nightcat said:Its great to see all the positive remarks for "We & The Sea". When this lp was released, it received a bad rating in Downbeat. The reviewer (who was dead wrong) said they should put shorter songs on their next lp. They actually did this on their next lp, Samba Blim and ended up with a very sterile and bland lp.
I agree there: Samba Blim was to me, typical CTi/A&M fare. Only "Berimbau" had their signature sound to it, IMHO. If you listen to earlier Tamba Trio recordings, you'll see how much closer Sea is than Blim. I still stick by my assertion that the best tunes on Sea were recorded earlier at a different studio, and had the guitar overdubbed later on at Van Gelder's. Those recoridngs are mostly mono except for the guitar, and are brighter. The others have the typical muddy CTi sound ("Moca Flor", "Iemanja", "We and The Sea" and "Dolphin").