Modern Brazil - s/d

they normally sound like this, "Even though this isn't our favorite of [so and so]'s album, we still think it's great and you should buy it"

Never ever trust a Dusty Groove review 'cuz they refer to free jazz as "hippy dippy."

but i thought that was obvious

Pretty spot on, Jason except you forgot the obigatory exclamation point!

Does anyone else find this extremely annoying!

Yes but

You're right, above, about Dusty Groove and their reviews, although the store itself in Chicago is kinda nice and they do have good stuff if you're into classic '60s Brazilian pop and suchlike...

i actually have a song by Otto ona comp, it's an intensely moody tribute to Bob Marley and it really rolls, i've liked it for years.

Jason, you should definitely check out Chico Science – I think he was brilliant and his death seemed like the end of era and maybe death of mangue (friends of mine in Brazil who work with music were devastated when he died). The scene seems to be going strong tho and his old band Nacao Zumbi is still putting stuff out. I’d recommend checking out Chico first and then if you like him going for NZ. Start with “Afrociberdelia” as it should give you a sense of whether you want to go further or not.

Lately I’ve been enjoying DJ Dolores & Orchestra Santa Massa, which has traditional fiddle, etc over various beats. I don’t love the entire entire album but the first couple of tracks get me grinning ear-to-ear whenever I listen to ‘em. The DJ approach to mangue.

Zuco 103 takes a different approach to mixing electronica with Brazilian. It is more clubbeats oriented as opposed to mangue etc. and live at least Zuco are huge amounts of fun. Their new album has gotten pretty good reviews , but their first “Outro Lado” had only about 4 songs I really liked with the rest being ‘eh’ so I’m waiting for a free copy.

Lenine’s album “Na Prassao” is great. Samba mixed with rock and electronica is a v. basic description. Most people I know who are more knowledgeable about the contemp. scene than me are are big fans.

Others I like if not blown away - Pedro Luis A Parade (again mixing electronica/brazilian but from a more rock perspective) Suba (pretty strightforward samba & bossa nova over loops, “Sao Paulo Confessions” is his big work – he also produced, among others, Bebel’s "Tanto Tempo")

Seen Max de Castro but have no memory of his performance (generally not a positive sign)

From the second generation of Brazilians, as mentioned above, Bebel is doing good stuff. Only heard one track by Moreno Veloso so can’t really comment on him tho that one track was v. funky. (incidentally, one of the biggest Brazilian labels Trama (who I think put out Otto) is run by the son of Elis Regina)

All I can think of for now, will post later if brain comes back online.

anyone heard either and have comments? they sound pretty cool from the amg and amazon reviews.

i recently picked up Rita Lee's first album "Build Up" and have been really digging it. it was produced by one of the guys from the Mutantes, so it is still a little wacky, but has more of a big band orchestration thing going on for the beginning of the album at least (near the end it gets a bit more rocking). but i swear, the more recent album of hers i bought (from the mid to late 90s) was the pits. her charming puns would be totally lost on me since i don't speak Portuguese.

any word on those two artists i just mentioned upthread?

the marquee and amabis discs are nice enough. nice being the word to watch.

anybody listening to the new Ceu album?

I'm curious about it, but have not heard it yet. Not that I was wowed by her prior one, but it wasn't bad.

Yeah I only felt the need to download one of the tracks from the last album. I'm 11 tracks into this one (out of 13), and it's pretty good!

Nobody here into Curumin?

i am now!

i actually have a song by Otto ona comp, it's an intensely moody tribute to Bob Marley and it really rolls, i've liked it for years.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, March 12, 2003 12:10 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

^^^^
Listening to this great track, "Bob", right now: I have it on a comp too, What's Happening in Pernambuco, which is great throughout -- but I don't think this was out in 2003, so what comp do you have it on?

I had no idea it was about Marley.

I believe Curumin is still to make his best album, but I really like the other two

Curumin was appearing in Central Park (summerstage) NYC with Juana Molina Wednesday night. Alas, I'm in DC and no gig here

Has anyone listened to the new Céu album? Sounds to me like a dub version of a Brightblack Morning Light record with some Brazilian textures - obviously. I think sometimes her music lacks punch, but it's a good album overall.

ed mottas that bad?

No, but I can't say he does outstanding work.

You're so 2 weeks ago, Shin

hahaha, I really am.

this guy in NYT wrote nice things about her
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/arts/music/23ceu.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=c%C3%A9u&st=cse

Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda,from Northeast Brazil is touring the US now with its rock meets frevo(Brazilian brass band) meets ska sound

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/arts/music/03atrium.html

,Apr 1 2010 8:00P
LINCOLN CENTER - NEW YORK New York, New York
Apr 3 2010 10:00P
SOB´S - NEW YORK NEW YORK, New York
Apr 5 2010 6:00P
KENNEDY CENTER - WASHINGTON Washington, Washington
Apr 6 2010 8:00P
RUMBA - CHICAGO Chicago, Illinois
Apr 7 2010 8:00P
PERCUSSION AND BRASS WORKSHOP IN NEW ORLEANS New Orleans, Louisiana
Apr 8 2010 8:00P
workshop Maciel Salú, Tiné and SHOW in New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana
Apr 9 2010 8:00P
HEINEKEN TRANSATLANTIC Miami, Florida
Apr 16 2010 9:00P
AUDITÓRIO IBIRAPUERA - SP São Paulo, São Paulo
Apr 17 2010 9:00P
Teatro - OI FUTURO IPANEMA Rio de janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
Apr 18 2010 8:00P
Teatro - OI FUTURO IPANEMA Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro

Here's a youtube of 'em. The Washington DC show Monday night is actually from 6 to 7 and is free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXMj4VQ3-_E

I'm looking forward to seeing them tonight.

http://festivalbrazil.southbankcentre.co.uk/

Anybody see anything in this fest?

I want to again mention that Maria Rita is great. I don't quite get the neglect. Maybe she's too simple? Anyway, she's certainly not in the tropicalia vein, and she's not doing crazy electronic/metal/atonal mashups, so that may contribute to a lack of interest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/arts/music/06latin.html?ref=music

I confess that I have never previously heard of Ivete Sangalo, Brazil's biggest pop star, who just sold out a show at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMRrt8Wwbw&feature=fvsr

I'm trusting the word of Jon Pareles, from the NY Times, that she's the biggest current Brazilian pop star.

The encore part must have been great.

I liked that more than I expected to. Why haven't any of our local Brazilian experts mentioned this person before (or have they)?

Sangalo is definitely "not my beach" as they say in Brazil. Her tinny rhythms and shrill voice used to get right on my nerves when I was over there.

I did an ILX search of posts with "Sangalo" and the only mentions that came up were when someone posted a list of Latin Grammy nominees (they have a Brazilian category).

I Like Margareth Menezes who appeared onstage for the encore part.Below is how Pareles described it in the NY Times:

She brought her whole staff onstage along with Margareth Menezes and Netinho, fellow Bahian singers. With her band somehow picking up cues amid the crowd, she vaulted through a half-dozen carnival songs, full of references to the streets and neighborhoods of Bahia’s capital, Salvador, with the whole arena singing along. Even in New York she was playing to a home crowd.

Why haven't any of our local Brazilian experts mentioned this person before (or have they)?

because she's crap. I really don't see anything interesting in her, musically speaking

I only listened to two songs. I don't hear how her voice is shrill, it sounds fine to me. I somehow didn't really feel drawn in to the songs rhythmically, but couldn't put my finger on why. She seems fine to me, but nothing to get excited about, although now that I know there is local hate for her I want to hear more to see if I actually like her. I don't think she's more boring than Céu.

now that I know there is local hate for her I want to hear more to see if I actually like her

good luck

I don't think she's more boring than Céu

Céu is not boring. She's got a fantastic 2nd album. And I think it's hard to compare her to Ivete since they're very different from each other apart from the fact both are Brazilians

Tulipa Ruiz - Do Amor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCz3Qrl2n8g

Luisa Maita is touring the US. She's got a bossa-pop vocal style

Both are from a new wave of female singers from São Paulo which also includes Céu

That Tulipa Ruiz song is nice. I like her voice and the minimal accompaniement. Thanks

Luisa Maita did a nice show in DC the other night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Wfrtzkolc&feature=youtu.be&a

Anybody else but me here see her on her US tour? She was impressive

New record from one of my favorite contemporary Brazilian artists: Romulo Fróes. Free and legal download: http://www.4shared.com/file/_jKJVKTc/Um_Labirinto_Em_Cada_Pe.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Kn_32Ddio

that's awesome. has a classic ECM vibe

Yeah, thank you, this is great! Track with Arnaldo Antunes reminded me to seek out some of his earlier stuff too. Any other suggestions?

