barabara sounds sez:
Swinging organ grooves from smooth bossa-lounge master Walter Wanderley. This was his first US recording, produced by Creed Taylor for Verve. The back cover of the original album was graced with a 'handwritten' blurb by crooner Tony Bennett: "If you like: Ella, Duke, Count, Sinatra... you'll love Walter Wanderly's music." Not sure about that at all. But the cover with its toucan and exotic pagan statue peering out of tropical foliage — that's classic. So is the wigged-out last half minute of the final track Bossa na Praia.
This certainly wasn't the first appearance of Rain Forest in the blogosphere — but it's a classic of its kind. So, in case anyone's missed it... it's now too late (DMCA takedown notification)
dusty sez:
An album that not only broke the bossa big in the US — but a set that also really helped transform the sound of the organ in jazz! Not only is the record a key meeting of bossa rhythms and jazz organ — transplanted hugely to the US after a big initial Wanderley run in 60s Brazil — but the set also features some of the cleanest organ lines to ever hit these shores -- a big difference from the heavier flutter that some of the US organists were using a few years before, and a sharp shift towards cleaner keyboard sounds for the rest of the decade. Instrumentation's nice and spare — mostly bass and percussion, plus a bit of flute and guitar — and titles include the massive hit "Summer Samba", plus "Rain", "Beach Samba", "Song Of The Jet", "Cried, Cried", and "Girl From Ipanema".
