| Sol Negro | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Virginia Rodrigues |
| Cover: | Sol Negro album.jpg |
| Released: | 1997 |
| Label: | Natasha[1] Hannibal[2] |
| Producer: | Caetano Veloso, Celso Fonseca |
| Next Title: | Nós |
| Next Year: | 2000 |
Sol Negro is the debut album by the Brazilian musician Virginia Rodrigues.[3] [4] It was released in 1997.[5] The album peaked at No. 7 on Billboards World Albums chart.[6]
The album was produced by Caetano Veloso and Celso Fonseca; Veloso had "discovered" the singer at a rehearsal.[3] [7] Djavan, Milton Nascimento, and Gilberto Gil contributed to the album.[8] [9] The berimbau was used on several tracks.[10] A few songs are tributes to Rodrigues's Candomblé religion.[11]
Rodrigues sang a cappella on "Verônica".[12] "Manhã de Carnaval" is a cover of the Luiz Bonfá song; "Noite de Temporal" is a cover of the Dorival Caymmi song.[13] "Adeus Batucada" was made famous by Carmen Miranda.[14]
JazzTimes wrote that "Rodrigues’s contralto voice is otherwordly, spiritual, exquisite."[12] Robert Christgau noted that she "never stretches her rich, Ella-like highs into a scat—though the few midtempo numbers have a nice jazzy lilt ... her instincts are exceedingly solemn." Rolling Stone stated: "The ancient and the modern, the secular and the sacred seamlessly mingle in this document of Brazilian musical forms."[15]
Miami New Times deemed the album "a simultaneously somber and uplifting cycle of songs focused on the African experience in Brazil."[16] The New York Times concluded that "the record is both modern and roots-conscious in the best ways that Brazilians know how to be: it swings from Roman Catholic church music to carnaval sambas, ancient Afro-Brazilian drum patterns to sophisticated wind-and-string arrangements, all sculpted with delicate care."[17] The Chicago Tribune considered Sol Negro to be the eighth best album of 1998.[18]
AllMusic wrote that Rodrigues's "first major recording succeeds in juxtaposing her ability to carry both lilting Brazilian rhythms and slow harmonious melodies.