Let's be honest: a cappella performances are a tough sell in the jazz world. Jazz enthusiasts love their saxophones, trumpets, and pianos, and most of them are reluctant to do without musical instruments for even 30 minutes or an hour. But a cappella artists have accomplished some great things over the years;
Take 6 and
the Persuasions, both R&B groups, immediately come to mind. And the a cappella format definitely works well for the jazz-friendly Brazilian vocal sextet
BR6 on
Here to Stay: Gershwin and Jobim, which is their first English-language album. This 41-minute disc finds
BR6 paying tribute to two of the most prolific composers of the 20th century:
George Gershwin and
Antonio Carlos Jobim. The latter has often been exalted as "the
George Gershwin of Brazil," and hearing
Gershwin standards alongside
Jobim standards on this album, one can easily see the parallels. The interesting thing is that even though
BR6 is a Brazilian group and performed in Portuguese on previous albums, they only perform the English-language versions of
Jobim's songs on
Here to Stay. And although many of these songs are warhorses that have been beaten to death in the jazz world over the years,
BR6 have no problem making them sound fresh. "Fascinating Rhythm," "Our Love Is Here to Stay," "They Can't Take That Away from Me," and "Someone to Watch Over Me," from the
Gershwin songbook, and "The Girl from Ipanema," "Agua de Beber," and "So Danco Samba" from the
Jobim songbook have been recorded time and time again, but how often have they been recorded by Brazilian a cappella groups? Not very often. Making warhorses sound fresh is not an easy task, but freshness is exactly what
BR6 offers on this risk-taking CD. ~ Alex Henderson