Album Review: Christmastime in Rio from Romero Lubambo and Pamela Driggs
Album: Christmastime in Rio Artists: Romero Lubambo and Pamela Driggs Label: Sunnyside Records Website: https://www.romerolubambo.com Ringing in the holiday season, vocalist Pamela Driggs and her husband, guitarist Romero Lubambo, present Christmastime in Rio to audiences. The 12-track holiday special is a selection of ambient, fireside melodies that will enliven spirits and elicit good cheer. Joining the couple is their daughter Luisa on vocals in addition to Peter Martin on piano, Vitor Gonçalves on accordion, Joe Locke on vibraphone, Itaiguara Brandão on bass, and Rafael Barata on drums. Lubambo's breezy guitar strokes illuminating "Christmas Love Song" encircle Driggs's vocals in whispery flutters like sparkles radiating from tinsel on a tree. Driggs cradles the lyrics with a perceptive regard for family ties, emblematic of a nightingale. Her phrasing displays a sentimentality with warm timbres that are magnetic. She expresses a...