Patty Ascher - Sings Burt Bacharach In Bossa Nova (2008)

The special project was produced by legendary Bossa Nova pioneer Roberto Menescal, to showcase 14 of Bacharach’s best songs in the soft, cool jazz style of 60’s Bossa Nova, but with a contemporary twist! Patty Ascher’ vocal style is a perfect match for these timeless tunes. With this CD, there really is “always something there to remind you!”

Like the richest chocolate and the smoothest peanut butter, they were always meant to be together.
Simply put, the songs of Burt Bacharach and Bossa Nova made the 60s what they were. Unparalleled in their sense of melody, aching melancholy and overall coolness, they redefined what pop music could do and what it could mean to people.
Historically, those three B’s have been heading down the musical highway in parallel lanes. For example: One of Sergio Mendes’ first big hits was “The Look of Love” with his group Brasil ’66.

At last, all these creative forces come together on the musical equivalent of a peanut butter cup: The simply stunning album “Bacharach Bossa Club” from rising Brazilian vocalist Patti Ascher.

Produced and arranged by Bossa Nova pioneer Roberto Menescal, the album makes the transition of 14 of Bacharach’s biggest hits to the Brazilian milieu seem as natural as the flow of the Amazon River.

Much of the credit should go to Ascher, a former literature professor with a warm voice reminiscent of her idol Julie London and a flair for reinventing songs without redefining them.

She also gets the perfect collaborator in the 70-year-old Menescal, a multi-instrumentalist featured on Bossa Nova’s earliest recordings and the composer of such classic Bossa Novas as "O Barquinho," "Errinho à Tôa," and "Vagamente." Careful not to crowd Ascher, Menescal nonetheless manages to put everything from a harmonica to a string section at her disposal.

The idea for the Bacharach project was apparently Menescal’s – although Ascher had some input. “"I always wanted to produce a disc with songs of Burt Bacharach in the Bossa style,” he recently said. “But who could express - with heart and soul - the lovely and wonderful songs that are part of our lives for so many years?” The answer was Asher, whom Menescal during his constant search for new talent, Menescal said he wanted her to record an album of songs from Antonio Carlos Jobim, the Carpenters of Bacharach. Without hesitation, and much to Menescal’s pleasure, Ascher chose the last alternative. “I want to honor a great master who is still among us,” she recently told a Brazilian reporter.

With Menescal’s subtle yet jazzy arrangements accompanying her, Ascher is free to plum the emotional depths of Bacharach’s songs, giving them new meaning in the process. Particular highlights for Menescal are “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and “Always Something There To Remind Me” in which his off-tempo accompaniments allows Ascher – a native Brazilian who sings in perfectly accented English throughout the album – to show off her inner Ella Fitzgerald. Another reinterpretation is “Wives and Lovers.” As sung by Jack Jones in 1963, original was a male chauvinist romp that matched the times. Forty-five years later, attitudes have evolved. Appropriately, without changing Hal David’s lyrics, Ascher turns the song on its head. Intermingled with heartache and wistfulness, Ascher sings as if one of the song’s title subjects, her voice dripping with pain as it nearly trails off in the final stanzas.

Pulling off another interpretation of “The Look of Love” would be a challenge for a lesser Brazilian singer, given that the Hall-sung Mendes version (which hit No. 4 on the U.S. charts in 1968) is so closely associated with the song. But Ascher shows she is more than up to the task, allowing touches of Dusty Springfield’s original interpretation to peek through its Bossa Nova cadences.

Another Bacharach classic that was heavily influenced by the Brazilian beat, Warwick’s “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” finds Ascher playfully experimenting with the song’s melody, enunciation and rhythms – the sign of an vocalist truly comfortable with both her voice and her material.

Born into a family that includes professional musician father and an uncle who was an orchestra conductor, Ascher, 37, may have strayed from her roots during her earlier days. But the latest work from a singer who first gained attention when she won a Visa MPB award in 1999 shows that natural talent and god genes never went away.
The “Bacharach Bossa Club” is one club you will want to join, whether you’re a fan of perfectly crafted 60s pop or Brazil’s most famous musical export. Which, after all, have never been too far apart.

By the way, in case you hadn’t heard Bossa Nova officially turned 50 this year. And Bacharach, still actively composing and collaborating with other musicians turned 80 on May 12th, 2008.

Personnel: Patty Ascher (vocals), Roberto Menescal (guitars); Adriano Souza (piano, keyboards), Flávio Paiva (flutes), Guta Menezes (harmonica), Adrinao Gifoni, (bass), João Cortez (drums).