Lugar Comum

This funky bit of samba by the king of bossa pianists was the second such album he recorded in the middle of the decade. Moving away from his earlier bossa nova and Latin jazz sound, Joao Donato cut Quem E Quem a year earlier with stellar results: The disc landed him on the charts for the first time in three years and was actually distributed in the U.S. to the fusion-hungry jazz audience. Lugar Comum is another step away. The bossa has been replaced by a more pronounced samba sound and there are few acoustic pianos on the disc at all. Furthermore, in addition to funking it up -- in that light, airy, breezy Brazilian way -- on electric keys, Donato handles all the lead vocal chores himself. As for his voice, well, Tom Jobim's is worse, but not much. Nonetheless, Donato's arrangements are lush, tight, and full of life and light, and they are well suited to tunes like the title track, the chorus-heavy "Patumbalacunde," and the shimmering wisp that is "Xango E Da Be," with its gorgeous strings and whistle-stop percussion. This is now regarded as a classic of the genre and, in some ways, the hep cats and kitties are right: While Airto and Flora and Deodato were moving into hard and heavy territory with rhythms clashing everywhere atop harried and crowded arrangements to adapt to the fusion market, Donato played it commercial in his own sweet, laid-back way. This is a beautiful, if very slick, album that should interest all fans of Brazilian pop. ~ Thom Jurek