Sol Negro

Amazon.com essential recording
With her rich contralto voice dripping with operatic intonation, African Brazilian Virginia Rodrigues' 12-song Sol Negro has a fresh and delightfully idiosyncratic take on both new material and some standards from the Brazilian lexicon. With guests Gilberto Gil, Djavan, Milton Nascimento, and artistic director Caetano Veloso, you know the results can be nothing but classy. It is also magical as the sparse arrangements (sometimes with string quartet), cool-school jazz arrangements, solitary harp, or bossa nova guitar set elegant backdrops for her startling but gentle vocals. "Noite De Temporal," with her aria evoking voice set to skeletal berimbau and percussion, is as spine-tingling as it gets, while "Israfel" with solo harp accompaniment has all the emotion of the best Fado or Morna from Cape Verde. In between is a sophisticated range of material and musical disciplines that never strays from being totally Brazilian and utterly absorbing. --Derek Rath

Entertainment Weekly
Rodrigues sings with soulful spirituality and grooves with heavenly grace.

Tracks:

Blackness Of The Night
Moon, Moon, Moon, Moon
Goodbye Dance Hall
Carnival Dawn
Veronica
Stormy Night
Dry Land
Nobility
Black Sun
Cherubim
Israfel

Amazon.com essential recording

With her rich contralto voice dripping with operatic intonation, African Brazilian Virginia Rodrigues' 12-song Sol Negro has a fresh and delightfully idiosyncratic take on both new material and some standards from the Brazilian lexicon. With guests Gilberto Gil, Djavan, Milton Nascimento, and artistic director Caetano Veloso, you know the results can be nothing but classy. It is also magical as the sparse arrangements (sometimes with string quartet), cool-school jazz arrangements, solitary harp, or bossa nova guitar set elegant backdrops for her startling but gentle vocals. "Noite De Temporal," with her aria evoking voice set to skeletal berimbau and percussion, is as spine-tingling as it gets, while "Israfel" with solo harp accompaniment has all the emotion of the best Fado or Morna from Cape Verde. In between is a sophisticated range of material and musical disciplines that never strays from being totally Brazilian and utterly absorbing. --Derek Rath

Customer Reviews:

Classic CD.......2006-02-18

Virginia Rodrigues's album "Sol Negra" is as classy as it is beautiful. Rodrigues's is classic-sounding voice is haunting, wistful, and enigmatic and is a perfect fit to Caetano Veloso's arrangments that are played by Gilberto Gil. Milton Nascimento even accompanies her on a song. Listening to this cd, for some reason, reminds me of being in a cabana club in the 1940s/1950s (if I had been alive then!)

This is a wonderful cd. The arrangements lean toward the classical sounding samba to match Rodrigues's elegant voice. If you're looking for an updated rendition of Brazilian samba, then this is probably not the cd for you. If you're looking for something to dance to, then you probably won't like this cd. But, if you're looking for music to accompany an evening cocktail party, or to relax to, or are even feeling wistful - then this is the perfect cd for you.

Haunting, Rich, Surprising.......2004-12-28

This album is incredibly beautiful - from the simplicity in arrangement to the unique and surprising contralto voice of Virginia Rodrigues. I listen to it often and enjoy it much more than her second release.

A real gem.

What a voice!.......2003-01-29

I could listen to Virginia Rodruiguez all day long. In fact, when a friend loaned me a CD, that is exactly what I did! Her voice reaches deep into feeling depths that I like being drawn into, and she never shocks me there, in that vulnerable space. There is wisdom, experience and feeling in that voice. I am especially entranced by the slower pieces. Lovely, sensitive arrangements, as Brazilian musicians can do.

Celestial Afro-Brazilian opera-ish.......2001-12-29

The first track has energy. The rest are beautiful and slow. A little too much so for my tastes. She has a very interesting contemporary, groovin' sound mixed with a somewhat other-worldly/classical/northern european style. She sounds like an Afro-Brazilian angel. It's certainly beautiful and interesting music but it doesn't pick up and get down the way I like it. Maybe when I'm 30 years older it will be more my thing.

melodico, pero sin el alma de brasil.......2001-03-31

el trabajo de virginia rodriguez seria muy bueno, si ella estuviera interpretando y representando una cultura musical diferente . Eso es lo que suena. Una linda voz, melodica, suave, pero lejos del calor y la vida que toda la musica brasilera tiene. No es un cd para los que gusten de los otros excelentes musicos brasileros, salvo por la rareza del tratamiento de sus temas. Lastima, cantando como debe haber aprendido en su pais posiblmente tendriamos algo muy bueno

Average customer rating:

Spanish Style meets Western Rock
This is Great!

Cuando Brille el Sol
La Guardia
Manufacturer: Blanco Y Negro
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Latin Music | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000071H1
Release Date: 1995-04-19

Tracks:

Cuando Brille el Sol
Carretera
Te Seguire
Manana
Nunca Me Diras Adios
Palabras
Mientras Escucho Esta Can
Donde Nace el Rio
Ya lo Ves
Otono en la Ciudad

Customer Reviews:

Spanish Style meets Western Rock.......2002-08-20

this album is outstanding. It has a touch of spanish guitar with Rips that are not matched in the US. These guys, if they sang in English, would kick butt around the world. Buy, love it, live it!!

This is Great!.......1998-11-29

La Guardia is fantastico. Most of the songs are soft and active at the same time. Their compilations are very hard to find, but if you find one of them, don't waste time looking at their songs, just buy it!