In the challenging enterprise of mixing Brazilian music tradition with world influences for worldwide pop consumption, the Baiano Moraes Moreira is one of the most successful since the '60s with the Novos Baianos. In this album, commemorative of his 50 years of age, some may be misguided by the title, which mention Carnivals (in its ambiguous Portuguese, a "Carnival" also means one year of life). In fact, this is not a Carnival album, but it includes some Carnival songs, as frevos and maracatus, performed in non-frenetic renditions, differently than the regular Carnival releases. "Transe O Trânsito" was a jingle commissioned by the Bahia government directed to traffic pacification. Generally speaking, Moraes successfully puts together the richly swinging northeastern grooves with electric guitars (played by his Novos Baianos old partner Pepeu Gomes, a great Baiano rocker), keyboards, and contemporary rhythms with a lively world result. He covers mostly new originals, with a couple of exceptions, including the pop-Bahian rendition for a weak and enormously successful hit from the Titãs' Toni Belotto/Marcelo Fromer (with others), "Sonífera Ilha."
© Alvaro Neder /TiVo