Airto Seeds On The Ground--The Natural Sounds Of Airto

Limited blue colored vinyl LP pressing. Airto's second album, and second and last release for the Buddah label, brought back largely the same crew that appeared on his debut record Natural Feelings: vocalist (and wife) Flora Purim, composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, and bassist Ron Carter, with contributions from Dom Um Ramão (who later replaced Airto in Weather Report) and Severino de Oliveira AKA Sivuca. Given Airto's connections to Miles Davis, Weather Report, and Return to Forever, Seeds on the Ground could easily get lumped into the jazz fusion category. But that would be a mistake. This totally unclassifiable (and, by the way, exceedingly rare) album was no mere blend of rock and jazz influences. Instead, Seeds on the Ground was truly a fusion, an ecstatic melding of bossa nova, psychedelic rock, Brazilian folk, Latin jazz, free jazz, and what we call nowadays 'world music.' If that sounds a bit calculated or intimidating, it's not; what makes this album so compelling is how organic and intimate it all sounds.