Samba Is Our Gift

"Classic, rootsy samba... (that) is sure to win people's hearts"
- Simon Broughton, Songlines

Combining afro-Brazilian-bossa grooves with classic vocal samba, 'Samba is our Gift', is a step back in time to 1960s Rio de Janeiro and as is dedicated to it's name-sake, samba, the national past-time of Brazil.

The Ipanemas are Wilson Das Neves and Neco. Wilson is one of Brazil's most prolific drummers whilst Neco is an unassuming genius of bossa nova guitar. Wilson and Neco were instrumental in breaking bossa nova in Brazil back in the 1950s, and in the decades since then they have recorded with all the Brazilian legends inc Elis Regina, Tom Jobim, Wilson Simonal, Chico Buarque & Elza Soares. Their debut album 'Os Ipanemas' was recorded in Rio in 1964 for CBS yet the follow up wasn't recorded until almost 40 years later in 2001 with 'The Return of..' for Far Out. This was so popular that a follow up 'Afro Bossa' was recorded two years later yet it is in 'Samba is Our Gift', their third album for Far Out, where they deliver their most impressive, diverse and arresting CD to date.

The afro-sambas that are the Ipanemas trademark sound are ever present yet also we have four fine examples of samba-cancao ('sung-samba') featuring Wilson on vocals which are truly sensational. Incredibly Wilson only stepped out of the shadows of the drum-kit and up to the mic in 1997, yet here is a man who at the drop of a note can take us back to the glory days of samba-cancao. Yet it is not only Wilson's amazing vocals that have helped take this album to the next level but also the arrangements which sound much more confident that on previous CDs - the use of strings on tracks such as 'Valsamba' & 'Imperial' really do take us back to the golden days of the great Brazilian orchestras where Neco and Wilson learnt their trades. This is the tour de force of 'Samba is Our Gift' - its ability to invoke this sense of Sixties Rio de Janeiro, of hip jazz spots and late-night jam sessions

In the brief period that the Ipanemas came together to record their first album they pushed the musical barriers and 'Samba is Our Gift' sees them revisiting this wildly creative time, yet now playing this music with the musical experience of seasoned veterans. There is never likely to be a group of musicians capable of causing such a spell ever again.