If you want 70s funk, ‘Ecstatic 70’; if you want 80s jazz-funk, ‘Eighties Times’, if you want brilliant dreamy string laden Latin, ‘Brilliante’ - you get the idea, each of these beautifully crafted 12 tracks is a little piece of José Roberto Bertrami’s adventure in music. And when you’ve spent 45 years in music, the majority of that time in the company of Alex Malheiros and Ivan (Mamão) Conti as Azymuth, Ze Roberto knows what he’s doing as this album was recorded live with some of the best musicians in Rio under the eye to label boss Joe Davis and David Brinkworth.

Obviously the emphasis is on the paino/keyboard and we can forgive the diner jazz of ‘Maixa’ as it’s only short and comes after the more Latin influenced ‘O Pescador’. But he’s lost none of his inventiveness, back in the 70s he used to travel to New York to buy all the lastest keyboards of the time. ‘Joanna’ is a bit trippy and the title track is just redicoulously funky psychedlic TV theme with big horns and ‘Danca De Salao’ sounds a bit like the theme from ‘Taxi’, but in Rio; real shame that it fades out as the trombone comes in.

Best of the lot is the equiste ‘Laranjeiras’ with Bertrami trademark sound backed by the Rio Strings - gorgeous .

Fans of Azymuth’s last album Butterfly will love Aventura will love this one and it’s Bertami’s seventh solo album. It’s been a bit of a wait since his last one, Things Are Different in 2001 also on Far Out; and don’t you just love the cover? “Innovative retrospective” in all respects. A must have in a busy week of must haves.

Reviewed: Jose Roberto Bertrami and his Modern Sound - Aventura Cat. No. FARO 139 CD (Far Out Recordings) Release date: 20th March 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Estatic 70 (3:23)
2 Brilliante (4:26)
3 Eighties Times (3:41)
4 O Pescador (4:52)
5 Maixa (1:33)
6 Joanna (3:28)
7 Aventura (2:06)
8 No Tempo Da Bossa (3:07)
9 Danca De Salao (4:21)
10 Laranjeiras (4:01)
11 Choro (4:17)
12 Conversation With Maixa (1:19)

Links:
azymuth.net
myspace.com/azymuth
faroutrecordings.com
myspace.com/faroutrecordings