Manu Lafer

Músico e Compositor

The Word

The Word

The Word, an album containing a CD with 13 tracks and a DVD with alternative takes for seven of these tracks, alongside surprises from the repertoire and interpretations by Maude Maggart (some as duets with Manu), adapted from high resolution cinema screen format, mainly consist of English versions of examples from Manu Lafer’s original works that he himself rewrote, in addition to some new ones, such as the one that lends the album its name.
The reason: to allow them to be interpreted by Maude, a singer with hypnotizing interpretations and the main representative of the new generation of cabaret singers. This is a genre that brings the American songbook, with its pearls and standards, bearing various aspects in common with jazz, but with its own characteristics, always with small groups, theatrical elements and songs with lyrics and from musicals.
Maggart’s mentors are the biggest exponents of the genre: Michael Feinstein, originally an archivist and specialist in the works of Ira Gershwin, and Andrea Marcovici.
The instrumental accompaniment was always played live and under the production of Alê Siqueira. The studio recording also counted with the very first time pianist Ehud Asherie, fluent in Portuguese and who knows all about Brazilian music – especially choro and the golden age of the country’s radio –, partnered with the person many critics consider to be the greatest jazz guitarist of our times, Howard Alden. This latter is also well-known for his soundtrack for Sweet and Lowdown, by Woody Allen, and for expanding beyond jazz, especially bebop, to gypsy guitar gypsy guitar and to choro, regularly travelling the world to take part in prestigious festivals.
In The Word, Howard plays the banjo and the seven-string guitar, an instrument he is intimately familiar with, having co-authored four CDs with its pioneer, George Van Eps. The arrangements by Alden respect the montage of original Brazilian voices, chords and rhythms, but are invested with the rhythmic and harmonic language, form and improvisation of American music.
The repertoire contains the title track The Word, along with new entries Light and Away (this latter also performed as Perigo, in the DVD). Manu’s seminal work, Baião da Flor (1998), inspired by Terra and Saudosismo, by Caetano Veloso, which converses with the tradition of Brazilian artists and their work, is translated as Flower Tune, encompassing the American universe, with its birds and romanticism that are decanted by these standards with which the people of that culture can relate and be moved by.
The CD counts with clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski in Princess, Golden Mines and Light, trumpet-player Warren Vaché in You And My Dreams and Flower Tune, as well as bassist Frank Tate. The DVD, also shown and broadcast in high definition at special events, was filmed at cinema quality and directed by award-winners Juliano Salgado (O Sal da Terra, for which he got an Oscar nomination), Stefano Capuzzi (A Grande Vitória) and Fillippo Capuzzi (Internet: O Filme), edited by Déo Teixeira (who directed Manu’s first DVD, A Lente do Homem, 2008).

Tracks
1. The Word (A Jura) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Forever and ever I want you,
Forever you want me, yeah
My love that loves you
To belong and call you my man

To me there’s a love that you care
I am the woman who faces the aces and aches
To make you and stake you the faith in your faith

Other’s surprise should then rise and arise
As you burst into my simple life
As the joy and the cry, and the outburst
Created ‘cause you’d been
Unseen and seen as I thought

When more than to love you need love
Each one needs the other’s allure
And that’s to love insecure but for sure

Cause it’s by listening and saying
I love you, I love you, I love you
That each teach a couple in love
To say a love not the same
And makes the flame
Where there isn’t a flame

2. Away (Perigo) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

I swore that you’d swear and I’d hear
But then you would love
To love to disappear
Don’t fear,
Mere danger ‘s at your gate
No doors, no fate
And I hate that you heart is your deceiver
Is it that we met in a dream?
Or is it you’ve just gone away?

Jurei que você me queria
Mas vi que você fugia
De algo que eu não via
Não viva
Tendo medos que não viu
Não quero alguém
Que vá sempre mudar de perigo
Será que você me amou?
Será que você me ouviu?