Cool...title means "A labyrinth in each foot"

Track with Arnaldo Antunes reminded me to seek out some of his earlier stuff too.

Froes' ou Antunes's?

*or... of course

Didn't switch properly to English yet

Do you have suggestions for earlier material from either?

Sorry, meant Antunes. But yes ^^^ would love both.

Jaxon, dumb question from me--what classic ECM stuff has a samba flavor like this?

hmm. it wasn't nec the samba flavor that struck me as ecm. it was a bit of the production and iciness. some of the sax in the background plays melodies i associate w/the label.

as far as brazilian stuff, i don't know TONS of his material, but check out Nana Vasconcelos. i know he has some records on the label. the stuff of his i do know is CoDoNa with don cherry and Collin Walcott. pretty amazing and kinda just mashes all sorts of different cultures music together.

something like this i guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKijsVbOxlU

Romulo Fróes' previous album 'No Chão Sem o Chão' is great. Way more interesting than 'Um Labirinto em Cada Pé'. And it was also available for free download (it's kind of sad; he knows hardly anyone would buy his record. but I bought this one).

Arnaldo Antunes is much more popular than Fróes. He was part of a very succesful rock band in the 80s (Titãs) and he approached a more Brazilian sound when he went solo. Excerpts of all of his solo work are available in his official site: http://www.arnaldoantunes.com.br/sec_discografia_list.php

I love this song (although I prefer the studio version).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie7KJrgyiUk

Wow, will have to check out Froes prior one .

Enjoying 'No Chão Sem o Chão' thus far but not sure what I think of the guitar theatrics quite yet... never less than interesting at the least, though, many thanks

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/arts/music/marcello-d2-brings-eclectic-tastes-to-central-park.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28

Its the Brazil summerfest week in NYC with eclectic rapper Marcelo D2, the Brazilian rock singer Pitty, DJ Nuts and Percussivo Mundo. I do not know these folks I must confess

My favorite is Nação Zumbi, who as far as I know hasn't released anything since I wrote about 'em in 2008.

Nação Zumbi: Brainy Crabs & Cannibals
http://www.fastnbulbous.com/nacaozumbi.htm

My favorite is Nação Zumbi, who as far as I know hasn't released anything since I wrote about 'em in 2008.

You should try 'Fome de Tudo'. It's absolutely brilliant.

Luisa Maita is touring the US again

They're looking for more dates as well. The publicist wants me to help find them DC and Baltimore shows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJg914QTsOk

Hmm, is Romulo Froes' cd one of the best of 2011...Need to listen to it more

From an interivew with him (google translated from Portuguese)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%25C3%25B4mulo_Fr%25C3%25B3es&ei=_EjHTrK1F8nF0AHmoInzDw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CEkQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dromulo%2Bfroes%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1CHFX_enUS367US368%26prmd%3Dimvnslo

The generation that grew up and graduated in the last decade have you, Rodrigo Campos, Tata Airplane, Nina Becker, Domenico, Tulip. But it also has Rita Maria, Maria Gadu, Vanessa da Mata and others who direct dialogue with the industry, with "success." To some extent, does not condone the latter, so to speak, "aesthetic" ("philosophy" might fit, too) generation?
Of course, even in the industry, artists are linked to their time with issues similar to ours. But they still have to deal with the machine's success and the problems arising from such relationship, very different from an independent artist - you see, said different, neither better nor worse. What I am sure that there is more room for invention in the industry for the construction of a work that you think the history of Brazilian music and its evolution. I think the last move in this direction, an industry support of a renewal of the work of Brazilian music, was the manguebeat. Since there will be more than 15 years.

x-post- very interesting, I like it(though not completely crazy about the guitar sound)

Now I still have to listen to that older Romulo Froes album

Many artists from São Paulo seem to be inspired by afrobeat sounds these days. And this is one of the finest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDhALcAPsOQ

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/arts/music/marching-to-an-african-beat.html?ref=music

modern but traditional Salvador carnival parade blocas

Some new Brazilian artists - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGTZ5CBBLso

Zuzuka Poderosa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2gyeUWFDv8

A compilation with some new electronic producers - http://www.spin.com/articles/hy-brazil-vol-1-fresh-electronic-music-from-brazil-compilation-download

You can hear the hole Gang Do Eletro CD here - https://www.facebook.com/gangdoeletro/app_208195102528120

You can hear the hole Gang Do Eletro CD here - https://soundcloud.com/deckdisc/sets/gang-do-eletro

thanks

Hey Tarping do you work for Spin or the folks putting that stuff out?

No, but i know the Chico, who compiled the compilation.

https://soundcloud.com/maria-luiza-jobim/two-moons

40% Foda/Maneirissimo is a new Techno/House label from Rio.
This is their first tracks - http://40porcentofodabarramaneirissimo.bandcamp.com/album/40-foda-maneirissimo-001

Another one from Opala - https://soundcloud.com/maria-luiza-jobim/come-home

Tom Jobim's daughter

I need to find time to listen to these folks

Still do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jxGPhxDPTk&feature=youtu.be

I need to find time to listen to these folks

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, April 30, 2013 7:23 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Still do

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, May 1, 2013

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/870885596/a-tale-of-two-nations-featuring-maracatu-estrela-b

The chance to present Estrela Brilhante in the United States

http://www.npr.org/2013/06/23/193915387/dj-betto-arcos-spins-the-latest-from-brazil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpIpvCrzUw

Thanks for posting

Luisa Maita is gonna tour the US again. No new album out as far as I can tell (although 1 new song)

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2014/03/28/brazils-luisa-maita-on-samba-sao-paulo-and-speedy-beats/

interview

Luisa Maita and her great band live nicely blended old-school and new school sounds. Looking forward to her next album

Her band had a funky drummer with a kit and a laptop, plus guitarist & bassist who have heard postpunk and funk...

https://soundcloud.com/maisumdiscos/mini-box-lunar-amarelasse-from

I like this. Reminds me a little of Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. These new comps look good too -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rol%C3%AA-Sounds-Brazil-Novos-Brasil/dp/B00JK4JZJO

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brasil-Bam-Gilles-Peterson/dp/B00J9ZB12I/ref=pd_sim_m_h__1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0S57XJZCPV95HRNX64MT

Lindsay has found many like-minded musicians in Brazil with which to further his style. When I ask him who he plays with and listens to there, he reels off a long list of bands and artists who inspire him. His current recommendations include Metá Metá, Siba, and the young improv group Chinese Cookie Poets. He also mentions a fascination with a Brazilian dance music called Funk Carioca, and its recent offshoot Rasteirinha.

http://pitchfork.com/features/the-out-door/9408-tk/2/

Arto Lindsay

this is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850VvOreUf4

Retro but modern (I guess. I haven't heardthis yet. Read NY Times review, excerpt below)

There have been echoes of Tropicália in Brazilian pop ever since, and something new that bears its traces is “Tremor Essencial” (Sem Paredes), the third record by Celso Sim, a São Paulo singer-songwriter with a background in theater. (You can hear it at celsosim.com.br.) The record is fast-moving, highly literate, magpie-ish about style and mood, tender and circusy and processional, full of intimacy and electric guitars. It also feels as if it wants to tell a story:

Finally listening to Celso Sim now (on Spotify). Some of it reminds me of Caetano Veloso. I like the quieter numbers better than the circus-like melodramatic ones.

There's quite a bit of guitar on it. On some songs he repeats the noisy gestures or the circus-like songs so much it can get a tad annoying in an almost prog-rock like way, other times it fits better.

http://latinjazznet.com/2014/08/31/news/sammy-figueroa-glaucia-nasser-release-talisman/

Female Brazilian singer with Latin percussionist...

She has that classic bossa nova/samba voice...

Jucara Marcal--post-punk sorta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18p5_PiPk8E

publicist is pitching me on Ana Carolina, Brazilian singer who I have never heard, who is scheduled to play a 1200 seat hall in DC. Read that she collaborated with Seu Jorge once.

I still haven't checked her music out on Youtube or wherever yet

Her bio plays up her classic Brazilian critic type influences, but this album on Spotify has more arena pop melodrama than I generally like.

Tried another album of hers, and it adds some programmed beats, but its still too polished and overdone in a not so enjoyable way. Yep, I know she has a big following in Brazil

She's doing a NYC gig and others too. But I'm not won over based on my brief listening to 2 albums

Gonna go visit Brazil on a holiday/vacation trip/adventure

Anyone else here been there, or live there now?

I don't, but i understand this song is extremely popular there right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzOkza_u3Z8

Romulo Froes 2015 album Por elas Sem elas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zadIoJoozS4&feature=youtu.be

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/serafina/2016/03/1735274-ensaio-reune-emicida-tulipa-ruiz-e-jucara-marcal-em-palacete-de-sp.shtml

That latest Jucara Marcal referenced above is weird. I prefer older samba singer but still at it--Elza Soares

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I38EcMJX8A8

group getting some attention for having two trans singers, and some attention for the songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv-C_rFHFOw

More Ava Rocha (2014 is upthread) here's 2015 from her; I think prior ones were credited to she and a band but this one might be considered a solo effort, although there's a band. In the past Arto Lindsay guested on one song, and she/they covered Tim Maia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQFZ2orZLuY

Negro Leo (has collaborated with Ava Rocha)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQpihajJR6M

Dream Team Do Passinho

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/streets-rio-nyc-brazilian-dance-team-n429991

http://soundsandcolours.com/articles/brazil/funk-carioca-the-beat-goes-on-24382/

Same lead guitarist (Kiko Dinucci) features on Juçara Marçal's Encarnado and Elza Soares' A Mulher do Fim do Mundo. See also his work with Juçara Marçal in the group Metá Metá or his other project Passo Torto. Passo Torto's Thiago Fraça with vocalist Ná Ozzetti almost made my EOY ballot (I was the sole voter for Elza, my #8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXVTixYalws

Interesting

Rob, youtube searches also turn up lots of the ‘funk putaria’ (literally ‘fornication/prostitution funk’) in addition to funk carioca

yeah I don't know a thing about "Baile de favela" or MC João, except that now that song gets in my head all the time.

cool, I guess...

No baile funk in this Brazil best album of 2015 list, but some funky stuff I think

http://beehy.pe/best-of-2015/brazil-3/

May be seeing Romulo Froes perform in a few days

He has written for Elza Soares too

Just got back from an incredible trip to Brazil (Rio and Salvador, Bahia). Alas, a connecting flight got cancelled and then our luggage got misplaced on the way there, so We missed a free Romulo Froes gig. But we did hear that MC Joao cut "Baile de favela" everywhere (that Rob mentioned upthread). Mostly a remixed version (the light remix I think its called). Thousands were chanting the words to that in a Carnival bloco parade we attended at Copocabana beach. The song certainly got stuck in our heads.

We saw a late-night Maria Rita gig, a number of bands playing Carnival gigs on various streets, the 2nd night of the Sambadrome event with samba schools composed of 1,000 or so folks, plus the amazing Salvador Campo Grande Carnaval circuit with afro-blocos like Olodum and Ilie Aiye.

I had such a great time there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej6jdAnlIq4

That was the winning performance at the Rio Sambadrome-- Manguiera paying tribute to Maria Bethania with a cast of over 4,000 people.

Carnival circuit parade in Salvador is down the street and not in a special stadium. Here's Afro-bloco Ile Aiye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CVTTFlJzaQ

We also saw small more informal "blocos" in various streets of Rio and Salvador

Plus just hearing Brazilian sounds in shops and restaurants and in some taxis (that weren't playing American pop)was cool too

I need to catch up on years worth of Carlinhos Brown albums. I have not heard his 2010 Diminuto, a ballads project, but I did get Adobró, his funkier and more pop effort from that year. Plus I heard his songs for that animated movie Rio. He got an Oscar nomination for that, but didn't win.

Friend from Brazil made this playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/user/vanessa_tolotti/playlist/5q1BwAH8tb2hwiOAmhAJiu

Lots of baile funk which is not really my cup of tea, but it's interesting if you want to know what they listen to over there.

From that playlist here's a famous one, Anitta. I kinda love how at the beginning of the video there's a full blown commercial for tang. What's up with that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geFj_kMvasQ

This is the big hit though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGov-KH7hkM

Sounds like the pirate version of Redfoo's red thang. Not sure if it's a sample or a steal.

So I saw Maria Rita sing in the same 2,500 person hall in Rio that baile funk DJ Marlboro was performing in the next night.

Listening now to Ava Rocha, who mixes samba with rock. She made Ben Ratliff of the NY Times top 10 album list

Others and I have also mentioned Ava upthread

Still lots of stuff for me to get hip to, or catch up on from both old and young Brasileros

http://qz.com/637282/protestors-in-brazil-plan-on-bringing-down-their-unpopular-president-with-a-choreographed-song-and-dance/

Article includes a link to a video with the song and guide to the dance steps

It's opposing the Brazilian Workers Party, the current Brazilian president and the last one, all of whom the protesters assert is corrupt. Some on the left may think this is painting with too broad a brush

I'm thinking so myself but I don't speak Portuguesee or really know the issues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/arts/music/review-layers-in-tropix-from-ceu.html?ref=arts

New album from Ceu from Sao Paulo

There’s a group of broad-minded musicians at the heart of “Tropix,” and two of them were Céu’s partners in producing the album. Hervé Salters, a French keyboardist who also works under the moniker General Elektriks, is one. Pupillo, who plays drums in the superdynamic Brazilian band Nação Zumbi, is the other. Their contribution feels intuitive and deep-simmered: Even when a track flaunts its electronic timbres, as on “Rapsódia Brasilis,” there’s a tendril of folkloric imprecision. And the inverse holds true, so that a traditionally samba-esque confection, “Varanda Suspensa,” receives an underlay of contemporary rhythm programming

the political atmosphere in Brazil now--

https://theintercept.com/2016/03/18/brazil-is-engulfed-by-ruling-class-corruption-and-a-dangerous-subversion-of-democracy/

Listened to some of the new Ceu album this morning. I liked what I heard---artsy bossa nova pop, though I can some rolling their eyes at that.

Love the new Céu album

Just got back from an incredible trip to Brazil

Nice.

The Céu album sounds pretty good so far.

I like that easy-going Teresa Cristina album Ben Ratliff reviewed in the NY Times back in January.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/brazilian-politics-takes-a-satanic-turn-and-temer-is-in-hot-water/2016/05/22/723f6268-201c-11e6-b944-52f7b1793dae_story.html

On Friday singer Caetano Veloso performed a free show for thousands outside the landmark Ministry of Culture building in Rio that is occupied by protesters. The crowd turned one of his classics into a sing-along of “I hate Michel Temer.” Earlier, another crowd there sang “Temer out” to a melody from Carl Orff’s opera, “Carmina Burana” during an orchestral concert.

Other “Temer out” chants were also heard at free concerts by major Brazilian artists such as Ney Matogrosso in Sao Paulo on Saturday night, and “Temer Never” flashed on a screen during Sunday’s performance by rapper Criolo.

Oh no, forgot Ceu is in DC tomorrow night and have other plans I can't get out of.

