Leila Pinheiro - Mais Coisas Do Brasil (Ao Vivo) (1993/2020)

Leila Pinheiro is a great singer, even if she is concerned in reaching an ever-expanding audience, which may represent compromises. In this album she had the competent arranger/pianist César Camargo Mariano, which is good and bad. César is really a wonderful musician, but, as a professional, he learned how to write and play "pra galera", that is, using effects which provide for an easier commercialization and high-selling albums - this represent a gap between the artist and the more visceral Brazilian tradition, and, at the same time, an approximation with cheese string keyboarding, boring drum machines, etc. This release brings convincing interpretations for "Coisas do Brasil," "Vai passar," for a sensitive bossa medley, and for "Chorar de mal de amor." The rest of the tracks, several of them representing some of the best moments of Brazilian composition, the others being written by current pop stars, suffer from the excess of watered-down groove hybridization with funk, ballad, etc, and too much electronics.