Baobab

Manning keyboards and doing the composing and arranging, Wagner Tiso weighs in with an ambitious sounding, elaborately produced album grounded in Brazilian tropicalismo yet international in its reach. Much of the record jogs or strides along in a portentous, directionless mass of synthesizers not much more compelling than your average film soundtrack. What life there is in the music is usually provided by the multinational list of guest artists. Mali's star singer Salif Keita does the most good with wailing vocals on the title track and a few snippets elsewhere. Flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo's playing and hand clapping gives "Madrid" its strong Andalusian flavor; saxophonists Paulo Moura and Léo Gandelman provide wisps of jazz feeling on "Western Romance." ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi