an order of progress and a side of fries.

NEW POST coming soon...

2005-06-29T17:06:00.000-04:00

Sorry about that... I had a brief period where I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep coming up with new music, but I'm over it. Coming soon...

Rio massacre

2005-04-02T11:06:00.000-05:00

This story appeared in the New York Times International section this morning, concerning a recent massacre of 30 people in a working class suburb of Rio. Speculation is that the murders were carried out by corrupt military police officers who committed the crimes in response to recent efforts to eliminate corruption from the ranks of the police. You can read about the specifics by visiting the above link.

I have a few incoherent thoughts about the whole incident that I wouldn't mind getting feedback on. To begin, it seems as though the most prominent news we receive by way of Brazil (particularly by way of Rio and Sao Paulo) is news of the violence that often times populates conversations I have with other Americans. It is an image of Brazil that is difficult for a lot of Americans to shake, either by virtue of the fact that they've seen City of God, or the fact that they've seen City of God and it has confirmed their worst nightmares.

For anyone that has spent any significant amount of time in Brazil, I'm sure that we share in the mutual frustration that stems from the bad rap Brazil gets on safety. The Times article even falls into the same trap, commencing the article with the following misleadingly vague statement: "At least 30 people were killed in drive-by shootings in two gritty, working class suburbs late Thursday night and early Friday, in what the local authorities described as perhaps the worst blood bath in the history of this often violent metropolis."

What exactly is meant by "often violent" naturally seems underscored by the event described, adhering to the laws of "what bleeds, leads" quite faithfully. However, to editorialize a story so steeped in speculation to begin with is unfair to the Brazil I know and love. Similarly, to reduce the country to a sun-bathing, thong-sporting caipirinha of a nation is equally disturbing.

Brazil seems often misrepresented in the media, and thus in American culture. I think the preponderence of "chill Brazillian lounge" is directly correlated to the image that is communicated so effectively and yet so inaccurately in stories like the aforementioned one, leaving it up to us to resolve the conflicting images of care-free party people and AK47 wielding 6 year-olds by resorting to recycled popular music from 50 years ago. Which isn't to say that it can't be done extremely well...

The one thing that Brazilian culture, and in turn music, does retain is sheer beauty. My previous comments notwithstanding, Brazilian culture thrives today in a way that is seldom appreciated here in the United States because of our preoccupation with the issue of crime. It warrants, and deserves, a trip to Brazil to see for yourself. The culture is complex, significant, and most of concern to many people, original. Crime is an issue, but as many of my faculty members abroad have said, the United States is the most dangerous country in the world and we don't seem to have any problem with it.

This isn't meant as an ideological rant in any sense; instead it is a plea to look beyond the limited universe of stereotypical images of Brazil, whether those images be favelas or beaches. Most of you are here because you already know how rich Brazilian culture can be, but passing along the message is equally important. How so many Americans can be completely oblivious to a nation of 80 million people is baffling, to say the least. What is more disturbing, however, is how much our two nations have in common with each other. I think Americans are in a unique position to relate to Americans more so than perhaps any other nation in the world, and there was a time in our collective history when we appreciated that.

So ends my rant... I started feeling guilty that I said I was going to discuss "politics" on this blog, but had failed to do so thus far. Happy April Showers to all, and I'll be back with some music in a couple of days.

Damn that's dirtay...

2005-03-26T13:27:00.000-05:00

Diplo, Favela on Blast: Partial Clip

By now, Diplo and/or Hollertronix have gotten their props from pretty much every major online music outlet out there. As a result, I'll spare you from the little that I know about them, only because there is plenty of information about them in circulation. So I'm going to stick to the most relevant information I could find.

The story here has to do with baile funk, a style of music that has, according to genre promoter and expert DJ Marlboro, existed in some form for about 20 years, developing directly out of Miami bass. Andy Cumming writes, "In the middle of the eighties, Miami Bass appeared in Florida, it's imagery of beaches, sunshine and big-bootied black women combined with the strong Latin American presence in Miami may go a long way to explaining it's immediate popularity in Rio."

