BOB MCFERRIN: VOCAbuLarieS
Autor: CARLOS BRAGA | Publicado: 2011-04-11T16:04:00-03:00


BOBBY MCFERRIN
Recebi do nosso amigo MARKUT D´OTRUK o link para esta postagem, acompanhada do email, que transcrevo:&nbsp; 
"Salve Braga! Tudo bem?
Bom...desculpe o mau jeito, mas eu não resisti em te mandar o mais novo de Bobby McFerrin (ainda que vc não o suporte muito...hehe). Mas veja, nele Bobby não está só e nem tão "a cappella" assim, mas tá com um puta grupo vocal composto por gente da Voicestra, como a Janis Siegel, do Manhattan Transfer. Só que eles não estão fazendo "canções circulares", como em "Circlesongs", e sim, canções comuns, com letra, sendo algumas, releituras de peças já gravadas por BM em outros de seus discos. E pelo menos numa faixa ele conta com um coro de 50 vozes...agora, vale a pena escutar porque em alguns momentos as vozes (até do grupo menor...) se abrem em não sei quantas...de forma caleidoscópica...parecendo querer tocar no "pra lá das nuvens"! Impressionante.
Então curte aí e depois me diz que tal, blz?
Bração!"

Valeu Markut! Minha posição em relação ao McFerrin não interfere nas postagens e este álbum é de grande importância para o blog e para os admiradores do BMFerrin. Um abraço!
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ALBUM REVIEW
Ten-time Grammy Award winner/vocal innovator Bobby McFerrin surprises us yet again with VOCAbuLarieS, his first new release in eight years. Like his #1 worldwide hit song Don't Worry Be Happy and his multi-platinum duo album Hush with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, VOCAbuLarieS is based on Bobby's experiments with multi-track recording and his ceaseless exploration of the potential of the human voice. VOCAbuLarieS is Bobby McFerrin music for the 21st century. A collaboration with the composer/arranger/producer Roger Treece, VOCAbuLarieS features over fifty of the world's finest singers, recorded one at a time and in small groups to create a virtual choir made up of over 1,400 vocal tracks. Constructed as meticulously as a Mozart symphony or a Steely Dan album, intricately synthesized from countless stylistic elements, VOCAbuLarieS may be unlike any album anyone has ever recorded. Yet the music is always accessible, joyous, and inviting. VOCAbuLarieS celebrates Bobby's love of all musical genres, from classical to world music, R&amp;B to gospel and beyond, building upon McFerrin's past explorations and journeying into bold new territory. If the song Don't Worry Be Happy is all you know about Bobby McFerrin, sit back and prepare to be amazed. Over the course of a career spanning three decades, Bobby McFerrin has worn many hats. From fronting his band on his debut album, to the pyrotechnics of his amazing live solo performances, his choral work with Voicestra, duos with Chick Corea and Yo Yo Ma, (not to mention simultaneously singing with and conducting symphony orchestras,) McFerrin has demonstrated a restless and far ranging musical intelligence which is constantly in search of new musical turf to explore. Seven years in the making, "Vocabularies" is certainly the most ambitious McFerrin project to date and may very well be his magnum opus. For it is on this album that virtually all of McFerrin's wide-ranging musical interests are brought together in perfect balance. In a way, all of McFerrin's prior output has led up to this moment, the realization of a lifetime of artistic achievement. I have always felt that the one thing missing from McFerrin's writing was the ability to take his fresh ideas and fully develop them harmonically and compositionally. Fortunately for all of us, McFerrin has found the perfect collaborator in composer/arranger and conductor, Roger Treece, whose prodigious gifts give McFerrin's ideas the harmonic and developmental lift they so deserve. The two worked together closely, first gathering McFerrin's ideas from past albums, recorded improvisations etc, weaving them into substantial compositions that average about 10 minutes in length. Each piece is a journey unto itself, in which African, Eastern European, jazz, Western classical, R&amp;B and pop elements bump up against each other, blending and recombining in a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of harmony and rhythm. Singers were brought together from various disciplines including world, classical and R&amp;B to form a versatile virtual choir, facilitating the ability to create unprecedented choral timbres. I'm told that there were over 1400 vocal tracks in all. Lyrics were written in everything from Arabic to Zulu, comprised of 15 languages. While there are moments of Bobby's signature playful improvisations, for the most part the album is comprised of through composed music. Superficially, this album hearkens back to the vocal complexities of Medicine Music, one of Bobby's most satisfying efforts, in which he overdubbed his voice to create an a cappella chorus which employed a minimum of percussion to augment the grooves. In a way, "Vocabularies" is a sort of "Medicine Music" on steroids. In fact three of the seven tracks on this album are re-workings of songs off of that album. But it's as though they've gone from black-and-white to color, from animated short to epic film. Consider the opening track, "Baby." Conceived as an innocent nursery rhyme with an African folk feel in its original form, here it is turned into a convoluted harmonic maze, constantly modulating and playfully cavorting, yet always returning to its original motif and key. The result is a feeling of expansive and deep childlike joy that is the hallmark of McFerrin's best work. Throughout the album, McFerrin's voice can be heard weaving and ducking, sometimes coming to the foreground for a moment, but the focus on this outing is clearly on the compositions, not Bobby's virtuosity. Other highlights include "Say Ladeo," a joyous romp with an infectious chorus that comes as close to a pop tune as anything gets on the album. It's a pretty thing that would be a pleasure to hear on the radio, although in this day and age it is unlikely that a gorgeous a cappella confection such as this will hit the top 40 (as "Don't Worry, Be Happy" once did,) even in the pared down version found on YouTube. Another surprise is the elegiac "Brief Eternity", the album's closer. It is a serious piece of Western classical music, supported here by string orchestra, winds and harp. Treece's impressionistic orchestration evokes Debussy's Nocturnes, especially "Sirenes", occasionally bringing to mind contemporary composer John Tavener's chorale sonorities. A spiritual longing permeates this lush piece, rising to quiet ecstasy in its satisfying finale. The most profound piece for this listener is "Messages," a tour de force which effortlessly serves up elements of Eastern European, Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Western classical in a rich contrapuntal stew, seasoned with odd meters and exotic percussion. It is in this sophisticated composition that one begins to hear what may be a glimpse into the future of music in the 21st century, a future in which separate world music traditions come together as equals, each having its own unique voice, blending 
into a unified chorus in perfect harmony. Considering the state of the world today in which civil discourse is becoming archaic, a world in which nations squabble with one another like ill tempered children, where the heart of barbarism still shapes the body politic in many parts of the world, Bobby McFerrin has given us a profound vision of a utopian society in which all members are respected and valued, a future where beauty and peace reign supreme.
Brian Whistler (Forestville, CA United States) 

