Quarteto Novo CD

Little known outside of collectors of Brazilian sounds, 1967's QUARTETO NOVO is the only album by the band of the same name. It originally featured two players whose fame eventually went far beyond the Brazilian scene, in jazz and, later, world music fusion: Airto Moreira, percussion, and Hermeto Pascoal, flute and many instruments. (They both went on to play with Miles Davis, among others). While the inspirations of bossa nova and samba are strong here, NOVO is actually more of a jazz album, juggling various Brazilian styles and motifs, and infusing them with propulsive, bright, slightly irreverent swing. At times, QUARTETO NOVA recalls the early, jazz-influenced music of British progressive rock band Jethro Tull (minus the vocals, of course.) Simply put, this is a gem that's not only for fans of 1960s Brazilian music.

2008 reissue of this Bossa Nova classic from the Blue Note vaults, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the creation of Bossa Nova by Tom Jobim and Joao Gilberto, Eight tracks. Blue Note.Down Beat (p.85) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he adventurous, constantly morphing arrangements take the folkloric sources into the stratosphere, with the combo producing a deceptively rich, varied sound."