Alex Henderson

 
Ithamara Koorax     Bim Bom: The Complete João Gilberto Songbook

    João Gilberto is one of the most seminal and iconic figures in the history of Brazilian music. In the late 1950s, the Salvador, Bahia-born singer/guitarist was an indispensible architect of the bossa nova (a sensuous fusion of cool jazz and samba), and his gentle, caressing vocal style has been amazingly influential. João Gilberto has been the subject of quite a few tributes both inside and outside of Brazil, some of which have also been tributes to composer Antonio Carlos Jobim (another legendary figure in the rise of the bossa nova) and singer Astrud Gilberto (João Gilberto’s wife from 1959 to the mid-1960s). But on Bim Bom: The Complete João Gilberto Songbook, Ithamara Koorax not only celebrates his accomplishments as a singer and a guitarist—she also celebrates his accomplishments as a songwriter. Every song that Koorax (one of the top Brazilian vocalists of the 1990s and 2000s) embraces on Bim Bom was written or co-written by Gilberto, and the fact that this album focuses on the Gilberto songbook exclusively makes it truly historic. Even Gilberto himself has never recorded an entire album of his own compositions.
    “I have always loved João Gilberto,” the 43-year-old Koorax explains, “and I grew up listening to his recordings. When I was very young—about four or five years old—my favorite record from my parents' collection was Cançao do Amor Demais, an album by the great Brazilian songstress Elizeth Cardoso with João on the guitar. Sometime later, I received a copy of João Gilberto's debut album, Chega de Saudade, which included his songs ‘Bim Bom’ and ‘Ho-Bá-Lá-Lá,’ respectively the opening and the second track on this João Gilberto songbook album. By an incredible, almost unbelievable coincidence, when I started my professional career as a singer in 1990, Elizeth—the uncredited singer on the ‘Black Orpheus’ movie soundtrack—became my ‘artistic grandmother,’ helping me a lot and inviting me to record backing vocals on her last album, Ary Amoroso.
    Gilberto, who turned 77 in 2008, was also a major inspiration for guitarist Juarez Moreira (Koorax’s partner on Bim Bom) and the heavyweight Brazilian jazz producer/arranger Arnaldo DeSouteiro, who produced this album for his own label, Jazz Station Records. DeSouteiro considers 2008 a very special year; 2008, DeSouteiro points out, marked the 50th anniversary of Gilberto’s first recordings as a leader—which made 2008 the 50th anniversary of the bossa nova. Like so many Brazilians, Koorax, Moreira and DeSouteiro grew up listening to Gilberto’s recordings—and that mutual love of his work gave them a very strong musical chemistry when they recorded Bim Bom in Rio de Janeiro (where Koorax and DeSouteiro, her husband, live). In fact, their chemistry was so strong that it only took them three days to complete the project—one day to rehearse and discuss the arrangements, choose the best keys and find out the right tempos, and two days for the actual recording. Although a few guitar overdubs were added to Bim Bom to give some of the songs a two-guitar effect, this album contains no vocal overdubs at all.
    “Prior to this album,” Moreira remembers, “I had devoted entire albums to the works of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ary Barroso—two of my favorite composers—and now, I'm more than happy to have the chance to perform these Gilberto songs I have always loved so much. It's really a dream come true. I felt very excited from the first moment that Arnaldo told me about the project."
    Koorax adds: “Juarez and I clicked instantly. The recording, done in the same room, was an eye-to-eye connection.”
Moreira, who lives in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and flew to Rio de Janeiro for the Bim Bom sessions, recalls: “It was really a collective project. I was so happy and excited that I couldn’t sleep between the sessions. I had found myself practicing all the time. Although some of the songs may seem very simple, it’s a false impression. Gilberto’s tunes are very demanding in harmonic terms and very challenging in terms of guitar playing; they demand a lot of technique. That’s the main ingredient of Gilberto’s magic: top make very difficult and intricate things seems to easy and sound so natural.”
    Gilberto and DeSouteiro have enjoyed a close relationship for many years. They first met in 1979, and since then, they have worked together on many different projects and in many different capacities—co-producing CD reissues, preparing compilation albums, overseeing video documentaries, and coordinating television specials in Brazil as well as Japan. In 1992, DeSouteiro helped to unite Gilberto and the legendary Jobim for two concerts that became the basis for the television special “Joao & Antonio,” broadcast all over the world (DeSouteiro wrote the script, acted as musical director and even did the sound mixing at Gilberto’s request). That special for Globo TV network was Gilberto and Jobim’s’ first musical encounter in 30 years and sadly, their last (Jobim died two years later in 1994).
