New Jersey-based composer and pianist-keyboardist Richard Sorce turned quite a few heads around on his 2017 album Samba Para A Vida. As you can detect from the title of the album, Bossambal Brazil is another excellent release of Richard's self-styled tropical flavored Brazilian music. With 14 tracks, clocking in around 53 minutes, Bossambal Brazil features Richard’s current music backed up by a range of top-notch players including Rob Reich (guitars), Don Guinta (drums), Sue Williams (bass) and Mark Friedman (sax & flute) among others. Helping to create the excellent sound on Bossambal Brazil is Robert Melosh who has engineered several of Richard's previous albums. There are some string sounds and clearly every musician on hand is in total sync with Richard’s latest widescreen tropical music vision. The string sounds on track 9, "Afternoon Shadows" are quite excellent as is Rob Reich's electric guitar sounds. As expected from an artist of Richard Sorce's caliber and expertise, every track here is strong and clearly, Bossambal Brazil invites the listener back from more repeat spins.

Mostly instrumental, Bossambal Brazil sometimes features cameo vocals called ‘vocalise’ that reminds the listener of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s breezy Bossa Nova style of music made popular in the 1960s, evidenced here by the vocal contributions on Bossambal Brazil by Lisa Kachajian, Lara Negrete and Anthony Arellano. Comparing the Brazilian Bossa Nova sound to western jazz back in 2018, Richard explained that, “The differences that I see between Brazilian music/jazz and American/European jazz lies in the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic aspects… and what’s left? Well, there are other aspects, but these are of primary importance, at least to me. Melodically, Brazilian music is lyric-based, meaning that it contains an element of lyricism whereby the melodic line is virtually always “singable,” even without lyrics." Essential listening for fans of Brazilian instrumental jazz and in the spirit of Jobim album classics like Wave and Tide, Richard Sorce’s 2021 album Bossambal Brazil makes an excellent impression and is bound to become a modern-day instrumental Bossa Nova classic.