CNN - Badi Assad shows colors in 'Chameleon'


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Assad

Badi Assad shows colors in 'Chameleon'

Web posted on: Thursday, May 21, 1998 5:48:10 PM EDT

From Correspondent Mark Scheerer

(CNN) -- There is only one Badi Assad. The English-speaking world is about to meet her.

The singer-songwriter from Brazil has just released her major label, English-language debut titled "Chameleon." In it, Assad mixes her critically acclaimed guitar-playing with vocal percussion and virtuoso voice, a style that combines cultures and sounds and has the record industry buzzing.

Hear Badi sing and percolate!
(400k WAV audio file)
or
(1.3Mb QuickTime movie)

'Don't put Badi in a box'

Assad said she gave her CD the title "Chameleon" because she knows that her style is hard to define.

"Chameleon, with its colors changing, it's what brings this image of 'Don't put Badi in a box,'" Assad said. "There are a lot of colors in the album."

Assad credits her music influences to her family -- her father plays mandolin and her two brothers are virtuoso guitarists -- and to her homeland of Brazil.

Assad's CD "Chameleon"

Badi's influences

"Brazil by itself is a big pot, our culture there, and all the music is already mixed," Assad said. "But I always was and am an open-minded person, so of course I listen to new stuff, what's going on in the world."

What results is a style that has been compared to America's Bobby McFerrin, the vocal technician who rose on the record charts with his 1980s yuppie anthem "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Assad, like McFerrin, uses her voice to create a percussive accompaniment as she sings. The skill was born of necessity -- she wanted to add a beat to her act even when she was performing solo.

"Chameleon" has been released by Verve.