This is a rare encounter by two giants of Carioca samba,
João Nogueira and Paulo César Pinheiro. As Nogueira died in June of 2000, and Pinheiro had already died, this document stands as the best register of the two of them performing together. Nogueira was an excellent samba performer, being also a terrific composer; Pinheiro was less of an interpreter, but he was a fundamental writer. This live album counts also with the samba experts Cristóvão Bastos (arrangements/piano), Maurício Carrilho (violão), and Jorge Simas (seven-string violão and cavaquinho), among others. This is not a typical samba do morro record, but it is a release where two excellent middle-class samba composers pay tribute to the genuine tradition in a more subtle acoustic setting with no traditional in-your-face percussion. ~ Alvaro Neder