The music feels about as raw as anything out there. Even if you have absolutely no idea what they're saying, something about it feels dirty, which is what I think makes it so appealing. With the growing popularity of reggaetone, it seems we're on the cusp of a new movement in grungy dance music. The crude production and cruder vocals in combination with recognizable beats make it instantly danceable.

What's Diplo's role in all of this? According to turntablelab, "Diplo has been all over the place lately, and one of his most recent trips was an assignment to cover the emerfing Baile Funk scene in Brazil... This is a 35-minute mix of the stuff Diplo was able to dig up down there, with a little extra flavor thrown on top."

This is a short clip from Favela on Blast. You can pick up the whole mix from turntablelab for 10 bones. I highly recommend it, at least for an education.

Desculpe...

2005-03-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

Celso Fonseca & Ronaldo Bastos, Juventude/Slow Motion Bossa Nova: Samba É Tudo

First off, apologies to everyone... It's been a hectic month of getting sick then getting better, and working on various side projects including (but not limited to) writing the music for a play, working for a newspaper, getting a chapter of Free Culture up and running at Middlebury, trying to get my j-o-b on, getting hopelessly addicted to Arrested Development, a remix of some haitian folk song recordings I found, and to be honest, the reality of the fact that sometimes other music grabs my interest for a while. But I'm back! So let the festa begin...

Well, say what you will about Brazilian lounge or chill, or whatever you want to call it. I've had my moments of frustration with the preponderance of uniformly uninteresting interpretations of music that was pioneering 50 years ago. Yes, bossa nova lends itself to contemporary rhythmic re-workings, precisely because it was so ahead of the curve to begin with and we're just beginning to catch up with it, but that wasn't free licence to put a samba guitar riff behind everything. Not to mention those reworkings tend to ignore everything that has happened in Brazilian popular music since bossa nova.

That being said, this album has its moments. Some are interesting, some are dull, some are English(!). But the whole thing has a musicality that is lacking in a lot of the bossa nova reworkings I was discussing above, which should come as no surprise given Celso Fonseca's musical apprenticeship.

If you happen to be lucky enough to own a copy of Gilberto Gil's MTV Unplugged DVD, you'd see that he has a pretty stellar rhythmic guitarist in the background... That is Celso Fonseca. A regular on Gil's albums of the last 15-20 years, Fonseca lends more of a solid guitar foundation to Gil's rhythmic nylon musings.

This album is one of several that is far more heavilly marketed in the U.S. than it is in Brazil. Take that for what it's worth, but I won't make excuses for the fact that this is a great track off of a solid album.

By the way, lately I've been peeping the Nonesuch Creators @ Carnegie series that NPR has up on their website. I finally caught large segments of the Caetano/David Byrne collaboration I so regretfully missed while I was in Brazil. A Foreign Sound had just come out, and Caetano traveled stateside to do one show in New York. Luckilly, I caught Caetano in Salvador at the Teatro Castro Alves, two blocks from Bethania's place (who I also saw about a month earlier)!

New Post Coming Soon!

2005-03-21T22:26:00.000-05:00

(Alta) Fidel(idade) Castro

2005-02-14T10:53:00.000-05:00

Max de Castro, Afrosamba: Afrosamba

I warned you. I said that R&B was having a huge influence on contemporary Brazilian music, but you didn't listen, now did you. Given that Brazilian artists have been incorporating funk, soul, motown and other influences into the mix, it doesn't seem all that surprising that today's Brazilian artists take R&B and make it their own.

Much along the same lines as Jair Oliveira (another artist on the Trama Records label... See previous post), Max de Castro is well up on his Andre, Kanye, Jill Scott, Alicia Keys and others. Afrosamba is a tribute to the contemporary R&B influence on the Brazilian music scene, and one of its most accurately and effectively implemented examples. Drum machines and heavy production (which isn't to say bad production, in this case) create a really strong and unique sound, one that, I might dare say, have the ever-elusive "crossover appeal."

