Flora e MPM

In jazz circles, Flora Purim is best known for her fusion recordings of the '70s — not only her work with the first edition of Chick Corea's Return to Forever, but also classic solo albums like Butterfly Dreams and Stories to Tell. However, Purim actually started recording in the '60s. This fascinating reissue, which RCA put out in Brazil in the early '00s, takes listeners back to the singer's early period. The material was recorded in 1964, when Purim was only 22 and was still eight years away from joining Return to Forever. At the time, the bossa nova craze was in full bloom in both the United States and Europe — Stan Getz's work with Astrud and João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim was doing well on the pop charts, which is impressive when you consider that jazz had lost so much ground commercially after World War II. But Flora é M.P.M. is hardly a carbon copy of the bossa nova that Getz, Jobim, and the Gilbertos were providing at the time. In 1964, Purim had her own thing going — she didn't feel the need to emulate Astrud Gilberto or anyone else. The Brazilian jazz and pop (all of it in Portuguese) that one hears on this CD has a variety of influences, and they range from Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald to some of the post-bop that was coming out in 1964. Turning her attention to songs by Edú Lobo, Vinícius de Moraes, and other Brazilian composers, the young Purim shows considerable promise. Nonetheless, Purim still had some growing and developing to do in 1964, and her most essential work came in the '70s. Flora é M.P.M. is primarily for the singer's hardcore fans, who will no doubt be fascinated by these early recordings.