The Brazilliance of Laurindo Almeida

The roots of the Brazilian Bossa Nova craze are generally credited to Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto. In a 1958 collaboration with Vinícius de Moraes (lyrics) and Elizete Cardoso (vocalist), they helped create the first Bossa Nova song, “Chega de Saudade” (No More Blues).

Jobim and Gilberto would later work with Stan Getz in his legendary 1963 Verve sessions. It is these sessions that brought Bossa Nova to the world and made all of them international names in music. The guitar stylings were further popularized in America and around the world by Charlie Byrd and Laurindo Almeido.

Almeida first brought his classical Spanish style to America when he joined Stan Kenton’s band in 1947. He travelled to Paris in 1936 (at age 19) to watch and learn from the legendary Django Reinhardt. Although he recorded with Getz just two days after the now famous Gilberto/Getz project, his involvement in the Bossa Nova craze actually pre-dates the works of Gilberto, Jobim and Getz. In 1953 he recorded two albums titled Brazilliance for the World Pacific label with Bud Shank. Although some have argued that this is not true Bossa Nova, the stylings can be heard quite clearly.

Perhaps it was simply a matter of inadequate promotion and distribution, or perhaps they were ahead of their time, but the Brazilliance sessions remained in near complete obscurity until being re-issued on CD in 1991. Despite creating more than 800 scores for film and television, Almeida’s name hasn’t done much better.

I was delighted to find an original Phillips pressing (from Holland) of Almeida’s “Collaboration” with The Modern Jazz Quartet at my local thrift shop – the same place where I recently found the Django Reinhardt 10″ LP. I was preparing to rip the Dutch LP when I discovered this offering from an Almeida fan who went to the trouble to create an entire blog devoted to Almeida in an attempt to bring his musical works back into the public sphere.

Brazilliance (with Bud Shank, 1953):

1) Atabaque – 2:49
2) Amor Flamengo – 2:57
3) Stairway To The Stars – 3:01
4) Acertate Mas – 3:03
5) Terra Seca – 3:12
6) Speak Low – 2:21
7) Speak Low (Alternate Take) – 2:31
Inquietacao – 3:04
9) Baa-Too-Kee – 3:04
10) Carinoso – 3:35
11) Tocata – 4:47
12) Hazardous – 2:50
13) Nono – 3:01
14) Noctambulism – 4:39
15) Blue Baiao – 3:18

Collaboration (with The Modern Jazz Quartet, 1964):

1) Silver – 3:43
2) Trieste – 5:36
3) Valeria – 5:51
4) Fugue In A Minor – 3:49
5) One Note Samba – 5:08
6) Foi A Saudade – 2:35
7) Concierto De Aranjuez – 11:50