The name, and the title, give the whole game away – as Eliane performs a set of older Brazilian tunes, all in that wonderful light-hearted style of hers! About half the tracks feature Eliane on vocals, the rest just piano – working with players that include Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette, Marc Johnson, Oscar Castro-Neves, and Nana Vasconcelos. The overall style is a bit bossa, a bit MPB – but overall, mostly jazz-based – as Eliane uses older standards like "Chega De Saudade", "Passarim", "Waters Of March", "Garota De Ipanema", and "Cravo E Canela" to work out some warm and jazzy stylings. The tracks are collected from older albums, but come together very nicely as a unified set! (Vocalists, Brazil) CD

A great follow-up to Claudio Roditi's Braziliance record – and like that set, a record that's filled with a similarly warm and breezy groove! There's a range of bossa and post-bossa elements at work in the mix, plus some slight Latin jazz touches too – and Roditi's horn sounds wonderful in the setting, really stretching out with these well-blown lines over work from a group that includes Romero Lubambo on guitar, Michael Dease on trombone, Helio Alves on piano, John Lee on bass, and Duduka Da Fonseca on drums. All songs are originals by Roditi – and titles include "Slow Fire", "Piccolo Blues", "A Dream For Kristen", "Blues For Ronni", "Vida Nova", "Winter Dreams", and "Spring Samba". (Jazz, Brazil) CD

Moody instrumental magic from Hareton Salvanini – an artist with an Italian sounding name, and an approach that reminds us of some of the hippest composers of the sound library and film score scene in Italy during the 70s! The album's all instrumental, and is almost a soundtrack for a film that never existed – as Salvanini mixes his own piano lines with these moody strings and dark-tinged instrumentation – all with a vibe that's maybe a bit warmer than David Axelrod or Johnny Harris, but in the same sort of territory as their important albums of the time! Weird reeds color in some moments, offbeat strings some others – and there's a suppressed sense of emotion that lingers with lots of blue currents on the record – really fitting Hareton's look on the cover. Titles include "Salamandras", "Viver", "So, "Primitivo", "Irracional", "Papa Mama", "Yelris", and "Preludio Em Si Bemol Menor". LP, Vinyl record album