Recorded in 1977 following a performance at the Negro Festival of Art and Culture in Lagos and a month immersed in the city with his comrade Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso’s Bicho is a shimmering and rapturous entry in the Brazilian legend’s indelible catalog, one in which the influence of African culture, particularly Jùjú music, coalesces stunningly with funky, orchestral MPB, jazz-laced lounge, and soulful cosmic folk.
Category: Brazil
Waltel Branco :: Meu Balanço
One of the unrecognized masters of Brazilian music, Waltel Branco seemed to have been everywhere from the 1940s to the 1970s, Zelig-like. As the director of the Som Livre studios of Rede Globo, he produced most major records of Brazilian music history, with more than three thousand official credits and a few thousand more in dispute, for wildly different works, from the afro-folk of J.B. de Carvalho to the samba of Elizeth Cardoso to the bossa nova of João Gilberto to the tropicália of Gal Costa to the soul funk of Tim Maia.
Nana Caymmi e César Camargo Mariano :: Não Diga Não
In “Não Diga Não”, part of Voz e Suor (1983), with maestro Cesar Camargo Mariano, Nana Caymmi is covering not bossa nova but an obscure Tito Madi song, of the samba-canção generation, a crooner-inspired genre which bossa nova was precisely reacting against.
Sessão de Verão 4 :: Ana Frango Elétrico – No Promises Or Predictions
It has been almost 4 years since the release of Little Electric Chicken Heart but Ana Frango Elétrico has remained busy in the meantime, appearing on over 20 albums as a vocalist or instrumentalist.
Sonhos Secretos :: In Conversation With Producer Tee Cardaci
From the rare and obscure to the unknown, producer Tee Cardaci mines eleven genre-spanning gems produced during the waning days of Brazil’s military dictatorship, recorded by a new emerging class of artists operating outside of the major label system. Set to release August 4th, via AD and Org Music, we asked Brazilian music authority Allen Thayer to catch up with Cardaci in regards to the three year process it took to make the Sonhos Secretos compilation a reality…
Sessão de Verão 3: Porta – The Old Man
Before the São Paulo bar and performance space Porta ever opened its doors to the public, Paula Rebellato, the co-owner, had a dream one night that she was visited by an old man. It was during the height of the pandemic and she was at a crossroads in her career, but in her dream an old man looked around the bar with approval, laughed, then exclaimed “Yeah, it’s going to be psychedelic!”
Sessão de Verão 2: Thiago França – The Silver Saxophone
Thiago França may just be the busiest musician in Brazil. His typical performance and recording schedule is often filled up 6-7 days a week, sometimes with more than one performance […]
Sessão de Verão 1: Subterrâneo
There’s a certain pulse in São Paulo, unlike any city I’ve visited. The noise from traffic, helicopters, work crews, and vendors is constant and polyrhythmic. São Paulo often sounds and feels like it’s bursting at the seams. With roughly 12 million people in the city proper and 22 million in the metropolitan region, the megalopolis is loud – one of the loudest places I’ve visited – and this from someone who lived in lower Manhattan for over a dozen years.
Outro Tempo: Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil 1978-1992
Earlier this year Netherlands-based reissue outfit Music From Memory released the wonderful and exquisitely strange compilation, Outro Tempo: Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil 1978-1992 . A collection of exotic, otherworldly futurism and electronics, born from the . […]