Thanks to Narada, Milwaukee now has a connection with one of Brazil's greatest living performers. Flora Purim, who appears at Jazz in the Park, Thurs., July 25 for a free concert, recently released a new disc on NaradaJazz, an imprint of the Milwaukee-based record label. Her Milwaukee appearance is an especially welcome treat as her U.S. tour consists only of dates in New York, California and ... Cream City!
"Flora Purim Sings Milton Nascimento" is the singer's tribute to the work of another Brazilian musical legend, himself an evocative singer, songwriter, performer an d a long-time friend and collaborator of Purim's. On the disc, she is joined by her husband, percussionist Airto Moreira, George Duke and others. The disc follows last year's "Perpetual Emotion," which was the singer's first new LP in more than a decade.
"I'd like to call this album The Two of Us, because Milton has been and will always be a very big part of my life story," Purim has said of the new disc. "After going through literally hundreds of songs, either written or sung by him, and with the help of arranger/keyboardist Luiz Avellar, I selected the songs that make up this record."
A Rio De Janeiro native, Purim's career stretches back over four decades and she first arrived in America in the late '60s with Moreira. For more than a decade she maintained a high profile for her ability to seamlessly meld the supple rhythms and charming melodies of Brazilian music with American jazz styles, both modern and traditional.
{INSERT_RELATED}She has performed with Chick Corea (as a member of Return to Forever), Gil Evans, Duke Pearson's Big Band and many, many other luminaries of American jazz and Brazilian music. She participated on two Grammy-winning discs, Mickey Hart's "Planet Drum" and Dizzy Gillespie's "Live at the Royal Festival Hall."
On the new disc, Purim weaves her plangent tone and nuanced phrasing into traditional jazz readings of 10 of Nascimento's works.
Jazz in the Park takes place at Cathedral Square Park, at Jefferson and Wells Streets, from 6:30-9 p.m. Admission is free. For a complete season schedule and more details, visit www.easttown.com.
For more on the fabulous Flora Purim and Milwaukee's Narada Records, visit www.naradajazz.com.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
