"Brazilian Butterfly" - DownBeat, 4-star review

Ithamara Koorax's "Brazilian Butterfly" 4-star review published in the February 2007 of Down Beat magazine
(Sonny Rollins got 3 stars; Robert Cray, 3 stars; Larry Willis, 2 stars; only Ithamara Koorax, Anthony Braxton and Ben Riley's Monk Legacy Septet got 4 stars...)

Ithamara Koorax "Brazilian Butterfly"
4-star Review - DownBeat Magazine - February 2007
JSR/IRMA 830
**** Rating: 4 stars
Album produced by Arnaldo DeSouteiro

Brazilian singer Ithamara Koorax is delightfully unpredictable in her music. Her new album is a far cry from "Love Dance", her sultry lovefest of
sophisticated ballads. This mind-stretching sampler showcases her intimate dialogues with superb musicians (Dom Um Romão and Gonzalo Rubalcaba are back), flashing moods and eye-blink arrangements of scintilating tunes. The energy level and timing (78 minutes long) push the max as Koorax leaps headlong into steamy, sexy and in-your-ear singing.

"Brazilian Butterfly" flutters free with Koorax's embracing virtuosity and
astonishing range, and frames her crazy-quilt with jungle jams where top
percussionists Romão and Eloir de Moraes "talk the blues" over her volcanic vocalese and feral screeches. Koorax pours impure passion and hymnic simplicity into earthy Bahiana wailers by Dorival Caymmi, and goes head-to-head in raw duo with Thiago de Mello's berimbau, with stirring vocal underdubs.

There's no let-up to this party until Koorax sweetly flaunts her command of jazz vernacular on Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly" and voluptuously purrs
Pixinguinha's fabled "Carinhoso". This is Koorax's vital exploration of
black Brazilian roots.

- Fred Bouchard
copyright 2007, DownBeat

Track listing: O Vento; Escravos de Jó; Amor Em Jacumā; Lamento Negro; Butterfly; Fica Mal Com Deus; Noite de Temporal; A Lenda do Abaeté; Carinhoso; Frenético.

Personnel: Ithamara Koorax: vocals, percussion, mouth percussion; Dom Um Romão: drums, percussion, vocals; Paula Faour: electric piano, keyboards, arranger; Manuel Gusmão: acoustic bass, arco bass; José Carlos Ramos: flutes, baritone saxophone; Arnaldo DeSouteiro: percussion, producer, arranger; Eloir de Moraes: percussion, cymbals, bass drum, vocals; Carlos Fuchs: acoustic piano; Jorge Pescara: fretless bass, electric bass; Raul de Souza: trombone; Gonzalo Rubalcaba: acoustic piano; Ron Carter: acoustic bass; Laudir de Oliveira: percussion; Jadir de Castro: percussion; Nelson Angelo: acoustic guitar; Sidinho Moreira: bongos, percussion; Marcelo Salazar: congas, bongos; Francesco Gazzara: acoustic piano, fender rhodes electric piano, nylon-string guitar, arranger; Massimo Sanna: bass; Mauro Mirti: percussion; Eduardo Piloto Barretto: percussion; Thiago de Mello: acoustic piano, organic percussion, vocal effects, acoustic guitar, berimbau, arranger; José Roberto Bertrami: fender rhodes electric piano, arranger; Alex Malheiros: electric bass; Ivan Conti: drums; Carlos Malta: bass flute; Azymuth, performer