NO VOO DO URUBU by ARTHUR VEROCAI

Brazilian composer, guitarist and conductor Arthur Verocai is generally considered one of the biggest geniuses of Brazilian music, but when it comes to albums released under his own name there has simply never been enough to go around. His self-titled 1972 debut album is a staple here at Rush Hour - an album that's been played at the store so often you'd be hard-pressed to find a member of the Rush Hour crew that doesn't know it by heart - but apart from a Brazil-only early 2000s CD release, a beautiful 2007 comeback album on Far Out and a live show registration on Mochilla you'd have to resort to albums by Ivan Lins, Jorge Ben, Elizeth Cardoso, Gal Costa and Marcos Valle to hear more of the maestro's magic orchestrations, though even those albums always leave you wanting more Verocai. Imagine how happy we were when we heard that his latest album, 2016's beautiful 'No Voo do Urubu', was finally given a proper vinyl issue after almost three years. 'No Voo do Urubu' is a glorious album that's up there with Verocai's best work, steeped in the deepest of Brazilian traditions, but without ever losing track of what's happening now, since Arthur Verocai has never been one to be stuck in the past. It's an attitude that's best examplified by the title track, a breathtaking Verocai symphony that morphs into a funky samba tune that has Seu Jorge singing over a firm wall of fully orchestrated goodness, before plunging into the melancholic tristeza of 'O Tempo e o Vento' and the soothing bossa of 'Oh! Juliana!'. The horn section slowly takes over on 'Minha Terra tem Palmeiras' and the slick modern samba soul track 'A Outra', after which the maestro starts experimenting with understated hiphop beats on 'Cigana'. 'O Tambor' is a favorite among favorites here - a slow burning but hard hitting samba funk tune loosely built around Criolo's swirling vocals, followed by the spacious downtempo bossa jazz of 'Snake Eyes', the driving jazzfunk instrumental 'Na Malandragem' and the bittersweet pocket symphony finale 'Desabrochando'. 'No Voo do Urubu' is everything any Verocai fan could wish for and more (RO).