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 Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb.
Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep.
Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks.
It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come.
Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD!
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Ceu
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Ceu;
Six Degrees;
2008-04-07;
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: �7.85
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Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb.
Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep.
Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks.
It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come.
Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD!
Truly wonderful, 11 Sep 2008
I just felt completely compelled to write my first ever review for this special album. I bought this on a recommendation from Amazon, thank you Amazon. To say that this album is good is an understatement, it's exceptional! Ceu's voice conveys a superb depth of emotion; her soothing sultry tones tug you right into the soul of the music. This emotionality is also coupled with a fine vocal texture that you can reach out and touch, I find this aspect of her voice completely addictive.
This is an album that you simply must listen to if you have an interest in world music. The musical accompaniment is also excellent with its restraint. You can look to other reviews for comparisons with other musicians and comments on her musical influences, the net effect is an album of beauty that is so much better than any perception of what the sum of the comparison and influences might sound like. Here's an artist I can't wait to hear more from. Don't hesitate to buy this. Enjoy!
Sunday Times Review, 14 May 2008
Could this be the most interesting singer to come out of Brazil since Bebel Gilberto? For some reason, this album, which has been bubbling around the transatlantic charts for a couple of years, has taken a long time to reach these shores. It's certainly worth the wait. The eccentrically named Ceu - real name Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas - possesses a strikingly pure voice, and her tastes are unfailingly ecclectic. Oddly enough, one of the most potent numbers is her sinuous cover of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Electro influences are discreetly scattered around; there's even a hint of fado on Valsa Pra Biu Roque. Add some elegant jazz lite and soul textuers, and you have all the makings of a summer hit. Classy, very classy. [Clive Davis, Sunday Times]
Laid-back, funky and very good, 01 Apr 2008
I discovered Brazilian singer Céu by accident three weeks ago at 2 a.m. on TV in Brazil, which was showing the recording of a concert she gave at the SESC Pompéia in São Paulo in 2007 for the programme Bem Brasil. I was in the kitchen and heard some good sounds coming from the TV in the lounge, came through to see who it was and was hooked by the music (and Céu's pretty face). The day I got back to the UK I searched for a CD and ordered it, and have been playing it frequently since. There is not a bum song on the album, and it just makes me want to mix a caipirinha and lie in a hammock.
This CD was actually recorded between 2002 and 2004 and apparently Céu has been touting these songs for some time. The songs have a laid-back, sometimes jazz-funk feel, with that well-known Brazilian swing to it all (this isn't Bossa Nova, though) that relaxes and yet has you nodding along. It's also slightly avant-garde for Brazilian 'smooth' music -- or maybe I should just say it's modernistic -- as the band mixes the odd turntable scratching, electronic, percussive and other noises into the background. I was impressed with Céu's backing group for the SESC Pompéia concert, and that also applies when I listen to the CD. The bassist delivers a funky, thumping beat on several tracks, and the percussionist, guitarists, brass and woodwind players, keyboard players and DJ all deliver in spades. And then there's Céu's voice, which is silky-smooth yet punchy, and sexy too. On Mais Um Lamento she even reminds me a little of Elis Regina. I can see why Starbucks decided to release her on their in-store CD label too: it's a classy collection of songs. Take Afro music (Afro-Brazilian percussion, as well as the style of music), electro-pop, Brazilian folk, jazz-funk, samba and MPB, and you get this CD. I mentioned my hammock above, well these songs would be equally at home in a smoky jazz bar, and they'd sound just as good there too. Valsa Pra Biu Roque is just Céu over bandolin and Brazilian guitar, and sounds very 'caipira', and is a pleasant lull in the beat.
I ordered the CD via this Amazon page and the CD I received is a Victor Entertainment (Japanese) edition with a 16th track (Nação Postal) and a 'bonus' track (Malemolência remix), neither of which is currently shown in the track list on this page, plus a video of the track Roda if you pop the CD in your PC. The remix of Malemolência is nothing special, and neither is the video, but Nação Postal is certainly a welcome addition. But whether you get the edition with 15 or 16 tracks, you get your money's worth: there's a lot of good music on this CD. Highly recommended.
A truly sublime album, 31 Mar 2008
I listen to a lot of music while I work and this CD has dominated my stereo for three months. Ceu's voice is hauntingly beautiful and the soothing melodies make stress slip away. I can't give clever analysis about how it fits into the Samba music scene, but for UK listeners it's something like listening to Dido crossed with Portishead while lying in the sun drinking a rum cocktail. If you only have one foreign language album in your collection I strongly recommend that you have this one!
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Cansei De Ser Sexy
Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: �4.35
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Product Description
Cansei De Ser Sexy, to give them their full name (it translates as "tired of being sexy") are five girls and one guy from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Don't expect indigenous sounds of the shanty town, though: Cansei De Ser Sexy is proof that disco-punk is now an international currency, eleven tracks of sassy organic dance inspired by the likes of LCD Soundsystem, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Daft Punk, and Sonic Youth - not to mention the giddy social whirl of parties, art shows, and sweaty nightclubs that seem to be a key part of the CSS experience (one song here is called 'Meeting Paris Hilton'). Thankfully, what's here is far more stoopid fun than studied cool: 'Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above' is a pulsing hipster mating call eerily reminiscent of Tom Tom Club's ace '80s hit 'Wordy Rappinghood', while 'Artbitch' finds frontwoman Lovefoxxx running off at the mouth about the shallowness of creative culture ("I have no portfolio/ And I only show where there's free alcohol"). It doesn't always work, the occasional track (see the ska-tinged 'Alcohol') coming across as a tossed-off in-joke - but regardless, Cansei De Ser Sexy is packed with ideas, and pretty much a blast from start to close. --Louis Pattison
Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb.
Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep.
Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks.
It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come.
Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD!
Truly wonderful, 11 Sep 2008
I just felt completely compelled to write my first ever review for this special album. I bought this on a recommendation from Amazon, thank you Amazon. To say that this album is good is an understatement, it's exceptional! Ceu's voice conveys a superb depth of emotion; her soothing sultry tones tug you right into the soul of the music. This emotionality is also coupled with a fine vocal texture that you can reach out and touch, I find this aspect of her voice completely addictive.
This is an album that you simply must listen to if you have an interest in world music. The musical accompaniment is also excellent with its restraint. You can look to other reviews for comparisons with other musicians and comments on her musical influences, the net effect is an album of beauty that is so much better than any perception of what the sum of the comparison and influences might sound like. Here's an artist I can't wait to hear more from. Don't hesitate to buy this. Enjoy!
Sunday Times Review, 14 May 2008
Could this be the most interesting singer to come out of Brazil since Bebel Gilberto? For some reason, this album, which has been bubbling around the transatlantic charts for a couple of years, has taken a long time to reach these shores. It's certainly worth the wait. The eccentrically named Ceu - real name Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas - possesses a strikingly pure voice, and her tastes are unfailingly ecclectic. Oddly enough, one of the most potent numbers is her sinuous cover of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Electro influences are discreetly scattered around; there's even a hint of fado on Valsa Pra Biu Roque. Add some elegant jazz lite and soul textuers, and you have all the makings of a summer hit. Classy, very classy. [Clive Davis, Sunday Times]
Laid-back, funky and very good, 01 Apr 2008
I discovered Brazilian singer Céu by accident three weeks ago at 2 a.m. on TV in Brazil, which was showing the recording of a concert she gave at the SESC Pompéia in São Paulo in 2007 for the programme Bem Brasil. I was in the kitchen and heard some good sounds coming from the TV in the lounge, came through to see who it was and was hooked by the music (and Céu's pretty face). The day I got back to the UK I searched for a CD and ordered it, and have been playing it frequently since. There is not a bum song on the album, and it just makes me want to mix a caipirinha and lie in a hammock.
