V6-S734

In this tired old world of psych-out and super-sell, there are still a few genuine people—rare as blue butterflies—who carry around their own lightning. Too much analysis of how they do it borders on betrayal, because magical people al¬ ways have secrets, and I never heard a secret yet that didn’t lose its allure once it was repeated. There used to be Cohan and Jolson and Judy Garland. They never told. Today there is Dietrich, Brel, Mercouri, Nureyev, who do their own thing and don’t talk about it. And, believe it or not, a guy named Luiz Henrique.

I'd never heard of him until one night at Liza Minnelli’s house. Liza put on one of his records and he hit me right be¬ tween the eyes. It was a man’s voice, to be sure. But it was a voice full of gentle warmth and lyrical joy. It knew what it was saying, because communication, as Marshall McLuhan would say, is the name of the game. And although it sang to us in Portuguese, we didn’t need earphones like they use at the United Nations. We got the message. The message was bossa nova, and boundless though my enthusiasm is for this subtle but widely misunderstood and greatly hoked- up musical art form, it had become so distorted in the hands of all the American fakes who sing it that I had forgotten how lush and personal it could be in the hands of a true master.

I’ve heard other Luiz Henrique albums since that evening at Liza’s. They get better, more wondrous, more musical every time. And all Luiz’s freshness seems to come to a new and heady point of view with Walter Wanderley in POPCORN, exploding in as many colors, moods and shades as the cross¬ pollination of an orchid with a dahlia.

There was a time when Brazilian music, to most Ameri¬ cans, simply meant Carmen Miranda in a tutti-fruiti hat. Luiz and Walter have changed all that. They have taken all the ingredients of Latin jazz, honed them down to a fine art, taken out the rough edges that make bossa nova a regional kind of music, and translated its basic style and technique into a broader panoramic view, like the movies at Expo, en¬ compassing jazz, folk, sex and the tribal ritual of modern

dance. The result is a Creole gumbo of unbeatably beautiful rhythms blending subtle Latin sambas, salt-and-pepper pinches of American good humor (dig what they do to Happy Birthday and Home on the Range) and the calliope colors of carnival in Rio.

In an age when musical genius is practically an epitaph, Luiz survives because there is nobody else like him. He doesn’t sound like Joao Gilberto or Luiz Bonfa or Antonio Carlos Jobim. Like most Brazilians, he has the charm and the craggy good looks to be a movie star. But his approach to singing is more like Jean-Paul Belmondo’s approach to acting. He seems to be shrugging his shoulders and saying, ‘‘Like me or go buy your cabbages somevyhqie else.” In his English lyrics, he comes across more like a rough-hewn Mastroianni. This guy has the best of both worlds. On sec¬ ond thought, I think 1 hate him.

But his personal appeal should not discolor his true tech¬ nical facility. His guitar work is subtle, gentle, and gutsy at the same time. He makes love with a guitar. (Try that some time. It ain’t easy.)-He can- be sad and merry at the same time, tender and manly at the same time, funny and mock¬ ing with his mind on the tongue-paralyzing mastery of his vocal techniques at the same time, or reckless and suave at the same time. And even if all these qualities escape you (God forbid!) you will still be enchanted -by his choice of material. Fred Ebb and John Kander’s Cabaret never had it so good. Blue Island and Dusty Road are tropical delights representing Luiz’s association with a talented American lyri¬ cist named Jacqueline Sharpe. Florianopolis is a Thomas Wolfian tribute to his home town in Brazil, an oasis on an island in the Atlantic about 300 miles south of Rio. A Differ¬ ent Beat is a lusty collaboration between Luiz and Oscar Brown, Jr., who became his first real American friend when they shared a dressing room at the Cafe Au Go Go. And all the songs, in a sense, are collaborations between Luiz and the swinging Brazilian organist Walter Wanderley, who also emerges within on electric piano and harpsichord. Before I heard Wanderley, I was one of those people who thought

Brazilian organ music was Boy was I wrong. The combination of Luiz and Walter is

so exciting I could lead you down paths of pretentiousness, explaining their uses of time patterns, musical cycles and stop choruses to achieve rich musical enchantment. Breathe easy. I don’t know a stop chorus from a stop sign. But I do know beautiful music when I hear it. So, short of knocking you over the head and forcing you to listen at gunpoint, I can’t think of any more persuasive way to make sure Luiz Henrique and Walter Wanderley fall into your hands, except to say that you’ll be sorry if they don’t.

-REX REED

/SIDE ONE: - ...

7HAPPY BIRTHDAY ... 3:59 OOXLA MO V/* t CABARET* (John Kander-Fred Ebb)... 3:10 /FLORIANOPOLIS** (Luiz Henrique) . .. 3:05 / KEE-KA-ROO** (Walter Wanderley). . . 2:41 f DIANE IN THE MORNING** (Luiz Henrique) . .. 4:04

. 3:22

. 3:47 . 3:02

/S/DETWO. /POPCORN (Luiz Henrique-Walter Wanderley). . . 3:01 /A DIFFERENT BEAT (Oscar Brown, Jr.-Luiz Henrique) . /HOME ON THE RANGE**. .. 2:48 /BLUE ISLAND** (Luiz Henrique-Jacquehne Sharpe) . /DUSTY ROAD** (Luiz Henrique-Jacqueline Sharpe) . / IN MY AUTOMOBILE (Menescal-Boscoli) . . . 2:03

Luiz Henrique—guitar, voice Walter Wanderley—organ, electric piano, harpsichord Sivuca—accordion Jose Marino—bass James Kappes or *Gary Chester or **Dona!d MacDonald-drums Melvin Tax or **Romeo Penque—flute Luiz Henrique or *Affonso De Paula—percussion

PRODUCED BY BOB MORGAN Engineers: Frank Laico, Bob Litton, Eddie Rice Director of Engineering: Val Valentin _ Cover Photo: Rudy Legname / Liner Photo: Pat Field ^ Art Direction: David Krieger

This record has been engineered and manufactured in accord- rx,.,.\-\ ance with standards developed by the Record Industry Associa- A'i-Wji) tion of America, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the

betterment of recorded music and literature. Manufactured by MGM Records Division; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10019

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