Egberto
Espelho D’Agua
The Tide
Baianero
Por Amor
Desert Glass
Ainda
Momento de Abril
Peace
Davide Giovannini (vocals, drums, keyboards); Neil Angilley (piano, synth); Guillermo Hill (guitar); Paul Booth (soprano sax, bass clarinet); Davide
Mantovani (bass); Bosco De Oliveira (percussion): Chico Chagas (accordion); Diana Popoff (flute, vocal); Stefano Muscovi (harmonica): Rudi Berger (violin);
Adriana Vasques (vocals)
Recorded Studio Porco, London [57:30]
There is no nice way to put this so let me be straight:
I found this a real disappointment. This tribute to Minas Gerais is,
for me, so mired in music-painting-by-numbers that I found little
sign of any real creativity. The vibe is relentlessly rocky, with
predictable voicings and a monotonous unvaried approach to the material,
which is hardly of the most robust kind in the first place. The more
players there are, the more unappealing I found it, despite some good
names amidst the personnel listing. Giovannini himself is a tedious
drummer and percussionist and his rhythmic insistence devitalises
even those good instrumental solos – accordion, guitar, sax – that
crop up.
I can’t get worked up over even so pretty a song as Por Amor which is pure pop because the solos tend to the light rock and watery and the
fade-out ending is hardly an advertisement for structural security. Desert Glass is plain boring and Ainda is TV movie mood music. Momento de Abril has more gusto, but the vocal is wet and the pipy soprano sax solo lacks imagination.
Best to stop here; this is more pop-rock than anything penetratingly to do with ‘the land of great artists like Toninho Horta, Milton Mascimento’ etc. Just
didn’t do it for me. Sorry.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
PATHWAY RECORDS 
