Master Composers: Fabiana Passoni Digs Down Deep With Inner Bossa

Image courtesy of luigismooth.blogspot.com

Fabiana Passoni does it again with another excellent five song EP. From the moment my copy arrived in the mail on a very chilly Monday of April 20, I am pretty sure Fabiana tried her very best to breathe in and spread out some of that warmer California air towards my area of the country. At least, again with her CD cover art mimicking that of vinyl…that was a really cool start along with seeing two rather cool images of Fabiana relaxing alongside a building and sitting inside a palatial estate in Pocos de Caldas, a modest city in the southeast corner of Brazil.  In my research for this particular blog, Wikipedia mentioned that they have, “dry winters and mild summers.”  Their biggest claims to fame are having many resort hotels and producing some of the world’s glass and some handmade soaps. As for the EP itself, there was plenty of cool variety… Fabiana opens minus the echoing and common chanting that was common back in the day with Aretha Franklin’s “Day Dreaming”.  Her version is a more melodic, soothing pace–not the near scatting that was very popular during most of the 1960’s. Track 2 covered a very popular bossa pop song simply called, “Remember My Name”.  The piano arrangements blend in very nicely when Fabiana sings in one of the lyrics about longing, wishing that hopefully someone wouldn’t forget someone else’s name.

However, those songs paled in comparison to the song my eyes got really big when she decided to cover one of my all-time favorite love songs while growing up in the 1980’s. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s go back when Winnin’ Ugly was all the rage on Chicago’s South Side when the White Sox won 99 games at around the same time Pac-Man sales for the Atari 2600 VCS went through the roof at your local Toys ‘R Us stores. How do I know all that?  I lived through it, and I still can recall every key moment from that simply magical summer. And there was this new wave group from London who climbed up the ranks that March with this really suave gem of a song.   When Spandau Ballet’s 1983 smooth jazz classic of “True” climbed up the charts, it was like very few songs before or since.

Sorry for getting on my nostalgic soapbox…but back to the present day: Fabiana Passoni spends only 3 minutes, 34 seconds on this gem of a song and her “little more spice” as she cleverly mentioned in her press release card definitely showed after repeating out the “La La LA” part of the lyrics and even mixing a “Yeah” part in after the second verse.  The pace may have at times mimicked the classic dance number, but it is amazing that this version of bossa nova is alive and doing very well. At least, there was some nice background vocals to round out the song, and the nice slow tempo ended right before the final line of, “I know, I know, I know this much is true” was ever mentioned. The next song was a rather eclectic choice as Fabiana herself wrote both the English and Portuguese lyrics for an B-side original song from France simply called, “Mouvance” (or translated meaning, “movement”). Five and a minutes later, I was leaving that song wanting a bit more.  However, I did like the lyrics towards the end about planning that ultimate escape that would take people into a more sensual nature. After all, Fabiana said it herself and I quote:

“Music for me is all about feelings, so what you hear is what I’m feeling.”

The final track is based on a classic tune from Tom Jobim and Stan Getz with “Pele Ao Abracar” (translated meaning, “Skin to Embrace”).  Fabiana and her band chose this number as a rather sensual selection, but by the time you really get into the mood of the song–there was mostly a relaxed pace throughout.  I was pleasantly surprised by how her voice blended in very nicely with the saxophone and flutes from Scott Mayo and the other various instruments skillfully done by Jamieson Trotter.  Nice change of pace to close out this particular EP. Yes, I have been championing Fabiana’s cause since she was a relative newbie when my blog started in the autumn of 2012. She clearly is on her way to superstar status.  With two full length albums and three EP’s to her credit, I can only imagine what types of songs she will cover next–but only time will tell when she comes around to doing full length album Number 3. Overall, a very nice EP selection–right up there with her Dim The Lights EP from a few years back. Trabalho bem feito, o meu tipo Fabiana Job well done, my kind Fabiana:).