Review

Dora Morelenbaum

Vento De Beirada

Mr Bongo • 2023

Yes, nice, I know already, it’s something Brazilian from the seventies. An absolutely fair assumption when you hear Dora Morelenbaum’s »Vento De Beirada«, but you’d be wrong. This is young, contemporary, fresh material from Rio. Some may already know Dora: she has already won a Latin Grammy with the four-piece band Bala Desejo. She is one of the best known new voices on the Brazilian scene and is the daughter of music greats Paula and Jacques Morlenbaum, who you may have heard of through Antônio Carlos Jobim’s Nova Banda. This is the daughter’s solo début. Where she tried out rebellion with Bala Desejo, here she strikes a much calmer note, composing solemn music: timeless MBP, inspired in every fibre by the greats, namely Gal Costa or Maria Bethânia in their most tender and sensual moments. The whole EP appears under the full moon with the finest material, »Vento De Beirada« has an elegance, a diva grandeur that impresses. The highlight is the track that gives the album its title, which begins quietly and languidly; then the instrumentation intensifies, the bass clarinet makes you melancholy, and after three minutes you are sure that you have heard one of the best Brazilian pop songs of the last… decades?