GINO VANELLI: Crazy life [RE-UP]

GINO VANELLI
Em 1974 eu entrei numa loja de discos na Calle Florida em Buenos Aires para comprar o álbum "Reunion cumbre", de Gerry Mulligan e Astor Piazzola. Enquanto me deliciava com as novidades que ia encontrando nas prateleiras de LPs (Stan Kenton, Tito Puente, Bill Evans, Singers Unlimited, etc), raridades importadas que, na época, não se encontravam com facilidade no Brasil, o vendedor colocou para tocar este álbum de Gino Vanelli. Levei um susto com o o que ouvi, uma mistura de "latin jazz", bossa nova, blues, pop-rock de Stevie Wonder, tudo emoldurado por um piano elétrico incrível, "groovy", usando sequências de acordes de nona aumentada e décima terceira que o Blood, Sweat & Tears importara do jazz para o rock. Embasbacado, comprei o disco e me tornei "fan de carteirinha de GV". Durante algum tempo, tive a certeza de que Gino Vanelli viria a ser um fenômeno semelhante a Stevie Wonder, seu ídolo, para o qual viria a fazer a abertura dos shows. Porém me desencantei com o que veio depois: submisso às regras do mercado, Gino caiu no lugar comum e não fez mais nada que me despertasse a atenção. Em contrapartida, fez uma bela carreira e se transformou em "pop-star" de muito sucesso, nas décadas de 70 e 80.
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GINO VANELLI
Born in Montreal in the summer of 1952, Vannelli grew up in a family headed by a jazz singing father and a keen eared mother. Enamored with a bevy of jazz drummers such as Joe Morello, Gene Krupa, Ed Thigpen and Elvin Jones, as a child Vannelli studied drums and music theory for five years. By the age of 12 he had formed a rock band with his brother Joe holding down the keyboard chair. Along the way, Gino he picked up guitar and piano and began to sing. By age fourteen he had fallen in love with classical music, attending concerts by the Montreal Symphony every last Thursday of the month. Before his seventeenth birthday, Vannelli had signed with RCA Records in Canada, releasing a single under the pseudonym Van Elli. Bitten by the music industry bug, Gino and his brother Joe headed for New York and then later Los Angeles, pounding the pavement looking for an American record deal. While lots of record execs were suitably impressed by Vannelli's songwriting abilities and his near three octave vocal range, no one was willing to take a chance on an artist who so clearly was working with music outside of the mainstream tastes of the day.
Discouraged to the point of giving up, the Vannelli brothers were ready to head back to Montreal to find work outside of music. In an oft repeated story, Gino decided make one last desperate effort to get signed. Early one morning he headed out to the offices of A&M Records where he waited outside the gates for any sign of company co-owner Herb Alpert. When Alpert appeared in the parking lot many hours later, Vannelli ran through the gates past a startled security guard and begged a slightly apprehensive Alpert for a chance to audition. Acting on a hunch, Alpert acceded to his request and Vannelli proceeded to play on acoustic guitar some of the songs he had recently written. The rest is history...
(Source: Gino Vanelli website, edited by CB)
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MY OPINION
Gino Vannelli´s first album, "Crazy Life", has a sort of "latin-jazz" and bossa nova sound. Gino's voice blends with and sounds like one of the instruments. The music in this album can not be classifyed as disco, rock, pop, funk, or whatever: it is all of those things at once and so much more. It defies category and description. It simply is.
(By CB)
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MINHA OPINIÃO
Neste álbum - o primeiro de sua carreira - Gino Vanelli mostrou um arsenal de recursos variados: tem montunos de "latin jazz", levadas de bossa nova, sequências de acordes dos Blood, Sweat & Tears, influência de Stevie Wonder, etc, numa saborosa salada de estilos. A voz, o piano, a qualidade das composições e arranjos e a "pegada" de Gino são notáveis. Ainda bem que tudo isso ele colocou neste álbum porque, depois, envolvido pelo lado comercial da carreira e sob a "gerência" de Herb Alpert, Gino entrou na onda dos tais "mainstream tastes of the day". Com essa nova atitude, sua produção ficou igual à de centenas de "pop stars". Foi pena, porque ele era diferente. Mas este álbum é um TORPEDO e vale a pena ouvir.
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GINO VANELLI: Crazy life

TRACKS/FAIXAS:
1. Crazy Life
2. Hollywood Holiday
3. There's No Time
4. Fling of Mine
5. Granny Goodbye
6. Great Lake Canoe
7. Cherizar
8. One Woman Lover
9. Piano Song