Krazy Love

Album Review

Broadway veteran Luba Mason was serious when she called her 2004 recording debut Collage — an amalgamation of numerous styles and cover songs, the results were winsome and joyfully schizophrenic. But there's something to be said for focus, and the singer's keen ability to draw powerful seductive emotion from a generally low-key approach is right at home in the sensual world of Brazilian music. The result is a truly sweet and subtle, even krazy collection that marks her true emergence as an artist with a distinctive vibe and character — helped by the fact that she wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten songs. Krazy Love's elegant title track and "From Me to You" set the tone of instant seduction with a gentle groove, while the next tune picks up the percussive pace as she takes listeners for a "Lovely" and whimsical ride. The collection's general flow is exemplified by a sweetly exotic Portuguese piece like "Olhos Nos Olhos" followed by something brisk and whimsical like the ode to her childhood memories, "This House." Mason is joined by a bunch of krazy musical lovers, including well-known Brazilian pianist and keyboardist Renato Neto (who has played with Prince's band), Jimmy Haslip, and guests Hubert Laws (whose flute adds transcendent charm to "This House") and her husband, Rubén Blades, who does an English-Portuguese duet with her on "E com Esse Que Eu Vou." It's a wonderful coming-out party for an artist who's found her kraziness doing the Rio thing.