Trampolim (Brazil) [Audio CD] Salmaso, Monica

Monica Salmaso is of a generation of female singers that followed Maria Bethania and Gal Costa. As the traditional "Canto Dos Escravos" drifts from the speakers over the percussion of Nana Vasconcelos you know you are onto something. Salmaso has a divine voice and has chosen wisely the songs of Edu Lobo and Chico Buarque, Dorival Caymi, Lenine and Braulio Tavares, Jose Miguel Wisnik and Ronaldo Bastos to cover. The sensual but minimalist, acoustic settings that surround her voice feature acoustic bass, viola and percussion, with piano/keys and the odd bit of soprano sax and accordion. The gentle, poetic, jazz-infused Trampolim fits nicely into the slipstream of Bahia's Virginia Rodrigues'Nos. --Livingstone Marquis