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Guitarist Charlie Byrd has revisited bossa nova numerous times since his landmark collaboration with Stan Getz, Jazz Samba, helped start the worldwide bossa craze in 1961. But My Inspiration–The Music of Brazil is one of his most successful yet. Possibly this is because he is backed on "Inspiration" by the Brazilian guitar, bass, and drums of Trio Da Paz (featuring Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, and Dudaka Da Fonseca), which keeps the music's rhythmic and harmonic core intact. Or possibly it's because of the wonderful Brazilian singer Maucha Adnet, who sings six tunes here, or even tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton's uncanny updating of Getz's sound. More likely though, it's because of Byrd himself, who again proves himself one of the few non-Brazilian masters of the genre, sprinkling his distinctive classical-meets-jazz guitar style all over lovely versions of Jobim's "So Danca Samba," "Fotografia," "Agua de Beber," and others. He even displays his adventurous side with a bossa arrangement of Chopin's Prelude in E Minor (here titled "Freddie's Tune"), proving that even a familiar classical melody can sound sensuously Brazilian. –Ezra Gale

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