CHEIRO DE VIDA

Cheiro De Vida came from Porto Alegre, Brazil and came to life in late-70's, featuring bassist Andre Gomes, guitarists Carlos Martau and Paulo Supekovia and drummer Alexandre Fonseca.In 1981 they moved to Sao Paolo and recorded an album with singer Diana Pequeno, before returning to their hometown and record a second work with singer Bebeto Alves.Later they became the backing band of Victor Ramil, but in 1984 they decided to record an album of their own.The small Acit label showed interest in distributing and promoting this work and the album was released under the name of the band.

Cheiro De Vida played a typical Brazilian Fusion, mixed with some local influences, far from complex and more into creating ethereal and accesible music.They produced a dreamy instrumental atmosphere, which was based on warm melodies, soft jazzy tunes, funky touches and Lounge aesthetics.Nothing progressive around it, the most complex parts are played by the super technical bassist Andre Gomes with the two guitarists providing interesting solos and some decent melodies, while some tracks feature also a good bunch of acoustic textures.Despite their certain approach on accesible Fusion, the music sounds often a bit directionless and confusing, propably because the smooth plays do not translate usually into memorable or trully efficient instrumental tunes.Bass is to high in the mix and the guitars are often left in a secondary role, still there are some nice jazzy moves and more powerful ideas to be found, I guess a more consistent display of these stylings would have worked better.One track, ''Ayisha'', features also a fine full sitar performance.

After the album's release keyboardist Dudo Trentin would join the band for a short time, before the members decided to relocate in Rio De Janeiro.By 1988 Supekovia had also left the band, which was now back to a trio, mainly performing live.A document of the period was released in 2000 under the title ''1988 vivo''.After a short break they returned in 1991 and recorded a big part of a second, still unreleased, effort, but in 1992 they iced their activities with only sporadic performances since then.Alexandre Fonseca participated also in Márcio Rocha's ''Juno'' album from 2000.

Bass-fronted Brazilian Jazz Fusion with accesible compositions, but not effective melodies oe even some great instrumentals.Recommended if you like the lighter side of the genre...2.5 stars.