‘Night in Brazil’ Charms Crowd at Bowl

Musical quality was the keynote of “A Night in Brazil” at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday.

Djavan, the headliner of the show, is a singer with his own brand of charisma, and special guest Joao Bosco can crank up the voltage with no other accompaniment than his own guitar and his percussive vocal effects. But neither they, nor guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves and the newly introduced Rosa Passos, seemed inclined to lose contact with their music in quest of crowd-pleasing entertainment.

The result was a program of songs, sung in Portuguese, that clearly charmed a near-capacity house without ever generating the sort of exuberant audience energies often seen at Brazilian music events. Castro-Neves, who also produced the concert, performed with his familiar blend of high quality and great subtlety. Although his busy schedule finds him functioning as a record producer and session player, Castro-Neves remains a superb, under-acknowledged musician who moves easily from the brisk rhythms of bossa nova to straight-ahead jazz.

Castro-Neves’ protegee, Passos--well-known in Brazil--was making her U.S. debut. Sounding a bit like the late legendary singer Elis Regina but with the rhythmic articulation of a scatting Ella Fitzgerald, she was an impressive musical performer, especially in a highly personal reading of Jobim’s “Aguas de Marco.”

Singer-guitarist Bosco is utterly unique, a kind of tropical compendium of Bobby McFerrin, Richie Havens and Bo Diddley. He sang, scatted, strummed, plucked and performed essentially as a perpetual motion, one-man band. Beyond the extraordinary flow of rhythm, Bosco’s voice, in its more lyrical moments, was a warm, touching instrument.

In the star position of the show, Djavan proved, as he usually does, that he is one of the most elegant of the MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) performers of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Djavan’s ties with jazz have always been strong, and his talented eight-piece band provided solid support for a program liberally sprinkled with many of the singer’s best-known hits.