Eumir Deodato

Eumir Deoato's beginning's as an arranger for legends such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, and Wes Montgomery led to his breakthrough as an artist in his own right. "Prelude", his 1972 debut album, put Deodato on the charts and won him a 1973 Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental. The album features Deodato's reworking of classics by Richard Strauss, Debussy, and Borodin, as well as his own groove-laden compositions. Indeed, Deodato could be considered a fusion artist, melding classical music with Latin, funk, and jazz elements.

"Prelude" begins with the piece that won Deodato his Grammy, a nine-minute funk workout of "Also Sprach Zarathustra", otherwise known as the "Theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey."Featuring the stellar rhythm section of Stanley Clark and Billy Cobham on bass and drums respectively, Deodato adds fames conguero Ray Barretto and percussionist Airto Moreira for a rhythmic excursion that nicely foreshadows the disco era.

Before he adopted synthesizers, Deodato's main axe was a Fender Rhodes, and his funky playing meshes seamlessly with the full orchestral arrangement. Thinking of the orchestra as an instrument one can appreciate the scope of Deodato's musical talent's beyond his considerable skills. On "Spirit of Summer," his creative chording on the Rhodes provides the foundation for the main orchestral melody. The gentle bossa groove of "Carly & Carole" hearkens back to his Brazilian roots, and his rhythmic Rhodes playing flows into an intricate solo with deeply harmonic melodicizing supported by Cobham's swinging drumming. The light-hearted "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads" displays Deodato's love of the brass section, and talented guitarist John Tropea rides the bass lines of guest bassist Ron Carter amongst Deodato's Latin-flavored Rhodes grooves.

The jazzy take on Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" gave the album its title, and is surely a far cry from anything Debussy had in mind. Deodato's rhythmic applications oh his expansive voicings give depth to the piece, even as it deconstructs its own groove into an atmospheric Rhodes-based dream-state. Deodato brings back the straight funk on "September 13", digging into Cobham's tasty groove to finish off this classic recording.

Also recommended: "Deodato 2", Bjork's "Post" - Robbie Gennet

Deodato -- Preludes and Rhapsodies
Most people associate Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" with Stanley Kubrick's monumental "2001: A Space Odyssey." Eumir Deodato had big hit with a Brazilian-flavored jazz/fusion version of the over-the-top classic -- in fact, lots of folks will tell you they remember it from the movie. Actually, Deodato's big moment didn't come until 1972, some years after "2001's" release. (If memory serves, Deodato's version did make it to the silver screen as part of the "Being There" soundtrack.) This recent release collects Deodato's first two albums. It's got "Zarathustra" with more of his unique classical-jazz-fusion-bossanova arrangements, including Debussy's "Prelude To Afternoon Of A Faun" and Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue." Very Seventies, very cool. - Dennis Ryan

That 70's Jazz (for the Discriminating Rapper)

IN their quest for rare grooves and ear-catching hooks, hip-hop D.J.'s do a lot of digging through old LP's. Anything is fair game, from classic R & B hits to corny movie soundtracks. But for many D.J.'s, nothing confers sophistication better than jazz.Rap fans and jazz fans value markedly different things in their music, of course. You won't find many samples from John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk or Charlie Parker on rap albums. But you will find quite a few from George Benson, Bob James, Stanley Turrentine and Grover Washington.What do these artists have in common? From a D.J. perspective, the answer is simple: they all recorded for CTI (or one of its subsidiaries), a label founded in the late 1960's by the well-known producer Creed Taylor. Rappers from Run D.M.C. to LL Cool J to Snoop Dogg have all sampled CTI's stylish, groove-driven recordings. In fact, the label has gained a cachet among hip-hop D.J.'s, in part because its catalog has only sporadically been available since the introduction of the CD in the late 1980's.But that situation may change: Sony Legacy reissued eight titles earlier this month, including albums by Mr. Benson, Mr. Turrentine, Milt Jackson and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Seven more are planned for this summer. Even so, dozens of CTI albums remain out of print.The unavailability of CTI's catalog is especially puzzling given the label's great commercial success in the 1970's. Its best-known albums, like Mr. Washington's "Mr. Magic" and Mr. James's "BJ4," were not just successful by the standards of jazz; they were also bona fide pop hits, often climbing high in the album charts. The label even released a few hit singles, notably Eumir Deodato's 1973 revamping of "Also Sprach Zarathustra," the theme from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." It went to No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts despite having an all-star jazz lineup.That such success didn't win Mr. Taylor more friends in jazz is instructive. Where many jazz musicians wanted their music to be more like high art — oblique, austere, intellectually demanding — Mr. Taylor believed that jazz, having started out as popular music, ought to maintain a connection to a broader audience. His credo was that when cut off from its pop roots, jazz withers and dies.By and large, Mr. Taylor's productions stressed recognizable tunes (often pop hits at the time or light classical favorites), sturdy, straightforward grooves and slick, hi-fidelity recordings. Jazz snobs carped that many of those values were middlebrow, pandering to commercial tastes. (When Steely Dan imported those qualities into rock, critics applauded.)Mr. Taylor nonetheless managed to assemble a stable of first-rate talent — including Paul Desmond, Freddie Hubbard and Chet Baker — and to make the sound sell. His success shouldn't have been that surprising. Initially a trumpeter, he began his career in jazz production in 1954. A decade later, he produced one of the most successful jazz albums of its time; Stan Getz and João Gilberto's "Getz/Gilberto," which included the Grammy-winning single "The Girl From Ipanema."In 1967, Mr. Taylor began CTI as a boutique label within A & M Records. His first signings ranged from the Brazilian superstar Milton Nascimento to the arranger Quincy Jones. The album "A Day in the Life" by the guitarist Wes Montgomery showed that the producer hadn't lost the touch. Lushly arranged and favoring pop fare over jazz standards — the title was that of a Beatles song — it placed Mr. Montgomery's lean, swinging phrasing in a commercial package and earned him the only gold album (selling more than 500,000 copies) of his career.CTI went independent in 1970, and "Stone Flower," its reissue of an album by the Brazilian composer and guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim, was one of the label's first releases. Jobim was a favorite of Mr. Taylor's, having written "The Girl From Ipanema" and many of the bossa nova songs that "Getz/Gilberto" helped popularize. "Stone Flower" isn't jazz as such — there's little improvisation — but it offers a stellar lineup, particularly the bassist Ron Carter (a CTI mainstay), the flutist Hubert Laws and the saxophonist Joe Farrell.What "Stone Flower" lacks in solos is made up for in warmth and rhythm. As arranged by Mr. Deodato, the album casts Jobim's songs in the signature CTI manner, with the instrumental soloists treated almost like singers and the harmonies sketched in dark, velvety textures (whispery strings, throaty flutes, chocolaty trombones).But it's the approach to rhythm that would ultimately become a CTI touchstone and endear the label to D.J.'s. Where most jazz albums relied on a standard bebop rhythm section of piano, bass and drums, CTI recordings frequently added guitar and percussion. Mr. Benson's 1973 album, "Body Talk," not only paired his electric gui - J. D. CONSIDINE