3. Right Now (Depressa, Amor) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Right now, my love,
Now the world has given up the count
Right now, my love,
Look at things
And not the way they sprout
Right now, you’re up
To rush before it’s gone
Right now, don’t wait,
As great as you’ll become

Right now, my love,
There’s no flash yet orange colored sky
Right now, my love,
Leave the movies all the white and noir
Right now, it’s time
About to shine a star
Just grab your life,
You’ll get to see the light

Depressa, amor
Que o mundo cansa de esperar
Depressa, amor
Veja a vida não qual ela está
Depressa,
Que é você quem vai chegar
Depressa,
Que sei quem você será

Depressa, amor,
Tudo azul ou tudo rosa, já
Depressa, amor,
Preto e branco só se for filmar
Depressa,
Que é tempo de passar
O tempo desse mundo,
Quem sonhar

4. Céu (Manu Lafer)

Céu,
Que se aumenta e se imita,
Céu que límpido brinca,
Quando a dor adormecer
Céu, pincel do céu se alastra,
Céu que o infinito arrasta,
Céu,
Além

5. Nightdreaming (Com Fantasia) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

(He)
How should the night impart my dreams…
…If the beams kill the dreams when it’s over?
Are we to sleep?
Are we to peep?
Grit or flit our glory?
To be free, and fantasize to light the spark
Say the word, don’t mind the dark
So we both will escape the dawn
‘Cause we don’t want the sun to sum

(She)
From where d’you claim like this?
My joy, my sigh, explain it?
You make me believe
You make me transpire and shout so high
Make believe in stories
As we break the morning
We could kiss and yawn it
Swearing sins and coffee

6. Princess (Deusa Densa) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Princess
And hence a nation
A bust, a must, a lost temptation
My road and station
My old creation
Show off your tail
Send me to jail

Princess
And hence a nation
To kiss and tell me infatuation
My lust and Venus
My prey, my goddess
My crime and bail
My veil and fail

A sense to dance
An adder’s trance
I scent your trail
You muse ambiguous
As you plead guilty
You’re clouds, you’re Beauty
You’re tame, you’re jealous

Princess
And hence a nation
In uttermost speculation
Climb me you statue
Incense I pace on
Guinness of catwalks
Tigress, female

7. Flower Tune (Baião Da Flor) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Gee, Give Me Five Minutes More
Our Love Is Here To Stay
You’re Jeepers Creepers, The Top
Peep Them There Eyes, Night And Day
Let’s Face The Music And Dance
I wanna cry, wanna croon
You Are Too Marvelous For Words
Could Write A Book, Valentine,
A letter I’ll write myself, straighten up
Straighten up, straighten up
Straighten up, straighten up

Manhattan, no moon at all
Bluebird, Red Robin, Skylark
Chicago, whoopee, raindrops
Are Flying Home in the dark
The seagulls over the sea
Can’t Take Away That From Me
Walk Right To Me Poli High
The Song Has Ended, Bob White
Free As A Dove, Cheek To Cheek
Did I Do, Did I Do, Did I Do
Did I Do, Did I Do

Show me your Hollywood Song
The Magic Days, Rose, And Wine
We’re Down For Double, we jive
Six In A Jeep to Take Five
Two Sleepy Triplets, One Note
How Strange The Change, Very Thought
Major to minor we please
Breezing Along With The Breeze
We photograph and we laugh
Dandy and fine, dandy and fine, dandy and fine,
Dandy and fine, dandy and fine

Oh Buona Sera A Train
My mind in Sweet Georgia Brown
I’m Singing Swing In The Rain
And Lulu, she’s Back In Town
Junior And Julie, They Sit
Under The Tangerine Tree
Everything Happens To Me
Three Little Birds, Trolley Song
It’s Bad For Me
That You Do That Voodoo
That you do, that you do
That you do, that you do

Maybe she didn’t say yes
Maybe she didn’t say no
Be cuter she couldn’t be
Ain’t Side By Side, just a kiss
A Fine Romance Strings Along
The Sunny Side Of The Street
A Flower Crying For Dew
A Hundred Years From Now
Thou sweet, thou witty,
Thou grand and thou swell,
And thou swell, and thou swell,
And thou swell, and thou swell

