Yana Rocks but is she on CD????
By Michael Nov 15, 2007
Pros: Much better vocalist than her sister Flora
Cons: Album is uneven. (But I can't find her other albums.)
The history of jazz is a history of tension, between the purity of what Joni Mitchell named "the BoHo dance" and the struggle for the legal tender. Getting the latter usually means honing off the rough edges; rough edges are what make the m...usic interesting and builds up fan clubs for artists in the first place. Thus the history of jazz is, inevitably, a history of disappointment, as talent peaks and sells out. (But now that I approach 55, I say, we all need a retirement plan, who can begrudge? Let's be thankful for the early rough edges & let our heroes live & let live. Merci pour la musique.) In Latin jazz there are various examples, I'm sure we could all supply our own instances. The early Gato Barbieri was exciting (not just the revolutionary poseur, even the Italian studio musician), the later "smooth-jazz" cross-over artist was boring. Likewise for Tania Maria. Early on she had phrasing & tempo, later she just shouted. Thank goodness her earlier trio albums with Boto & Helio are available on CD. Alas, the career of Yana's famous sister Flora was the same. Here poor unknown Yana's in 1986 seems to me the better voice. Her version of "Spain" is as good as it gets, her Bird of Brazil (the matita pereira; the mysterious pear-tree bird, maybe a cuckoo, the one referred to in Jobim's Aguas de Marco)is a masterpiece. Don't know where she has gone since, her work is VERY hard to find in the US at least. In their day, Flora & Airto Moreira & their crew laid down some good tracks for posterity, I simply want to say that Yana did too & I hope they all get whatever is due to them. In the end, so long as it gets recorded and preserved, it's all good on our MP3's and G-d love you if you can spend the rest of your life not doing the BoHo dance. I hope Gato, Tania Maria, Boto, Helio, Flora, Yana, Airto and all the rest are prospering, sitting on the beach swilling cachaca or indulging in their pleasure of choice. I might wish they were doing what they were doing 40 years ago, but I do not wish them a life of impoverished struggle. (Perhaps e.g. Charlie Parker's greatest achievement was to die insane and fairly young, before he could sell out? But wouldn't we have appreciated the music he did leave, just as much, if he were still around today at age 87 and signing punch-drunk autographs?) So, Yana, you go, girl!! Read more Less
