Vocal CD of the Month - "Aline Morena: Sensações"

Vocal CD of the Month
Aline Morena: "Sensações" (2014)

Produced by Aline Morena & Hermeto Pascoal
Engineered by Beto Japa
Album Design: Adriana Alegria
Photos: Rudi Bodanese
Bonus Track Filmed by João Marcelo Gomes

Forget all your pre-conceived notions about "conventional" singing. Don't try to idealize an avant-garde jazz singer either. Aline Morena goes beyond categories, and moves inside her own galaxy. She's a musician (who plays keyboards, Brazilian "viola caipira", percussion etc) that also happens to be an extraordinary singer, using her voice (and body) as a sharp instrument, flying over sonic textures built with the support of her partner in love Hermeto Pascoal and many great musicians that have been members of Hermeto's group for several years. Among them: Vinicius Dorin, Itiberê, Marcio Bahia, Fabio Pascoal and Andre Marques, plus accordion master João Pedro Teixeira and such talented newcomers as Mariana Zwarg, Carol Panesi, Karina Neves and a superb young drummer called Ajurinã Zwarg.

Aline is gifted with an incredible vocal range and a very adventurous spirit that allows her to take chances throughout this fearless musical journey, leaving you breathless. Hermeto, the supreme living genius of universal music, provided the arrangements, and is featured on several tracks, playing bass flute ("Canjica Animada"), acoustic piano ("Aconteceu"), melodica ("Está No Ar") and percussion ("Boiada").

Besides these and other stunning new originals ("Frevando em Manaus," "Lamento Verde," "Voa Ilza, ""Está No Ar," "O Meu Coração Bateu"), Aline's solo debut also includes amazing renditions of Dominguinhos' hit "Tenho Sede," Cristovão Bastos/Chico Buarque's "Todo O Sentimento," Edu Lobo/Buarque's "Beatriz," and two Hermeto's "old" tunes: "São Jorge," originally composed for his 1979 "Zabumbê-bum-á" LP, and to which she has added truly perfect lyrics, and "Sereiarei," from the 1973 epic album "A Música Livre de Hermeto Pascoal"; plus a surprising song, "Canturia," composed by Hermeto's brother Elisio Costa after a set of lyrics written by their mother, Dona Divina, until then known exclusively for the famous "O Galho da Roseira" (Branches), a pretty melody covered by Airto & Flora Purim in the 70s.

It will be impossible for neophytes or lazy ears' listeners to absorb or either understand the deep musical content of this album. You need to love and live music to understand and love Aline Morena.