Musica Nuda

© Angelo TraniMusica Nuda, naked music, is an Italian duo (vocalist Petra Magoni, upright bass player Feruccio Spinetti). It’s a ‘vocal ‘n bass’ twosome who enjoy the art of silence in music. From the bio: ‘a basic and often underrated aspect of it, that leads to the true emotion and underline the value or a lyric, a story, the meaning of every single song, no matter if it’s dramatic, funny, energetic, romantic, sarcastic.’ Musica Nuda usually sing in English, they have worked with several jazz(y) artists, including French heroes like Sanseverino and Jacques Higelin, and recorded songs by Henri Salvador. On the just released new album Banda Larga they’ve expanded their sound, with wood, brass and steel. Listen to a spine tickling version of Des Ronds dans l’eau, written by Pierre Barouh and made famous by Françoise Hardy. And like Sky points out in the comments, this song does sound a lot like Frankie Valli’s Can’t take my eyes off of you.

Speaking of Françoise, she turns 70 next January. FillesSourires will mark that occasion with some very special posts. More on that later.

Musica Nuda – Des rons dans l’eau
Live version:

The Seductive Skills of Miss Panton

secondAnother Canadienne, a sexy redhead being heralded to sound »like the sweetest bird you’ll ever hear« – probably a bit too much promo praise, though we’re certainly dealing with a fille fragile to boot here. Diana Panton’s fourth album, To Brazil With Love, pays homage to bossa nova and the sounds of Baden Powell, Jobim or Marcos Valle, including also five French language versions of Brazilian song material, among them a welcome adaptation of Samba Saravah with vibraphone swing, and a classy reworking of the lesser known, but equally immortal Tu sais je vais t’aimer a.k.a. Eu sei que vou te amar, written in 1970 by Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, with French lyrics by Georges Moustaki.

Diana Panton – Samba Saravah
Diana Panton – Tu sais je vais t’aimer