The Brazilian fire that is Ithamara Koorax blazes more intensely than ever on this 11-track explosion of energy, recorded between 2002 and 2005 in Rio, Rome and London and dedicated to five seminal figures: arranger Lindolpho Gaya, folk singer Stellinha Egg, percussionists Dom Um Romão and Eloir de Moraes (both featured on the album) and bassist Manuel Gusmão best known within their native Brazil. Hotter than an Ipanema beach at high noon and wilder than a Rio dance club as dawn breaks, Butterfly is one riotous ride. Typical of Koorax, whose musical tastes lean heavily toward the grandiose and unorthodox, Brazilian Butterfly is dramatic in scope and includes solos of rain forest density, hypnotic spoken passages, impassioned sighs and primal screaming. The cumulative effect is like trying to compress all of Carnaval, with its four days (and sleepless nights) of glitter, garishness, sexual fervor and uncensored joie de vivre, into 80 pulse-quickening minutes.
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