    The intimate combination of nothing but voice and guitar has worked well on many Brazilian jazz recordings over the years, and it certainly works well on Bim Bom—which gets off to a memorable start with the title track, a gem that Gilberto first recorded in 1958. The song “Bim Bom” was released as the B-side of Gilberto’s “Chega de Saudade” single, which introduced many jazz and samba lovers to the joys of bossa nova (Gilberto’s debut album, also titled Chega de Saudade, came out in 1959). Gilberto’s bossa nova innovations weren’t the first time that cool jazz and Brazilian music were combined—Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida and American alto saxophonist Bud Shank’s landmark Brazilliance sessions of 1953 have often been described as a precursor to the bossa nova—but if Almeida and Shank got the ball rolling, Gilberto and Jobim definitely took it to the next level. And Koorax’s joyous performance of “Bim Bom” demonstrates that she is well aware of the importance of the song, which was also recorded by Stan Getz and Gary McFarland on their Big Band Bossa Nova album for Verve Records in 1962 and by Astrud Gilberto and Gil Evans for their Look to the Rainbow album (also on Verve) in 1965. Gilberto himself revisited "Bim Bom" on Getz/Gilberto # 2, a live album that was produced by Creed Taylor and recorded at New York City’s prestigious Carnegie Hall on October 9, 1964.  
    Koorax has been performing “Ho-Bá-Lá-Lá” on stage since 1990, but Bim Bom marks the first time she has recorded a studio version of the dreamy Gilberto standard (which has also been recorded by a long list of artists ranging from Azymuth, Baden Powell and Sivuca in Brazil to Mel Tormé, Lee Konitz and organist Larry Goldings in the United States). The bilingual Koorax offers two versions of “Ho-Bá-Lá-Lá” on Bim Bom: a version in Portuguese and a version in English—and listeners are reminded that she is equally expressive in both languages.
  The lyrics that Koorax performs on the English-language version of “Ho-Bá-Lá-Lá” were written by Brazilian producer Aloysio de Oliveira, founder of the bossa nova label Elenco Records; de Olivera wrote those lyrics for singer Sylvia Telles, who was his wife at the time and included “Ho-Bá-Lá-Lá” on her Amor em Hi-Fi album (released on the Philips label in 1960). Koorax and Moreira decided to slow down the tempo a little for this second take, and he used an electric guitar for the magnificent solo, doing a quick quote of “Invitation” and showcasing the influence of Wes Montgomery through the use of octaves. “That’s João meets Wes,” he says.
  Koorax’s charisma is also impossible to miss when she sings in Portuguese on “Você Esteve Com Meu Bem?” and “Minha Saudade.” But Koorax doesn’t need lyrics to express herself emotionally; she is also quite expressive when she doesn’t embrace any lyrics at all. Her excellence as a scat singer is evident on ethereal, wordless performances of “Bebel,” “Glass Beads” (a.k.a. “No Coreto”), “João Marcelo,” “Undiú” and “Acapulco.”
Originally heard on Gilberto’s self-titled João Gilberto album of 1973, the jazz-waltz “Bebel” is a song that he wrote for his older daughter, singer Bebel Gilberto, who was only a child at the time. This tune is also known as “Valsa” or “Come São Lindos os Youguis,” and was covered by the Brazilian pop group Novos Baianos in 1974. “Koorax provides soft wordless vocals, while Moreira plays a dreamy electric guitar solo a la Barney Kessel,” adds DeSouteiro.
Meanwhile, “Glass Beads” (a.k.a. “No Coreto”) is a rare jewel that hasn’t appeared on any of Gilberto’s albums. Gilberto co-wrote the song with pianist João Donato for Donato’s 1965 album The New Sound of Brazil, which was arranged by Claus Ogerman in New York City and released by RCA Records. “Koorax and Moreira lay the melody in unison in a very tender way,” says the album producer.
