Someone
once said that if Spanish is the language of passion then Portuguese
is the soft whispering of a lover in your ear.
In
previous print magazines it was discussed how the creative elegance
of bossa nova was internationalised, i.e. Americanised, to turn
original thought-provoking rhythms and melodies into empty fodder
for elevator shafts and shopping malls. 40 years later we live
in a similar world except that everything is so much easier, where
the instant fix and a semblance of depth, rhythm and melody can
be created by electronic manipulation.
What is worthwhile and what isn’t, what is ephemeral and
what has permanent worth? When does that soft whispering in your
ear become an ad for cleaning products? Maybe you have to have
a sense of history…you remember what that first whisper meant,
not the stereotyped copies of it…and the only way another
whisper can arise is if someone utters it in an original voice.
Brazilian songstress Ive Mendes certainly has a distinctive sound
and a sense of history. On her eponymously titled release from
Mr Bongo she sings in both Portuguese and English moving effortlessly
from one to the other. Don’t expect samba, afoxé or
reggae though. Ive uses the smooth operator approach popularised
by such pop singers as Sade
to create a sultry flowing bossa sound, aided and abetted by high-profile
producer Robin Millar who was
responsible for many top-selling productions for Everything
But The Girl and Fine Young
Cannibals as well as Sade herself.
Following in the footsteps of such bossa nova stars as Bebel
Gilberto, Ive has taken her music even further into the
international arena. Millar’s productions are surprisingly
sympathetic shifting the stark electronic colours, Brazilian flavoured
rhythms and bensonesque guitar to complement the soaring emotion-at-a-distance
style of the singer who composed all 10 titles. My favourite here
is Nao Vou Fugir, a lovely ballad with a great seductive sound
that shows off Ive’s voice, control and compositional flair,
although the opener Natural High is the one aimed at the dancefloor.
There are points of beauty throughout the disc that will catch
your attention before they are subsumed by the flow. However,
if you were to ask me if this is a radical turning point in bossa,
or something I’ll be listening to two or three years from
now, I’d have to say no. But if you want to chill out with
your lover, then the whispers certainly are there. This one will
do just fine for now.
