Jon Gold‘s biography reads like a novel someone made up. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area with a brother who managed Heart’s label, got dubbed “Little McCoy” by a Chronicle critic as a teenager, accidentally became the first person to melt a diamond as a Cornell PhD student, then abandoned science entirely to move to Rio de Janeiro on a Brazilian government fellowship – where he ended up working with A.C. Jobim and Hermeto Pascoal and performing on national television. His last album, “Bossa of Possibility,” received four and a half stars from Downbeat. “Our Love Blooms in Bossa”, released in May on Entropic Records, is his first composition with lyrics written in both English and Portuguese, and it features Brazilian vocalist Marina Marchi alongside guitarist Guilherme Hoss and drummer Bruno Tessele.
Gorgeous arpeggios that sound like flowers blooming in the springtime grab your attention as the song starts, letting you know – oh, these musicians know what they’re doing. Aside from those aforementioned vocal runs sounding absolutely brilliant, they are very rhythmically assuring, and they work as a foil to the syncopated bossa nova chords that might challenge listeners not familiar with the genre. Marina Marchi’s vocals are absolutely delightful, and they feel otherworldly with their precise blend of whimsy, musical virtuosity, and joy.
The lyrical theme is deliberately simple – a woman fully present in the joy of being in love, neither pulling toward the past nor the future – and that simplicity is the right call for music this texturally rich. Bossa nova has always carried that quality, the sense that the music itself is the emotional argument and the words are there to confirm it. Hoss’s guitar playing has the kind of relaxed authority that the genre demands, and Tessele’s drumming stays exactly where it should: felt more than heard. For anyone with even a passing interest in Brazilian jazz, this one is worth your time.