Oh, Rosalie don’t decline
You’re willing wheel to be mine
Over The Rainbow, Marie,
Someone To Watch Over Me
I am amazed, Peggy Sue
Love’s ‘round a corner with you
Oh Broadway Baby to sing
And dance in awesome marquee
Over my shoulder one arm
Sandals dance at my feet
At my feet, at my feet, at my feel

Tracks - CD
1. Golden Mines (Mineira) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

The first, you’ll arrive at the summit
Amazingly, you’ll be always thirsty
Digging on it, always trusting
(bis)

You’re wrong
But you’re soft as a rock
In the depth of the mines, golden mines
Would your character
Pamper and love me, go crazy in time?
Just go crazy in time

2. You And My Dreams (Sem Querer) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

You are just by chance in my dream
You are but who did let you in?
You are such and such that I wish
A coincidence dream
Which I wish you to dream

My dreams make believe means to fish you
To enhance you could care they’d come true
Your red lips caress me
Your ebony tresses
Those issues of tissues of dreams

3. Milestone (Grande ABC) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

You taught me to mock and smiled at
My milestone to kiss in shame
You showed where my whereabouts stand
Where I’d never be the same
(bis)

We meant L.A.X. to relax
Victoria’s Angels flight secrets
We broke the Capitol’s record
To raise the Hollywood Bowl
Willy-nilly, flat and hilly
There we pounded weak and weary

We were in Malibu to walk the walk
And talk to Walt Disney
We were in Malibu to pickaboo
And to cool it jeering

4. Nightdreaming (Com Fantasia) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

(He)
How should the night impart my dreams…
…If the beams kill the dreams when it’s over?
Are we to sleep?
Are we to peep?
Grit or flit our glory?
To be free, and fantasize to light the spark
Say the word, don’t mind the dark
So we both will escape the dawn
‘Cause we don’t want the sun to sum

(She)
From where d’you claim like this?
My joy, my sigh, explain it?
You make me believe
You make me transpire and shout so high
Make believe in stories
As we break the morning
We could kiss and yawn it
Swearing sins and coffee

5. The Word (A Jura) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Forever and ever I want you,
Forever you want me, yeah
My love that loves you
To belong and call you my man

To me there’s a love that you care
I am the woman who faces the aces and aches
To make you and stake you the faith in your faith

Other’s surprise should then rise and arise
As you burst into my simple life
As the joy and the cry, and the outburst
Created ‘cause you’d been
Unseen and seen as I thought

When more than to love you need love
Each one needs the other’s allure
And that’s to love insecure but for sure

Cause it’s by listening and saying
I love you, I love you, I love you
That each teach a couple in love
To say a love not the same
And makes the flame
Where there isn’t a flame

6. Princess (Deusa Densa) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Princess
And hence a nation
A bust, a must, a lost temptation
My road and station
My old creation
Show off your tail
Send me to jail

Princess
And hence a nation
To kiss and tell me infatuation
My lust and Venus
My prey, my goddess
My crime and bail
My veil and fail

A sense to dance
An adder’s trance
I scent your trail
You muse ambiguous
As you plead guilty
You’re clouds, you’re Beauty
You’re tame, you’re jealous

Princess
And hence a nation
In uttermost speculation
Climb me you statue
Incense I pace on
Guinness of catwalks
Tigress, female

7. Gonna Get Ya (Eu Vou Te Pegar) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

I hung out late
To stalk my sweety pie
(bis)

My honey baby done her make up
Her argyle dress sent scent to bouncers
I hit the floor to choreograph
And dance, the crowd bypassing,
She had a sense I’d come to snatch
She ran off to the kitchen
And jumped off on a mattress through a hidden hatch (bis)

I spanned the ward
To stalk my sweety pie
(bis)

My honey baby crossed the sidewalks
As she delivered sneaky glances
I picked a dead end way to hedge
And press my honey baby
She was my smile and my joy,
The cutest flower ever
She climbed beyond wherever took the spiral stairs
(bis)

I ate those stairs
To stalk my sweety pie
(bis)

