Masha Campagne, Alegre Menina Review

Masha Campagne: Today’s Brazilian Jazz with Alegre Menina

By Sylvannia Garutch

In Alegre Menina, vocalist Masha Campagne crafts a luminous musical journey that bridges continents, cultures, and idioms as she seamlessly weaves the rhythmic soul of Brazilian music with the lyric sensitivity and harmonic depth of modern jazz. A Moscow-born artist steeped in American jazz traditions and Brazilian musical languages, Campagne brings her vocal excellence and nuanced global fluency to a set of nine tracks. The album has Brazilian repertoire in a musical style that honors the tradition with collaborative, compositional, and interpretive subtly.

Campagne’s long-standing musical partnerships with Brazilian and American artists form the heart of this project. Guitarist Lula Galvão, drummer Rafael Barata, pianist Frank Martin, bassist Scott Thompson, and guitarist Ricardo Peixoto contribute not just their instrumental command but their rhythmic intuition and stylistic fluency. Brian Rice’s deft touches in percussion lend richness and structural clarity to the album’s most dynamic moments. What emerges from these collaborations is not a hybrid in conflict, but a fusion in balance, where samba, baião, and bossa nova traditions breathe alongside the phrasing, textures, and voicings of contemporary jazz.

“Bahia Com H” opens the album as a vibrant homage to Salvador’s cultural heartbeat. Campagne’s vocals are delicately suspended above the ensemble’s layered rhythmic canvas of guitar, bass, and percussion interlocking with precision and subtle drive. Her phrasing carries the pulse of bossa nova with clarity and elegance, and her command of Portuguese allows the natural lilt of the language to infuse each phrase. The arrangement’s cumulative energy mirrors the vibrant energy of Bahia’s musical legacy, making for a compelling interpretation.

“Samba Carioca,” an original by Campagne, reflects her compositional skill and poetic vision. Drawing inspiration from Rio de Janeiro, the piece features a memorable horn-led melody and a contemporary Latin jazz rhythm that swings with joy and rhythmic allure. Campagne’s vocals are warm and fluid, shaping each melodic section with dynamic nuance and expressive control. It’s a song that feels timeless, steeped in Brazil’s romantic traditions while pointing toward new directions in Latin jazz songwriting.

With “Coração Vagabundo,” Campagne offers an intimate reimagining of Caetano Veloso’s classic. Fusing cha cha cha accents with the languid grace of bossa nova, the track unfolds in a slow-medium tempo that allows her to shape each long note with emotional precision. Her use of glissandos and expressive ornamentation adds a deeply personal layer to the interpretation, while Lula Galvão’s solo infuses the arrangement with melodic yearning. The result is not just a cover, but a reflective, emotionally resonant transformation.

“Baião De Lacan,” composed by Guinga and Aldir Blanc, challenges any interpreter with its rhythmic demands and contrapuntal lines, but Campagne commands this occasion. The melody’s angularity is mirrored in tight unisons between flute, guitar, and voice, with Campagne injecting rhythmic syllables to accentuate the phrasing. The pandeiro drives the ancient rhythms of the baião forward, while Campagne’s vocal agility and ensemble cohesion offer a performance rich in rhythmic precision and musical dialogue.

“Cobra Criada” brings the album an new energy. Anchored in a jazz-funk samba fusion groove, the song bridges MPB sensibilities with hard-grooving jazz instrumentation. Campagne’s technique shines; her articulation alternates between crisp staccato hits and fluid legato passages, matching the ensemble’s fire without sacrificing clarity. Her confident negotiation of wide melodic intervals, especially in the chorus, displays both technical skill and stylistic bravery.

The stylistic diversity on Alegre Menina achieves an organic flow, thanks to careful sequencing and Campagne’s consistent vocal identity. Upbeat tracks are interspersed with more introspective pieces, creating a narrative arc that balances rhythmic joy with emotional intimacy. The album’s throughline is not just genre, but intention: Campagne’s desire to communicate beauty, connection, and cultural reverence through each phrase and phrase.

The album is marked by impeccable musicianship. From Galvão’s lyrical guitar lines to Martin’s refined harmonic comping, from Barata’s intricate grooves to Peixoto’s and Thompson’s sensitive textures, each musician elevates the material with taste and touch. Campagne herself demonstrates advanced control of tone, diction, rhythmic placement, and interpretive phrasing. Her phrasing adapts to every groove; she is never rigid, always aware, and deeply musical.

Engineered with care and clarity, the album captures the natural resonance of each instrument without sacrificing intimacy. The mix allows Campagne’s voice to sit comfortably above the ensemble while preserving the interplay among rhythm section and soloists. Subtle reverb, panning, and spatial awareness give the album a spacious yet immediate character, all of this enhancing the storytelling without ever distracting from it.

With Alegre Menina, Masha Campagne has delivered an album of beautiful performances of modern Brazilian jazz. She moves effortlessly between interpreter and composer, between discipline and emotion, between cultural homage and personal artistry. This record will resonate deeply with jazz vocal fans looking for rhythmic phrasing, emotional interpretations, and cross-genre collaborations. For the jazz fan of international interest, Alegre Menina is rooted in tradition and fluent in today’s Latin jazz.