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/06/15/for-brazilian-singersongwriter-ceu-the-skys-the-limit/

a band called Fellini namedropped by Ceu

her rousing interpretation of “Chico Buarque Song,” a song by the cult post-punk São Paulo band Fellini that honors Buarque, a legendary songwriter, musician and man of letters. Describing her teenage love of the Velvet Underground and Joy Division, she decided to bring some of that post-punk aesthetic into Tropix via Fellini.

“When I heard [Fellini] I fell in love with their sound,” she says. “It was so raw and interesting. It talks about what I was trying to do with Tropix: a very dark way of being in Brazil, which is so colorful. I liked the whole album, and I choose this song because I like the melody and it’s so wonderfully strange to have Chico Buarque, such an important and brilliant composer, in this post-punk song.”

From the Olympic opening ceremony with Anitta, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euyRPBqZNYM

Video is gone. Anyone have a complete list of the musicians who performed? I missed a chunk of it, heard Gil was in the hospital for kidney issues recently, wasn't sure he was going to be there.

Wish I had noticed when it was up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_K9j3fb8Es

By the way, NYT did a good job in this playlist http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/arts/music/brazilian-music-playlist.html

Yeah, I was hesitant to read at first but it turned out to be decent, they covered a lot of ground.

Glad they mentioned Chico Science & Nacão Zumbi. Would have also been nice to see Lenine and Moreno+2 in there.

NY Times music crits Ratliff and Pareles have both been to Brazil multiple times and been writing about it for awhile, so its not too surprising that its a good job. Ratliff is now leaving the NY Times to teach at NYU, so I wonder if Pareles will be able to pick up from him on the Brazilian music coverage. Ratliff covered more obscure artists than Pareles.

More discussion and stuff for opening ceremony here:

Caetano Veloso S and D

Ava Rocha Tour USA is coming!

August 5th – Joe’s Pub (New York) 9:30 pm - $ 15
425 Lafayette St, New York, NY
http://www.songkick.com/artists/8814094-ava- rocha

August 6th – Nublu (New York) - 11 pm - $10
Brasil Summerfest’s Closing Party
62 Avenue C, New York, NY (East Village)
http://www.nublu.net/

August 9th – Trans-Pecos Brooklyn (New York)
915 Wycoff Av, Ridgewood, Queens, NY
8:00 pm - concert Marcos Campello+ Steve Dalachinsky
8:30 pm - Nigth - film by Paula Gaitán
10:00 pm - concert Ava Rocha

August 12th – Tropicalia (Washington) - 11 pm
2001 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
http://www.tropicaliadc.com/

August 13th – Nublu (New York) - 10 pm - special guest Gui Amabis
151, Avenue C, between 9/10th Streets , East Village
http://www.nublu.net/

***

Ava Rocha launches her first tour in the United States

Saw a pic of Caetano around the Olympics on Instagram holding a sign in Portuguese saying that their interim President must go

Was out of town for weekend and sadly missed Ava Rocha's only non-NYC gig on her short debut US tour of a week

Carnival portion of Olympics closing ceremony is great

DJs played lively music and some spectators got out of out their seats to dance — and do the “wave.”

The crowd also got to see performers shake it to frevo, a frenetic dance that, if it’s even possible, makes samba seem like a staid ballroom affair. Holding a small umbrella, the dancers jumped up and down, seeming to march and incorporate acrobatics at the same time.

They shook it to “Vassourinhas,” which means “small brooms,” a popular song that was also the name of a famous club in the northeastern city of Recife.

During Sunday’s closing ceremony, singer Mariene de Castro was showered water that resembled rain, which put out the Olympic cauldron’s flames.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/the-latest-athletes-crowd-dance-to-djs-at-closing-ceremony/2016/08/21/88a06f10-67fd-11e6-91cb-ecb5418830e9_story.html

Elza Soares who was mentioned upthread has a Pitchfork best album. Just noticed Sherburne's end of July review

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22173-a-mulher-do-fim-do-mundo-the-woman-at-the-end-of-the-world/

That's the same album curmudgeon and I were praising in 2015.

11 hours ago, Kiko Dinucci, the guitarist on the Soares, released a third album with Metá Metá (which includes Jucara Marcal): MM3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNXUOGdNmSk

Oops, just noticed your byline, curmudgeon.

Anyway, the full Metá Metá album on spotify

https://gomagringa.bandcamp.com/

Just saw Andy Beta's September Pitchfork review of a Goma Gringa label compilation called "desconstrucao" (as opposed to the Portuguese singer who moved to Sao Paulo Eugenia Melo E Castro album of the same name)

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22238-desconstrucao/

the musicians clustered around São Paulo’s current “samba sujo” (dirty samba) scene relish their hometown’s pallor. For those struck by the sound of Elza Soares’ A Mulher do Fim do Mundo from a few months ago, this twelve-track comp culled from the early days of the Goma Gringa Discos label is the next logical step in exploring modern Brazilian music. It features a similar cast of players and musicians from Soares’ album, including saxophonist/arranger Thiago França and Rodrigo Campos.

...Most acts rotate through a stable of players, be they Juçara Marçal, Kiko Dinucci, Marcelo Cabral, Romulo Fróes, Sérgio Machado, Campos, or França, which the press release states “are not a movement, [but] togetherness in motion, always linked from one project to the next.” Almost any selection here contains strands of native samba, post-punk’s rumble, Afrobeat’s driving rhythm, blats of avant-jazz that seem to dilate space, as well as flashbacks to ’60s Tropicália, itself a mutation of Brazilian pop music interacting with outside influences.

Desconstrução gathers tracks from several albums already considered landmarks in Brazilian music of the 21st century: Juçara Marçal’s Encarnado (2014), the trio Metá Metá’s Metá Metá (2011) and MetaL MetaL (2012), Rodrigo Campos’s Bahia Fantástica (2012) and Conversas com Toshiro (2015), Thiago França’s Malagueta, Perus e Bacanaço (2013) and Space Charanga R.A.N. (2015), and Vicente Barreto’s Cambaco (2015).
credits
released September 19, 2016

I like the more melodic and more rocking tracks over the avante-jazzy ones, on the comp

I wonder if Rosa Passos is going to appear anywhere else in the US, in addition to her December dates in NYC? My quick google search didn't show any others

Saw Seu Jorge on tour, solo with acoustic guitar, doing his David Bowie set. Nice show

http://superselected.com/listen-to-this-the-eclectic-sounds-of-brazilian-artist-mahmundi/

Saw a tweeted reference to this Brazilian electro-soul something or other artist

Mahmundi is a great new artist from Rio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_w-yjlbFgU

Maybe I have to giver her another listen. Her electro-soul seemed nice enough, but didn't wow me on my first listen.

Seems not to be on Spotify but I've found a few tracks from xpost v/a - Desconstrução (label: Goma Gringa). re the Andy Beta review linked above. So far, one most to my personal taste is
Metá Metá's succinctly eventful (rockin') "Rainha Das Cabecas":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9VSyF5HcyI

Their "Obatalá" is an extended breather, maybe most effective in context, but good anyway (if not holding my usually vice-like attention all the way):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9VSyF5HcyI

Those intrigued, as I was, by Beta's mention of Mingus's Cumbia and Jazz Fusion should def check this one by Thiago Franca:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHvjo7ePDZc

The first one I heard (very nice male balladeer in charged setting, but overall not as adventurous as hoped): Rodrigo Campos feat. Criolo - "Ribeirão" (growing on me, now that I know to expect these others!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBpky2XFlOs

Think I might order the album...

After this recommendation about a year ago I bought the Rodrigo Campos lp: Brazilian Music

I really like it, beautiful package also.

Yikes, meant to post this, sorry!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0U4Kx0hhtE

the comp is here:

https://gomagringa.bandcamp.com/album/v-a-descontru-o

Tarping, sorry i forgot about your initial 2013 mention of Mahmundi. Just looking bck on this thread I see that in 2011 I poste an interview excerpt with Romulo Froes where he mentioned Rodrigo Campos.

