CD Review: Saulo Duarte e a Unidade's 'Quente'

Saulo Duarte e a Unidade
Quente
Tratore Music

Steeped in the traditional music of northern Brazil, Saulo Duarte e a Unidade brings us a gentle mix of energetic music with South American pizzazz and a Latin swagger that is comfortably situated between jazz, folk, and neo-fusion. The rhythms and melodies are very sweet and upbeat with a lot of percussion, keyboards, bass, guitars, and vocals. The steel-pan sounds of "Flores Pelo Ar" remind us of a Caribbean lineage. "Dos Olhos Em Diante" is a nice little funky ditty with a psychedelic appeal and a spaghetti-Western ambiance. There are eleven tracks in all, but the album finishes shy of forty-minutes. However, the thiry-some minutes are pure bliss. Anyone familiar with indigenous Brazilian music will love the regional and trans-continental influences. ~ Matthew Forss

CD Review: Mamady Keita's 'Mandeng Djara'

Mamady Keita
Mandeng Djara
Fonti Musicali

Guinea's Mamady Keita releases a Guinean-recorded album of percussive ingeniousness. The eleven tracks explore severall different, but related Guinean dance rhythms, including Fe, Fartalen, Kelu, Dunun Kura, Su, Koro, Kenya, Zaouli, Kedju, Kalah, and Djara. The music contains the instruments of the djembe, balafon, flute, kora, sangban, dununba, djabara, and kenkeni. The entire album runs nearly seventy-seventy minutes long, so there are no shortage of dance rhythms here. There are also various chants that accompany some of the songs, but they are not particularly overt. Mamady's wife, Monette Marino Keita, an acclaimed and award-winning percussionist in her own right, lends her hands on the drums for a few tracks. Fans of Guinean percussion music will especially enjoy Mandeng Djara. ~ Matthew Forss