Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Jazz
Comment: This lady blows me away whenever I hear her. Now she sings songs of Brazil. I love this album. She is a great singer doing great songs. It just doesn't get any better.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Comment: Ms Allyson gives a great and personal delivery of these brazilian bossa-nova classics. Very enjoyable. reminds me of her CD "Paris to Rio". Check out Celso Fonseca's "rio rive gauche" CD also a delight
Customer Rating:
Summary: You will play this beautiful CD over and over again
Comment: Went to Birdland in NYC Saturday night (4/5/08) and caught Karrin Allyson's early show in which she featured songs from this new CD "Imagina" Her live performance of this beautiful Brazilian music was a true delight with great back-up with her steady band of vibes, guitar, bass and drums. She packed the house and the audience just loved her. Though I almost always buy my CD's at Amazon, I could not wait for this one and payed the higher night-club price that night for this CD and was even able to get Karrin Allyson to autograph it.
It was fun driving home with my wife to just listen to the beautiful music we just heard live at Birdland all over again on this terrific CD while it was so fresh in our minds.
A couple of the songs she selected for this CD were familiar Brazilian tunes we have heard many times before, but most were new to our ears.
You just can't hear great music like this on our radio stations in the US, and what a shame that is.The public is being locked out of this great music because they are never exposed to it and thus not even aware it exist. What a disgrace.
I find myself playing this CD over and over again on my commute to work and even as backround music on the job. Each tune is that enjoyable. Karrin swings and scats as only a true jazz singer can on some tunes and on others, she uses her unique phraseing and interpretation of the ballads in a soft, lilting blend of both English and Portuguese.
This is truly one of the most beautiful CD's I have ever heard, and i think I may never grow tired of listening to it.
YOU JUST HAVE TO OWN THIS CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Tasteful and enjoyable.
Comment: New York-based jazz singer Karrin Allyson had mastered Brazilian songs back when she was in Kansas City, so her ease with the Portuguese lyrics on the new "Imagina: Songs of Brasil" (Concord Jazz) shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone.
Her past CDs have icluded some of her favourite Brazilians songs, (see her album "From Paris to Rio").
Her new project consists entirely of Brazilian jazz and includes musicians such as Steve Nelson (vibraphone), Rod Fleeman (guitar), Todd Strait (drums), New York bassist David Finck, with Gil Goldstein on piano and accordion.
The material ranges from the more familiar (Antonio Carlos) Jobim tunes, to lesser-known songs, never the most obvious choices.
There are Rosa Passos' "Outono" (Autumn), two Edo Lobo and Vinicius de Moraes songs that Chris Caswell - who wrote many of the lyrics to the "Footprints" songs - wrote new English lyrics to, and there are two Jobim songs, "A Felicidade" and "Vivo Sonhando", that Susannah McCorkle wrote English lyrics to.
Trouble is sometimes, this undeniably charming material has been worked over tenfold by preceding generations of revered singers (some of whom Karrin has been compared with) leaving her and her musicians nothing much else to offer beside an excellent gloss on familiar material.
She just as easily makes the transition from words, to scatting and vocalese, switching easily from Portuguese to English.
Allyson says of her love for Brazilian music, "I think that what gets to me and other folks, are the rhythms, those infectious samba and bossa nova rhythms. Brazilian music is a very large category. Brazilian music is not just about samba, and it is not just about bossa nova. I am learning all of the time more about that. The music is layered with beautiful harmonies and beautiful melodies. I love the fact that Brazilian composers such as Jobim, are in love with nature, as I am too. His music is always connected to nature in some way".
Karrin's voice is full and elastic and she handles the material effectively, enjoying the interaction with her musicians.
Karrin and her musicians produce immaculate high class supperclub jazz, a perfectly packaged and utterly tasteful, but enjoyable nonetheless for its genuine verve.
Once you hear Allyson apply her unique style to the first tracks like "A Felicidade" and "Correnteza", you'll be eager for more.
From Paris to Rio
Footprints
Customer Rating:
Summary: KARRIN ALLYSON In FABULOUS BRAZILIAN SONG PERFORMANCES
Comment: Four and a half ENJOYABLE Stars! Jazz flute legend Herbie Mann was once asked to describe Brazilian music: he used one word, "Paradise". On the 11th CD of her fabulous and adventurous career, Grammy-nominated jazz singer Karrin Allyson delivers Brazilian "paradise" in English & Brazilian Portuguese which she has recorded in before. In the follow-up to the Grammy-nominated Footprints which focused on classic jazz, including a great take on the Wayne Shorter title tune, she brilliantly gives us an entire CD dealing with Brazil, delivering wonderful renditions of major and minor Brazilian classics sung in both languages. It's fitting that the songs of 'Tom' Jobim and super-diva Elis Regina are major parts of this CD, as well as a slice of Stan Getz-Joao Gilberto, who jump-started the U.S Brazilian craze in the 60s, and the famed composer Edu Lobo, among others.
The 'best of the best' begins with a stunningly beautiful "Correnteza" (Rapids) showing off Jobim's characteristic 'in and out of tempo' movements with Ms Allyson's voice a combination of vulnerability, sensitivity, and sensuality: precisely what is needed with these songs. And it went straight to my iPod. Then there is the title song cast as a wonderful waltz. "Só Tinha Que Ser Com Você" (It Had To Be With You) & "Estrada do Sol" (Path of the Sun) follow Elis Regina's trajectory accurately and each song comes up a winner, as is the case with "Pra Dizer Adeus" (Time To Say Goodbye) by another legendary Brazilian maestro, Edu Lobo. "Desafinado" (Slightly Out of Tune) is pure joy with its English lyrics and odd-meter breaks giving it distinction, as is "Double Rainbow" (aka Raining On The Rosebush). Just wonderful singing!! "Vivo Sohando" (LIving On Dreams, aka Dreamer) is pure swinging beauty, aided by the vocal/guitar doubling and a great David Finck bass solo. A couple of the English-driven lyrics take us away from Brazil, but not for long. "É Com Esse Que Eu Vou" (I'll Go with This One) is another Regina song and Karrin invests a lot of herself to create a different vibe. Incidentlally, on From Paris to Rio also shows her affinity for singing in dead-on French as well as Portuguese. Karrin Allyson is an amazing singer who has delivered a very singular and enjoyable CD which goes for the heart of Brazil. Highly Recommended! I'll be recommending it to my friends in Brazil, it's THAT good, IMHO. Four and a half WONDERFUL Stars. (This review is based on an iTunes download.)
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