For years, I passed by the treasure trove of guitarist Laurindo Almedia records that packed the bins of so many of the used-record stores I’ve trolled over the years. I can’t say why I avoided these records. They were certainly easy enough to come by.
After seeing some of the posters in Facebook’s “Exotica…and other Cool, Unusual Music” group show off their Almeida finds, I finally decided to give the guitarist a spin myself. I chose these four records to start, including the landmark “Brazilliance,” a record I have had reason to cite in the past.
Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida (1917-95) is known for the many classical, jazz, easy listening, Latin and Brazilian albums he recorded. He got his start in Stan Kenton’s band and recorded albums with Pete Rugolo, Frank Sinatra, Modern Jazz Quartet and Stan Getz.
He was also a studio musician, who can be heard on the soundtracks of over 800 films including “A Star is Born” (1954), “Funny Girl” (1968), “The Godfather” (1972), “Unforgiven” (1992) and even “The Cat in the Hat” (2003). He can also be heard on one episode each of “The Twilight Zone” and “Peter Gunn,” in which he also appears.
Brazilliance has been issued many times over the years. Recorded in September 1953 and April 1954, and first issued in 1955 (about six years before the “bossa nova” fad), this copy was issued in 1968, notably after the fad had pretty much faded.
Here, Almeida is featured with alto saxophonist Bud Shank – as if in dialogue – also with Harry Babasin on bass and Roy Harte on drums (more like a bongo). This is nothing like a bossa-nova record. But it is often pretty and an enjoyable delight. Highlights: “Acertate Mas,” “Terra Seca, “Baa-Too-Kee,” “No No” and “Blue Baiao.”
Viva Bossa Nova! (1962): This is among the Brazilian guitarist’s earliest attempts to ride the then-fashionable “bossa nova” wave. The set is comprised of mostly samba-fied takes on TV and movie themes and clearly designed for easy-listening audiences.
Almeida is on guitar and cavaquinha (a Brazilian instrument, the liner notes tell us, similar to a ukelele), along with Jimmy Rowles on electric organ, Howard Roberts and Al Viola on guitar, Max Bennett on bass, Bob Cooper on tenor sax, Don Fagerquist on trumpet, Justin Gordon on flute, and Shelly Manne, Milt Holland and Chico Guerrero on percussion.
This is a very enjoyable set of easy-listening tunes, but Almeida tends to get lost among the more up-front organ and horns. Highlights include “Ramblin’ Rose,” “Petite Fleur” – with Almeida on cavaquinha – “Moon River” and “Route 66.”
Acapulco ‘22 was first issued in 1963, but oddly in France and South Africa only. It didn’t appear in the U.S. until 1967, and was issued on the budget Tower label, a subsidiary of Capitol, for whom Almeida was recording at the time.
This breezy, sometimes cheesy one falls very much into the easy-listening/exotica camp. Pretty much the same cast of starry West Coast supporting musicians from Viva Boss Nova are here, too. But the lead-billed guitarist sounds very much beside the point.
You have to wonder who the uncredited arranger is here. Whoever it is, practically makes Almeida disappear. Still, it’s a lot of fun. Highlights include “Antigua 1922” (originally on the TJB’s “The Lonely Bull” LP), “Lisbon Antigua” and “Til Then.” The bossa takes of “Satin Doll,” “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” “What kind of Fool Am I” are exotica of the first order.
This album’s “Desafinado” – with its opening riff from “Take the A Train” – is the exact same one that appears on Viva Bossa Nova.
Guitar from Ipanema (1964) is notable both for its now-iconic cheesecake cover as well as its 1965 Grammy Award win – the very same year fellow Capitol artists The Beatles won their first two Grammy Awards.
Although the album’s title obviously riffs on the Jobim classic, “The Girl from Ipanema,” the album’s lead-off track, the Brazilian-born Almeida has every right to claim his album’s title here: he was born in Prainha, which is about 22 miles west of Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro.
Like Brazilliance, Guitar from Ipanema is the most substantive, cohesive and representative of the guitarist’s genuine good taste and instincts. But unlike the earlier album, this one is firmly in the easy-going bossa-nova camp. Also in its favor is that Guitar from Ipanema contains absolutely no duds – with the possible exception of violinist Fafa Lemon’s campy, yet not entirely unappealing “The Fiddler’s Wolf Whistle,” dedicated to his friend Jobim’s “Girl from Ipanema.”
Almedia contributes five tasty originals to the 11-song program, including two sung by Irene Kral (“Old Guitaron” features lyrics by Johnny Mercer, the wordsmith behind “Autumn Leaves,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Come Rain or Come Shine” and, more recently, the Academy Award-winning “Moon River”).
The guitarist is nicely featured throughout, with whistler Jack Marshall helming Jobim’s “Girl from Ipanema” and João Gilberto’s “Um Abraço Um Bonfá,” a little-known tribute which also factored on Coleman Hawkins’ 1962 disc Desafinado.
Bonfá’s “Manhà de Carnaval” and Almeida’s “Twilight in Rio” feature George Fields’ haunting work on harmonica while “Sarah’s Samba,” “Choro for People in Love” and the odd take on “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” spotlight flautist Harry Klee.
Also notable here is Djalma Ferreira’s “Izabelle,” with the organist himself in the spotlight. Ferreira (1913-2004), who was sometimes billed as just “Djalma,” was probably best known in the U.S. for his “Recado Bossa Nova” (also as “Recado” or “Recardo”), recorded by Almeida on 1963’s Ole! Bossa Nova, and “Murmurio” (“Murmer”), recorded by Lalo Schifrin in 1963. Here, Ferreira sounds like a dead ringer for Brazilian organist Walter Wanderley, who often worked with the Brazilian in their earlier years. Oddly, “Izabella” can be heard nowhere else but here.
While Viva Bossa Nova and Acapulco ’22 are charmers for their easy background-music grooves, Guitar from Ipanema and Brazilliance are the ones to hear if you want to absorb what Laurindo Almeida can really do.