Various Sources
and Artists
Woman on Top
Various
SONY SK 89279
[48:58]
According to the blurb we received with this album (in its promotional edition
with no documentation, other than the sexy picture above and the names, in
Spanish only, of the numbers performed), Woman on Top was premiered
at the Cannes International Film festival in May and is scheduled for release
in America on September 22nd. The film is about Isabella (Penelope Cruz)
"a sultry enchantress born with the special gift of melting the palates and
hearts of men everywhere. When she decides to break free from her rocky marriage
and the stifling kitchen of her husband's restaurant in Brazil, she spirits
off to San Francisco in pursuit of her dream of a real culinary career…"
The soundtrack comprises a pleasing blend of songs that include the bossa
nova, samba, forro, choro, forro, baiâo and other styles, from the
1940s to the present day and features numbers performed by Baden Powell,
Xavier Cugat and others as well as recordings by the popular Brazilian singer
Paulinho Moska and a special remix by the acclaimed new group Bossa Cuca
Nova.
All the numbers delight, but I would mention just the atmospheric 'Berekere'
that seems to evoke the wild cries of the rain forest, the intoxicating rhythms
and the romanticism of 'Cinzas' and 'Falso Baiana'; and the Latin sounds
of the 1940s in 'Aquarela do Brazil' in which one can imagine Carmen Miranda
emerging through the palms.
Ian Lace
