Hi
a review for last Hendrik's CD on air in the next few days on
RADIOVINILEMANIA in Italy:

http://www.vinilemania.net/vHENDRIKMEURKENS.htm

Ciao ciao Pietro

courtesy: http://www.allaboutjazz.com


Amazon River
Hendrik Meurkens | Blue Toucan Music (2005)
By Chris May comments print email license

When the great wordsmith in the sky invented the word "gorgeous"
She might have been thinking of this album, a celebration of all
that is lovely about Brazilian music, from samba and choro through
bossa nova and jazz.

On the face of it, Hendrik Meurkens is not the most likely outsider
to have gotten so deep inside the Brazilian tradition. Of Dutch
ancestry, he was brought up in the grimy German port of Hamburg—
about as far as you can get, literally and figuratively, from Sugar
Loaf Mountain and Copacabana beach. But he's no cultural tourist or
superficial fusionista. After leaving college in the early '80s,
already in love with Brazilian music, he moved to Rio so as to
immerse himself more totally in it.


Meurkens is today regarded as a soul brother by many of Brazil's
leading musicians, some of whom contribute to this wonderfully
joyful and restorative album. And if you're thinking the harmonica
is an acquired taste, there can surely be no better place to acquire
it. Meurkens' playing is a revelation: lyrical, expressive, and more
harmonically adventurous than a casual listening might suggest.


What we have on Amazon River is a series of ravishingly beautiful
melodies, underscored by Brazil's uniquely subtle and irresistible
dance rhythms. The core of the band is made up of Meurkens, pianist
Helio Alves, bassist Nilson Matta, and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca. On
all but two tracks, this quartet is joined by some of Brazil's
greatest percussion and string players. Guest guitarist Oscar Castro-
Neves also contributes sympatico string arrangements to three
tracks.


Lush, sunlit, and vibrantly coloured from start to finish, every
track is a little masterpiece. Randomly selected highlights include
Meurkens' exquisite chorinhos "Menina Na Janela," featuring Robson
Cerqueira on bandolim, a Brazilian version of the mandolin; deep
tenor vocalist Dori Caymmi's rapturous love songs "Amazon River"
and "O Cantador"; the core quartet's more or less straightahead jazz
workouts "Passarim" and "Meu Canario Vizinho Azul"; the virile and
loose-limbed samba "Piano Na Mangueira"; and Jobim & Moraes' classic
bossa nova "Ela E Carioca," on which Meurkens exchanges the
harmonica for the vibraphone.


49 minutes rarely pass so quickly—but you can always hit the repeat
button. I've been doing that all afternoon.

Visit Hendrik Meurkens on the web.
Hendrik Meurkens at All About Jazz.


Track listing: Mountain Drive; Amazon River; Menina Na Janela (The
Girl In The Window); Passarim; Ela E Carioca; Lingua De Mosquito
(Mosquito Tongue); O Cantador; Meu Canario Vizinho Azul; The Peach;
Sem Voce; Piano Na Mangueira.

Personnel: Hendrik Meurkens: harmonica and vibes; Helio Alves:
piano; Nilson Matta: bass; Duduka Da Fonseca: drums and percussion;
Pedro Ramos: cavaquinho; Ze Mauricio: percussion; Jorge Amorim:
percussion; Cassio Duarte: percussion; Dori Caymmi: vocal and guitar
(2,7); Paquito D'Rivera: clarinet (6,9); Oscar Castro-Neves: guitar,
and vocal (5,10); Robson Cerqueira: bandolim (3); Guilherme
Monteiro: guitar (3).

Style: Brazilian