This CD was actually recorded between 2002 and 2004 and apparently Céu has been touting these songs for some time. The songs have a laid-back, sometimes jazz-funk feel, with that well-known Brazilian swing to it all (this isn't Bossa Nova, though) that relaxes and yet has you nodding along. It's also slightly avant-garde for Brazilian 'smooth' music -- or maybe I should just say it's modernistic -- as the band mixes the odd turntable scratching, electronic, percussive and other noises into the background. I was impressed with Céu's backing group for the SESC Pompéia concert, and that also applies when I listen to the CD. The bassist delivers a funky, thumping beat on several tracks, and the percussionist, guitarists, brass and woodwind players, keyboard players and DJ all deliver in spades. And then there's Céu's voice, which is silky-smooth yet punchy, and sexy too. On Mais Um Lamento she even reminds me a little of Elis Regina. I can see why Starbucks decided to release her on their in-store CD label too: it's a classy collection of songs. Take Afro music (Afro-Brazilian percussion, as well as the style of music), electro-pop, Brazilian folk, jazz-funk, samba and MPB, and you get this CD. I mentioned my hammock above, well these songs would be equally at home in a smoky jazz bar, and they'd sound just as good there too. Valsa Pra Biu Roque is just Céu over bandolin and Brazilian guitar, and sounds very 'caipira', and is a pleasant lull in the beat.
I ordered the CD via this Amazon page and the CD I received is a Victor Entertainment (Japanese) edition with a 16th track (Nação Postal) and a 'bonus' track (Malemolência remix), neither of which is currently shown in the track list on this page, plus a video of the track Roda if you pop the CD in your PC. The remix of Malemolência is nothing special, and neither is the video, but Nação Postal is certainly a welcome addition. But whether you get the edition with 15 or 16 tracks, you get your money's worth: there's a lot of good music on this CD. Highly recommended.
A truly sublime album, 31 Mar 2008
I listen to a lot of music while I work and this CD has dominated my stereo for three months. Ceu's voice is hauntingly beautiful and the soothing melodies make stress slip away. I can't give clever analysis about how it fits into the Samba music scene, but for UK listeners it's something like listening to Dido crossed with Portishead while lying in the sun drinking a rum cocktail. If you only have one foreign language album in your collection I strongly recommend that you have this one!
FabFabFab, 08 Mar 2008
This is a great album, really different and fresh, I love every track on here and recomend it to everyone
Not up to standard, 06 Feb 2008
It's a mad album but, 6 months on, I find myself ignoring the large majority of tracks. "Let's make love and listen death from above" is still a great track, but the other ones sound a bit immature, like schoolgirls sniggering at the dirty words they can say. Not a sexy album at all.
Best Band Ever, 07 Nov 2007
Alright just my opinion but honestly i only know 1 person who dislikes it not including the bad reviews but ive had it for 6 months and listened at least once a day.also kudos to the extra portugeese lyrics do you know where to find them? Also they live up to thier name as a internet band with various music videos on various site's.Anyway buy it.IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME!
Ignore the idiots..., 01 Oct 2007
What a load of rubbish... the reviews below, not the album. Go back and listen to coldplay, phil collins, m.o.r. rubbish, or re-invigorate yr love of music with CSS. 5 stars without a doubt, still listening to it months + months after release...
CSS do indeed suck, 09 Sep 2007
When i read interviews from CSS...the clues are all there.Mainly the fact that they too are comfounded and bewildered by their own rise in popularity.They must be laughing their heads off and wondering why they are not getting pelted on stage by unmentionable and ghastly missiles whilst playing at all the big music festivals and getting paid in the process. Am i missing something here?
Absolute tripe from start to miserable suicide inducing end.
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Getz/Gilberto Vol.1: Remastered
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Stan GetzJoao GilbertoAntonio Carlos Jobim;
Verve;
1999-05-25;
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: �5.67
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Product Description
Originally released in March 1964, this collaboration between saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist João Gilberto came at seemingly the end of the bossa nova craze Getz himself had sparked in 1962 with Jazz Samba, his release with American guitarist Charlie Byrd. Jazz Samba remains the only jazz album to reach number one in the pop charts. In fact, the story goes that Getz had to push for the release of Getz/Gilberto since the company did not want to compete with its own hit; it was a good thing he did. Getz/Gilberto, which featured composer Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano, not only yielded the hit "Girl from Ipanema" (sung by Astrud Gilberto, the guitarist's wife, who had no professional experience) but also "Corcovado" ("Quiet Night")--an instant standard, and the definitive version of "Desafinado". Getz/Gilberto spent 96 weeks in the charts and won four Grammys. It remains one of those rare cases in popular music where commercial success matches artistic merit. Bossa nova's "cool" aesthetic--with its understated rhythms, rich harmonies, and slightly detached delivery--had been influenced, in part, by cool jazz. Gilberto in particular was a Stan Getz fan. Getz, with his lyricism, the bittersweet longing in his sound, and his restrained but strong swing, was the perfect fit. His lines, at once decisive and evanescent, focus the rest of the group's performance without overpowering. A classic. --Fernando Gonzalez
Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb. Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep. Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks. It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come. Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD! Truly wonderful, 11 Sep 2008
I just felt completely compelled to write my first ever review for this special album. I bought this on a recommendation from Amazon, thank you Amazon. To say that this album is good is an understatement, it's exceptional! Ceu's voice conveys a superb depth of emotion; her soothing sultry tones tug you right into the soul of the music. This emotionality is also coupled with a fine vocal texture that you can reach out and touch, I find this aspect of her voice completely addictive.
This is an album that you simply must listen to if you have an interest in world music. The musical accompaniment is also excellent with its restraint. You can look to other reviews for comparisons with other musicians and comments on her musical influences, the net effect is an album of beauty that is so much better than any perception of what the sum of the comparison and influences might sound like. Here's an artist I can't wait to hear more from. Don't hesitate to buy this. Enjoy!
Sunday Times Review, 14 May 2008
Could this be the most interesting singer to come out of Brazil since Bebel Gilberto? For some reason, this album, which has been bubbling around the transatlantic charts for a couple of years, has taken a long time to reach these shores. It's certainly worth the wait. The eccentrically named Ceu - real name Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas - possesses a strikingly pure voice, and her tastes are unfailingly ecclectic. Oddly enough, one of the most potent numbers is her sinuous cover of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Electro influences are discreetly scattered around; there's even a hint of fado on Valsa Pra Biu Roque. Add some elegant jazz lite and soul textuers, and you have all the makings of a summer hit. Classy, very classy. [Clive Davis, Sunday Times] Laid-back, funky and very good, 01 Apr 2008
I discovered Brazilian singer Céu by accident three weeks ago at 2 a.m. on TV in Brazil, which was showing the recording of a concert she gave at the SESC Pompéia in São Paulo in 2007 for the programme Bem Brasil. I was in the kitchen and heard some good sounds coming from the TV in the lounge, came through to see who it was and was hooked by the music (and Céu's pretty face). The day I got back to the UK I searched for a CD and ordered it, and have been playing it frequently since. There is not a bum song on the album, and it just makes me want to mix a caipirinha and lie in a hammock.
This CD was actually recorded between 2002 and 2004 and apparently Céu has been touting these songs for some time. The songs have a laid-back, sometimes jazz-funk feel, with that well-known Brazilian swing to it all (this isn't Bossa Nova, though) that relaxes and yet has you nodding along. It's also slightly avant-garde for Brazilian 'smooth' music -- or maybe I should just say it's modernistic -- as the band mixes the odd turntable scratching, electronic, percussive and other noises into the background. I was impressed with Céu's backing group for the SESC Pompéia concert, and that also applies when I listen to the CD. The bassist delivers a funky, thumping beat on several tracks, and the percussionist, guitarists, brass and woodwind players, keyboard players and DJ all deliver in spades. And then there's Céu's voice, which is silky-smooth yet punchy, and sexy too. On Mais Um Lamento she even reminds me a little of Elis Regina. I can see why Starbucks decided to release her on their in-store CD label too: it's a classy collection of songs. Take Afro music (Afro-Brazilian percussion, as well as the style of music), electro-pop, Brazilian folk, jazz-funk, samba and MPB, and you get this CD. I mentioned my hammock above, well these songs would be equally at home in a smoky jazz bar, and they'd sound just as good there too. Valsa Pra Biu Roque is just Céu over bandolin and Brazilian guitar, and sounds very 'caipira', and is a pleasant lull in the beat.
