Vânia Bastos is an exceptional singer with great technical capabilities that left her free to achieve a touching sensitivity. This album is dedicated to the conductors and arrangers of the rich Brazilian tradition. From the wonderful research on Brazilian orchestral schools by the conductor Cláudio Leal Ferreira, she took original arrangements by
Pixinguinha for his maxixe "Gavião Calçudo," which, adapted to piano, string quartet, double bass, drums, percussion, flute, and clarinet by Ferreira, provided the basic frame for the arrangements in this album. The selection of repertoire comprises the "radio days," classics by Dircinha Batista and Carmem Miranda; belle époque compositions by Anacleto de Medeiros and Ernesto Nazareth; and modern tunes by such composers as Guinga, Vinícius de Moraes,
Edu Lobo,
Chico Buarque, Eduardo Gudin, and Arrigo Barnabé. Everything is wonderfully re-harmonized and arranged in a whole perfectly coherent. ~ Alvaro Neder