Ye-Me-Le

[Michael Hagerty]

Was at a Barnes & Noble last night with listening stations that let you search for and listen to tracks of albums. It showed Ye-Me-Le as having been released on CD by Universal at the same time last year as Equinox. Neither was in the racks at B&N. Did I miss something? Or (increasingly likely) know something a year ago that I've since forgotten?

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Rudy]

If it showed August, the entire Brasil '66 catalog was released...but in Japan. If it was earlier, then it was a mistake. Equinox was released domestically last year, but I don't recall the date. It took me awhile to get it since I put it on preorder at half.com. Sounds a little better than Look Around (which has that annoying late 60's A&M trait of having no bass to it ).

Funny you should mention it--had a little extra $$, and just ordered, yesterday, Crystal Illusions from an Amazon seller, and Herb Alpert Presents... and Ye-Me-Le from Dusty Groove. They were out of Fool On The Hill, but that wil be my next purchase with Expo '70...then followed by Primal Roots, Stillness and Pais Tropical (in that order) as the summer goes on. Can't say the last couple are huge favorites, but I get the feeling it's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Bummer they didn't do hybrid SACD on these titles, but that wasn't very popular last year. (Not like it's any more popular this year .)

 

[Rudy]

P.S. Can't help with the memory part of your problem...I can't remember what I did yesterday, nor can I remember what I'm supposed to do tomorrow.

It's an affliction I'm told is CRS: Can't Remember S**t!

 

[Brasil_Nut]

Think nothing of it. I'm lucky if I can remember what I ate for dinner last night, let alone what I ate for breakfast! I think it was Herb who said, "There's a few things that go after you turn 40. One of them is your memory, and I can't remember what the other one is..." Truer words have never been spoken!!

Jon

 

[mr J.]

The US reissue of "Equinox" owes it's existence to the Polygram/Universal merger.Now that Universal owns both A&M and Verve,both labels are "family" related,and each label can borrow master tapes from the other.Over the past 3 years,Verve has been quietly reissuing A&M material-both original albums and compilations,and the've tapped into the A&M catalog for several jazz/bossa nova titles-including Brasil '66 EQUINOX and LOOK AROUND,as well as titles from George Benson,Quincy Jones and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

 

[Brasil_Nut]

The reissues are quite welcome, indeed! Equinox is a great album all the way across the board. Look Around follows suit. I recall hearing Look Around for the first time (as a child). I was blown away by "Roda," "Batucada" and "The Frog." I remember being able to appreciate those tight arrangements, even as a kid. The sound was amazing.

As for Ye-Me-Le, it's an interesting album in that it's the first time Sergio recorded Lani and Karen equally. Karen in one channel, Lani in the other; head to head, straight down the line. I asked Gracinha about this and she concurred. "Sergio used a more direct approach with Ye-Me-Le," she told me, "Some thought is was hard-edged. Others thought it was amazing." Gracinha also revealed that she is, indeed, a singer on the album. "It was just prior to the transition," she told me. "I appear here and there throughout Ye-Me-Le." This is interesting to me because when I saw Brasil '66 in '71 at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the singers were Lani, Karen and Gracinha. I may have been all of ten-years-old, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

I always thought it was amazing how Sergio made the "transition" from a sound with Lani Hall to a sound without Lani Hall. He slowly, methodically introduced more of Karen's voice on the tracks, incorporated Gracinha into the mix, released Stillness with a mixture of all three, and finally released Pais Tropical without Lani -- but with that trademark sound. You'd swear that Lani was there on cuts like "Gone Forever" and "So Many People." Amazing! And, as Gracinha said, the sound didn't really change until Bonnie Bowden was introduced into the group. Even Geri Stevens had that trademark Mendes sound for the brief year that she appeared with Brasil '77.

Either way, I'm glad to see the reissues. It's nice to have the Mendes catalog on CD.

Jon