I ordered the CD via this Amazon page and the CD I received is a Victor Entertainment (Japanese) edition with a 16th track (Nação Postal) and a 'bonus' track (Malemolência remix), neither of which is currently shown in the track list on this page, plus a video of the track Roda if you pop the CD in your PC. The remix of Malemolência is nothing special, and neither is the video, but Nação Postal is certainly a welcome addition. But whether you get the edition with 15 or 16 tracks, you get your money's worth: there's a lot of good music on this CD. Highly recommended.
A truly sublime album, 31 Mar 2008
I listen to a lot of music while I work and this CD has dominated my stereo for three months. Ceu's voice is hauntingly beautiful and the soothing melodies make stress slip away. I can't give clever analysis about how it fits into the Samba music scene, but for UK listeners it's something like listening to Dido crossed with Portishead while lying in the sun drinking a rum cocktail. If you only have one foreign language album in your collection I strongly recommend that you have this one! FabFabFab, 08 Mar 2008
This is a great album, really different and fresh, I love every track on here and recomend it to everyone Not up to standard, 06 Feb 2008
It's a mad album but, 6 months on, I find myself ignoring the large majority of tracks. "Let's make love and listen death from above" is still a great track, but the other ones sound a bit immature, like schoolgirls sniggering at the dirty words they can say. Not a sexy album at all. Best Band Ever, 07 Nov 2007
Alright just my opinion but honestly i only know 1 person who dislikes it not including the bad reviews but ive had it for 6 months and listened at least once a day.also kudos to the extra portugeese lyrics do you know where to find them? Also they live up to thier name as a internet band with various music videos on various site's.Anyway buy it.IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! Ignore the idiots..., 01 Oct 2007
What a load of rubbish... the reviews below, not the album. Go back and listen to coldplay, phil collins, m.o.r. rubbish, or re-invigorate yr love of music with CSS. 5 stars without a doubt, still listening to it months + months after release... CSS do indeed suck, 09 Sep 2007
When i read interviews from CSS...the clues are all there.Mainly the fact that they too are comfounded and bewildered by their own rise in popularity.They must be laughing their heads off and wondering why they are not getting pelted on stage by unmentionable and ghastly missiles whilst playing at all the big music festivals and getting paid in the process. Am i missing something here?
Absolute tripe from start to miserable suicide inducing end.
A pivotal album of the 20th Century, 25 Oct 2008
Antonio Carlos Jobim goes down with Lennon/McCartney, Gershwin, Amstrong as one of the most influential songwriter/stylists of the 20th century.
To judge the album on its own merits is one thing. Getz turns in small but perfectly formed solos. Astrid Gilberto's voice is ravishing, complementing husband Joao's voice with that incredibly restrained vulnerability that is the essence of Bossa. It is an album of incredible tenderness and instrospection. The studio atmosphere is very intimate with an almost homespun quality. For me its a five star album in its own right.
However, this album has a far larger significance, in the way that Sargeant Pepper did. It changed everything and set off ripples that are still reverberating today.
Each of these songs have been covered thousands of times by thousands of artists and continue to be a top staple for jazz as its played all over the world. They have spilled over from jazz into other mediums. They introduced the wider world to the music of Brazil. Arguably the earlier Getz/Byrd, album put Brazil on the wider musical map but it was this album that exposed it in all its exotic glory.
Brazil is a land in which there are as many genres of music as there are in the rest of the world put together. The influence of Jobim and Bossa and their quintessence as captured in these songs, on this album, continues to be a point of departure and return for any number of musical offshoots in their home country, and beyond, to this very day.
From a musicological point of view the impact of this album is unprecedented. There is no other album which has so vividly alerted such a huge proportion of the world to what was going on in a previously little known lesser part of the world, the repercussions of which are still playing out, with vivacity and freshness, almost fifty years later. Sax Max, 02 Jun 2006
Bossa Nova was and is not to everybody's taste. Many jazz aficianados can't stand Astrud Gilberto's singing either. The thing with this session in particular, however, is Stan Getz's playing. There is only one word for it - divine! Which is why I suspect there are so many accolades for this CD. The brevity and melodiousness of his ideas is quite exceptional, not so on many other examples of his work before or after.
I love jazz and I like this, but I can't say I can listen to Bossa Nova all the time. Stan Getz on this CD, however, I don't think I'll tire of... Getting in the groove, 31 Dec 2005
Great album for bossa nova. Fun to listen and get in the groove of dreaming of Brazil.. or mellow enough to have in the background for a wine party. Getz/Gilberto, 06 May 2004
I think you either have an innate love of this sort of music built in or it is something that will be totally lost on you ...if its there and you stumble across it you will never look back.. I already had 7 of the tracks on other cd's but the three i did'nt have are absolutely enchanting and worth the price on their own. I could listen to this a thousand times and find something new in Stan Getz's incredible intonation every time. If you hav'nt heard this stuff before,if you have an open mind,like walking on a deserted beach just where the sea meets the sand,if you love living ...you might just love this... The best Bossa Nova there is. Mark
Pure Cool, 26 Feb 2004
I've been listening to jazz for about 5 years now and wanting to broaden my taste i thought this would be a good direction to go. And what a direction to go!! The album has the ever popular Girl From Ipanema but the more i listen to it, the more i fall in love with the beauty of the other songs. Stan Getz ability is beyond words, as goes for Jobim on the guitar. The voices of Joau and Astrud Gilberto round the album off superbly causing you to hum and sing with them. This album has shown me there is more to bossa nova than i thought. So buy it, and then sit back, close your eyes and think of Brazil!!!
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Sonantes
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Sonantes;
Six Degrees;
2008-10-20;
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: �7.02
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Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb. Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep. Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks. It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come. Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD! Truly wonderful, 11 Sep 2008
I just felt completely compelled to write my first ever review for this special album. I bought this on a recommendation from Amazon, thank you Amazon. To say that this album is good is an understatement, it's exceptional! Ceu's voice conveys a superb depth of emotion; her soothing sultry tones tug you right into the soul of the music. This emotionality is also coupled with a fine vocal texture that you can reach out and touch, I find this aspect of her voice completely addictive.
This is an album that you simply must listen to if you have an interest in world music. The musical accompaniment is also excellent with its restraint. You can look to other reviews for comparisons with other musicians and comments on her musical influences, the net effect is an album of beauty that is so much better than any perception of what the sum of the comparison and influences might sound like. Here's an artist I can't wait to hear more from. Don't hesitate to buy this. Enjoy!
Sunday Times Review, 14 May 2008
Could this be the most interesting singer to come out of Brazil since Bebel Gilberto? For some reason, this album, which has been bubbling around the transatlantic charts for a couple of years, has taken a long time to reach these shores. It's certainly worth the wait. The eccentrically named Ceu - real name Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas - possesses a strikingly pure voice, and her tastes are unfailingly ecclectic. Oddly enough, one of the most potent numbers is her sinuous cover of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Electro influences are discreetly scattered around; there's even a hint of fado on Valsa Pra Biu Roque. Add some elegant jazz lite and soul textuers, and you have all the makings of a summer hit. Classy, very classy. [Clive Davis, Sunday Times] Laid-back, funky and very good, 01 Apr 2008
I discovered Brazilian singer Céu by accident three weeks ago at 2 a.m. on TV in Brazil, which was showing the recording of a concert she gave at the SESC Pompéia in São Paulo in 2007 for the programme Bem Brasil. I was in the kitchen and heard some good sounds coming from the TV in the lounge, came through to see who it was and was hooked by the music (and Céu's pretty face). The day I got back to the UK I searched for a CD and ordered it, and have been playing it frequently since. There is not a bum song on the album, and it just makes me want to mix a caipirinha and lie in a hammock.
