Recently Heard: All One

[ellyssian]

All One by Oscar Castro-Neves

This is - like Joe Pass or Bill Ward - something my mom will say "Are you going to bring that?" because this is something she'll like. Unlike the Bill Ward disc, Ozzy doesn't sing on this. Like the Joe Pass disc, the song 'Round Midnight is on here. Like both Mr. Ward and Mr. Pass, the album of Mr. Castro-Neves has some good guitar playing.

I kind of want to call this soft jazz, but I'm not sure that's quite right. Jazz, yes. Lots of influence from Oscar's native Brazillian music scene, yes. There's some female vocals on a handful of tracks, and Oscar sings on some as well - surprised me, because when I had previewed the disc, I didn't listen to every track, or even all of the tracks I did hear. Not the kind of thing I would normally go for - but it expands my collection in directions it hasn't really explored. Most of the jazz I have is more of a jazz-fusion thing. The thing that makes this work for me as far as his vocal tracks go, is that I can tell he enjoys it.

Since I'm kind of on a Cosby kick, I have to mention that this is something I could see featured on The Cosby Show, watching Dr. Huxtable really getting into it. That kind of infectious enthusiasm is what I get from this work.

The guitarwork touches base with a number of my interests - the classical training he's had shows, there's plenty of jazz grooves, and there's the latin flavor. My interests in the latter is largely - but not completely - based in flamenco; this flirts with that just the tiniest bit, but it gets the rest of it.

Well worth putting on for listening or just to provide a backdrop for a dinner or conversation.

Comments

[trouvera.livejournal.com]

I know you're a guitarist, but have you ever heard of a jazz violinist named Eddie South? I'm working on an article and finding myself very intrigued by this person...

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Haven't heard of him. I've got a couple discs with some jazz violin - and I listen to a lot of classical violin (especially gypsy/Eastern European styles) and Celtic fiddle stuff.

I'll have to look into his music.

[trouvera.livejournal.com]

You might find him on some of the gypsy stuff. He was classically trained, but due to the racism of the era (late 20's-40's) he turned to jazz, with a particularly Eastern Euro flair. Did some things with Django, and somehow somewhere ended up being known as 'the dark angel of the violin'.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Ah...

The only Django recording I have was with Stephane Grappelli on violin.

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

I don't recognize the name, but I'll keep it in mind just in case I do.

Nope, not gonna say 'are you going to bring that." Not gonna do it. Instead: Please do bring it!

[elaine-today.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite things that I've done for my dad is geting him front row seats for Cosby back when I was in college. I worked at the civic center in town and Cosby's stand-up tour came through. The show was on my dad's birthday, so it was perfect. Complete and total tangent, but yeah. Yay Cosby. :o)