antonello venditti: prendilo tu questo frutto amaro

album rating: ★★★★★

Genre

Italian pop and canzone d'autore. The album alternates between sweeping romantic ballads and more urgent, socially inflected compositions. The title track, co-written with Steven Van Zandt, introduces an American rock sensibility into Venditti's characteristically Roman melodic framework.

Release

Released in 1995 by Heinz Music. All eight tracks were written by Venditti, with the exception of the title track, co-written with Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band, and "Parla come baci," co-written with Luca Anastasi, Danilo Cherni, Amedeo Lo Giudice, and Maurizio Perfetto.

Production

Produced by Alessandro Colombini and Antonello Venditti. Colombini had been Venditti's principal producer since the landmark In questo mondo di ladri (1988), the eighth best-selling album in Italian music history. 

Reception

The album reached number one in Italy, continuing the commercial run established by its predecessors Cuore (1984), In questo mondo di ladri (1988), and Benvenuti in Paradiso (1991). "Ogni volta" became one of the defining Italian love songs of the decade and remains among the most-played songs in Venditti's live repertoire. The album was dedicated to Francesco Saverio — the artist's son with actress Simona Izzo.

Antonello Venditti

Antonio "Antonello" Venditti (born March 8, 1949, Rome) is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist, one of the most enduring and commercially successful figures in the history of Italian popular music. The son of a government official, he studied law and the philosophy of law at La Sapienza, Rome, before dedicating himself to music. He debuted in the early 1970s at the Folkstudio in Rome alongside Francesco De Gregori - with whom he released the joint debut Theorius Campus (1972) - and emerged as a distinctive voice of the cantautore generation for his fusion of social engagement and Roman melodic tradition. His signature songs include "Roma capoccia," "Notte prima degli esami," and "Grazie Roma." Angelina Jolie appeared in the video for "Alta Marea." A passionate supporter of AS Roma, he has written numerous songs for the club and staged a historic free concert in Circo Massimo in 2021, attended by over 600,000 fans. He has sold over 30 million records worldwide.

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ogni volta

vento selvaggio

che tesoro che sei

from the album goodbye novecento

lou rawls: when you hear lou, you've heard it all

album rating: ★★★★★

Genre

Philadelphia soul and jazz. Characteristic of Rawls's Philadelphia International period, the album balances Gamble and Huff's polished, groove-driven soul production with jazz-inflected tracks.

Release

Released in 1977 by Philadelphia International Records. The album's title is a play on the Budweiser advertising slogan "When you say Budweiser, you've said it all" — Rawls was then the company's national spokesperson and could be heard in its television commercials.

Production

Only four tracks were produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff; the remaining tracks were shared among others producers. Recorded at Sigma Sound Studios, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Reception

The album peaked at number 13 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart and number 41 on the Billboard 200. The lead single "Lady Love" proved successful in the crossover market, becoming Rawls's last single to enter the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number 13 in Canada. 

Lou Rawls

Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933, Chicago, Illinois – January 6, 2006, Los Angeles, California) was an American singer whose four-octave baritone adapted equally to gospel, jazz, blues, soul, and R&B. He grew up in the Ida B. Wells housing projects on Chicago's South Side, began singing in church at seven, and as a teenager performed alongside Sam Cooke in the gospel group Teenage Kings of Harmony. After military service as a paratrooper, a near-fatal 1958 car crash that left him in a coma for five and a half days, and a slow recovery, he rebuilt his career from the Los Angeles nightclub circuit, signing with Capitol Records in 1962. His greatest commercial success came with Philadelphia International Records, which he joined in 1975; the resulting collaboration with Gamble and Huff produced "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" (1976) — his signature song. He won three Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance — for "Dead End Street" (1967), A Natural Man (1971), and Unmistakably Lou (1977) — earned thirteen nominations in total, released over sixty albums, and sold more than 40 million records. In 1980 he founded the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon for the United Negro College Fund, which raised over 250 million dollars before his death.

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lady love

trade winds

if i coulda, woulda, shoulda

not the staying kind

ivan lins: a noite

album rating: ★★★★☆

Genre

MPB and jazz-pop. A Noite draws on samba, choro, and Brazilian folk alongside the jazz-inflected pop that defines the EMI period, with harmonica contributions from Mauricio Einhorn adding a distinctive tonal colour to several songs.

