Rain forest comes to Lowcountry

Brazilian singer/songwriter Duda Lucena was exactly right. In preparation a couple of weeks ago for a Post and Courier story announcing Friday's performance by Renato Braz, the recent transplant to Mount Pleasant said his countryman's voice transports listeners to Brazil's natural environment.

Singer/guitarist Braz and his four cohorts, Gerson Oikawa on guitar, percussionists Bré and Guello and bassist Sizao Machado, made the stage at Gaillard Municipal Auditorium seem like a lush, summertime rainforest, complete with bright sunshine and refreshing rain.

Oh yes, there were birds, too — beautiful birds in flight.

With more than 2,000 people in attendance for the Wachovia Jazz Series concert Friday, the band created an effect that was decidedly natural. You could hear in their music whispering breezes (sometimes wind), rustling leaves and rolling rivers. There were no gimmicks. They didn't imitate these sounds but created art that unmistakably implied them, resonating on a nonliteral level.

It was magnificent stuff. The feel of the band was African, European and native South American, all basic components of Brazilian culture.

Braz's tenor voice is totally unique. His guitar playing is without flaw. Sometimes Friday, it was hard to discern if his guitar was accompanying his voice or vice versa.

His falsetto is as true as a Smokey Robinson's, but with more body and without the vibrato, evidently typical of Brazilian singers. He nailed every note, no matter the register. The feel of his voice is so human, it sounds like some spiritual, universal voice at the same time it's distinctively his.

Rhythms are at the base of Brazilian music and Braz's band used many of them Friday. Some that could be heard include baiao, samba and maracatu, all prominent in the northeastern section of the country.

The percussion instruments used Friday included conga drum, African talking drum, many types of shakeres, three or four different whistles, a wide array of cymbals, gongs and cowbells.

Braz knocked everybody's socks off when he performed at the festival in 2004. This time, additional garments went missing.