The Tupi word kewere means "to pray for a sick person, free him from the spell, heal his soul through the spirit". Brazilian composer/soprano Miranda has synthesized an uncommon oratorio for orchestra, jazz musicians, chorale, and indigenous South American players and vocalists, bringing together in the process traditions diversely different but centered on this most human of supplications. IHU 2 is simultaneously a Solemn Mass celebrating José de Anchieta, a 16th century Jesuit priest who went amongst the indigenous Tupi-speaking peoples of the Branco River basin in Brazil, leaving an invaluable cultural repository of their ancient songs and his poetry, as well as the very idea that an oratorio could be fashioned out of them.

Long in the conceiving and difficult in the making, IHU 2 Kewere: Rezar: Prayer marks the 400th anniversary of Anchieta and introduces the old Tupi language to the latest generation of descendent song and overlays or dovetails them with elements of the Christian liturgy. Native (Aruá, Tupari, Urubu-Kaapor) rhythms and ritual songs, and familiar fragments from the Latin mass (Kyrie, Alleluia, Credo and Lord's Prayer) are tastefully wed with forceful symphonic embellishment at times jaunty and celebratory, at others sobering and subtle. The entire work is sung in a mixture of Tupi, Portugese and Latin. The instrumental accompaniment is contemporary but never distracting or severe, successfully creating an up-to-the-minute atmosphere for this poly-lingual event; something Copland might have done were he Brazilian and alive.

Miranda leads the performance, singing solo in an idiosyncratic vibratto that sounds like a weathered keeper of sacred lullabyes. The recording was selected from the first two of three concerts performed in large church spaces of Sao Paolo with further instrumentation added later in the studio. The subsequent 'takes' of voice, percussion, bass, keyboards and, eventual mix and mastering were done by Jan Erik Kongshaug at Rainbow Studios in Oslo, Norway where producer Rodolfo Stroeter has rented the famous space for recording most of his Pao Brasil catalogue. Bugge Wesseltoft, who has worked with Jan Garbarek Group, handles keyboards with Stroeter playing acoustic bass and Paolo Vinaccia on percussion. The digital recording lacks only a satisfying sense of depth in the soundstage but is otherwise detailed and uncluttered.

This visionary but not uncontroversial work, utilizing the talents of over 150 performers, makes a big noise of national moment, a rare example of binded spiritual intent and clear homage of traditions, mainly of the urbane European variety toward the indigenous pastoral South American. Boldly touching modern classicism, rustic forest-dweller cosmology, the austerity of classically colored jazz a la ECM, and sacred choral art, Miranda's project attempts a compassionate reckoning of worlds; cultural, social and religious and is utterly unlike anything you will encounter this year. - Steve Taylor

See also: Brazil, Words and Images