January/February 2007

Nilson Matta & Friends
Walking With My Bass
Blue Toucan

By Forrest Dylan Bryant

Nilson Matta has a lot of friends, and all of them apparently turned out for this amiable collection of tasty, laid-back Brazilian jazz. Matta’s buttery tone and intimate soloing are featured in a wide variety of small-group settings: gently cradling vocalists Rosa Passos and Ivan Lins, dancing sambas alongside pianists Kenny Barron and Hélio Alves, and ruminating on standards with Mauricio Einhorn’s harmonica and Duduka da Fonseca’s drums. Through it all, the results are sparkling.