"João Marcelo" (dedicated to João’s first-born son, from his marriage with Astrud Gilberto) and "Acapulco" both made their debut on Gilberto’s 1971 album João Gilberto en México, which was arranged by Oscar Castro-Neves. That title stems from the fact that Gilberto lived in Mexico from 1969-1971, and even though “Acapulco” might sound like the title of a mariachi/ranchera recording, the piece is pure bossa nova. Gilberto revisited "João Marcelo" in the mid-1970s, when he played it as the only solo guitar offering on The Best of Two Worlds (a Columbia date that reunited Gilberto with Stan Getz, the American tenor sax icon who was featured on some of the most definitive bossa nova recordings of the 1960s—including their hit 1963 version of Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema”). The intimate vocals/guitar format heard on Koorax’s interpretation of “João Marcelo” is a departure from the orchestral version heard on João Gilberto en México. Koorax explains: "Juarez suggested that I sing only in the passages originally played by the flutes and the strings on the original orchestration."
    The haunting “Undiú,” which Gilberto recorded for his self-titled João Gilberto album of 1973 (reissued in 1988 on the Verve label in the USA), differs from most of Bim Bom in that it isn’t a bossa nova or a samba but rather, employs baião--a rhythm that originated in Northeastern Brazil and became the basis for embolada, forró and other nordeste (northeastern) styles. “It would be easier to compare it to philosophy or religion than to most other music. On this record, elements that had been present in his music all along are taken to their logical conclusion….The constant rhythmic and harmonic shifts are delivered in what seems to be a steady, incredibly intimate series of asides,” Arto Lindsay wrote in the liner notes for the CD reissue of the João Gilberto album.
Koorax remembers: “I found myself in a kind of spiritual trance while recording it, and I think the track captures this hypnotic feel."
    The oldest song on Bim Bom is “Você Esteve Com Meu Bem?,” which was the first Gilberto composition ever recorded by anyone. “Você Esteve Com Meu Bem?” was originally recorded for RCA Records in 1953 by singer Mariza, who was Gilberto’s girlfriend at the time and later became known as Marisa Gata Mansa after she married pianist Cesar Camargo Mariano. According to DeSouteiro, the song was entirely composed by Gilberto, who decided to give Antonio Cardoso Martins, a.k.a. Russo do Pandeiro (who had worked with the famous Carmen Miranda) credit as a co-writer because Martins was the one who persuaded RCA to let Mariza record it. Forty-two years later, in 1995, Brazilian star Caetano Veloso included “Você Esteve Com Meu Bem?” on his Fina Estampa Ao Vivo album for Verve.
     “Minha Saudade” is almost as old as “Você Esteve Com Meu Bem?”; Donato composed “Minha Saudade’s” melody in 1955, when the song was first recorded as an instrumental for a Luiz Bonfá session that featured Donato on accordion and Jobim on piano. But a few years later, Gilberto added his well known Portuguese lyrics to “Minha Saudade”—and Koorax brings plenty of passion and enthusiasm to those lyrics in 2009. Some of the songs on Bim Bom can be described as rare jewels, but “Minha Saudade” is very much a standard (Cannonball Adderley, Bud Shank, Jack McDuff, Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd, Walter Wanderly and Hendrik Meurkens are among the many jazz instrumentalists who have recorded the song over the years).
    “Forgotten Places,” a.k.a. “Coisas Distantes,” is another song that Gilberto and Donato co-wrote for The New Sound of Brazil in 1965. Originally recorded as an instrumental, “Forgotten Places” acquired Portuguese lyrics 14 years later in 1979 thanks to poet Lysias Enio, Donato's brother; those Portuguese lyrics were unveiled in 1979 on singer Leny Andrade’s Registro album (CBS). "I decided to explore the very romantic mood of this piece,” Koorax explains. “Claus Ogerman gave me the original lead sheet some years ago, so I learned to play it on the piano. Juarez and I recorded it as a very slow ballad à la Shirley Horn, one of my favorite jazz singers ever. Not coincidentally, Shirley was a huge fan of João Gilberto, and her album Here's to Life is one of his favorite albums."
    “An Embrace to Bonfá  (Um Abraço No Bonfá),” which Gilberto wrote in honor of guitarist/composer Luiz Bonfá and included on his second album, O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor, in 1960, is Bim Bom’s lone instrumental. Koorax is absent from this song, and Moreira plays his guitar unaccompanied. "I've always dreamed of recording this tune because Gilberto and Bonfá are my two favorite Brazilian guitarists," Moreira reveals. "It's a very challenging tune; you need to be in top form to play it correctly and keep the original flavor."
