Charlie Rouse will always be best known as saxophonist for piano god Thelonious Monk for over a decade. But there was far more to Rouse’s artistry than that admittedly noteworthy accomplishment. In 1977, he recorded Cinnamon Flower, an album dedicated to the Brazilian sounds he loved for producer Alan Douglas’ eponymous label. Backed by luminaries from inside and outside the country, including drummer Portinho, pianist/composer Dom Salvador, cellist Ulysses Kirksey, guitarist Ted Dunbar, bassist Ron Carter, and more, Rouse lays his smooth, nimble sax on top of the kind of accessible, danceable music for which Brazil is famous: groovy, melodic, with intricate layers of busy percussion and slick rhythms. The likes of “Waiting On a Corner,” “A New Dawn (Alvorada),” and “Clove and Cinnamon (Cravo E Canela)” will get that South American hip motion churning, while still providing the kind of musicianly thrills that come from master musicians plying their craft. “Roots (Chao)” and “Disenchantment (Desencontro)” turn the heat down to a simmer, but remain undeniably effective.
The twist on this edition comes from two sets of tracks. Between the album’s original recording and its release, Douglas had session greats like Bernard Purdie and Roger Powell overdub sweeteners, no doubt in the hopes of helping the songs catch on in disco-besotted dance clubs. On this edition, curator Zev Feldman includes both the original, unslickened records and the album as it was released. Comparison and contrast does reveal the first recordings as slightly superior, but, frankly, either set of tracks will do. To get the best out of this record, play both sets back to back (made easy on the CD) on repeat, and just groove to it all night long.