This CD was actually recorded between 2002 and 2004 and apparently Céu has been touting these songs for some time. The songs have a laid-back, sometimes jazz-funk feel, with that well-known Brazilian swing to it all (this isn't Bossa Nova, though) that relaxes and yet has you nodding along. It's also slightly avant-garde for Brazilian 'smooth' music -- or maybe I should just say it's modernistic -- as the band mixes the odd turntable scratching, electronic, percussive and other noises into the background. I was impressed with Céu's backing group for the SESC Pompéia concert, and that also applies when I listen to the CD. The bassist delivers a funky, thumping beat on several tracks, and the percussionist, guitarists, brass and woodwind players, keyboard players and DJ all deliver in spades. And then there's Céu's voice, which is silky-smooth yet punchy, and sexy too. On Mais Um Lamento she even reminds me a little of Elis Regina. I can see why Starbucks decided to release her on their in-store CD label too: it's a classy collection of songs. Take Afro music (Afro-Brazilian percussion, as well as the style of music), electro-pop, Brazilian folk, jazz-funk, samba and MPB, and you get this CD. I mentioned my hammock above, well these songs would be equally at home in a smoky jazz bar, and they'd sound just as good there too. Valsa Pra Biu Roque is just Céu over bandolin and Brazilian guitar, and sounds very 'caipira', and is a pleasant lull in the beat.
I ordered the CD via this Amazon page and the CD I received is a Victor Entertainment (Japanese) edition with a 16th track (Nação Postal) and a 'bonus' track (Malemolência remix), neither of which is currently shown in the track list on this page, plus a video of the track Roda if you pop the CD in your PC. The remix of Malemolência is nothing special, and neither is the video, but Nação Postal is certainly a welcome addition. But whether you get the edition with 15 or 16 tracks, you get your money's worth: there's a lot of good music on this CD. Highly recommended.
A truly sublime album, 31 Mar 2008
I listen to a lot of music while I work and this CD has dominated my stereo for three months. Ceu's voice is hauntingly beautiful and the soothing melodies make stress slip away. I can't give clever analysis about how it fits into the Samba music scene, but for UK listeners it's something like listening to Dido crossed with Portishead while lying in the sun drinking a rum cocktail. If you only have one foreign language album in your collection I strongly recommend that you have this one! FabFabFab, 08 Mar 2008
This is a great album, really different and fresh, I love every track on here and recomend it to everyone Not up to standard, 06 Feb 2008
It's a mad album but, 6 months on, I find myself ignoring the large majority of tracks. "Let's make love and listen death from above" is still a great track, but the other ones sound a bit immature, like schoolgirls sniggering at the dirty words they can say. Not a sexy album at all. Best Band Ever, 07 Nov 2007
Alright just my opinion but honestly i only know 1 person who dislikes it not including the bad reviews but ive had it for 6 months and listened at least once a day.also kudos to the extra portugeese lyrics do you know where to find them? Also they live up to thier name as a internet band with various music videos on various site's.Anyway buy it.IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! Ignore the idiots..., 01 Oct 2007
What a load of rubbish... the reviews below, not the album. Go back and listen to coldplay, phil collins, m.o.r. rubbish, or re-invigorate yr love of music with CSS. 5 stars without a doubt, still listening to it months + months after release... CSS do indeed suck, 09 Sep 2007
When i read interviews from CSS...the clues are all there.Mainly the fact that they too are comfounded and bewildered by their own rise in popularity.They must be laughing their heads off and wondering why they are not getting pelted on stage by unmentionable and ghastly missiles whilst playing at all the big music festivals and getting paid in the process. Am i missing something here?
Absolute tripe from start to miserable suicide inducing end.
A pivotal album of the 20th Century, 25 Oct 2008
Antonio Carlos Jobim goes down with Lennon/McCartney, Gershwin, Amstrong as one of the most influential songwriter/stylists of the 20th century.
To judge the album on its own merits is one thing. Getz turns in small but perfectly formed solos. Astrid Gilberto's voice is ravishing, complementing husband Joao's voice with that incredibly restrained vulnerability that is the essence of Bossa. It is an album of incredible tenderness and instrospection. The studio atmosphere is very intimate with an almost homespun quality. For me its a five star album in its own right.
However, this album has a far larger significance, in the way that Sargeant Pepper did. It changed everything and set off ripples that are still reverberating today.
Each of these songs have been covered thousands of times by thousands of artists and continue to be a top staple for jazz as its played all over the world. They have spilled over from jazz into other mediums. They introduced the wider world to the music of Brazil. Arguably the earlier Getz/Byrd, album put Brazil on the wider musical map but it was this album that exposed it in all its exotic glory.
Brazil is a land in which there are as many genres of music as there are in the rest of the world put together. The influence of Jobim and Bossa and their quintessence as captured in these songs, on this album, continues to be a point of departure and return for any number of musical offshoots in their home country, and beyond, to this very day.
From a musicological point of view the impact of this album is unprecedented. There is no other album which has so vividly alerted such a huge proportion of the world to what was going on in a previously little known lesser part of the world, the repercussions of which are still playing out, with vivacity and freshness, almost fifty years later. Sax Max, 02 Jun 2006
Bossa Nova was and is not to everybody's taste. Many jazz aficianados can't stand Astrud Gilberto's singing either. The thing with this session in particular, however, is Stan Getz's playing. There is only one word for it - divine! Which is why I suspect there are so many accolades for this CD. The brevity and melodiousness of his ideas is quite exceptional, not so on many other examples of his work before or after.
I love jazz and I like this, but I can't say I can listen to Bossa Nova all the time. Stan Getz on this CD, however, I don't think I'll tire of... Getting in the groove, 31 Dec 2005
Great album for bossa nova. Fun to listen and get in the groove of dreaming of Brazil.. or mellow enough to have in the background for a wine party. Getz/Gilberto, 06 May 2004
I think you either have an innate love of this sort of music built in or it is something that will be totally lost on you ...if its there and you stumble across it you will never look back.. I already had 7 of the tracks on other cd's but the three i did'nt have are absolutely enchanting and worth the price on their own. I could listen to this a thousand times and find something new in Stan Getz's incredible intonation every time. If you hav'nt heard this stuff before,if you have an open mind,like walking on a deserted beach just where the sea meets the sand,if you love living ...you might just love this... The best Bossa Nova there is. Mark
Pure Cool, 26 Feb 2004
I've been listening to jazz for about 5 years now and wanting to broaden my taste i thought this would be a good direction to go. And what a direction to go!! The album has the ever popular Girl From Ipanema but the more i listen to it, the more i fall in love with the beauty of the other songs. Stan Getz ability is beyond words, as goes for Jobim on the guitar. The voices of Joau and Astrud Gilberto round the album off superbly causing you to hum and sing with them. This album has shown me there is more to bossa nova than i thought. So buy it, and then sit back, close your eyes and think of Brazil!!!
Ingenious & Intelligent Album., 10 Nov 2008
Exactly 10 years ago, the promising Yugoslav producer Suba released his debut album Sao Paulo Confessions, featuring several singers based in that Brazilian city including Bebel Gilberto, whose own debut was mostly produced by Suba and released soon after his tragic death in a fire in his apartment.
Subsequent attempts to recreate his elusive magic failed, but if it is misleading to mention that classic album in the context of this new one by the collective Sonantes - among whom are many of the same artists - there is a comparable sense of exploration, discovery and sheer pleasure in these performances.
The first surprise in that these are live recordings, not programmed beats. Each and every sound in a physical act, and interchange between musicians who are listening to each other, making it all up as they go. On the first two songs, the voice of CeU confirms all the promise suggested on her eponymous debut, which has spent all year amongst the bestsellers on Amazon. But it's not simply her story - next, a new voice takes over, the baritone croon of Siba, a country singer from the Recife region of north-east Brazil, who wins and breaks our hearts with a lovely melody that begs to played again and again.
The musicians, incidentally, include members of two groups, bringing together both electronica whizz-kids Instituto and usually more rowdy Nacao Zumbi.
This ingenious and intelligent album will do much to confirm Sao Paulo as the best city in which to make music in Brazil.
- Charlie Gillett, OMM.
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Bossa Nova - Jazz Masters 53
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Stan Getz;
Universal Classics;
1996-04-08;
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: �3.40
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Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb. Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep. Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks. It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come. Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD! Truly wonderful, 11 Sep 2008
I just felt completely compelled to write my first ever review for this special album. I bought this on a recommendation from Amazon, thank you Amazon. To say that this album is good is an understatement, it's exceptional! Ceu's voice conveys a superb depth of emotion; her soothing sultry tones tug you right into the soul of the music. This emotionality is also coupled with a fine vocal texture that you can reach out and touch, I find this aspect of her voice completely addictive.