De Castro's father, Wilson Simonal, was another pioneer of Brazilian music (I imagine by this point no one is all that surprised). Simonal was Brazil's Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Temptations, etc. all wrapped into one. His records bring to mind the great works of Motown, with a berimbau, pandeiro and agogo just to remind you where they're coming from.

Simonal's other son is Wilson Simoninha, a like-minded soul to his brother Max in the musical sense. His influences are largely the same, and Simoninha is also on the Trama label. More about him in future posts...

Terca-feira gorda

2005-02-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

Ilê Aiyê featuring Gilberto Gil, Canto Negro: Que Bloco É Esse?

In honor of Carnaval, I'm throwing up a track by Bahia's Ilê Aiyê, the original afro-bloc from Liberdade, a neighborhood in Salvador, the capitol of the state Bahia. Ilê Aiyê was created 30 years ago to combat racism and spread awareness about various social causes through their music. Each year, the bloc chooses a theme and subsequently commissions pieces for their Carnival performances.

The group is more than a band in the city of Salvador; it is a veritable institution. With a cultural institution and educational program to its name, Ilê Aiyê is an important and significant part of the Bahian cultural landscape, and as a result count Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Carlinhos Brown and other notable Bahians as friends to the institution.

This track, Que Bloco E Esse?, is a classic in the Ilê Aiyê repetoire. The title translates to "What bloc is this?" and is a nod to the black empowerment movement of the 1970's. Gilberto Gil leads on vocals on this rendition, and a version of the song (alternately titled "Ilê Aiyê") appears on his Refavela album.

All in the family, part one

2005-01-31T19:58:00.000-05:00

Elis Regina & Tom Jobim, Elis & Tom: Águas de Março
Maria Rita, Maria Rita: A Festa

This week I'm kicking off a periodic segment that explores the royal families of Brazilian music, of which there are surprisingly many. I don't know what it is, perhaps a huge combination of factors, but Brazil pumps out talented musicians by the generation. In this case, the focus is on the late Elis Regina and her daughter Maria Rita, the new diva of Brazilian popular music.

Both women attract comparisons to some notable, female, American contemporaries, but as is often the case with these comparisons, it ends up reducing their talent to a foreign language translation of the "original," (whatever that means) which isn't fair to anyone.

Regina, often compared to Janis Joplin both musically and in terms of her lifestyle, spanned many different genres and styles, expanding the palette for Brazilian female vocalists beyond what had become the well-established stylings of bossa nova, without forgetting those roots. I highly recommend any of her music that you can get your hands on.

Regina's daughter, Maria Rita, is poised to become the next Brazilian female phenomenon in the U.S. Her album graces world music Top 10's all over the coutnry, right up there with Bebel Gilberto, also of Brazilian musical offspring fame. Rita, an NYU graduate, fell backwards into a musical career but hasn't looked back since. The jazz influence garners comparisons to Norah Jones, but we'll refrain from those here. Enjoy.

change of pace (and bpm's)

2005-01-22T14:03:00.000-05:00

DJ Marky, XRS, Jorge Ben Jor and Toquinho, Audio Architecture 2: Carolina Carol Bela

I'm a big fan of the DJ Marky story... You decide you want to bring a relatively obscure genre of electronic music from another country to your homeland where homegrown artists reign supreme and electronics have been relegated mainly to the background. You try it out, but it doesn't happen so much for you, so you move to England after some British guys hear you at a club one night. You get popular there and become a pioneer of the drums & bass movement as it moves to the foreground, and return to your native Brazil.

Only now, drums & bass is huge in Brazil, and you become ridiculously popular at home as well as abroad. Such is the story of DJ Marky...

