Matthew Krouse
CDs OFTHEWEEK
Ns (Hannibal) is Virgnia Rodrigues’s second album. According to Internet sources she is a 35-year-old ex- manicurist and domestic worker from the slums of Salvador. On the cover of her latest album you can see the star of Salvador, who now makes her music in Brazil – centre of the Latin-American recording industry. Rodriguez is a big girl with a warm, friendly countenance. And her voice is like a dream.
Apparently Rodriguez owes some of her success to Brazil’s great producer/ arranger Caetano Veloso, who has even been credited with “discovering” Rodriguez, who has been described as “Brazil’s latest diva”.
Ns means “us”, giving some indication of where the singer, who learned her art in church, is at. Everything about the album is immensely pleasant. It’s like a great night out with great Latin flavour. You just want to turn up the volume, order another chicken peri-peri and stare into the little lights twinkling on the bay. Like an old movie soundtrack, the music of Virgnia Rodrigues will bring on a nostalgia for a place you’ve never even been.