The sensational Tamba Trio had a huge hit in their home country Brazil as early as 1963 with ‘Mas, que nada!’ on their second LP Avanço. Creed Taylor had exactly the perfect instinct when he got into business with mastermind Luiz Eça for his new CTI label. Mr. Eça expanded his trio to Tamba 4 and was able to celebrate the first release in the USA in 1967 with ‘We and the sea’.

A typically exciting recording of Brazilian elegance and warmth, highly complex arrangements, jazz full of virtuosity – and all that on compositions that were airy for the time, but not simple, such as ‘Consolação’ or ‘Moça Flor’, which never sound boring even in the millionth and millionth variation.

Still, this is not just an easy-to-listen-through LP in the Sergio Mendes tradition, there is plenty of room for extended improvisation and the wide variety of influences that make Tamba 4 so special: Echoes of Ravel, Debussy and Gershwin, pure samba, moments of humor, introspection and lament. Pure bliss!

Stefan Mohr