Brazilliance, Part Two: MPB With Verônica Ferriani and Douglas Lora (Video)

Ms. Ferriani is a petite woman, but listening to her sing is a very large experience. Her voice is warm, precise and powerful, and she has an impeccable interpretive style.
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This is the follow-up on my last post, concerning a performance of choro music on New York's lower east side. The "earnest young man" mentioned in that article is Eric Shenkman. At the choro concert, he and guitarist Douglas Lora invited me to another show at The Living Room; this one with Douglas backing up singer Verônica Ferriani. Both gave me glowing reports about this young woman who is part of a new generation of great singers in the tradition of Música Popular Brasileira, or MPB. Based on the quality of Mr. Lora's last performance (and a gentle email nudge from Eric), I went to check it out.

Ms. Ferriani is a petite woman, but listening to her sing is a very large experience. Her voice is warm, precise and powerful, and she has an impeccable interpretive style. She is on the rise in Brazil -- so remember, you saw her here first.

The evening's repertoire drew from mostly well known sources, Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque, Luis Gonzaga, Tom Jobim, and Milton Nascimento, to name a few. And Ms. Ferriani even ventured into American jazz standard territory. But sticking to the Brazilian side of the program, I've chosen two songs: "Canção do Sal," a soulful work song by Milton Nascimento that I was not familiar with, and the grand chestnut "Manha de Carnaval" also known as the Theme from Black Orpheus. Ms. Ferriani takes on this song that has been sung by just about everyone (No less an icon than Dinah Shore evidently did a cover in Portuguese!) and gives it an authentic and personal reading.

I was also fortunate to get an audio track off the board from the Living Room, as they were taping the show for "The Loft" series on Sirius Satellite radio, so the sound is nice and clean. And if you want to hear the whole show, mark your calendars, 'cause it's airing Sunday June 5th at 7pm EST, on Sirius XM channel 30, "From the Living Room to the Loft" with encore presentations on following Tuesdays at 12 noon, for two weeks.

To contact Verônica Ferriani: Tati Jaime, contato@veronicaferriani.com.br
Contact for Douglas Lora: eric@mtalifetime.com
To see an exclusive performance by Douglas and Veronica, go to: http://goo.gl/xN6id
For more of Michal's original world music videos, visit http://inter-muse.com

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