This is an album that you simply must listen to if you have an interest in world music. The musical accompaniment is also excellent with its restraint. You can look to other reviews for comparisons with other musicians and comments on her musical influences, the net effect is an album of beauty that is so much better than any perception of what the sum of the comparison and influences might sound like. Here's an artist I can't wait to hear more from. Don't hesitate to buy this. Enjoy!
Sunday Times Review, 14 May 2008
Could this be the most interesting singer to come out of Brazil since Bebel Gilberto? For some reason, this album, which has been bubbling around the transatlantic charts for a couple of years, has taken a long time to reach these shores. It's certainly worth the wait. The eccentrically named Ceu - real name Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas - possesses a strikingly pure voice, and her tastes are unfailingly ecclectic. Oddly enough, one of the most potent numbers is her sinuous cover of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Electro influences are discreetly scattered around; there's even a hint of fado on Valsa Pra Biu Roque. Add some elegant jazz lite and soul textuers, and you have all the makings of a summer hit. Classy, very classy. [Clive Davis, Sunday Times] Laid-back, funky and very good, 01 Apr 2008
I discovered Brazilian singer Céu by accident three weeks ago at 2 a.m. on TV in Brazil, which was showing the recording of a concert she gave at the SESC Pompéia in São Paulo in 2007 for the programme Bem Brasil. I was in the kitchen and heard some good sounds coming from the TV in the lounge, came through to see who it was and was hooked by the music (and Céu's pretty face). The day I got back to the UK I searched for a CD and ordered it, and have been playing it frequently since. There is not a bum song on the album, and it just makes me want to mix a caipirinha and lie in a hammock.
This CD was actually recorded between 2002 and 2004 and apparently Céu has been touting these songs for some time. The songs have a laid-back, sometimes jazz-funk feel, with that well-known Brazilian swing to it all (this isn't Bossa Nova, though) that relaxes and yet has you nodding along. It's also slightly avant-garde for Brazilian 'smooth' music -- or maybe I should just say it's modernistic -- as the band mixes the odd turntable scratching, electronic, percussive and other noises into the background. I was impressed with Céu's backing group for the SESC Pompéia concert, and that also applies when I listen to the CD. The bassist delivers a funky, thumping beat on several tracks, and the percussionist, guitarists, brass and woodwind players, keyboard players and DJ all deliver in spades. And then there's Céu's voice, which is silky-smooth yet punchy, and sexy too. On Mais Um Lamento she even reminds me a little of Elis Regina. I can see why Starbucks decided to release her on their in-store CD label too: it's a classy collection of songs. Take Afro music (Afro-Brazilian percussion, as well as the style of music), electro-pop, Brazilian folk, jazz-funk, samba and MPB, and you get this CD. I mentioned my hammock above, well these songs would be equally at home in a smoky jazz bar, and they'd sound just as good there too. Valsa Pra Biu Roque is just Céu over bandolin and Brazilian guitar, and sounds very 'caipira', and is a pleasant lull in the beat.
I ordered the CD via this Amazon page and the CD I received is a Victor Entertainment (Japanese) edition with a 16th track (Nação Postal) and a 'bonus' track (Malemolência remix), neither of which is currently shown in the track list on this page, plus a video of the track Roda if you pop the CD in your PC. The remix of Malemolência is nothing special, and neither is the video, but Nação Postal is certainly a welcome addition. But whether you get the edition with 15 or 16 tracks, you get your money's worth: there's a lot of good music on this CD. Highly recommended.
A truly sublime album, 31 Mar 2008
I listen to a lot of music while I work and this CD has dominated my stereo for three months. Ceu's voice is hauntingly beautiful and the soothing melodies make stress slip away. I can't give clever analysis about how it fits into the Samba music scene, but for UK listeners it's something like listening to Dido crossed with Portishead while lying in the sun drinking a rum cocktail. If you only have one foreign language album in your collection I strongly recommend that you have this one! FabFabFab, 08 Mar 2008
This is a great album, really different and fresh, I love every track on here and recomend it to everyone Not up to standard, 06 Feb 2008
It's a mad album but, 6 months on, I find myself ignoring the large majority of tracks. "Let's make love and listen death from above" is still a great track, but the other ones sound a bit immature, like schoolgirls sniggering at the dirty words they can say. Not a sexy album at all. Best Band Ever, 07 Nov 2007
Alright just my opinion but honestly i only know 1 person who dislikes it not including the bad reviews but ive had it for 6 months and listened at least once a day.also kudos to the extra portugeese lyrics do you know where to find them? Also they live up to thier name as a internet band with various music videos on various site's.Anyway buy it.IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! Ignore the idiots..., 01 Oct 2007
What a load of rubbish... the reviews below, not the album. Go back and listen to coldplay, phil collins, m.o.r. rubbish, or re-invigorate yr love of music with CSS. 5 stars without a doubt, still listening to it months + months after release... CSS do indeed suck, 09 Sep 2007
When i read interviews from CSS...the clues are all there.Mainly the fact that they too are comfounded and bewildered by their own rise in popularity.They must be laughing their heads off and wondering why they are not getting pelted on stage by unmentionable and ghastly missiles whilst playing at all the big music festivals and getting paid in the process. Am i missing something here?
Absolute tripe from start to miserable suicide inducing end.
A pivotal album of the 20th Century, 25 Oct 2008
Antonio Carlos Jobim goes down with Lennon/McCartney, Gershwin, Amstrong as one of the most influential songwriter/stylists of the 20th century.
To judge the album on its own merits is one thing. Getz turns in small but perfectly formed solos. Astrid Gilberto's voice is ravishing, complementing husband Joao's voice with that incredibly restrained vulnerability that is the essence of Bossa. It is an album of incredible tenderness and instrospection. The studio atmosphere is very intimate with an almost homespun quality. For me its a five star album in its own right.
However, this album has a far larger significance, in the way that Sargeant Pepper did. It changed everything and set off ripples that are still reverberating today.
Each of these songs have been covered thousands of times by thousands of artists and continue to be a top staple for jazz as its played all over the world. They have spilled over from jazz into other mediums. They introduced the wider world to the music of Brazil. Arguably the earlier Getz/Byrd, album put Brazil on the wider musical map but it was this album that exposed it in all its exotic glory.
Brazil is a land in which there are as many genres of music as there are in the rest of the world put together. The influence of Jobim and Bossa and their quintessence as captured in these songs, on this album, continues to be a point of departure and return for any number of musical offshoots in their home country, and beyond, to this very day.
From a musicological point of view the impact of this album is unprecedented. There is no other album which has so vividly alerted such a huge proportion of the world to what was going on in a previously little known lesser part of the world, the repercussions of which are still playing out, with vivacity and freshness, almost fifty years later. Sax Max, 02 Jun 2006
Bossa Nova was and is not to everybody's taste. Many jazz aficianados can't stand Astrud Gilberto's singing either. The thing with this session in particular, however, is Stan Getz's playing. There is only one word for it - divine! Which is why I suspect there are so many accolades for this CD. The brevity and melodiousness of his ideas is quite exceptional, not so on many other examples of his work before or after.
I love jazz and I like this, but I can't say I can listen to Bossa Nova all the time. Stan Getz on this CD, however, I don't think I'll tire of... Getting in the groove, 31 Dec 2005
Great album for bossa nova. Fun to listen and get in the groove of dreaming of Brazil.. or mellow enough to have in the background for a wine party. Getz/Gilberto, 06 May 2004
I think you either have an innate love of this sort of music built in or it is something that will be totally lost on you ...if its there and you stumble across it you will never look back.. I already had 7 of the tracks on other cd's but the three i did'nt have are absolutely enchanting and worth the price on their own. I could listen to this a thousand times and find something new in Stan Getz's incredible intonation every time. If you hav'nt heard this stuff before,if you have an open mind,like walking on a deserted beach just where the sea meets the sand,if you love living ...you might just love this... The best Bossa Nova there is. Mark
Pure Cool, 26 Feb 2004
I've been listening to jazz for about 5 years now and wanting to broaden my taste i thought this would be a good direction to go. And what a direction to go!! The album has the ever popular Girl From Ipanema but the more i listen to it, the more i fall in love with the beauty of the other songs. Stan Getz ability is beyond words, as goes for Jobim on the guitar. The voices of Joau and Astrud Gilberto round the album off superbly causing you to hum and sing with them. This album has shown me there is more to bossa nova than i thought. So buy it, and then sit back, close your eyes and think of Brazil!!!