Starting following some of these folks on Instagram and came across a mention of singer Juliana Perdigao. She has an album on Spotify. Its artsy samba that shifts between pretty and weird.

Thanks so much for linking the whole comp, curm. The two I had first-listen doubts about do indeed totally work in context---
just now tweeted:
V​/​A - DESCONTRUÇÃO: post-everything here & now Brazil, cohesive recombinant momentum*: hairline midnight rainbows just the beginning again
*So, choosing this many tracks by several of the artists (4 by Meta Meta, for inst)? Justified, to put it mildly.

about a year ago I bought the Rodrigo Campos lp: Brazilian Music

I really like it, beautiful package also Thanks, will check that out too! He's amazing on here.

Was just listening to a Campos album on Youtube. Nice stuff.

César Lacerda & Romulo Fróes – O Meu Nome é Qualquer Um (google translate says that means in English): My Name is Anyone

Nice, quiet & occasionally noisy folky yet bossa-samba inflected duo effort. I have liked prior Froes albums. Not familiar with Lacerda, who is a td more indie-folkie and younger than the 40-something Froes.

carlinhos Brown new album this year-- artefireaccua, has more ballads than I rember from him on the past

remember

Album didn't wow me on first listen, but has some good tracks

Elza Soares is getting love on some US and UK album of the year lists.

Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, Dois Amigos: Um Século de Música (Ao Vivo) (Nonesuch) is on the afropop.org stocking stuffers list.

this release is growing on me:

César Lacerda & Romulo Fróes – O Meu Nome é Qualquer Um (google translate says that means in English): My Name is Anyone

I mentioned this elsewhere:

Listened again to Brazilian Carlinhos Brown's latest (on Spotify)-- it's uneven. Some songs start strongly with Carnival like drumming and then change gears; others use guest vocalists including kids; there are ballads that work and some that incorporate too much melodramatic American pop-rock movie flavor

any opinions on fabiano do nascimento's "tempo dos mestres"?

Listening to it for the first time now! Plus I looked at a bio. He's a Los Angeles based Brazilian guitarist who is more jazzy than I like, but that's just my preference. Not bad. Only a few songs in...

Curious about Danilo Brito, Brazilian choro bandleader who is doing some North American dates

Listened to him myself. He plays mandolin and 4 string guitar. His version of choro has he and 3 other stringed instrument players plus a percussionist. It sounds a bit like ragtime. Choro is one of the oldest Brazilian styles and is still around. It melds European classical with waltzes and a bit of African rhythm.

Elza Soares is getting a remix album, plus will be doing gigs in Europe and 2 NYC shows (a RedBull Academy one in May; a Summerstage one in August) [Pitchfork had a little press release type item on this.

What's a couple years to Elza. There's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SWIwW9mg8s

Interesting

Psychelelic soul of sorts, from Sao Paulo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqXM3uwklF8

Here's a list of someone's favourite Brazilian albums of the year so far: http://miojoindie.com.br/os-25-melhores-discos-de-2017-ate-agora/

I've dipped in to a couple and it's been mostly offbeat psych-rock so far.

Really enjoying the Criolo album at the moment. On first hearing it's like an up-to-date Cartola.

Enjoying Fabiano do Nascimento's Tempo Dos Mestres so far (just 1.756 tracks in).

I want to listen to this but I also want to watch a Pavlina Tcherneva video on Job Guarantee programs. Soon I will want to go to bed; then wake up, and not want to go to work.

that album sounds good - but what do you mean 1756 tracks? :O

Just being silly about the portion of the album I had heard (not quite two whole songs). There was a decimal.

Probably all to airy for me right now. There was a cover of a familiar song but I can't remember what it was (let alone the title). Possibly something by Baden Powell.

Ha I didn't look up anything about the Fabiano do Nascimento album, didn't even realise that my favourite song ("O Tempo") is uh inspired by one of my favourite Gilberto Gil songs ("Marginalia II"). Some background here for the non-clued-in: http://www.afropop.org/34735/tempo-dos-mestres/

listened to that Nascimento record a few times now, it's gorgeous

any other of his I should check out?

Guess I should listen again. Listened once and wasn't wowed

Liked some of it but not all on another listen.

Now listening to avante/artsy and Tropicalia inspired Negro Leo on his 2017 bandcmp release Action Lekking. He released several efforts in 2017. Chicago Reader writer Peter Margasak put Action in his top 40 for the year.

https://negroleo.bandcamp.com/album/action-lekking

Also saw on Instagram video of Cortejo Afro, a nice Salvador percussion bloco.

Cortejo Afro was formed and made its Carnival debut on July 2, 1998 in the streets of Pirajá, a community in Salvador. The Bloco is rooted in the spiritual guidance and principles of an established Candomblé house in Salvador, Ilê Axé Oyá, and Cortejo Afro’s artistic design and Afrocentric creative expression was founded by artist Alberto Pitta. Concerned about the predominance of Axé music, Cortejo Afro was formed in an attempt to reestablish the African identity of Carnival. http://www.batalawashington.com/founding-of-cortejo-afro/

Ava Rocha is doing 5 gigs in the US--Starting in Philadelphia on the 12th and then doing 3 NYC area gigs and a DC one (a free one at the Kennedy center that will be video=streamed live on the 17th, 6 to 7 pm est)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/travel/brazil-all-female-drums-bahia-banda-dida.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer&contentCollection=Related

Banda Dida...It's Carnival time in Brazil

The last 3 Tom Ze albums are ace. I'm partial to 2014's A Dog in the Milky Way out of the three, but 2012's Tropicalia Trash Logic and 2016's Cançoes Eróticas De Ninar (his most straightforward set of pop tunes in a long time) are great. Can't think of another pop artist in his 80s who's doing such vital work.

Didn't realize he was that old. His "pop" used to be pretty out there, but I haven't listened in a long time.

I'm liking this 2017 Criolo album Espiral de Ilusão

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e193_zPMWy4

anyone recommend brazilian music documentaries?

but which kind of Brazilian music?

anything really, but I guess samba would be the big one, tropicalia would probably be awesome

kind of hard to find one with english subtitles. anyway: https://acasadevidro.com/2016/01/26/70-documentarios-completos-sobre-musica-brasileira-sua-historia-a-casa-de-vidro-com/

have you seen this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaFakolFvNo

x-post The Guardian on that 2017 Criolo album:

Criolo’s latest album will startle many of his fans. The popular Brazilian rapper and singer is best known for mixing hip-hop with anything from reggae and funk to samba, but on this release, he switches exclusively to samba, with a relaxed set dominated by his often crooned, no-nonsense vocals, with backing provided not by keyboards and programming but by the tiny, guitar-like cavaquinho (played by a member of Pagode da 27, a neighbourhood samba project in São Paulo), along with seven-stringed guitar, percussion and brass. Many of his new songs sound like tuneful old classics, but there is an angry, contemporary edge to the lyrics (although sadly no English translations are provided

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/criolo-espiral-de-ilusao-review-seamless-samba-with-conscious-lyrics

I still haven't checked on this new Criolo album but I like him

xp thanks, that should keep me busy for a while!

BBC doc was cool too, wish it was 10 hours long (and questioning the standard narrative a bit more)

2 years ago the wife and I made our first visit to Brazil and loved Carnival in both Bahia/Salvador and Rio. Seeing FB and Instagram postings the last few days has me missing it.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xhQBPzfONlQJ:www.okayafrica.com/how-ile-aiye-changed-salvadors-carnival-forever-and-uplifted-black-people-in-brazil/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Ile Aiye are one of the most important blocos in Carnival in Bahia

http://afropop.org/articles/carnaval-in-recife-brazil-photo-essay

Another part of Brazil celebrates Carnival a bit differently

Carlinhos Brown's Instagram account is a lot of fun. Lots of Bahia carnival footage recently. I still need to check out his 2017 album that Xchuckxx Eddy put in his Village Voice Pazz & Jop top 10

Carlinhos Brown's Semelhantes album from 2017 does not appear to be listed in his English language Wiki bio or his Allmusic.com discography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDhptBT_-VI

I feel like this is not the type of music I'm supposed to post itt but maybe someone can point me towards a rolling thread where it fits? In case you find it crass I can say it works perfectly in a club, you're drunk, dancing, and it's very very loud

That’s fine here...It’s modern Brazilian music. Whether Anitta feels she is being exploited is another question.

cool, glad to hear that

has there been negative stories surrounding the song? seems like a pretty big hit

aaw fucks sake I see now it's a Terry Richardson video - why the fuck that guy keeps getting work is beyond me

Elza Soares is back. Deus é Mulher released May 17.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw9ke8zt7XA

Given the delay for UK/US release for A Mulher do Fim do Mundo, the anglophone press will probably praise it in 2020...

