UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP O Melhor De Ivan Lins Novo Tempo

First of all, I have to confess I never review anything I would not give five stars to. I see these "reviews" as opportunities to share the pleasure I have taken in music that has moved me sufficiently to wish to share that pleasure with others. I doubt very much anyone is interested in why I didn't like something, so I'll leave that task to those don't harbor such doubts.Which brings me to Ivan Lins, a musician whom I have come to regard as a dear friend, notwithstanding the considerable disadvantage of never even having seen him perform live. Recently when some friends of mine suffered a terrible tragedy, I had this CD sent to them because of what I feel to be its transcendently life-affirming-without-being-saccharine quality.O Melhor de Novo Tempo is a wonderful introduction to the work of an artist I regard with a reverence similar to that I feel for Tom Jobim. Like Tom he hasn't got a great voice, but he still manages to be a distinctive interpreter of his songs. And so far as I'm equipped to judge, he's a very fine keyboard player. But it is as a composer that he truly shines. He writes music that engages, deeply and on multiple levels, music that is sometimes joyful, sometimes wistful, but never less than heartfelt. In testament to which I can cite numerous jazz players of the highest stature who have worked with him or covered his material. (Including a highly recommended 1996 collaboration with Terence Blanchard, The Heart Speaks).His composition Comecar de Novo is one of those works that truly puts the "dei" in "vox pop." Meaning no one, not even the composer, will ever manage the definitive treatment (though, on second thought, Simone's cover comes pretty close to deserving that accolade). Madalena is one of the best and most high-spirited (if you'll forgive the vulgarity) "blue ball" anthems this particular oft-rebuffed lover has ever heard. "Dinorah Dinorah" suggests the sort of woman that, like the source of that fugitive whiff of perfume in an empty hallway, you wish you might have encountered in person. And listening to Daquilo que eu sei, I'm simply happy to be alive.The foregoing is not to slight any of the other songs in this collection. Nor any of the songs that appear on any of his other CDs, for one source of his considerable excellence is consistency. Maybe someone has heard a "mail-in" from Ivan Lins, but it wasn't me!