you must buy this record! It is an incredible, topographal overview of a little-known genius' work over 40 years. Let me preface, by first saying, there are no words, I repeat, nothing you can say, to communicate what goes on in this man, that is *precisely* why what comes out of him through that guitar will open a whole new world to you. I am a new Powell fan after hearing the incredible percussionist, Cyro Baptista praise him on a PBS World Music Special in the fall of 1998. Cyro said Baden gave the fast samba, and the complex playing style, definition, and there is much more to him than samba rythym. The things I heard in a 15 second clip of a 60's concert eminating from Powell, concerned me enough that there were things in music, so far beyond normal composition, above the shelf of everyday music, and so overlooked by the world in general, I had to buy it. The insane chords, rythyms, layerings, counterparts within his 3 piece! How could the world, especially musicians, for so long have ignored this mad-man?!?!? He can take a beautiful, airy, classical quote, say a Debussy-ish line, imply a tight pocketted samba rythym that may or may not actually exist or be audible, and make you cry and at the same time, be lost in a state of awe and wonder, probably much like the first time you took breath. I say it again, there are no words to describe the feelings that come from his brain through his fingers, out of that guitar. I cannot plead to you enough, if you take interest in music at all, regardless of the age, flavor or your attitude, you must listen to this man's work and use it to expand your own. Amazon is the first resource at all, for Baden that I have found, other than fan web site's listing LPs out of print. I have looked for 7 month's in major music stores, only to find this album, and one or two others. I have called major music catalogs, they haven't even heard of him. Amazon has easily over 15 recordings of this mystery man. For the very reason you loved music in the first place, check this man out.

Baden Powell was a genius, a magician, a wizard . . . the shaman of the acoustic guitar. This is not "classical guitar" playing. No matter how many "classical guitarists" you have heard, you have no idea how much passion can be conveyed through this instrument unless you have listened to Baden Powell. Only Roland Dyens among living guitarists comes close. It is my personal theory that Dyens was inspired by Powell, who was living and touring in France and Germany while Dyens was a teenager. I have over 5,000 recordings of all kinds of music. If I had to save 5 or 6 cd's from a fire, Baden Powell's "Personalidade" and "Seresta Brasileira" would be among them. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about this music. The first 3 tracks here, "Viagem", "Das Rosas" (by Dori Caymmi), and the awe-inspiring "Apelo" I listen to almost every day. No musician I have ever heard communicates from the heart like Baden Powell . . . love, passion, longing, nostalgia, romance, heartbreak, fragile beauty. I thank God that he played guitar, the instrument of poetry. Perhaps Baden came to us from the planet "Guitar", to which he has now returned to play eternal duets with fellow native Joe Pass. In heaven, if I make it, I will spend my evenings sitting next to Jobim and listening to Baden, Joe and Roland, who undoubtedly will have shown up at the gig by then, improvising on "Round Midnight" and "Manha de Carnaval".