Monday, October 10, 2005  

Badi Assad
"Valse d'Amelie"
Verde
(Edge, 2005)

Washington Post, Monday, October 10, 2005; Page C04

Badi Assad
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, Md., October 7, 2005

When Brazilian singer-guitarist Badi Assad took the stage barefoot, wearing flowing green pants and a peach-pink vest-scarf, one thought crossed my mind: She probably has a cat.

But on Friday at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center's intimate Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Assad proved she's much more than a flower child. The 39-year-old with a huge shock of curly black hair is also a stunning fingerstyle guitarist and an eccentric singer in the Bobby McFerrin mold.

When she wasn't awkwardly turning U2's "One" into a bossa nova or, more successfully, blending her own "Viola Meu Bem" into a tango-tinged take on Bjork's "Bachelorette" -- all from her new CD, "Verde" -- Assad came across like the Ani DiFranco of Rio de Janeiro on tunes like "Naio Naio" (where she imitated the sounds of monkeys and birds), "In My Little White Top" and "Nao Adianta." Most appealing were the instrumental songs "Waves," "Valse d'Amelie" (the theme song to the film "Amelie") and "Interrogando," because Assad could show off her remarkable facility on acoustic guitar. Her fingers flew across the frets and nylon strings, stretching out to construct improbably expansive chords or play lightning-fast arpeggios.

Assad doesn't excel just at traditional Brazilian guitar. She also played African thumb piano on the delicate "Feminina" and prepared guitar on the gorgeous "The Being Between," jamming a drumstick under the strings to make it sound like a Japanese koto. The latter tune also all but confirmed my suspicions: Near the end of the song, Assad leaned toward her guitar and gurgled to it in that unmistakable baby voice people use to talk to kitties. --Christopher Porter

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Outtakes
Badi Assad is like Frank Zappa or Yngwie Malmsteen to me: I recognize the immense talent, but I just don't dig the music. For this review, I tried to clear my head and just evaluate the performance. For instance, to give a frame of reference I mentioned Ani DiFranco and Bobby McFerrin but I didn't do so pejoratively -- even though I can't stand to listen to CDs by either one of those gifted, caterwauling people. Still, I was curious to see Assad live because she is a really great guitarist -- instrumentals only would have been ideal -- and concerts at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center are always fun because the halls there have fantastic acoustics.

Buy some Badi Assad -- including the all-instrumental album Echoes of Brazil.

Posted by CP | Link |

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