Release

Released in 1979 by Odeon/EMI Brasil, on a gatefold LP with a cardboard inner sleeve containing lyrics and credits. It was Ivan Lins's seventh studio album.

Production

Produced by Mariozinho Rocha, with Eduardo Souto Neto as artistic producer. All arrangements and conducting by Gilson Peranzzetta, who also played electric piano, accordion, and piano throughout. Ivan Lins contributed piano, acoustic guitar, clarinet, and lead vocals. 

Reception

A Noite was warmly received as a continuation and consolidation of the artistic direction established with Somos Todos Iguais Nesta Noite (1977). AllMusic praised the EMI years as Lins's most commercially and artistically productive period. The album was reissued multiple times and remains a favourite among collectors of 1970s Brazilian music.

Ivan Lins

Ivan Guimarães Lins (born June 16, 1945, Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian singer, pianist, and songwriter, the most covered Brazilian artist abroad and one of the most internationally influential composers in the history of MPB. A self-taught pianist and chemical engineering graduate, he had his first hit with "Madalena," recorded by Elis Regina in 1970. His distinctive harmonic language — at once refined and accessible, shaped by jazz, bossa nova, and samba — earned him a global following spanning jazz and pop. Among the artists who have covered his songs are Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, George Benson, Quincy Jones, Sting, the Manhattan Transfer, Patti Austin, and Barbra Streisand. His album "Dinorah, Dinorah," from Somos Todos Iguais Nesta Noite, won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Arrangement in 1981 as recorded by George Benson; "Velas" won the same prize in 1982 as recorded by Quincy Jones; and in 2004 Sting won the Grammy for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance with Lins's "She Walks This Earth." His Cantando Histórias (2005) made him the first Brazilian artist to win the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year. He divides his time between Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon.

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começar de novo

radio futura: tierra para bailar

album rating: ★★★★☆

Genre

Dance-pop, Latin rock, and funk. A re-recorded compilation of six Radio Futura classics — recast in more danceable, rhythmically updated versions — alongside one brand new song, "El Puente Azul," and a cover of Caetano Veloso's "Tierra." 

Release

Released in 1992 by BMG Ariola, Spain. A re-recorded compilation produced to fulfil a contractual obligation with the label following the band's final studio album Veneno en la Piel (1990). The album proved to be Radio Futura's farewell release.

Production

Re-recorded compilation. Produced and mixed by Jo Dworniak — the London-born musician, arranger, and producer who had been Radio Futura's primary collaborator since 1985, described by Santiago Auserón as "a sort of fourth band member in the dark." Dworniak also co-wrote "El Puente Azul" and "The School of Heat." The sessions assembled an international ensemble of over twenty musicians, including session players from London, New York, and Madrid. Recorded at Moody Studios, London, England, in October 1991.

Reception

Critically it was received as a dignified and inventive farewell, with the journalist Diego Manrique describing Radio Futura as "the great musical organism of the 1980s" in the liner notes to the concurrent box set of their complete discography. 

Radio Futura

Radio Futura were a Spanish pop-rock group formed in Madrid in 1979, at the height of the Movida Madrileña, by painter and synthesizer experimenter Herminio Molero alongside brothers Santiago Auserón (born July 25, 1954, Zaragoza; vocals, guitar) and Luis Auserón (bass), and guitarist Enrique Sierra — the latter a veteran of Kaka de Luxe. Their name was taken from an Italian independent radio station. After Molero's departure, the classic trio of Santiago, Luis, and Sierra evolved through seven studio albums from Música Moderna (1980) to Veneno en la Piel (1990), absorbing successive influences from punk and new wave to Latin rhythms and Caribbean music. Their encounter with Jo Dworniak in London in 1981 opened a crucial international dimension; the collaboration produced De un país en llamas (1985) and La canción de Juan Perro (1987), two of the defining albums of Spanish rock. In 1989 guitarist Ollie Halsall — a member of the touring band — joined them; his death by overdose in 1992 was among the factors that brought the band to an end. After dissolution, Santiago Auserón continued as Juan Perro.