Ingenious & Intelligent Album., 10 Nov 2008
Exactly 10 years ago, the promising Yugoslav producer Suba released his debut album Sao Paulo Confessions, featuring several singers based in that Brazilian city including Bebel Gilberto, whose own debut was mostly produced by Suba and released soon after his tragic death in a fire in his apartment.
Subsequent attempts to recreate his elusive magic failed, but if it is misleading to mention that classic album in the context of this new one by the collective Sonantes - among whom are many of the same artists - there is a comparable sense of exploration, discovery and sheer pleasure in these performances.
The first surprise in that these are live recordings, not programmed beats. Each and every sound in a physical act, and interchange between musicians who are listening to each other, making it all up as they go. On the first two songs, the voice of CeU confirms all the promise suggested on her eponymous debut, which has spent all year amongst the bestsellers on Amazon. But it's not simply her story - next, a new voice takes over, the baritone croon of Siba, a country singer from the Recife region of north-east Brazil, who wins and breaks our hearts with a lovely melody that begs to played again and again.
The musicians, incidentally, include members of two groups, bringing together both electronica whizz-kids Instituto and usually more rowdy Nacao Zumbi.
This ingenious and intelligent album will do much to confirm Sao Paulo as the best city in which to make music in Brazil.
- Charlie Gillett, OMM.
Excellent music for all ages and tastes. You can't go wrong with this!!! , 18 Oct 2008
This music album was made in 1963 and it's totally timeless and as fresh in 2008 as when it was first made. I'm 43 and my dad is 70. My 8 year old son and all of us can't get enough of this. Getz's Chega De Saudade (One note samba) is totally the best jazz funk ever and all the other melodies are totally gold as well. You can buy this for yourslef or as a gift for a friend and it's totally priceless - worth a 100 times it's weight in gold. Enjoy!!!!
Great disc - everyone should have this in their collection, 20 May 2007
I grew up during the '60s and this was another of the great musical themes of the time but I believe its much more enduring than the Beatles and will outlive rock. That aside I just love the relaxed happy snap and swing of '60s Bossa Nova and no one does it better than Getz and friends - ironic really when you think of it - an American jazz musician driving the popularity and enduring for 50 years that way!
If you don't know something from this disc I'd be surprised and whilst I know my own kids aren't wrapped in it, I don't understand that and think they will come round any day soon!
If you like sax and latin styles you should give this a go (that's one of the other discs you should have by the way "Getz a go go" live with Astrid Gilberto, again very much of the time yet timeless. I love the interpretative irony of the telephone song).
The best Stan Getz Album, 07 Mar 2000
The best Stan Getz album money can buy. Relaxing soothing sounds to wind down to. Jazz Masters have excelled themselves with this selection.
Very cool and laid back., 16 Jan 2000
Very relaxing,just the thing after a hard days work. You can't help relaxing with a drink listening to this . A very well put together cd, good mix of classic tracks,well balanced to give you a cool and laid back evening!
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The Essential
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Sergio Mendes;
Commercial Marketing;
1999-03-22;
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: �1.99
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Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb. Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep. Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks. It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come. Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD! Truly wonderful, 11 Sep 2008
I just felt completely compelled to write my first ever review for this special album. I bought this on a recommendation from Amazon, thank you Amazon. To say that this album is good is an understatement, it's exceptional! Ceu's voice conveys a superb depth of emotion; her soothing sultry tones tug you right into the soul of the music. This emotionality is also coupled with a fine vocal texture that you can reach out and touch, I find this aspect of her voice completely addictive.
This is an album that you simply must listen to if you have an interest in world music. The musical accompaniment is also excellent with its restraint. You can look to other reviews for comparisons with other musicians and comments on her musical influences, the net effect is an album of beauty that is so much better than any perception of what the sum of the comparison and influences might sound like. Here's an artist I can't wait to hear more from. Don't hesitate to buy this. Enjoy!
Sunday Times Review, 14 May 2008
Could this be the most interesting singer to come out of Brazil since Bebel Gilberto? For some reason, this album, which has been bubbling around the transatlantic charts for a couple of years, has taken a long time to reach these shores. It's certainly worth the wait. The eccentrically named Ceu - real name Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas - possesses a strikingly pure voice, and her tastes are unfailingly ecclectic. Oddly enough, one of the most potent numbers is her sinuous cover of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Electro influences are discreetly scattered around; there's even a hint of fado on Valsa Pra Biu Roque. Add some elegant jazz lite and soul textuers, and you have all the makings of a summer hit. Classy, very classy. [Clive Davis, Sunday Times] Laid-back, funky and very good, 01 Apr 2008
I discovered Brazilian singer Céu by accident three weeks ago at 2 a.m. on TV in Brazil, which was showing the recording of a concert she gave at the SESC Pompéia in São Paulo in 2007 for the programme Bem Brasil. I was in the kitchen and heard some good sounds coming from the TV in the lounge, came through to see who it was and was hooked by the music (and Céu's pretty face). The day I got back to the UK I searched for a CD and ordered it, and have been playing it frequently since. There is not a bum song on the album, and it just makes me want to mix a caipirinha and lie in a hammock.
This CD was actually recorded between 2002 and 2004 and apparently Céu has been touting these songs for some time. The songs have a laid-back, sometimes jazz-funk feel, with that well-known Brazilian swing to it all (this isn't Bossa Nova, though) that relaxes and yet has you nodding along. It's also slightly avant-garde for Brazilian 'smooth' music -- or maybe I should just say it's modernistic -- as the band mixes the odd turntable scratching, electronic, percussive and other noises into the background. I was impressed with Céu's backing group for the SESC Pompéia concert, and that also applies when I listen to the CD. The bassist delivers a funky, thumping beat on several tracks, and the percussionist, guitarists, brass and woodwind players, keyboard players and DJ all deliver in spades. And then there's Céu's voice, which is silky-smooth yet punchy, and sexy too. On Mais Um Lamento she even reminds me a little of Elis Regina. I can see why Starbucks decided to release her on their in-store CD label too: it's a classy collection of songs. Take Afro music (Afro-Brazilian percussion, as well as the style of music), electro-pop, Brazilian folk, jazz-funk, samba and MPB, and you get this CD. I mentioned my hammock above, well these songs would be equally at home in a smoky jazz bar, and they'd sound just as good there too. Valsa Pra Biu Roque is just Céu over bandolin and Brazilian guitar, and sounds very 'caipira', and is a pleasant lull in the beat.
I ordered the CD via this Amazon page and the CD I received is a Victor Entertainment (Japanese) edition with a 16th track (Nação Postal) and a 'bonus' track (Malemolência remix), neither of which is currently shown in the track list on this page, plus a video of the track Roda if you pop the CD in your PC. The remix of Malemolência is nothing special, and neither is the video, but Nação Postal is certainly a welcome addition. But whether you get the edition with 15 or 16 tracks, you get your money's worth: there's a lot of good music on this CD. Highly recommended.
