Next Stop Wonderland

Performer: Original Soundtrack
Engineer: Mark Wessel
Producer: Claudio Ragazzi
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Original music composed by Carlos Ragazzi. Original score personnel: Arto Lindsay, Bebel Gilberto (vocals); Claudio Ragazzi (guitar); Billy Novick (clarinet); Alon Yavnai (piano); Wesley Wirth (bass); Steve Langone (drums); Pemell Satumino, Joel Perpignon (percussion). Original score recorded at Blue Jay Studios, Carlisle, Massachusetts. For the film Next Stop Wonderland, director Brad Anderson hit upon the idea of using Brazilian music to color the background of a searching-for-love tale. So this soundtrack album combines original music by Claudio Ragazzi with new recordings of the standards by Bebel Gilberto and Vinicius Cantuaria and various scraps, often obscure ones, from PolyGram's vast Brazilian holdings. If the primary objective is to capture the ambience of saudade, they've succeeded, delivering the goods with a wide variety of tracks ranging from brash to the most introverted. If the alternate objective is to introduce moviegoers and Generation X to the bossa nova, the needed documentation is scandalously skimpy on this almost arbitrary survey. To cite the most egregious example, on the famous recording of "Corcovado," the participation of Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim is omitted; only Astrud Gilberto is listed! The contributions by Ragazzi with a small group are slight and few in number, but they are thoroughly competent examples of bossa nova cut into the usual inconclusive film cue slices. The historical recordings include the Tamba Trio's early version of "Mas Que Nada," as well as tracks by Jobim, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Walter Wanderley, Toots Thielemans, and a delightful encore of Coleman Hawkins romping merrily through "O Pato." ~ Richard S. Ginell Contemporary American listeners show no sign of tiring of bossa nova, a decades- old musical style that stays fresh no matter how often one has heard "The Girl From Ipanama." Fittingly, a '90s version of "Ipanema" sung by Bebel Gilberto, daughter of great Brazilian singer Joao, appears on this winning soundtrack. WONDERLAND features bossa nova old and new, the latter also performed by downtown producer/solo artist Arto Lindsay and a fine new Brazilian musician Vinicius Cantuaria, whose debut album SOL NA CARA was one of 1996's best. Among the treats offered on NEXT STOP WONDERLAND are the Tampa Trio's original 1963 version of Sergio Mendes' hit "Mas Que Nada," the Brazilian organist Walter Wanderly's tropically exotic "Baia" and two appearances each by Astrud Gilberto (with Stan Getz, of course) and the late, great Elis Regina. Film composer Claudio Ragazzi skillfully fills any gaps between the tunes with properly idiomatic romantic interludes. Bonus: classic tenorman Coleman Hawkins' funky version of "O Pato (The Duck)," which closes the set.

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