Recess! Media

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“If this street were mine,” Tomaz Lima sings in this well-known Brazilian lullaby, “I’d have it paved with precious little stones for you, my love, to walk on.” This tender cradle song is on a delightful CD, Brazilian Lullaby, from Ellipsis Arts. It’s part of their series of recordings for children and adults of lullabies from around the world, and like the others in these collections, Brazilian Lullaby blends original compositions with traditional songs, many in versions by leading popular singers. Some are done in updated arrangements and contemporary musical styles like bossa nova, while others are as old as the Guaranis, who inhabited the country before the Portuguese arrived in the 1500s. Their haunting lullaby, sung by children, is about the bird of god who sings in the middle of the sacred field:

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Like all lullabies, these are as much for adults as they are for the children they are singing to. And what child or adult could resist a song like this one from Mawaca called “Tutu vora,” with its touches of Cape Verde and Lisbon, a comforting fado for dreamland:

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