*******

O cantor, arranjador , compositor e músico Bobby McFerrin acaba de lançar o lindo disco “VOCAbuLarieS”, em que propõe um encontro de 50 cantores de várias partes do mundo com 15 idiomas diferentes, ou seja, uma barafunda sonora inominável e repleta de inovações que consegue ser, ao mesmo tempo, muito rica, densa e deliciosa de ouvir. A produção do disco é assinada em parceria com Roger Treece e traz também, entre as cantoras participantes, a nossa querida Luciana Souza. Bobby, para quem não sabe ou não lembrou, é bem conhecido do grande público pela canção “Don´t Worry Be Happy”. A sua trajetória, no entanto, tem pouco ou nada a ver com esse parêntese pop, de muita criatividade, diga-se de passagem. Alguns dos seus discos trazem somente ele, sua voz e mais ninguém, sem nenhuma dobra de gravação. Com isso, consegue efeitos vocais fantásticos, percussivos, faz arranjos, cria texturas entre outros achados de um jeito sempre muito incomum. Neste “VOCAbuLarieS”, ele cria uma orquestra de vozes sem que ela soe, em momento algum, com jeitão de coral. Nada contra os corais, muito pelo contrário, mas o efeito sonoro do disco traz timbres espantosamente variáveis. Ele reproduz com as 50 vozes o que costuma fazer sozinho. Os cantores soam com a intenção de instrumentos musicais, cumprem funções rítmicas e harmônicas com efeitos que passam a anos luz das harmonias chapadas normalmente construídas para vozes. O disco traz sete composições de Bobby, algumas em parceria com Roger Treece. São temas simples baseados em motivos africanos, "R&amp;B", jazz e blues, mas que se estendem em arranjos ricos, que vão se complicando a cada variação. É uma textura musical que pode tanto ser ouvida tranquilamente ou com acuidade musical. Vale destacar em “VOCAbuLarieS”, entre uma série de lindas gravações, a bela e alegre “Baby”, uma daquelas canções em alto astral que levantam o dia de qualquer um. Um disco lindo, com música para iniciados, e que atende perfeitamente ao leigo.

