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IRENE HAS A LATIN JAZZ BAND AND A NEW ALBUM
IRENE HAS A LATIN JAZZ BAND AND A NEW ALBUM
IRENE AND HER LATIN JAZZ BAND
“A Song of You”
Irene and Her Latin Jazz Band call their sound SoCal-Brazillian music because they all live in Los Angeles, but the main members of the band originally came from Brazil. You can tell their roots by the rhythms, of course from the drummer/percussionist, but more subtly from the pianist, acoustic guitarist and bassist. They say one of their influences is Sergio Mendes
and you can tell if you remember when Mendes first hit the American scene in the mid-Sixties with those big Brazilian-pop bands that had several female singers sharing vocals with him. Another acknowledged influence for this act is the writers of the so-called Great American Songbook. Irene and her co-horts covered several of those compositions on their first album and this second disc has another pair (Gershwin and Porter). Of course you would expect this mostly Brazilian band (except Irene is from Southern California) would be influenced by some of the Brazilian greats, so it makes since they cover (as they did on the first CD) a pair of Jobim pieces, and here they bring in one by Joao Gilberto (possibly originally sung by Elis Regina ?). Anyway, just when you think you have this Latin Jazz Band figured out, they sneak up on you with their own rendition of Eric Clapton’s big pop-chart hit “Change the World.” Who woulda thunk? The Latin rhythms and instrumentation are authentic, but perhaps not quite as passionate and fiery as you would expect from South American musicians, although it may be the jazz part of the “Latin Jazz” that is cooling them down. Regardless, because Irene mostly sings in English, this music will probably primarily be appealing to American audiences who like the smooth jazz radio sound of today, but in this case with a gentle Latin-music aura infiltrating the arrangements.
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