Brasil

Performer: Manhattan Transfer
Artist: Stan Getz; Abraham Laboriel; David Sanborn; Jeff Lorber; Paulinho Da Costa; Milton Nascimento
Engineer: Ed Thacker
Producer: Tim Hauser
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: The Manhattan Transfer: Tim Hauser, Janis Siegel, Alan Paul, Cheryl Bentyne (vocals). Additional personnel: Uakti, Marco Antonio Guimaraes, Paulo Sergio Dos Santos, Artur Andres Ribeiro, Decio De Souza Ramos (various instruments); Victor Biglione, Toninho Horta, Oscar Castro-Neves, Dann Huff, Wayne Johnson (guitar); Stan Getz, David Sanborn (saxophone); Yaron Gershovsky (piano); Jamal Joanes Dos Santos, Nathan East, Abraham Laboriel (bass); John Robinson, Buddy Williams (drums); Frank Colon, Paulinho Da Costa, Djalma Correa (percussion); Wagner Tiso, Larry Williams, Jeff Lorber (programming); Milton Nascimento, Djavan (background vocals). Tim Hauser likes to say that the Manhattan Transfer gets bored easily; hence the exploratory bent that has made them the most interesting vocal group in jazz (and maybe pop, too). Taking advantage of the then-cresting second Brazilian wave in North America while still going their own way musically, Brasil is the Transfer's most daring and perhaps most emotionally moving album to date, an original fusion of the Transfer's vigorous vocal blend, Brazilian harmonic warmth, the textures of American synthesized pop/jazz and the rhythms of both nations. They rely mostly upon five songs from one of Brazil's finest post-bossa nova writers, Djavan, with two more from Ivan Lins and one apiece from Gilberto Gil and Milton Nascimento (the Transfer has impeccable taste in Brazilian writers), while going to all kinds of folk for English lyrics. The oddly percolating "Soul Food to Go" with Dada lyrics by, of all people, the notorious Doug Fieger of the Knack, makes a fine energetic prelude to an album that also frets about Big Brother, the suppression of freedom, and the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Clearly the Transfer had been listening hard not only to the sound but also the fury of Brazil's composers; their causes become the Transfer's as well. Djavan's lovely "Capim" has the dual advantage of having both the composer on vocals and a distinguished visitor from the first Brazilian wave, Stan Getz, blowing urbane obligatos. The last cut, "Notes from the Underground," an angry cry of solidarity with a haunting Lins tune and bumping instrumental lines from the Brazilian group Uakti, aches in the memory for hours. Alas, the elusive Brasil baffled many of the Transfer's fans and started a long commercial slide for the group. Yet it belongs among their greatest achievements, right alongside Extensions and Vocalese. ~ Richard S. Ginell

The Manhattan Transfer are one of the most popular and acclaimed vocal ensembles in all of contemporary music, with numerous platinum albums and eight Grammy Awards to their credit. While jazz is now only a part of their repertoire (pop, R&B, Brazilian, and doo-wop stylings have added to their far-reaching appeal), when the group first formed, the idea was to arrange their voices as if they were the saxophone section of the Basie Big Band. Their best work in the jazz realm also features the contributions of lyricist and fellow singer Jon Hendricks.

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