Banquet Of The Spirits

Cyro Baptista – Banquet of the Spirits
Reviewed by Sadie O., 6/22/08
The Brazilian percussionist is back for another multi-cultural mashup. Lots of guests and additives, but the basis is middle-eastern strings (oud, etc.), jazzy standup slide bass, café-jazz keyboard/ accordion, and the Brazilian percussion. Songs often go through a lot of changes, and tend towards one ethnomusical element or another.
No FCCs detected, unless you get squeamish at the thought of eating cardinals (the people kind).
All amazing; I like 1, 2, 4 and 7 best.
1. ***all sorts of hand percussion, then electronics and chanting for first minute, then a moment of silence, and sweet Latin guitar accordion and… slack key bass or something?
2. ***gorgeous mashup of relaxed Cuban mambo and eastern oud. Wowzers! Goes uptempo midway through with a bit of wild keyboard. Then there’s standup bass and whispering, then a relaxed and swingy acoustic ending…
3. **tinkling bells and uptempo avant jazz. Make sure you have your beret and turtleneck before you listen! Goes through lots of changes, including manic surf guitar, running upright bass and jazz piano, a moment of heavy metal, and nonsense French with smoochy noises…
4. ***pretty thumb piano and berembau, very roots of Afro-Brazilian, but with bits of irreverence and a Middle Eastern element.
5. **hand percussion, slide bass and piano, slow and slinky, with some luscious bits of oud. What a combination! Switches into higher energy mode with a few more layers, then back to slow and slinky.
6. *piano and cello, seems very nostalgic and sad (hey, it’s called “Lamento” – guess the mood was intentional!) blends into next track -
7. ***downtempo and slinky with lots of hand percussion and oud, Arabic vocals. Very pretty.
8. **all sorts of found noises put together to make a beat, slide bass and accordion, sweet and strange.
9. *slow and evocative solo oud, solo Arabic vocals. Leads into next track.
10. **slow and relaxed with stringed instruments and accordion up front, percussion very subtle. Lots of changes.
11. *slow accordion, and historical philosophizing in accented English. Actually really entertaining. Turns into rather melodramatic and cinematic music for last minute and a half.