My honey baby went directly
To gain the room where she’d expect me
I hadn’t seen nor realized
She was the one who picked me
I hadn’t seen nor realized
That cozy hazy chamber
We were to lie in silk bellow a blanket fight
(bis)

I will grab your waist
Will grab in haste
The earth will shake
To chase the chaser
(bis)

8. Light (Luz) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

We knew
Wooing the wee small hours
Looming the stars as ours
Nothing would back the light
To show up and bloom

We knew
Wooing the sheer moments
Booming the skies, opponents
Nothing would back the light
Shades, or shields, or gloom

Good night bereft the moon
In search for size, a fruit, a spoof
To my surprise
The sunrise on the roof
To seize the haze
And praise the breaking days

9. Come (Sem Letra) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Come to give me five
Come to end goodbye
Come, don’t you versify
And you will be mine

10. Did I Need To Repeat? (Sem Repetir) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

What I said to my dad
Did I need to repeat
No, we knew what we had
We would part on my feet
(bis)

What I said to my dad
We knew we would just foresee
Once I said I was glad
The past would be bound to me

And my dad as I left lullabying his sleep (bis)

11. Flower Tune (Baião Da Flor) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart

Gee, Give Me Five Minutes more
Our Love Is Here To Stay
You’re Jeepers Creepers, The Top
Peep Them There Eyes, Night And Day
Let’s Face The Music And Dance
I wanna cry, wanna croon
You Are Too Marvelous For Words
Could Write A Book, Valentine,
A letter I’ll write myself, straighten up
Straighten up, straighten up
Straighten up, straighten up

Manhattan, no moon at all
Bluebird, Red Robin, Skylark
Chicago, whoopee, raindrops
Are Flying Home in the dark
The seagulls over the sea
Can’t Take Away That From Me
Walk Right To Me Poli High
The Song Has Ended, Bob White
Free As A Dove, Cheek To Cheek
Did I Do, Did I Do, Did I Do
Did I Do, Did I Do

Show me your Hollywood Song
The Magic Days, Rose, And Wine
We’re Down For Double, we jive
Six In A Jeep to Take Five
Two Sleepy Triplets, One Note
How Strange The Change, Very Thought
Major to minor we please
Breezing Along With The Breeze
We photograph and we laugh
Dandy and fine, dandy and fine, dandy and fine,
Dandy and fine, dandy and fine

Oh Buona Sera A Train
My mind in Sweet Georgia Brown
I’m Singing Swing In The Rain
And Lulu, she’s Back In Town
Junior And Julie, They Sit
Under The Tangerine Tree
Everything Happens To Me
Three Little Birds, Trolley Song
It’s Bad For Me
That You Do That Voodoo
That you do, that you do
That you do, that you do

Maybe she didn’t say yes
Maybe she didn’t say no
Be cuter she couldn’t be
Ain’t Side By Side, just a kiss
A Fine Romance Strings Along
The Sunny Side Of The Street
A Flower Crying For Dew
A Hundred Years From Now
Thou sweet, thou witty,
Thou grand and thou swell,
And thou swell, and thou swell,
And thou swell, and thou swell

Oh, Rosalie don’t decline
You’re willing wheel to be mine
Over The Rainbow, Marie,
Someone To Watch Over Me
I am amazed, Peggy Sue
Love’s ‘round a corner with you
Oh Broadway Baby to sing
And dance in awesome marquee
Over my shoulder one arm
Sandals dance at my feet
At my feet, at my feet, at my feet

12. Away (Perigo) (Manu Lafer)
Featuring: Maude Maggart 

I swore that you’d swear and I’d hear
But then you would love
To love to disappear
Don’t fear,
Mere danger ‘s at your gate
No doors, no fate
And I hate that you heart is your deceiver
Is it that we met in a dream?
Or is it you’ve just gone away?

13. Céu (Manu Lafer)
Céu,
Que se aumenta e se imita,
Céu que límpido brinca
Quando a dor adormecer
Céu, pincel do céu se alastra,
Céu que o infinito arrasta,
Céu,
Além

 

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