Cande y Paulo
Cande y Paulo
Decca
Cande y Paulo are Cande Buasso on vocals and upright bass with Paulo Carrizo on keyboards. They are from San Juan, Argentina and their debut long-player is also simply called Cande y Paulo.
There is some percussion on the record and a few guitars (most notably on a sizzling rendition of Summertime) but for the most part the essence of the sound is all there with Buasso’s gentle, thoughtful bass playing and Carrizo stating the melody or providing the accompaniment to musically caress Buasso’s voice.
And what a voice.
It’s…it’s just a thing of beauty. So soothing and calm and pure – no tricks, just beautiful phrasing, so perfectly placed and spaced.
Singing in English and Spanish, performing covers and originals, Cande y Paulo is best described as simply a must-hear duo. They are Tuck & Patti without the theatrics and histrionics. They are a throwback to the Getz/Gilberto combo but there’s something deeper here; a connection to song-serving that is just so hypnotic.
I really believe that song selection and sequencing is the key here. And opener, Treaty, a late-career piece by Leonard Cohen (from 2016’s You Want It Darker) is such a perfect song to hear first. For a start, it’s lesser-known, in the scheme of Cohen compositions, but it’s also so faithful to his version, and his songs were written in just such a way, that it is a nice surprise. Tribute, of course, but not just trotting out the obvious stuff.
The aforementioned Summertime blazes in next and is just a ripper; the sort of standard you might think you’ve heard to death. But here new life.
Perhaps more interesting is when the well known cover is sung in another language. Deja Atras – which you’ll know better as Walk On By – is the first such example. Again, Cande’s voice. It just melts into the song. Very soft percussion and guitar stabs sit in under the bass and piano.
But sometimes the surprise is just that the song was covered at all – and how wonderful it turns out. Neil Young’s Sugar Mountain feels like it has lived forever in the late 1960s, a bit twee and very folk and that is that. It’s fine when you hear Neil revisit it or when you listen to the original but you never really want to know about it being covered. Yet this version here is exquisite. The voice finding new pockets within the tune.
I don’t want to say much more about this album. It’s just something so soft and lovely and warm and beautiful. It’s just something you have to hear. Such pure musicianship, such talent. Excellent songs and really just wonderful.
