Celso Fonseca is a singer, songwriter, a fabulous guitarist, as well as an arranger and producer. He’s worked with the best: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Marisa Monte, Bebel Gilberto. Fonseca’s beautiful, slightly higher pitched voice is very similar to Veloso’s. Both have that angelic but rich tone that works so well with bossa. Acoustic guitar features strongly on this album, with a stripped down backing from piano, percussion and acoustic bass.

’Bom Sinal’ opens, with Daniel Jobim on piano and Jorge Helder on acoustic bass. Fonseca’s voice caresses the lyrics, and the track has a seductive rhythm. “’Sem Resposta’ begins with Fonseca’s acoustic guitar; and his singing, when it comes in, is both beautifully pure, and also laid back. There’s little instrumentation in the backing, allowing his voice to take centre stage. ’A Origem da Felicidade’ steps up the tempo. This is a great hip-swinging number. ‘The Night We Called It A Day’ follows with beautiful lyrics sung in English. The melody is deeply romantic, but the song is about the end of a relationship. On the average Brazilian bossa album, this might be a stand out track, but on ‘Natural’, just about every track is a stand out. ‘Meu Samba Torto’ and ‘Febre’ continue the classy sound and caressing vocalisation. ’Consolação’ is a Brazilian classic written by Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes. Fonseca’s guitar playing is the focus of this track, which is completely instrumental.

Cibelle joins Fonseca on ‘Ela é Carioca’ (She’s a Carioca), a song whose lyrics look back to ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ in depicting a seductive, eye-catching girl from Rio. “Here she comes” the two of them sing, as though they’re both eyeing her up on a beach. ‘Teu Sorriso’ is next, and lives up to the quality of the rest of the album. ‘Slow Motion Bossa Nova’, an English language track, returns to the sublime sound of songs like ‘The Night We Called It A Day’. ‘Minha Dalva de Oliveira’ goes more up tempo, but still has the beautiful simplicity that is so characteristic of ‘Natural’. ‘Butéco 2’, an instrumental, has strong hip-swinging percussion and guitar.

Now that Fonseca’s second international album, ‘Rive Gauche Rio’ is out, it’s worth going back to this spectacular debut to savour its sounds, the warmth, seduction, and sensuality of the music. If this review seems to contain too many superlatives, it’s because ‘Natural’ can’t be praised highly enough. This is, indeed, music to die for.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. She is currently completing her first novel. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.