Badi Assad

May 2 - 9, 1 9 9 6

RHYTHMS

Brazil's musical depth and breadth continue to amaze. Here we have solo acoustic guitarist Badi Assad enchanting us with her will-o'-the-wisp compositions (and occasionally airy voice) in a curious classical/pop convergence. What's exciting is not so much that every track blazes forth with simplicity and daring, though most do, as the constant surprise she generates with ease and grace by her quicksilver juxtapositions of Villa-Lobos-like estudias ("Song for Badi") with light and quivery love songs and hot Gal Costa-like sambas with additional percussion.

Assad writes and plays classically informed solos and duets with restrained percussionist Cyro Baptista. Purred love songs, like Chico Cesar's "A Premeira Vista" and "Feixe," vie with piquant tours de force like the zingy title track and "Virus," a bluesy scatting in unison with her guitar. Vintage samba "Bate-coxa" criss-crosses with a modernistic "Laser." Even her surfeits of effect ("Moods," "Carta a L'Exil") seem charming and original rather than merely self-indulgent. Chesky's superb sonic presentation highlights the purity of her sound -- no overdubs, no frills -- and lets Assad's guitar (like her voice) purr, buzz, and pop with tiny explosions.

-- Fred Bouchard

(Badi Assad performs at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Harvard Square, on May 4 at 8. Call 983-9588.)

***1/2 Badi Assad

RHYTHMS

(Chesky)