My Heart Speaks from 2xHD Mastering and Resonance Records is the most extravagantly lush album of Ivan Lins’s career. Performing rare gems from his catalog, the composer is backed by the 91-piece symphony of Tbilisi, capital of the Republic of Georgia.

The album follows Night Kisses, an earlier tribute to the Music of Ivan Lins featuring Eddie Daniels, Dave Grusin and Bob James that is also available at NativeDSD. It is Josh Nelson’s 7th album at NativeDSD and the 2nd album at NativeDSD with singer Tawanda.

Ivan Lins is one of the most treasured and recorded Brazilian composers in the world and a melodist with few equals. The winner of four Latin Grammy Awards, Lins has recorded nearly fifty albums since 1970; they contain countless songs, notably “Madalena” and “Começar de Novo” (To Begin Again), that have become standards in his country.

“Love Dance,” cowritten with his longtime arranger, Gilson Peranzzetta, and lyricist Paul Williams, is Lins’s English-language classic. Its performers include Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Mark Murphy, Shirley Horn, Blossom Dearie, Carmen McRae, George Benson, Nancy Wilson, Barbra Streisand, and Quincy Jones, who helped maneuver Lins’s U.S. breakthrough in the early ‘80s.

Kuno Schmid, the extraordinarily prolific Los Angeles-based composer and arranger, wrote the orchestral charts. One of Schmid’s fans was his legendary predecessor, Johnny Mandel, who earned one of his five Grammys for an arrangement of Lins’s “Velas,” featured on Jones’s album The Dude.

My Heart Speaks holds a feast of discoveries for Lins’s fans. It boasts Special Appearances by Jazz Greats Randy Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Jane Monheit, and exciting newcomer, Tawanda, winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

The liner notes, containing extensive commentary by Lins, were written by James Gavin, the acclaimed biographer of George Michael, Peggy Lee, Chet Baker, and Lena Horne and a two-time winner of ASCAP’s Deems Taylor-Virgil Thomson Award for excellence in music journalism.

Ivan Lins, Vocals & Composer
Josh Nelson, Piano
Leo Amuedo, Guitar
Carlitos del Puerto, Bass
Mauricio Zottarelli, Drums & Percussion
Tblisi Symphony Orchestra
Vakhtang Kakhidze, Conductor

Special Guests
Diana Reeves, Vocals (Track 2)
Tawanda, Vocals (Track 4)
Randy Brecker, Trumpet (Track 9)
Jane Monheit, Vocals (Track 10)