Ha. It is on US Spotify now, not sure about other formats.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/26/more-dead-than-alive-rios-closure-of-legendary-club-reflects-cultural-crisis#img-2

sad story

did he really say "caramba" though

Did he really toss the Lapa neighborhood, favelas, and Sugarloaf Mountain all together in one paragraph

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2018/07/10/brazilian-experimental-list/

mentions albums such as:

Various Artists
Real Rio: rock, pop, noise and electronic music from Rio de Janeiro

Chinese Cookie Poets-

Opus Dei-

Juçara Marçal & Cadu Tenório

and more

I need to catch up on both the Bandcamp stuff above (though it might be too experimental for my tastes) and this afropop podcast below

http://afropop.org/audio-programs/brazil-at-a-crossroads

Brazil has seen its ups and downs since it became an independent empire in 1822: strongman leaders, military rule, populist democracy and more. In 2018, a politically weary nation faces a stark electoral choice between radically different futures. But whatever was happening in the halls of power, Brazil has always produced powerful, beautiful and ecstatic music, and always known how to party. On Afropop’s 2018 return trip to Brazil, We take a deep dive into the music and evolution of Carnaval in Salvador, Bahia, and dig into new developments in MPB, roots and rock from Pernambuco, Baile funk, new sounds from Amazonia and more from one of the most prolific musical nations on earth.

Stern's music website says folks who buy stuff from them still like Criolo 's ESPIRAL DE ILUSAO from December 2017

Still behind in listening to the above. I guess you all are also.

Still behind on listening to that Bandcamp experimental stuff and the Afropop podcast

Still so far behind in listening to 2018 Brazilian music. Am now listening to Romulo Froes- O Disco das Horas

From 2014, Arrigo Barnabe, Luiz Tatit, & Livia Nestrovski - De Nada Mais a Algo Além. The whole disk is fantastic, but here are a couple faves:

Dora Avante
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxaRPeCdxfs

Ano Bom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRB2FFrj9GM

Google translate tells me the following about the above collaboration of age 60 something experimental musicians Barnabe and Tatit with younger vocalist Nestrovski--

After a chance meeting in 2011, at an event to honor Assis Valente and Nelson Cavaquinho, the contemporaries Arrigo Barnabé and Luiz Tatit decided to work together. To give voice to the compositions, the pair chose Lívia Nestrovski

I am not seeing anything more recent by Barnabe and Tatit via a quick internet search, but I see that Nestrovski has done work with Brazilian jazz guitarist Fred Ferreira

https://www.publictheater.org/Tickets/Calendar/PlayDetailsCollection/Joes-Pub/2017/L/Livia-Nestrovski--Fred-Ferreira/

Via this link I then decided to also investigate Tim Bernardes (whom I can't find any prior ilxor mentions of). According to the link

Leader of the highly praised Brazilian band O Terno, the singer/songwriter, producer and multi-instrumantist Tim Bernardes released his debout solo album in 2017. Claimed by Brazilian icons such as Arnaldo Baptista (Os Mutantes), O Terno have played to large audiences including Primavera Sound (in Spain) and Lollapalooza BR. Tim wrote songs and recorded with brazilian tropicalist legend Tom Zé and worked with artists as Adriano Cintra (CSS), Gorky (Bonde do Rolê) and David Byrne. In his solo album he is responsible for playing, producing and writing the orchestral arrangements. His work has been reviewed by Brazilian newspaper giant O Globo describing "Tim, at 25, already seems to proves himself as the greatest songwriter of his generation”.

Not sure if he's the greatest blah blah blah, but his top tracks on Spotify are tunefully pleasant enough in a retro acoustic Brazilian pop way.

https://talitaavelino.bandcamp.com/album/azul-bahia

Talita Avelino's latest album is on Bandcamp and not Spotify). She's got a sweet bossa voice on her prior 2017 effort. Haven't listened to her 2018 one yet.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/ofert%C3%B3rio-ao-vivo-mw0003181253

The Caetano Veloso 2018 live album Ofertório (Ao Vivo) with his sons Moreno, Zeca, and Tom is pretty nice. They do various songs from his whole career.

http://505indie.com.br/acervo/os-50-melhores-albuns-brasileiros-de-2018/

Elza Soares at 10; Carne Doce's Tonus at #1 (who?); 34. Heavy Baile – Carne de Pescoço is funk carioca; 38 is Ava Rocha

Carne Doce were ok on first listen. Postpunk sorta

Wow, there's a lot to check out in that list.

One I don't see there but which I have been enjoying is Airto Moreira's Aluê (it came out Dec. 2017). Most of it I gather is rerecordings of older material, but it was all new to me.

Liking Sao Paulo indie-electro pop act Labaq

still like it, but no Pitchfork review so no attention outside of Brazil (despite recent short US tour)

this is a spectacularly great song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yRnrScSCik

ffffffffresh!

love it!

Anitta has a track on the forthcoming Charlie's Angels sountrack.

...and here it is (released today):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSneYkvMrGs

X-post — I like reggaeton feel to the song Corrs posted

there's now a bad drake remix of that very song

you are Drake

https://beehy.pe/romulo-froes-o-disco-das-horas-brazil/

I think this is Romulo Froes latest album. It’s from 2018, I still like it. Great melding of trad and avante

https://www.b9.com.br/119034/os-10-melhores-albuns-nacionais-de-2019/

Rapper Emacita on top, followed byy Black Alien, and Eza Soares

Elza

baden powell's "os afrosambas" springs to mind. loving this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLbWNMb8IPo

https://sessa.bandcamp.com/album/grandeza-2

Quarantine sending me some unusual ear-worms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ffMcQWsO4

Only musical instrument is jaw-harp, everything else is voice & body percussion (stomp, clap)

I really love the Bahai-an/NorthEastern scale of the female chorus, sounds Mixolydian i think?

anybody listening to the new Ceu album?

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Thursday, July 9, 2009 9:04 AM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

bump

She's a good not great singer but the production textures and moods she employs are consistently right up my alley

Carlinhos Brown has 2 new releases out

I am discovering that Mateus Aleluia, a member from Os Tincoãs, released an album in 2010 called Cinco Sentidos and that it's got to be one of most beautiful slow albums I know. Maybe I am especially the mood but I am absolutely hooked. He is 67 on the album and sings along his daughter on a few numbers. It's ravishing, spiritual.

Thanks for the tip, Nabozo. This is just what I needed after a restless night last night.

I see he has some recent releases too.

slow albums
<3

have been enjoying Gilbertos Samba (2014) by Gilberto Gil a lot lately

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/meet-the-women-bringing-brazilian-grime-and-drill-to-new-heights/

Brazil / Brasil grime and drill

There is the aforementioned N.I.N.A., a DJ-turned-rapper and forthright social critic who is unafraid to illustrate the realities of the racist, sexist industry she is forced to navigate. Behind the boards, São Paulo-based DJ Peroli has landed high-profile sets on online radio stations like Rinse FM and NTS. And behind the scenes, women like Yvie Oliveira, executive producer of the YouTube series Brasil Grime Show, are helping to shape the next generation of rappers and MCs; inspired by British platforms like Reprezent Radio,

Marina Sena has her first album out and it's a breezy pop-reggae affair infused with Brazilian rhythms and a style that reminds of Marisa Monte even if her voice is less soft.

