Ivan Lins in Berlin

Ivan Lins, the iconic Brazilian singer, composer, and keyboardist, and one of the most recorded Brazilian composers abroad, who just turned 81 in June, was playing last night as part of the first Zig Zag Jazz Festival. In good spirits throughout the show, he talked in between songs with wit and humour and still sounded amazing. His show was sort of a Best of, even though you can only put a small portion of his immense discography into 90 minutes. He included his major breakthrough hit for Elis Regina, “Madalena”, as well as so many other great tunes from his vast songbook. It reminded me how much and how consistent he accompanied us through the past several decades. He opened his show with the still highly appreciated “Daquilo Que Eu Sei”, from his 1981 LP of the same name.

But he also included almost forgotten, but still cherished songs like the melancholic and beautiful “Meu Pais” (from “Awa Yiô”, 1991). There was a stunning ballad section with classics like “Começar De Novo” and “Velas”, and he featured one of my alltime Ivan favorites, the immaculate and groundbreaking “Abre Alas”. Backed by his superb band of Andre Sarbib (p), Claudio Cesar Ribeiro (g), Braulio Araujo (b), and Chris Wells (dr), we were also treated to classics such as “Desesperar, Jamais”, “Lembra De Mim”, and “A Gente Merece Ser Feliz”. For his encore, he chose the unbreakable “Love Dance” where he excelled with some exquisite keyboard chords. Ivan plays Ronnie Scott’s in London tomorrow.