CD Review: Stephen Bishop - Saudade

Stephen Bishop is a Brazilian music fan and in Saudade he reworks songs he wrote or co-wrote in the Brazilian style. He gets the help of renowned guitarist and producer Oscar Castro-Neves. This is a pleasant album, but it's still much more Stephen Bishop than Brazil. If Bishop's light, romantic music has appealed to you over the years, you'll like the album. If you're looking for Brazilian bossa nova, this is probably not the album for you.

Listen

The Brazilian word "Saudade" (pronounced sow-dodge-ee) means "to have a heartfelt longing for something beyond one's reach". If we're talking about Bishop's album Saudade, the name might well be prophetic - if Bishop's been yearning to make Brazilian music.

Saudade contains many of Bishop's hits from the late 70s & 80s:"On and On", "Save It For A Rainy Day" with Eric Clapton on steel guitar, "Bish's Hideaway" with Kenny Rankin singing background vocals, "One More Night" and a very nice version of "Separate Lives". The nicest cut on Saudade is "Un Baile Del Corazon" (Dance of the Heart) with guest vocalist Luciana Souza and Earl Klugh on guitar.

While the Brazilian rhythms and guitar work well with these light pop tunes, they just sound like the same old classics. It might be that these songs have been on the air so long that we can't really hear them differently; it might be that the songs reworked in a Brazilian style are simmilar enough to the original arrangements that they just don't distinguish themselves as something new.

If you're a Stephen Bishop fan, this is an album you'll definitely want as part of your collection. If you are interested in Brazilian music, you can skip this CD.