My sister, Jeanne Fadale, a singer/musician, once suggested I listen to Flora Purim. “What does she do?” was my question back then, to which Jeanne replied, “Just listen.”
I’ve not stopped listening to Flora Purim since.
At first I thought I was hearing the beautiful call of some
exotic bird. Then it seemed to be more like an African flute playing within a modern
jazz composition. Wait, was that scat singing unlike any I’d heard before—more
refined and at the same time something you could imagine had been passed on from
an ancient civilization? And, when the voice manifested and moved into lyrics
sung so clear and true, it was a movement as natural as water’s flow.
Ms. Purim tells a story of the San Francisco River in her
home country of Brazil: “I used to
sing to the river, that, as it flowed out to the ocean, it would take me to
America." She realized that vision. As she makes music I feel a
river that takes me, always, to a new place and a vastly more vivid understanding
of the voice as instrument.
The impressiveness of her music is so much more than her
six-octave range, even as that surely makes the whole of her vocal conceptions
possible. My sister introduced me to Flora
Purim and Flora Purim introduced me to something magical and sublime in lyrical
sound and expression.
Now, I suggest you listen. Just listen.
Comment from David Benders on Facebook re: this blog post: Didja read the blog Didja Feel The Music --
ReplyDelete[Flora Purim] 'her six-octave range.' Now maybe even the _birds_ can't match that! Yes, great fresh sound right from the start with Chick Corea's Return to Forever. WBFO anchor Carolyn Ferrini _loved_ Flora and made her part of every show! Thanks for turning us in this direction because I have not checked up on Flora in a long time.