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semilla negra

semilla negra [1984 original version]

from the album la ley del desierto / la ley del mar

tierra

the manhattan transfer: extensions

 

album rating: ★★★★☆

Genre

Vocal jazz, jazz fusion, and pop. Extensions marked a pivotal turn in the group's history, embracing jazz fusion and the technique of vocalese — in which lyrics are set to pre-existing instrumental jazz solos — with the guidance of vocalese pioneer Jon Hendricks, who wrote the words for "Birdland." 

Release

Released on October 31, 1979, by Atlantic Records. It was the group's fifth studio album and the first to feature Cheryl Bentyne, who had replaced Laurel Massé following a serious car accident in early 1979. The album was dedicated to jazz vocalist Eddie Jefferson (1919–1979), the originator of vocalese, who had been murdered shortly before its release.

Production

Produced by Jay Graydon. Arrangements were shared among Graydon, David Foster, Greg Mathieson, Michael Omartian, Phil Mattson, Gene Puerling, and Clare Fischer. Session musicians included the core of what would become Toto. Basic tracks were recorded at Dawnbreaker Studios, San Fernando, California; overdubs and mixing at Garden Rake Studios, Studio City, California; mastered by Bernie Grundman at A&M Studios, Hollywood. Costume design was by Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Reception

The album reached number 55 on the Billboard Top LP's chart. "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" reached number 30 on the Hot 100 and number 12 on the Disco chart. "Birdland" — the group's cover of Joe Zawinul's Weather Report composition, with lyrics by Jon Hendricks and vocal arrangement by Janis Siegel — became the most played jazz record of 1980 and won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance and the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices, both in 1981.

The Manhattan Transfer

The Manhattan Transfer were an American vocal group formed in New York City on October 1, 1972, by founder Tim Hauser (1941–2014), who assembled the classic lineup with Janis Siegel, Alan Paul, and Laurel Massé — later replaced by Cheryl Bentyne. The group signed to Atlantic Records in 1974 and built a unique career straddling jazz, pop, swing, R&B, and vocalese. In 1981 they became the first group in history to win Grammy Awards in both the pop and jazz categories in the same year. Their 1985 album Vocalese received twelve Grammy nominations — the most ever for a single album at the time. Over their career they accumulated ten Grammy Awards from twenty nominations and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. 

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birdland

twilight zone/twilight tone

chanson d'amour

from the album coming out

josé afonso: traz outro amigo também

album rating: ★★★★★

Genre

Portuguese folk and protest song. The album marks a decisive turning point in Afonso's output: the poetic language becomes more complex and the political urgency more acute - leaving behind the folk balladry of the 1960s for a denser, more mature idiom that would define his work through the following decade.

Release

Released in 1970 by Orfeu, the Oporto label founded by Arnaldo Trindade that published all the most relevant part of José Afonso's discography. It was his fourth studio album. 

Production

Recorded at the Pye Studios, London, England, in sessions that featured Carlos Correia (Bóris), on first viola, and Luís Filipe Colaço, on second viola. During the London sessions, José Afonso and his collaborators encountered Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, then exiled, who attended some of the recording sessions. The album was recorded without Rui Pato, Afonso's habitual guitar accompanist on previous records.

Reception

Widely regarded as a watershed in José Afonso's career and in modern Portuguese music, the album has been described by critics as marking the official birth of the mature Afonso — the artist who would go on to write "Grândola, Vila Morena" (1971), which became the signal song of the Revolution of April 25, 1974. 

José Afonso

José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos (August 2, 1929, Aveiro – February 23, 1987, Setúbal), known as Zeca Afonso, was a Portuguese singer-songwriter, guitarist, and poet widely regarded as the greatest figure in the history of Portuguese popular music and one of the most significant political songwriters of the twentieth century. He studied at the University of Coimbra - where he developed his early musical voice within the Coimbra fado tradition - and became a central figure of the Nova Canção movement during the 1960s. His song "Grândola, Vila Morena" (1971) was chosen as the signal broadcast on national radio that initiated the Revolution of April 25, 1974. He was awarded the Prémio Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen in 1982.

This text was generated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence.

traz outro amigo também

canto moço