500 Miles High

Stories to Tell	Open Your Eyes You Can Fly	Encounter	Perpetual Emotion Though her voice cracks occasionally and sounds ever slightly lower in pitch than when she reigned in the 1970s, Flora Purim is still one of the finest jazz vocalists around. Why she has not recorded since 1994 is a bit of a mystery, but Perpetual Emotion shows that the Queen of ...	Butterfly Dreams Brazilian vocalist Flora Purim brought a unique approach to her art that profoundly altered the nature of vocalization. She expands the basic techniques of vocalise--where every syllable is phrased like a note played on a reed or brass instrument--to include world music. On the t...
Flora's Song	Speak No Evil	Butterfly Dreams	Three-Way Mirror	River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) - Amazon.com Exclusive On paper, River sounds like a match made in several versions of heaven. Legendary pianist Herbie Hancock re-imagines Joni Mitchell with his hand-picked, star-studded band--including saxophonist Wayne Shorter--in tow. Luminary guests lend vocals to a song apiece: Norah Jones ("Cou...

ONE OF HER BEST
I REMEMBER HAVING THIS ALBUM ON LP BACK IN THE 1970'S. I AM GLAD I HAVE IT ON CD NOW, IT IS A BLAST FROM THE PAST. FLORA PURIM IS AN ACQUIRED TASTE. SHE HAS A FIVE OCTAVE RANGE, AND IMPROVISES A LOT IN HER SINGING. WITH SOME OF THE OTHER MUSICINS ON THIS RELEASE, (HER HUSBAND), AIRTO MOREIRA, RON CARTER ON BASS, MILTON NASCIMENTO (ANOTHER BRAZILIAN NATIONAL TRASUE), THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS PUT OUT BY FLORA PURIM FROM THAT TIME. WE USED TO CALL THIS STUFF JAZZ FUSION MUSIC, AND THIS HAS A LATIN TINGE TO IT AS WELL.

Jazz fusion vocalist at her peak
I checked out the actual LP of this record because I'd heard Purim's vocals on one of my all-time favorite fusion discs, Chick Corea's "Return to Forever." "500 Miles High" is a Corea track from his Return to Forever line-up's "Light as a Feather" double-album, which also features Airto and Purim. So, call this Brazil via Corea, and throw in Brazilian soft pop croomer Milton Nascimento on one track, "Cravo e Canela" (Cinnamon and Cloves)." I remember Nascimento from the CD that introduced me to Tropicalia and Brazilian music in general, the David Byrne-compiled "Brazil Classics: Vol. 1." Purim is a bit of an acquired taste. I think she sounds a bit screechy in that early 70s kitschy sort of way, but she employs it well on this album, able to scat jive with the driving Latin rhythm, her voice a complement to the groove, especially on the roasting last track, "Jive Talk." I love live albums, especially live fusion, and even more if it's Brazilian and from the early 70s. Purim's "500 Miles High" fits the bill. It also benefits from a highly percussive sound and the use of berimbaus, a uniquely Brazilian instrument (it looks like a bow and arrow) used in the Afro-Brazilian martial art, capoeira.

Ron Carter is Far From Dead!
I saw him @ Catalina's in H'wood. It was magnificent. Purim soars on this live recording. The Fender Rhodes is a wonderful compliment to her unique vocals.

A Beautiful and exotic musical Performance.
Flora Purim, with the aid of husband Aierto, and players like the late Ron Carter on Bass, produced an album that had one foot in the world of Jazz, and the other in Brazil. At times contimplative as in the opening, "O Cantador", Ms. Purim quickly switches gears, she moans and scats Flora style into a set that includes Her most famous collaboration with Chick Corea, "500 Miles High", as well as other mood songs like "Bahia(The Wind)", a meditation that contains such beautiful lyrics that you almost forget yourself and you are transformed to some breezy evening in Brazil. As an earlier reviewer noted, I had the album when I was 17, growing up in New York, and cannot name a more ingaging,intimate yet wild, exotic fruit of an album to get aquainted with what Flora Purim is really about.

THE 'FIRST LADY OF BRAZIL' SOARS WITH THIS CLASSIC SET!!!
Brazil's national treasure Flora Purim has never sounded more beautiful than in this incredible concert CD!!! With her flashback from her 'Return to Forever' days, she delivers the goods on the dizzyingly beautiful song '500 Miles High'!!! The effects that Flora produces with that voice are astonishing. It transcends that of other live performers by miles - (500 miles, to be exact!!!) FINALLY - this is available on CD!!! It's a rare classic!!!!!! Fly high with Flora Purim by adding this amazing classic to your collection!!!!!!!