Flora Purim- Speak No Evil


These first 4 albums are pretty awesome because they just unfolded all by themselves. You readers might be wondering what horrible thing Skip did while i was taking a much needed vacation, but i'm saving that for the memoir. All you really need to know is that he had a little dust up with Princess Zanzibar, and i needed to settle the score. So, naturally, the Godfather of Hip Hop showed up. Turns out he brought his anthropomorphic skeleton of a sax player with him, and now we're gonna have tea with the Queen of Brazilian Jazz, Flora Purim. Not one single bit of that was planned, by the way. I'm still just picking up random albums that feel interesting and marveling and the serendipity of it all. The lesson for Skip is that just because you think reality works a certain way, doesn't mean it's true. As goofy or hokey or embarrassing as Smooth Jazz might seem, we're looking at the direct lineage from Stan Getz/Gil Evans to Chick Corea and Dizzy Gillespie to Flora Purim to Boney James and Bob James. A couple more names a we'll get to Kevin Bacon, tee hee. 

But seriously, when i said Smooth Jazz evolved out of Fusion, i meant it. As amazing as Astrud Gilberto is, she's a bit of an engenue compared to Flora. She left Brazil because she was an outspoken protestor of the heavy military presence and censorship in the 60s. If the little hint of naughty from Bob and Rasheeda made Skip squirm and run away, imagine what the full When Harry Met Sally reenactment on the first track This Magic is gonna do to him. Flora's Bossa Nova Fusion is not subtle. Be sure to prehydrate, don't freak out if there's a little bit of cocaine involved, and hang on tight, here's Flora Purim's Speak No Evil.

Part 5

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