Fonte - http://www.sojazz.org.br/2010/07/bobby-mcferrin-vocabularies.html
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MINHA OPINIÃO
Como o Markut enfatiza em seu email, tenho absoluta aversão à música de Bob McFerrin, que considero um chato - aliás se não o fosse, não teria gravado a insuportável "Don´t worry be happy". Ainda que experimental, este álbum é, digamos, mais "convencional", principalmente para o padrão "McFerrin". Não vou me deter em análise nem crítica: os comentários acima transcritos vão, ninuciosamente, ao fundo da questão. Entre os ilustres componentes do coral, encontramos nomes de destaque: o "NEW YORK VOICES" completo, Janis Siegel (do Manhattan Transfer), a arranjadora e vocalista Michelle Weir, a nossa Luciana Souza e o percussionista Alex Acuña. 

(*)Ah: consegui ouvir o álbum todo, embora em doses homeopáticas - uma faixa por semana. Técnicamente, os arranjos são irreprensíveis, complexos e extremamente bem elaborados. Mas o&nbsp; repertório do álbum - como tudo que vem do McFerrin - é "chato-de-doer".&nbsp;

(**)Como diria Shakespeare: "Much ado about nothing..."
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BOB MCFERRIN: VOCAbuLarieS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

PERSONNEL:
Bobby McFerrin: lead vocals
Roger Treece: vocals, percussion/synthesizer programming (1-6)
Lisa Fischer: vocals
Joey Blake
vocals (1-6)
Kim Nazarian: vocals (1-6)
Janis Siegel: vocals (1, 2, 3, 5, 6)
LaTanya Hall: vocals (1- 6)
Luciana Souza: vocals (2-6)
Albert Hera: vocals (3-6)
Lauren Kinhan: vocals (1, 3, 5, 6)
Peter Eldridge: vocals (1, 4, 5, 7)
Alexandra Montano: vocals (2, 4, 7)
Andrea Figallo: vocals (4, 6, 7); 
Darmon Meader: vocals (1, 2, 7)
Darryl Tookes: vocals (3, 5, 6)
Dave Worm: vocals (3, 5, 6)
Katie Campbell: vocals (1, 4, 7)
Kristina Boerger: vocals (1, 4, 7)
Amelia Watkins: vocals (4, 7)
Aubrey Johnson: vocals (2, 4)
David Root: vocals (4, 7)
Everett Bradley: vocals (3, 5)
Fletcher Sheridan: vocals (4, 7)
Gary Eckert: vocals (1, 2)
Mark Johnson: vocals (4, 7)
Michele Eaton: vocals ( 4, 7)
Michelle Mailhot Vines: vocals (4, 7)
Pierre Cook: vocals (5, 6)
Rhiannon: vocals (3, 5)
Ryland Angel: vocals (4, 7)
Sandra Anderson: vocals (1, 7)
Beth Quist: vocals (1)
Bonnie Denise Christensen: vocals (2)
Cole Davis: vocals (7)
Curtis King: vocals (3)
Daniel Abraham DeVeau: vocals (7)
Darren Percival: vocals (2)
Datevik Hovanesian: vocals (3)
David B. Whitworth: vocals (3)
Elizabeth Farnum: vocals (4)
Gayla Morgan: vocals (4)
Josephine Lee: vocals (1)
Judy Doneghy: vocals (1)
Kevin Osborne: vocals (1)
Lincoln Briney: vocals (2)
Marlon Saunders: vocals (5)
Michael Steinburger: vocals (4)
Michele Weir: vocals (1)
Richard Slade: vocals (4)
Rosana Eckert: vocals (2)
Sussan Deyhim: vocals (3)
Theo Bleckmann: vocals (4)
Thom Baker: vocals (4)
Alex Acuna: percussion (1-6)
Donny McCaslin: saxophone (4)
Pedro Eustache: woodwinds (4).


TRACKS/FAIXAS:
1. Baby&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
2. Say Ladeo
3. Wailers&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
4. Messages&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
5. The Garden&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
6. He Ran To The Train&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
7. Brief Eternity