CD of the Day - "Alaide Costa: Coração"

CD of the Day
Alaide Costa: "Coração" (EMI) 1976/2009

The second best Alaide Costa album, after her masterpiece with Oscar Castro-Neves in 1973.
Recorded in 1976 for the Odeon label, "Coração" is being released for the first time on CD by EMI, with excellent remastering by Luigi Hoffer and the original Cafi cover art reproduced on the booklet.
It's a very dense and eloquent project, produced by Milton Nascimento and arranged & conducted by João Donato, who worked at his own very slow pace and drove Alaide crazy by taking six months to complete the magnificent (and opulent) orchestrations, using strings, woodwinds & brass sections, and harp. The result is superb!
Donato & Nascimento assembled a top-class rhythm section, including Milton's frequent associates Novelli (bass), Robertinho Silva (drums), Nelson Angelo (acoustic & electric guitars), Toninho Horta (electric guitar) plus a large symphony orchestra, with backing vocals by Novelli, Angelo, Donato, Beto Guedes and Fernando Leporace, the latter having written the song "O Que Se Sabe de Cor," which closes the disc. Other musicians involved also contributed with original songs to the program.
Ivan Lins guests (on piano) on his own "Corpos", while Nelson Angelo contributed the wondrous title track, with lyrics by Ronaldo Bastos.
Novelli co-wrote (with Mauricio Tapajós and Paulo Cesar Pinheiro) the haunting ballad "Tomara", performed by Alaide & Donato as a vocal/piano minimalist duet - it's interesting to compare it with another spectacular recording of "Tomara" done that same year by Flora Purim & McCoy Tyner for Purim's "Encounter" album.
There are also nice songs by Sueli Costa ("O Samba Que Eu Lhe Fiz"), Johnny Alf ("Quem Sou Eu?"), Donato & his lyricist brother Lysias Enio ("Sonho e Fantasia"), Alaide's own "Tempo Calado" with Paulo Alberto Ventura, a new version of Milton Nascimento's epic "Pai Grande", and my personal favorite tracks: Toninho Horta's "Viver de Amor", Danilo Caymmi's "Pé Sem Cabeça" (lyrics by his then-wife Ana Terra, credited as Ana Borba, and a song that Danilo would include in 1977 on his debut solo LP, "Cheiro de Mato") and Nascimento's "Catavento", a wordless vocal number that became a cult-hit on the acid-jazz dancefloor scene in the late 80s/early 90s in Japan and Europe, with Donato's arrangement quoting another Nascimento tune, "Circo Marimbondo". Don't miss it!