    The iconic Bonfá, who died in 2001, was one of Gilberto’s closest friends and was a major influence on his guitar playing. Musically, “Um Abraço No Bonfá” was inspired by "O Barbinha Branca," a song that Bonfá composed in 1955. Over the years, “Um Abraço No Bonfá” has also been recorded by Charlie Byrd, Bud Shank, Laurindo Almeida and Baden Powell. In 1962, Coleman Hawkins—the godfather of the tenor saxophone—recorded “Um Abraço No Bonfá” for his album Desafinado: Coleman Hawkins Plays Bossa Nova and Jazz Samba, and in 1998, British guitarist Andy Summers (formerly of The Police) recorded the song for Strings of Desire (an acoustic date with Brazilian guitarist Victor Biglione).
    Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1965, Koorax comes from a family of Polish Jews who fled Europe during World War II. Koorax began studying classical singing when she was only a child, but as beneficial as that classical training was, Brazilian jazz and Brazilian pop became her primary focus—and her long list of influences ranged from Brazilian icons like Flora Purim, Elis Regina, Astrud Gilberto and Elizeth Cardoso to American jazz vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Helen Merrill. The versatile Koorax went on to build an impressively diverse catalogue. Ithamara Koorax has recorded 11 solo albums (for the Milestone, Mercury, EMI, Irma, JVC and King labels), 15 soundtracks and took part in more than 200 special projects. She recorded/performed with such masters as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, Ron Carter, Larry Coryell, Sadao Watanabe, Hermeto Pascoal, João Donato, John McLaughlin, Jay Berliner, Marcos Valle, Dom Um Romão, Peter Scharli, Thiago de Mello, Edu Lobo and the Azymuth group, having toured England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Finland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, the United States and many other countries.
    In the 2000s, Koorax has received high marks from DownBeat Magazine on several occasions. “Ithamara Koorax has one of the loveliest singing voices in creation,” DownBeat critic Frank-John Hadley write in the November 2008 issue of the jazz bible. “Koorax is delightfully unpredictable in her music…embracing virtuosity, astonishing range and volcanic vocalese,” stated Fred Bouchard in a 4-star rave review of her Brazilian Butterfly album printed in the February 2007 issue of DownBeat. Meanwhile, DownBeat readers have been quite favorable to Koorax in the poll’s female vocalist category; she was voted #10 singer in 2000, #4 in 2002, #11 in 2004, #8 in 2005, #7 in 2006, #5 in 2007, and now, #3 in 2008.
    DeSouteiro, who is also a carioca and was born in Rio de Janeiro on June 28, 1963, has many impressive credentials himself. In Brazilian jazz circles, the producer/arranger has commanded the sort of attention that Quincy Jones, Creed Taylor and Orrin Keepnews have enjoyed in the United States—and the long list of well known artists he has worked with includes Luiz Bonfá, Dom Um Romão, Claudio Roditi, João Donato, Mario Castro-Neves, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Thiago de Mello and none other than João Gilberto himself.  
    Celebrated as one of  Brazil’s leading guitarists, Juarez Moreira—besides a solo career as a jazzman—has performed with some of Brazil’s top pop artists such as
Milton Nascimento, Lo Borges, Beto Guedes and Maria Bethânia, while keeping jazz collaborations with Claudio Roditi, Paulo Maura, Nivaldo Ornelas, Toninho Horta and Wager Tiso. And like Koorax and DeSouteiro, Moreira has been listening to João Gilberto religiously since childhood.
    “My father, an amateur pianist, introduced me to João Gilberto’s records and gave me my first instrumental when I was 12,” says Moreira, born in 1954. “Most of these Gilberto tunes that we recorded I learned by ear, listening to his albums, when I was in my teens.”
    There is no shortage of artists who are more than willing to praise Gilberto; North Americans and Brazilians alike have often exalted him as a “legendary vocalist” and an “innovative guitarist.” But Gilberto’s contributions as a composer are sometimes overlooked—and with Bim Bom, Koorax, Moreira and DeSouteiro all do their part to remind listeners that songwriting has also been a valuable part of Gilberto’s legacy.
    "I don't think of Bim Bom as ‘just one more album’ in my career,” Koorax asserts. “It's a project destined to make history.”

—Alex Henderson, May 2009

         Alex Henderson is a Philadelphia-based journalist whose work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, CD Review, HITS, Cash Box, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), All About Jazz, Latin Style and numerous other well known publications over the years. Since 1996, Henderson (http://www.alexvhenderson.com) has written thousands of CD reviews for The All Music Guide's popular website and series of reference books.