I am five songs in and this immediately goes on my playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKOOnchcbg
Marina Sena - Voltei Pra Mim

And she deserves to have more posted, especially from the last songs she wrote for the album. Fantastic voice. She is fast growing on me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZvklZlkPNM
Marina Sena - Me Toca

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2oCXnPgTW0
Marina Sena - Amiude

The whole set is wonderful (Cabelo !) and full of lyrical subtleties and variations while keeping an appearance of being upbeat and catchy. Her voice will be an acquired taste but I'm won over.

I struggled a little bit at first with the Juçara Marçal album but the first and last three songs (from when the synth enters on Lembranças followed by autotune !) are really fun and diverse. I saw her the other day do a short set with Kiko Dinucci, who is really this force to reckon with, my eyes were set on his guitar and it was physical. True virtuoso and genius. And I thought Juçara was 45 and she's rather 60.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqGZTrbjhrE
Juçara Marçal - Lembranças que Guardei (feat. Fernando Catatau)

Reminds me of Sevdaliza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBDq_-D4jdY
Linn da Quebrada - I Missil

from Trava línguas which I am getting into now and strongly suggest others also do so
This kind of Brazilian jazzy r&b pop is quite unheard of

I'm less a fan of the electronic bass stuff, but still a wonderful creative and vibrant record by a trans artist

There's a new Tulipa Ruiz, called Habilidades extraordinárias ! I'll just post the opener. She sounds just as good and fresh as she did 12 year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBqy4z5xc1o
Tulipa Ruiz - Samaúma

I'm just reporting that the first six songs here are very good, if not quite as innovative as the jazzy arrangements were on Efemera.
If there is a highlight in terms of songwriting, it is probably Kamikaze Total.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7JdNIBneoA
Tulipa Ruiz - Kamikaze Total

https://brazilbeatblog.wordpress.com/top-ten-lists/

This blog had Tulipa Ruiz in a top 10 list for 2015, and one of my faves Romulo Froes in a couple of other years

sessa - "estrela acesa" and tim bernardes - "mil coisas invisíveis" are two i really enjoyed this year. both could be described as retro and i saw today that both made the aquarium drunkard EOY list.

bernardes record kind of a downer singer-songwriter workout for fans of caetano's "transa" while the sessa record is more like mystic samba in the vein of powell / de moraes.

agree, two v good records

Listened to Bernardes last night. Good but retro and Caetano Velosa like

Veloso and maybe shouldn't have said "but"

Really enjoying the Tim Bernardes album and wish I'd heard it in time to nominate it for the EOY poll. I get that it's retro but it's a sound that should never die.

Seem to recall his previous album was also very satisfying. And was he in some famous rock group?

he's still part of the band (he also founded it), O Terno.
they're kinda big in the independent scene, but by no means they're 'famous'

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin/pabllo-vittar-baianasystem-brazilian-politics-1234704876/?curator=MediaREDEF

BaianaSystem’s music was in constant dialogue with the country’s zeitgeist. A year after Bolsonaro took office, the band released their sophomore album, O Futuro Não Demora (“The Future Won’t Take Long”). They weren’t strangers to sharing direct, uncompromising messages with their listeners — their first album was full of sharp, stabbing lyrics blended with Afro-Latin tones, a punk rock attitude, and traces of Bahia’s pagodão, a modern percussion-soaked strand of samba. Their second release was even more blunt: In the feverish modern mambo jam “Sulamericano,” French-Colombian artist Manu Chao joins in as Passapusso sings, “Counter-attack, I’m making plans to counter-attack.”

Djavan is an old-timer at this point and some of his songs are too busy or too jazz fusiony for me, but I love his ballads and liked some of his songs on his most recent album D. He's starting on his first North American tour in 13 years. Thinking I might go see his suburban DC area gig Friday night

I'm enjoying the new album by Rogê - 'new' but leans heavily on Baden/Vinicius, Jorge Ben, Verocai etc. https://www.waxpoetics.com/article/roge-samba-rock-meets-tommy-brenneck-bespoke-soul/

great recommendation, thanks!

will check this out

ok, so this fucking rules

Fun comp, pretty wild nursery tales sometymes, varied x compatible enough, on Mr. Bongo's Bandcamp: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0753925496_16.jpg

This week: A special Semipop Life guest post from @BrazilBeat1, so you can get your dirty samba recommendations wholesale without me playing middleman and asking "but how much does this sound like Tom Zé really":https://t.co/b1UfgjEW03 pic.twitter.com/fQU2K3TI1s

— bradluen (@bradluen) May 14, 2023

Luedji Luna, r&b crooner from Salvador, Bahia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omjgry2dYbg

Enjoying the most recent Julia Mestre album https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QoWXDh-0As

The album is called Arrepiada and it's lovely.

I'm only coming back to it now, but I still think Marina Sena is fascinating, even in an ocean of autotune. The album is Vicio Inerente.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RT1BKhL51I
Olho no Gato

Tidal served me up that Rogê album and I'm loving it - those strings!

Roge is doing some US gigs shortly. A one hour free one in DC at Kennedy Center on November 30 at 6pm et that will also be streamed on Kennedy Center YouTube and Facebook ( and archived on YouTube) plus a Los Angeles gig December 5 says Spotify

https://brazilbeatblog.wordpress.com/2023/04/18/2023-part-one/

Romulo Flores who is one of many acts mentioned in this blog , has 2 collaboration releases this year — Na Goela which combines traditional Brazilian with noisy guitar rock & is with Tiago Rosas; and Elefante which is more tuneful Brazilian and is recorded with Rodrigo Campos. The blogger just mentions the noisier one and compares it to a Wire album. I don’t exactly hear Wire on that one

Eh typo . Romulo Froes with an accent mark over the o in Froes

The one time I went to Brazil we planned on seeing Romulo Froes perform, but our flights there got delayed and we missed the gig.

I still need to listen to more acts mentioned on that Brazilbeat blog

Roge “Curyman” album made the Mojo list and was just nominated for ilx list ballot . Yay!

It's in my top 10 for sure!

thoroughly enjoyable record, my kinda revivalism

woop

Roge with a drummer doing a 1 hour free show at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPRPM8r_ZNE

I nominated it! That style of music is so rich and beautiful, it shouldn't need to be revived; and he's really adept at it.

he didn't really 'revived' anything, folks. he's a regular guy doing regular MPB by any measure! it's good, but it's weird to see such laurels, idk...

otm

not much available in the anglosphere about mpb between the 80's and now tbf, and even some of the brazilian sources I've read don't stray outside that timeframe, boomer hegemony I guess

by revivalism I meant that the mpb sound on his album has a "retro" tinge to my ears, just listen to the strings

there's probably a good/boring explanation (apart from the quality of the material) for why this particular record is getting so much exposure

I've enjoyed the album but my immediate thought was how close it sounds to Clube da Esquina and how much it relies on arrangements when I rather expect a strong vocal personality and some kind of messing-up with the formula from modern MPB. So my uneducated guess is that it gets exposure from precisely not following the program.

Roge's music definitely harks back to some sort of golden period of MPB/samba, but to me it goes back further than Clube da Esquina. I feel it sounds more like late 60s albums'Travessia' or 'Milton Nascimento'. I hear bits of 60s Caetano and Chico Buarque in there too.

Roge album is produced by Thomas Brenneck , best known for playing guitar with retro soul Sharon Jones and producing for Daptone. Plus Arthur Verocai did string arrangements and he’s best known for his 1970s work.

