...a Brazilian artist of the highest quality. This is a great, new, beautiful project.
Over the dozen albums from her four-decade career, Delia Fischer: Beyond Bossa represents the first English language recording from the Brazilian pianist, singer, and songwriter. It was through an effusive 2019 5-star DownBeat review from journalist, musician, and songwriter Allen Morrison that the collaboration making this album possible began. Captivated with her poetic, profound and sophisticated songwriting, Morrison and Fischer worked together to create English versions that honored the spirit of the original lyrics while telling engaging stories in a more American vernacular. With inspired guest artists to help interpret them—including Gretchen Parlato, Luciana Souza, Marcos Valle, Chico Pinheiro, cellist Eugene Friesen, New York Voices, and Italian soul singer Mario Biondi—Beyond Bossa is full of joy, pathos, and the restless rhythms of Brazil in 2024. Though it features an utterly charming Bossa Nova duet, "What Good is Summer?" with its composer, Marcio Nucci, the album is a moving and luminescent adventure pushing beyond Bossa.
"In the constant search for new forms of Brazilian music...I have in Delia an important ally. Her concept of mixing and filtering Brazilian influences through her unique musicality and personal joy stimulates my own creative work."
Egberto Gismonti
Track Listing:
1 A Little Samba 3:02
2 Song of Self Affirmation 3:29
3 What Good is Summer? 4:08
4 Almost Paradise 3:42
5 Lemon Jugglers of Rio 4:07
6 My Time 4:11
7 The Street Where I Was Born 2:51
8 Every Hopeful Corner 4:10
9 Marketplace 3:43
10 The Acupuncture Song 3:23
11 Workaholic 3:14
12 My Voice in Your Head 3:58
Music & Lyrics: Delia Fischer, except:
Original Lyrics: (2) Carlos Careqa; (5,10) Camila Costa; (8) Claudio Botelho; (9) Thiago Picchi; (11) Paulo Sergio Valle; Music: (3) M. Nucci; (11) M. Valle
English Lyrics: Allen Morrison
All songs published by
Cor De Sol/Mad Cow Music/Dubas, except:
(11) by Sony/Mad Cow Music/Dubas
Performers:
Delia Fischer - voice, grand piano, keyboards
SPECIAL GUESTS:
Matias Correa voice (2) Márcio Nucci voice (3) Eugene Friesen cello (3) Luciana Souza voice (4)
New York Voices (5): Darmon Meader (voc. arr.),
Kim Nazarian, Lauren Kinhan & Peter Eldridge
Gretchen Parlato voice (6) Mario Biondi voice (9) Chico Pinheiro elec. gtr. (10) Pretinho da Serrinha cavaquinho (10) Marcos Valle voice (11)
Rodrigo Campello guitars, perc., bass, programming
Sacha Amback loops (1), keys, prog. (6)
Claudio Nucci ac. gtr. (3)
Matias Correa bass (3,4,6,8), voice perc. (5), beatbox (9), vocals (2,9,10)
Antonio Fischer-Band bass (5), keys (9), prog. (9,12)
Drums/Perc: Marcelo Costa (1,4) Kim Pereira (3) Sebastian Notini (5) Rafael Maia (8) Mafram Do Maracanã (11)
Strings: Gretel Paganini cello (2) Pedro Mibielli violin (2) Budapest Scoring Orchestra (3) Strings of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic (12)
Winds: Aline Gonçalves flutes (5,11) Jeferson Souza flute (5) Levi Chaves woodwinds (5,6,11) Marcelo Neves clar. (5) Diogo Gomes trpt/flugel. (11) Elias Correa trom. (11)
Production Info:
Executive Producers Delia Fischer & André Oliveira
Produced by Delia Fischer
All tracks mixed by R. Campello, except (4,5) by M. Correa
Mastered by Carlos Freitas at Classic Master, Los Angeles
Cover photos by Nando Chagas
Cover Design & Layout by John Bishop
Recorded in Rio de Janeiro:
Grand piano by Lucas Ariel & Gustavo Krebs at Estúdio Biscoito Fino
Fischer's vocals by Fabio Henriques, voice coach Matias Correa, at Secret Air
Strings, winds, guitars, prog. & perc. by R. Campello at MiniStereo Studio
Grand piano, Fender Rhodes & bass on (8,10) by Carlos Fuchs at Tenda da Raposa
Additional rec. (11,12) by Pedro Guedes, Filipe Teixeira & F. Henriques at Secret Air & Gomus
Rhodes on (5) by João Ferraz at Lontra Music
Loops, samplers & prog. on (12), beatbox & keys on (9) by M. Correa at Cor de Sol
Vocal perc. on (5) by M. Correa at Vox Studio
Grand piano & M. Correa bass for (4) at Visom Studios
Drums & perc. on (5) by S. Notini at Apipema Estúdio, Salvador, Bahia
Remote Recording:
Budapest Scoring Orch. (Hungary), Str. of St. Petersburg Phil. (Russia), G. Parlato (NY), L. Souza (LA), M. Biondi (Italy), C. Pinheiro (NY), E. Friesen (Vermont), and New York Voices at their private studios
Reviews of Delia Fischer: Beyond Bossa
Jazz Weekly (George W Harris)
Vocalist and pianist Delia Fischer takes the tried and true sounds of Brazilian bossa nova and adds a tincture of modernity with some electrical workings by the likes of Antonio Fischer-Band, Matias Correa, Sacha Amback and Rodrio Campello to her mix and match collection of percussion, strings and woodwinds. Her clear and luminous voice glides over ...
Brasil Calling (David Brazil)
This album marks the first time Delia Fischer has recorded her original repertoire for an international audience, featuring English lyrics co-written with collaborators such as Camila Costa, Carlos Careqa, and Claudio Botelho. These songs are reimagined by American composer, pianist, and jazz journalist Allen Morrison, who worked closely with Fisch ...
Estado de Minas Cultura (Brazil) (Mariana Peixoto)
Delia Fischer, 60 years old with a 40 year career, has an outlier trajectory. A pianist by training, she soon embarked on an instrumental path. Later, she arrived at musical theater. She worked a lot, but there was professional dissatisfaction in the air. This issue was only resolved when she started singing her own songs, which effectively happene ...
Liner Notes (Allen Morrison)
In 2019, after I'd been writing for DownBeat Magazine for about a decade, I was asked to review a batch of new albums from Brazil, including one by a Rio de Janeiro-based singer named Delia Fischer who wrote her own songs. I gathered that, in addition, she was a jazz pianist, an arranger, and the musical director for several hit musicals in Rio. Sh ...
All About Jazz (Katchie Cartwright)
4-STARS An intriguingly multi-layered project, Beyond Bossa has unfolded over a number of years. The "beyond" in the title points in a few directions. A pianist, composer-arranger, singer (and dancer), Delia Fischer works across idioms: bossa nova, jazz, música popular brasileira (MPB), various types of Brazilian music, theater. Her recordings ha ...
Soirée de Grã Finos (Joana Aleixo)
The pianist, singer and songwriter Délia Fischer released her first international album, "Delia Fischer Beyond Bossa", by the label Origin Records (Seattle, USA), with the first recordings of her authorial repertoire in which she sings the songs with lyrics in English in versions recreated by the American composer, pianist and journalist Allen Mor ...
