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Paul Bryan is from Brazil with the so much more creditable real name of Sergio Sa. Sergio was born blind and learned to play piano by ear, he moved from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro to join a team of composer at Tip Tape Records. It was at Tip Tape that he was asked to produce an album of folk songs sung in English. Listen Of was the result and it led to Sergio going on to work with Gilberto Gil (currently still a musician along with his day job as the Brazilian Minister of Culture), Hermeto Paschoal, Tim Maia and many more including Stevie Wonder when Bryan had a spell living in the USA.

Listen Of was originally released in 1973 and is supposed to have been influenced by The Beatles (and there’s some big strings, big harmonies and brass band a la Sergeant Peppers’) particularly on ‘A Song For A Helping Hand’, but there’s this ever present 1973 MOR feeling. If Bowie was God, Elton was OK; you could imagine Sergio as a Brazilian Gilbert O’Sullivan.

Obviously, I have trouble with this as an album but those giants of diggin’, Jazzanova have picked up on this 35 years after its original release. ‘Afraid Of All’ is a fine example of the heartfelt love song and ‘Window’ went on to be used on a Brazilian TV soap.

Back with the title track ‘Listen Of’, it got into the Brazilian charts at the time and if you’ve ever seen the early biog of Peter Kay (years before his cover version of (Is This The Way To) Amarillo’) where he reaches up and plucks out a Tony Christie LP from his record collection. It’s that type of feeling of forbidden pleasures that you’re not sure should be let out (‘Who To Blame’ is particularly scary); I’m not sure I like the look of the cat on the cover either.

I can see why Jazzaonova love it though. Apart from being a collector’s item, the strings and horns are great. Big Chill style like ‘Why She Goes Away’ but the vocals! If he’d sung this in Portuguese it would have been so much better.

However, if you need some Guaranteed Niceness from Jazzanova, don’t look any further than Volker Meitz and the Sonar Kollektiv Orchester as this is an awesome release and must have.

Reviewed: Paul Bryan - Listen Of (Sonar Kollektiv) Cat. No: SK181CD Release date: 14th Jul 2008 Notes: Mastered from original vinyls at Calyx Mastering, Berlin. Cover taken from the original release on Blue Rock Records.
Tracklisting:
1 Listen (3:16)
2 Like A Rainy Night (2:50)
3 Thais (2:11)
4 Feel Like I Feel (3:26)
5 Window (2:58)
6 A Song For A Helping Hand (3:58)
7 Some Love (3:46)
8 Afraid Of All (2:49)
9 So Long (3:11)
10 Who To Blame (2:44)
11 Why She Goes Away (3:34)
12 Old Rock (2:52)

Links:
www.sonarkollektiv.de
“Discover this lost milestone of soulful folk music from 1973! Paul Bryan is the legendary Sérgio Sá.”