Selebrating Summer Solstice

Summer is officially here.  My Summer muSic of choiSe is definitely Brazilian and Smooth Jazz.   Especially the old Stuff by Sergio MendeS which expreSSeS the Sultry Sensuality that I aSSociate with Summer:  Sun, Sand, Salt water and Skin.  Maybe even add Sweat.  Definitely add Sex.  Brazilian Samba Sounds exSite me.  Make me pine for romanSe and hot male bodieS.  Even when Sexy women Sing the tuneS...

I was introduced to Sergio Mendes when I bought an album, In the Brazilian Bag by Sergio Mendes Trio with Wanda DeSah, back in the sixties from those "cut-out bins" often found in in discount stores.

Thing was, when I first heard it, I didn't care for it at all and didn't play it again for several years.  When I picked it up again, probably in the mid seventies, and put it on the stereo, it was like hearing it for the first time.  I was mesmerized.  Wanda sings "Let Me" with that sultry voice on the original Brazilian Bag album before they were called Brazil '66. (but that just got removed from You Tube, so here's Wanda singing "So Nice")

 Wanda DeSah and Sergio "So Nice"


I have to give you a sample of the Portuguese language which is just so sensual: Wanda singing
"Birimbau"


Then there's a "Slow Hot Wind" on the album "Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66"


The album titled "Equinox" has such rhythmic songs as "Chove Chuva (Constant Rain)


And "Cinnamon and Clove" with its beautiful lyrics.


Just to leave Sergio for a moment - Lets not forget the one and only album Soul Flutes:Trust in Me an album put together by various artists including Herbie Mann, Hubert Laws and several others.  Here is "Trust in Me" (not the best quality sound on this one)


But the song I find most sensual and hypnotic, one that whenever I hear it, it remains with me for days and into the nights - one of those songs that I just can't get out of my head - whose lyrics are delicious and the sentiments expressed are sooo fantastical, is "Like A Lover" - the stuff of which daydreams are made. "Oh, How I Dream I Might Be Like the Velvet Moon to You..."


So by now you have an idea of my personal heaven:

After going for a nice refreshing dip in the cool, clear waters off Cape Cod...
lying naked on a dog friendly - but nearly deserted - nude beach*

in the late afternoon on a dry, cloudless Summer day 

with a gentle breeze off the water tempering the heat of the sun
and keeping the sand flies at bay...
listening to a mix of Sergio Mendes and Soul Flutes maybe with a bit of Wes Montgomery thrown in,
and drifting off to that level of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep
while hearing the sound of waves crashing on the shore in the background...drifting...
drifting....

But wait, there's more:
... and after a nice nap, being gently awakened by my lover (hmm...or a maybe a "perfect" stranger)
as he feels my naked (156 pound, 30-year old) body with his hands,
kisses me lightly and pulls me into a sensual tangle of arms and legs and naked torsos...aah...

* Warning: anti-nudity laws being strictly enforced in recent years.
Alas: Tristeza em Mim.
I've always found it interesting that so many Brazilian/Samba songs contain the words Triste or Tristeza  - Sad, Sadness.  I think that all real sensuality has within it, the unconscious realization of the inevitability of death...even while experiencing the joyfulness of life...

Have a marvelous Summer.