A truly sublime album, 31 Mar 2008
I listen to a lot of music while I work and this CD has dominated my stereo for three months. Ceu's voice is hauntingly beautiful and the soothing melodies make stress slip away. I can't give clever analysis about how it fits into the Samba music scene, but for UK listeners it's something like listening to Dido crossed with Portishead while lying in the sun drinking a rum cocktail. If you only have one foreign language album in your collection I strongly recommend that you have this one! FabFabFab, 08 Mar 2008
This is a great album, really different and fresh, I love every track on here and recomend it to everyone Not up to standard, 06 Feb 2008
It's a mad album but, 6 months on, I find myself ignoring the large majority of tracks. "Let's make love and listen death from above" is still a great track, but the other ones sound a bit immature, like schoolgirls sniggering at the dirty words they can say. Not a sexy album at all. Best Band Ever, 07 Nov 2007
Alright just my opinion but honestly i only know 1 person who dislikes it not including the bad reviews but ive had it for 6 months and listened at least once a day.also kudos to the extra portugeese lyrics do you know where to find them? Also they live up to thier name as a internet band with various music videos on various site's.Anyway buy it.IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! Ignore the idiots..., 01 Oct 2007
What a load of rubbish... the reviews below, not the album. Go back and listen to coldplay, phil collins, m.o.r. rubbish, or re-invigorate yr love of music with CSS. 5 stars without a doubt, still listening to it months + months after release... CSS do indeed suck, 09 Sep 2007
When i read interviews from CSS...the clues are all there.Mainly the fact that they too are comfounded and bewildered by their own rise in popularity.They must be laughing their heads off and wondering why they are not getting pelted on stage by unmentionable and ghastly missiles whilst playing at all the big music festivals and getting paid in the process. Am i missing something here?
Absolute tripe from start to miserable suicide inducing end.
A pivotal album of the 20th Century, 25 Oct 2008
Antonio Carlos Jobim goes down with Lennon/McCartney, Gershwin, Amstrong as one of the most influential songwriter/stylists of the 20th century.
To judge the album on its own merits is one thing. Getz turns in small but perfectly formed solos. Astrid Gilberto's voice is ravishing, complementing husband Joao's voice with that incredibly restrained vulnerability that is the essence of Bossa. It is an album of incredible tenderness and instrospection. The studio atmosphere is very intimate with an almost homespun quality. For me its a five star album in its own right.
However, this album has a far larger significance, in the way that Sargeant Pepper did. It changed everything and set off ripples that are still reverberating today.
Each of these songs have been covered thousands of times by thousands of artists and continue to be a top staple for jazz as its played all over the world. They have spilled over from jazz into other mediums. They introduced the wider world to the music of Brazil. Arguably the earlier Getz/Byrd, album put Brazil on the wider musical map but it was this album that exposed it in all its exotic glory.
Brazil is a land in which there are as many genres of music as there are in the rest of the world put together. The influence of Jobim and Bossa and their quintessence as captured in these songs, on this album, continues to be a point of departure and return for any number of musical offshoots in their home country, and beyond, to this very day.
From a musicological point of view the impact of this album is unprecedented. There is no other album which has so vividly alerted such a huge proportion of the world to what was going on in a previously little known lesser part of the world, the repercussions of which are still playing out, with vivacity and freshness, almost fifty years later. Sax Max, 02 Jun 2006
Bossa Nova was and is not to everybody's taste. Many jazz aficianados can't stand Astrud Gilberto's singing either. The thing with this session in particular, however, is Stan Getz's playing. There is only one word for it - divine! Which is why I suspect there are so many accolades for this CD. The brevity and melodiousness of his ideas is quite exceptional, not so on many other examples of his work before or after.
I love jazz and I like this, but I can't say I can listen to Bossa Nova all the time. Stan Getz on this CD, however, I don't think I'll tire of... Getting in the groove, 31 Dec 2005
Great album for bossa nova. Fun to listen and get in the groove of dreaming of Brazil.. or mellow enough to have in the background for a wine party. Getz/Gilberto, 06 May 2004
I think you either have an innate love of this sort of music built in or it is something that will be totally lost on you ...if its there and you stumble across it you will never look back.. I already had 7 of the tracks on other cd's but the three i did'nt have are absolutely enchanting and worth the price on their own. I could listen to this a thousand times and find something new in Stan Getz's incredible intonation every time. If you hav'nt heard this stuff before,if you have an open mind,like walking on a deserted beach just where the sea meets the sand,if you love living ...you might just love this... The best Bossa Nova there is. Mark
Pure Cool, 26 Feb 2004
I've been listening to jazz for about 5 years now and wanting to broaden my taste i thought this would be a good direction to go. And what a direction to go!! The album has the ever popular Girl From Ipanema but the more i listen to it, the more i fall in love with the beauty of the other songs. Stan Getz ability is beyond words, as goes for Jobim on the guitar. The voices of Joau and Astrud Gilberto round the album off superbly causing you to hum and sing with them. This album has shown me there is more to bossa nova than i thought. So buy it, and then sit back, close your eyes and think of Brazil!!!
Ingenious & Intelligent Album., 10 Nov 2008
Exactly 10 years ago, the promising Yugoslav producer Suba released his debut album Sao Paulo Confessions, featuring several singers based in that Brazilian city including Bebel Gilberto, whose own debut was mostly produced by Suba and released soon after his tragic death in a fire in his apartment.
Subsequent attempts to recreate his elusive magic failed, but if it is misleading to mention that classic album in the context of this new one by the collective Sonantes - among whom are many of the same artists - there is a comparable sense of exploration, discovery and sheer pleasure in these performances.
The first surprise in that these are live recordings, not programmed beats. Each and every sound in a physical act, and interchange between musicians who are listening to each other, making it all up as they go. On the first two songs, the voice of CeU confirms all the promise suggested on her eponymous debut, which has spent all year amongst the bestsellers on Amazon. But it's not simply her story - next, a new voice takes over, the baritone croon of Siba, a country singer from the Recife region of north-east Brazil, who wins and breaks our hearts with a lovely melody that begs to played again and again.
The musicians, incidentally, include members of two groups, bringing together both electronica whizz-kids Instituto and usually more rowdy Nacao Zumbi.
This ingenious and intelligent album will do much to confirm Sao Paulo as the best city in which to make music in Brazil.
- Charlie Gillett, OMM.
Excellent music for all ages and tastes. You can't go wrong with this!!! , 18 Oct 2008
This music album was made in 1963 and it's totally timeless and as fresh in 2008 as when it was first made. I'm 43 and my dad is 70. My 8 year old son and all of us can't get enough of this. Getz's Chega De Saudade (One note samba) is totally the best jazz funk ever and all the other melodies are totally gold as well. You can buy this for yourslef or as a gift for a friend and it's totally priceless - worth a 100 times it's weight in gold. Enjoy!!!!
Great disc - everyone should have this in their collection, 20 May 2007
I grew up during the '60s and this was another of the great musical themes of the time but I believe its much more enduring than the Beatles and will outlive rock. That aside I just love the relaxed happy snap and swing of '60s Bossa Nova and no one does it better than Getz and friends - ironic really when you think of it - an American jazz musician driving the popularity and enduring for 50 years that way!
If you don't know something from this disc I'd be surprised and whilst I know my own kids aren't wrapped in it, I don't understand that and think they will come round any day soon!
If you like sax and latin styles you should give this a go (that's one of the other discs you should have by the way "Getz a go go" live with Astrid Gilberto, again very much of the time yet timeless. I love the interpretative irony of the telephone song).
The best Stan Getz Album, 07 Mar 2000
The best Stan Getz album money can buy. Relaxing soothing sounds to wind down to. Jazz Masters have excelled themselves with this selection.
Very cool and laid back., 16 Jan 2000
Very relaxing,just the thing after a hard days work. You can't help relaxing with a drink listening to this . A very well put together cd, good mix of classic tracks,well balanced to give you a cool and laid back evening!
SERGIO MENDES , 28 Jun 2007
I HAVE A SERGIO MENDES ALBUM FROM THE LATE 60`s . WHEN HIS BAND WAS NAMED "Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66" BUT IT`s ON VINYL AND I HAVE`nt GOT ANYTHING TO PLAY IT ON NOW. SO WHEN THIS WAS LISTED IN THE 3 C.D`s FOR £10 SECTION I THOUGHT I WOULD BUY IT TO BRING BACK OLD MEMORIES. I AM PLEASED I DID. HIS MUSIC BRINGS THE SUN OUT EVEN IF IT`s RAINING. SO MUCH OF HIS MUSIC IS USED AS BACKING TRACKS BY T.V ADVERTISERS & PROGRAM MAKERS,
THAT HIS MUSIC IS THOUGHT TO BE COOL AGAIN. THIS C.D HAS ALL HIS GREAT MUSIC ON.
