Guinga Suite Leopoldina CD

SUITE LEOPOLDINA was nominated for the 2001 Latin Grammy Award for Best Musica Popular Brasileira Album.

On his 14 track release, SUITE LEOPOLDINA, guitar virtuoso Guinga teams up with an eclectic mix of Brazilian music stars including Chico Buarque, Ed Motta, Nei Lopes, Ivan Lins, and Alceu Valenca.

Comparable to New York's Penn Station or Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, Leopoldina Station is a major train station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Just as a New Yorker would venture to Penn Station to take a train to the suburbs of Long Island or Northern New Jersey, Leopoldina Station is where a carioca would catch a train to Rio's suburbs. By calling this CD Suite Leopoldina, Brazilian guitarist Guinga is celebrating his Rio background. All of the tunes that Guinga wrote or co-wrote for this album, recorded in late 1998 and early 1999, have a strong Rio orientation. Whether he is playing samba or choro, whether he is embracing instrumental Brazilian jazz or jazz-influenced Brazilian pop, the guitarist is consistently Rio-minded on Suite Leopoldina. And it's important to emphasize the Rio connection because carioca music is distinctive; Guinga might admire the Brazilian pop and jazz sounds coming out of Salvador or Sao Paulo, but this ultra-melodic CD is distinctly Rio. That is true of the album's instrumentals as well as the tracks that feature vocalists, who include Alceu Valenca, Ed Motta, and the influential Ivan Lins. Guinga's love of jazz is strong; he features harmonica player Toots Thielemans on two instrumentals ("Constance" and "Dos Anjos") and pays tribute to Charles Mingus on "Mingus Samba" (which features vocalist Lenine). Excellent from start to finish, Suite Leopoldina is enthusiastically recommended to anyone who treasures the Rio school of Brazilian jazz and pop. ~ Alex Henderson

Guinga is an amazing composer and guitar player. He invited great names from Brazilian music to appear on this album and they willingly obliged... among them Chico Buarque, Ed Motta, Nei Lopes, Ivan Lins, Alceu Valenca, and Lenine. A highly recommended CD for those who enjoy the best Brazilian Music can offer. One highlight is the track "Constance", a beautiful ballad which features the distinctive harmonica playing of the legendary Toots Thielemans.

Includes liner notes by Jassvan De Lima.

Personnel includes: Guinga (guitar); Ivan Lins, Ed Motta, Chico Buarque, Nei Lopes, Lenine, Alceu Valenca (vocals); Lula Galvao (guitar, cavaquinho); Jaques Morelenbaum (cello); Paschoal Perrotta, Giancarlo Pareschi, Bernardo Bessler (violin); Leandro Braga (strings); Carlos Malta (flute, bass flute, pandiero); Andrea Ernest Dias (flute); Paulo Sergio Santos (clarinet); Elione (bassoon); Toots Thielemans (harmonica); Ze Nogueira (soprano saxophone); Eduardo Neves (alto & tenor saxophones); Roberto Marquez (trombone); Gilson Peranzzetta (piano); Jorge Helder (acoustic & electric basses); Edson Menezes (bass); Joao Cortez (drums); Armando Marcal (surdo, caixa, ganza, pandiero, cymbals); Marcos Suzano (tabla, pandeiro); Ovidio Brito (pandeiro, cuica).

Engineers: Guilherme Reis, Rodrigo Lopes, Daniel Leon.