I'm a dummy when it comes to hearing about recent MPB so I'm just the target for the Roge album crossover, I guess.

xp i will admit that that's compelling evidence for calling this a "retro" project, and i certainly don't mind anyone thinking of it that way

but for whatever reason i think of this basically as excellent MPB (so my 'otm' above was really more about the first part of fpsa's post)

Seeing good reviews for film documentary "They Shot the Piano Player" about the life of and disappearance of Brazilian samba/ bossa nova/ jazz pianist Francisco Tenorio Jr on tour in Argentina in 1976 at age 34. Some big name Brazilian musicians are heard in this doc talking about him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQwajCDIwcg

yeah, keep meaning to see that

https://fabianodonascimento.bandcamp.com/album/ohayou

very chill, not too brazilian vibe tbh, might also work in Ambient/post/nu/new-age jazz - S/D

Yeah, he's amazing, got to see him live last year, played solo with some pedals and loopers and such... really beautiful music...

not modern but i just got served something by the algo and for once i was v pleased

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU9YOiDCKi8

new roge tracks with menahan street band are good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg2rFlo0u_g

Thanks for sharing. It appears the Menahan St connection had already been established on the Curyman album which, as Curmudgeon said above, was produced by Thomas Brenneck.

Old-school samba and bossa singer/songwriter/guitarist Joao Bosco, who is now 77, has a new album out and is doing a small US tour with a Miami gig May 31, a DC gig June 1, and then some NYC ones. There may be more.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/joao-bosco-miami-beach-concert-19987764

Nothing new but I'm discovering Luedji Luna, who is from Salvador de Bahia, through her first album (Um Corpo No Mundo, 2017) and it's exceedingly nice.

saw her in concert last year, was very good

Amaro Freitas "Y'Y" didn't wow me on first listen but those into avante- minimalist classical music, Shabaka Hutchings on flute and other jazz folks plus a bit of Brazilian rhythms may like it more than I did.

paulo cesar pinheiro is a heavy hitter and has been doing it since the '70s, but i was recently hipped to his 2010 record "Capoeira De Besouro"

holy shit man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlfCeNgzT4Q

not sure if fpsa is still around, but curious if they or anyone else has a recommendation of where to start in his catalogue. as far as i can tell he's mostly a songwriter and does a lot of collaborations.

oh and i should add that rogê covered one of his compositions on the "curyman" LP from last year

https://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/musica/blog/mauro-ferreira/post/2019/04/28/paulo-cesar-pinheiro-festeja-70-anos-de-vida-com-uma-das-maiores-obras-da-musica-brasileira.ghtml

This article lists 70 songs of his that they think folks should know. He's known for his poetic lyrics

His allmusic bio is interesting too

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/paulo-c%C3%A9sar-pinheiro-mn0000028375#biography

xp holy shit is right. you've hit paulo cesar's juice with that one, really. cdb's an anthology if i ever heard one

beeing obvious now, from there maybe try his collab w baden os cantores da lapinha, much more samba than capoeira, mind you

thanks y'all

i've been so incredibly busy but hope to have time to share what i've discovered at some point

for now: the baden powell collab from '70 is great. my fav discovery so far though is the s/t from 1974.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXSzHpKbZtU

^ "pesadelo"

Anitta’s 2025 GRAMMYs submissions:

• “Funk Generation” — Album of the Year, Best Latin Pop Album
• “Mil Veces” — Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Music Video
• “BELLAKEO” — Record of the Year
• “Bota Niña” — Best Global Music Performance, Best Music Video

critic Joshua Minsoo Kim who writes for the Wire, Pitchfork, & Tone Glow submitted as his number 1 album to The Wire-

Caxtrinho - "Queda Livre" which is Brazilian samba and out there /avante-garde jazz

Doh! I discovered vocalist Luiza Brina album -Prece too late to nominate for ilx poll. Classic samba mostly with some idiosyncratic touches though

That Milton Nascimento w/ Esperanza Spaulding album is more abrasive and out there than I expected

And no one else on this board thought of adding Luiza Brina to the 2024 list . Hmmm. She was on Lars G of NPR’s best of list

Luiza Brina got a B + on this just released list of top 2024 Brazilian albums. I need to check out more of the A ones

https://brazilbeatblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/12/favorite-albums-of-2024/

Best of 2024 Brazil albums just posted

One of the A albums on the list —Thalin, Cravinhos & VCR Slim, Maria Esmeralda (A)

Doesn’t quite wow me as much as a B+ one Luiza Brina - Prece. Admittedly her album is more retro traditional than the other one but I still like it better.

I skimmed this thread from the start, and back in 2002-2006 I'd have said Cordel do Fogo Encantado were by far my favourite current Brazilian band. I still love the first three albums, but the 2018 reunion one didn't grab my attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xYpDxi4s_g

That video has some wild elements- the rolling fireball and the carnival animal. The carnival chanted vocals and percussion are good enough there. Reminds me of a little of what I heard on my one visit to Brazil when we went to carnival in both Bahia/ Salvador and Rio de Janeiro

I'd say their music takes inspiration from coco (which, like samba, has afro-indigenous roots, but is distinct from the music you'd hear in Bahia or Rio), but they are very much their own thing. They also draw from "cordel" literature (folk lit hanging on a line in a street market). You can hear that type of music during carnival in the Northeast, but I think the video depicts one of their many other folk/religious festivities.

This song specifically is about the rain after a long drought: "The thrush of backlands moves me when it sings / For three months it goes on singing, but without singing it goes for nine / because it has the duty only to sing when it rains".

"My folks, don't depart on the Itapemirim ["narrow stone path" in Tupi-Guarani] / Because even nearing the end, there is improvement in our backlands / The skies are silent now, but there will be such thunder / that shakes clumps off a mud hut"

"When it rains in the backlands, the sun lies down and the water rolls on / the toad coughs up foam / wherever it treads, the cow gets bogged down / and abundance hides the bag that hunger begs with"

And it ends like this:

"Mr Drover, it rained over here / Mr Drover, it rained over here / it rained to pelt us down / it was so much water my ox swam"

The thrush of *the backlands

Literatura de cordel is the equivalent of pulp, in spirit if not in actual means of production, right?

no, cordel is not the equivalent of pulp

Cordel is a much more direct descendent of early modern European chapbooks, both in terms of format and themes - you find poetry, songs, stories about folk heroes and religious figures, etc. Think Lampião and his band of bandits, Padre Cícero, Antônio Conselheiro and the War of Canudos, or other archetypical characters in the popular imagination

https://i0.wp.com/memoriasdapoesiapopular.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/o-fazendeiro-que-castrou-o-rapaz-porque-namorou-a-sua-filha.jpg?ssl=1

"The farmer who castrated the young man because he went out with his daughter" - not sure a translation conveys how specific and grounded in a very specific time and place this sounds. It's quite funny if you're familiar with it.

Live, Cordel do Fogo Encantado would often recite verses from this tradition between songs. I remember getting a kick out of a story about a small town's yearly re-enactment of the Passion of Christ - one particularly year, one of the guys playing a centurion had a little too much to drink and got carried away. Jesus kept trying to tell him to take it easy with the whipping, but that only encouraged him. "What sort of Jesus is this, who cries in front of everyone? I didn't know Christ was such a wimp!" Jesus ended up dropping the cross and charging him with kicks and punches, which quickly turned into a brawl with all sorts of biblical characters. The sheriff eventually intervened, and that was the first time Jesus went to jail instead of being crucified. The original verses in Portuguese are of course much funnier than this recap.

The music was also great live, very intense, very theatrical. I've lived in the UK for a very long time now, so I've had the chance to see most living artists I love several times, and Cordel do Fogo Encantado are still up there in the top 5-10 performances I've ever seen.

that's hilarious, and also so interesting

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/03/g-s1-2528/8-tracks-brazil-luiza-brina-milton-nascimento-esperanza-spalding

Lars Gotrich of NPR was writing about vocalist Luiza Brina last year, and other Brazilian albums last year . There's a Brina video on the link also

https://selokirecords.bandcamp.com/album/inteira

Nina Maia - Inteira is a neat female vocalist effort

The new Marina Sena (Coisas naturais) gives off Amaarae vibes but I don't know, it's not really interesting. Still think there's potential in what she's trying to do.

I'm listening to trad mpb vocalist Luciane Dom

Dom is singing in a small DC place the Hill Center tonight

Luciane Dom and the band put on a good show of samba and funky material and a re-arranged Stevie Wonder cover. They're at Creative Alliance in Baltimore tonight, then on to NY and elsewhere including some west US dates