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Samba Little Samba is my second album created in partnership with Gabriel Espinosa. When we met a few years ago, it soon became apparent that we are sharing much of the same priorities: respect for the song, a love for strong melodies, and the desire to connect with the audience through our music. The success of our first ZOHO CD release Celebrando (ZOHO ZM 201204) was proof that we are on the right track. Since both of us are composers the concept of our collaboration is that each brings in an equal number of originals, and then rounding out the repertoire with some choice standards. All this is based on the language of Brazilian jazz, but Gabriel being Mexican, and myself being of Dutch/German roots, our project is very different from my other Brazilian jazz outings. Gabriel’s songs have a unique Yucatecan Mayan ambiance, something that I have not heard before in jazz. Combine that with my harmonica and there you go: a new sound is created….Yucatecan -Brazilian-Teutonic jazz! Joining us on Samba Little Samba is the great Russian-born pianist Misha Tsiganov. Misha already recorded Celebrando with us and we are lucky to again have a new song of his on this CD. Misha can do it all; from Afro-Cuban to Brazilian to straight-ahead jazz to whatever else you put on his music stand. Oh yes, and of course Yucatecan -Brazilian-Teutonic jazz! Adriano Santos is on drums on a number of tracks and he and Misha are members of my regular Samba Jazz Quartet, together with Gustavo Amarante. I have known Adriano for many years; we met on the New York scene ages ago. Adriano has recorded 5 CDs with my Samba Jazz Quartet, and we are crossings paths as sidemen on lots of other artists’ albums. He has a sound all his own, a super solid and very swinging groove, combined with great taste. The opener on this album is Samba Little Samba, which is the English-lyrics version of Sambatropolis, a composition that I recorded as an instrumental on Sambatropolis (ZOHO ZM 200801) and Live At Bird’s Eye (ZOHO ZM 201114). Hong Kong-based singer Angelita Li wrote lyrics to it for a project we did a few years ago, and Alison Wedding and Gabriel are having their little "Elis & Tom" moment here. Their classic Aquas De Março recording has Elis Regina and Tom Jobim alternating the lyrics, and we are picking up on that idea. This is a samba and Adriano lays down a killing batucada on the final choruses. Alison gives her all on Ocean Lights, another one of my compositions, here with lyrics by Sue Maskaleris. The song is melancholic and romantic, but it is very hard to sing, some tricky intervals in there. No problem for Alison, she aces it and still gives us the feel of complete relaxation and warmth, the mark of a true master. Choro Da Neve features Anat Cohen on clarinet. It is well known that Anat is the leading young clarinet player on the scene today, and she also is a master of chorinho, my beloved Brazilian music genre. Like many choros this is not an easy tune, but no problem for Lady Cohen, she nails it!