JUST LISTEN TO THE FIRST TRACK `Mas Que Nada` IT`s WORTH BUYING THIS C.D JUST FOR THAT.THEN LISTEN TO HIS INTERPRETATION ON BEATLES CLASSICS LIKE `DAY TRIPPER / NORWEGIAN WOOD / FOOL ON THE HILL / WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS`WHICH HE REALLY DOES SO WELL. ITS 16 TRACKS OF SUNSHINE.
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Banda Larga Cordel
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Gilberto Gil;
Wcj;
2008-10-06;
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Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: �8.53
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Customer Reviews
Brilliant music!, 03 Nov 2008
This album is fantastic. From hearing tracks during the film I tracked this down and have to say Seu Jorge is a genius!
His reworkings of Bowie classics are timeless, even more so than the originals. Not even Bowie knew they could sound this good!
If you understand Portuguese or not buy it and listen. Superb.
Great songs in a mellow portuguese style, 16 Oct 2007
First heard these songs on the film 'Life Aquatic' and couldnt wait to get the CD. These songs are so beautifully and romantically sung by Seu George. Even if like me you dont know a word of Portuguese it is stll fabulous. Great for listening to in bed to lull you to sleep.
Bowie Goes To Brazil, 22 Sep 2007
Film director Wes Anderson has a sixth sense for the quirky and magical. So it's no surprise, that he included Seu Jorge and his portuguese versions of David Bowie-classics in the movie "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".
This CD is all the tracks from the movie and more. With his acoustic guitar and soothing voice Seu Jorge makes all the well known Bowie hits a joyful revisit. So if you like Bowie - even just a little bit - this will be a CD, that will stay in your CD-player for weeks.
It's a star man in portugese, 02 Mar 2007
If you enjoy music of David Bowie, you'll probably will find these arrangements by Seu Jorge fascinating. Like David Bowie said about these songs, they bring out a whole new level of beauty in them. Here, it's just Seu Jorge with his acoustic guitar singing in portugese David Bowie classics. You might say that this is the sunny side of Bowie...?!
Not all the arrangements work perfectly, but some of Seu Jorge version are equal (or dare say "better" in some cases) than Bowie's recordings.
Difficult to say, what people who are not familiar with the original songs think or people who don't like Bowie's music. I for one enjoy these songs like I enjoy the originals. Made me appreciate Bowie's songs even more.
Well, this is a great album that'll keep for years to come.
Wonderful!, 15 Nov 2006
Imagine you are on a tropical beach, lounging under a palm tree, sun and breeze on your body, David Bowie songs being sung and strummed nearby in a beautiful exotic language. That's sort of sums up the mood and flavour of this treat of a CD!
Truly wonderful, 11 Sep 2008
I just felt completely compelled to write my first ever review for this special album. I bought this on a recommendation from Amazon, thank you Amazon. To say that this album is good is an understatement, it's exceptional! Ceu's voice conveys a superb depth of emotion; her soothing sultry tones tug you right into the soul of the music. This emotionality is also coupled with a fine vocal texture that you can reach out and touch, I find this aspect of her voice completely addictive.
This is an album that you simply must listen to if you have an interest in world music. The musical accompaniment is also excellent with its restraint. You can look to other reviews for comparisons with other musicians and comments on her musical influences, the net effect is an album of beauty that is so much better than any perception of what the sum of the comparison and influences might sound like. Here's an artist I can't wait to hear more from. Don't hesitate to buy this. Enjoy!
Sunday Times Review, 14 May 2008
Could this be the most interesting singer to come out of Brazil since Bebel Gilberto? For some reason, this album, which has been bubbling around the transatlantic charts for a couple of years, has taken a long time to reach these shores. It's certainly worth the wait. The eccentrically named Ceu - real name Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas - possesses a strikingly pure voice, and her tastes are unfailingly ecclectic. Oddly enough, one of the most potent numbers is her sinuous cover of Bob Marley's Concrete Jungle. Electro influences are discreetly scattered around; there's even a hint of fado on Valsa Pra Biu Roque. Add some elegant jazz lite and soul textuers, and you have all the makings of a summer hit. Classy, very classy. [Clive Davis, Sunday Times]
Laid-back, funky and very good, 01 Apr 2008
I discovered Brazilian singer Céu by accident three weeks ago at 2 a.m. on TV in Brazil, which was showing the recording of a concert she gave at the SESC Pompéia in São Paulo in 2007 for the programme Bem Brasil. I was in the kitchen and heard some good sounds coming from the TV in the lounge, came through to see who it was and was hooked by the music (and Céu's pretty face). The day I got back to the UK I searched for a CD and ordered it, and have been playing it frequently since. There is not a bum song on the album, and it just makes me want to mix a caipirinha and lie in a hammock.
This CD was actually recorded between 2002 and 2004 and apparently Céu has been touting these songs for some time. The songs have a laid-back, sometimes jazz-funk feel, with that well-known Brazilian swing to it all (this isn't Bossa Nova, though) that relaxes and yet has you nodding along. It's also slightly avant-garde for Brazilian 'smooth' music -- or maybe I should just say it's modernistic -- as the band mixes the odd turntable scratching, electronic, percussive and other noises into the background. I was impressed with Céu's backing group for the SESC Pompéia concert, and that also applies when I listen to the CD. The bassist delivers a funky, thumping beat on several tracks, and the percussionist, guitarists, brass and woodwind players, keyboard players and DJ all deliver in spades. And then there's Céu's voice, which is silky-smooth yet punchy, and sexy too. On Mais Um Lamento she even reminds me a little of Elis Regina. I can see why Starbucks decided to release her on their in-store CD label too: it's a classy collection of songs. Take Afro music (Afro-Brazilian percussion, as well as the style of music), electro-pop, Brazilian folk, jazz-funk, samba and MPB, and you get this CD. I mentioned my hammock above, well these songs would be equally at home in a smoky jazz bar, and they'd sound just as good there too. Valsa Pra Biu Roque is just Céu over bandolin and Brazilian guitar, and sounds very 'caipira', and is a pleasant lull in the beat.
I ordered the CD via this Amazon page and the CD I received is a Victor Entertainment (Japanese) edition with a 16th track (Nação Postal) and a 'bonus' track (Malemolência remix), neither of which is currently shown in the track list on this page, plus a video of the track Roda if you pop the CD in your PC. The remix of Malemolência is nothing special, and neither is the video, but Nação Postal is certainly a welcome addition. But whether you get the edition with 15 or 16 tracks, you get your money's worth: there's a lot of good music on this CD. Highly recommended.
A truly sublime album, 31 Mar 2008
I listen to a lot of music while I work and this CD has dominated my stereo for three months. Ceu's voice is hauntingly beautiful and the soothing melodies make stress slip away. I can't give clever analysis about how it fits into the Samba music scene, but for UK listeners it's something like listening to Dido crossed with Portishead while lying in the sun drinking a rum cocktail. If you only have one foreign language album in your collection I strongly recommend that you have this one!
FabFabFab, 08 Mar 2008
This is a great album, really different and fresh, I love every track on here and recomend it to everyone
Not up to standard, 06 Feb 2008
It's a mad album but, 6 months on, I find myself ignoring the large majority of tracks. "Let's make love and listen death from above" is still a great track, but the other ones sound a bit immature, like schoolgirls sniggering at the dirty words they can say. Not a sexy album at all.
Best Band Ever, 07 Nov 2007
Alright just my opinion but honestly i only know 1 person who dislikes it not including the bad reviews but ive had it for 6 months and listened at least once a day.also kudos to the extra portugeese lyrics do you know where to find them? Also they live up to thier name as a internet band with various music videos on various site's.Anyway buy it.IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME!
Ignore the idiots..., 01 Oct 2007
What a load of rubbish... the reviews below, not the album. Go back and listen to coldplay, phil collins, m.o.r. rubbish, or re-invigorate yr love of music with CSS. 5 stars without a doubt, still listening to it months + months after release...
CSS do indeed suck, 09 Sep 2007
When i read interviews from CSS...the clues are all there.Mainly the fact that they too are comfounded and bewildered by their own rise in popularity.They must be laughing their heads off and wondering why they are not getting pelted on stage by unmentionable and ghastly missiles whil | | |