This track is a remix of a Jorge Ben Jor tune and a Toquinho tune. Jorge Ben Jor (originally Jorge Ben, which I will explain below) is a pioneer in Brazil's samba-funk/soul/r&b movement. Managing to remain clear of the many movements that have paralleled his long, prolific career, Ben Jor has remained an important fixture and influence on the Brazilian music scene.

As for the Ben Jor part, supposedly the story is that Jorge Ben Jor grew tired of being consfused with Miles Davis-bandmate-turned-cheesewagon jazz guitarist George Benson (Jorge being George in Portuguese). Ben Jor through a "Jor" at the end of his name, and has been known by that name for the last twenty years or so.

Sorry for the lag in posting... I'm working on it.

Creative Commons Brazil

2005-01-17T17:53:00.000-05:00

Creative Commons Team, Brazil (.mpg File)

Well, I'm doing a different kind of plug for this post... Many of you out there are already pretty familiar with the Creative Commons system, and for those of you, this post will only slightly be of interest. But to the rest of the world, this post will hopefully tune you into an amazing worldwide project that could potentially change the way the arts do business.

The Creative Commons is a system of licencing designed to give control over the rights to works back to the artist. Basically, with a Creative Commons licence, an artist can reserve as few or as many rights as they so desire, enabling artists to allow their music to be downloaded, distributed, sampled, and whatever else can be done. Obviously the potential for this is infinite.

In the U.S., the Creative Commons licence has had trouble catching on for a multitude of obvious reasons, and hasn't really spread beyond a limited world of people that know what it is. For that reason, the Creative Commons team has targeted a group of nations around the world where its reception would be kinder, and are procuring these nations to adopt the system.

In Brazil, Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil has expressed a great deal of interest in the project, lending his star-power to the project for visibility. Gil's song, Oslodum, has been made available to the public, free of charge, and kickstarted the movement in Brazil. Ostensibly, you can use the Gil track in whatever manner you choose, as long as you don't profit from it.

Brazil seems like an ideal experiment, for many reasons. Of course, anyone that frequents this page is aware of the rich culture that lies in the land of order and progress. But the extremely unequal distribution of wealth has created a culture that is far less centered around profit margins than the U.S., so it will be interesting to see if it catches on. Already, a number of similar projects are underway, such as Trama Virtual, created by Trama Records to showcase independent talents, and sort of a Brazilian version of the now-deceased www.mp3.com (the old version where independent bands could market themselves free of charge).

As one of the members of the Creative Commons team said, "If the Blues had been copyrighted while it was being created, we wouldn't have any of the music we have today." How true it is. This project is quite impressive, and deserves all the support it can get. Check out the video up top, and for more information, check out Wired Magazine's article on the experiement for a brief summary of their work in Brazil.

2005-01-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

Maria Bethânia, Ao Vivo 1970: Samba de Roda/Marinheiro Só

Wow, I'm really sorry for the lag experienced this week... I'm back now, and I'll be back to the two songs a week pace that I had been good at keeping to up until recently. It's been an exciting bit of time for the blog, as it was mentioned in O-Dub's Soul Sides a couple of weeks ago, and as a result traffic has gone up. Just a month ago I was touting the 100th visitor to the site. Now it stands at over 2000, so keep it up...

As for this week's pick, I bring you a track from Caetano's little sister, Maria Bethânia, a legendary songstress who's rise came in the late 1960's, paralelling the Tropicalia movement that Veloso, Gilberto Gil and other colleagues were engaged in, but that Bethânia refused to join out of a desire to avoid the political sphere (for more information, definitely check out Christopher Dunn's Brutality Garden, probably the best English book on the Tropicalia movement around).

This week's tracks come from a great live album from 1970. Bethânia's voice has changed quite a bit as her stylistic tastes have changed as well, but certainly her almost contralto timbre and pitch make her voice as distinct as anyone's around. Here, in her early work, you can hear the more youthful, more effeminite delivery and tone and her career transitions reflect that of of Joni Mitchell's career (though not quite so dramatic).

Now, by request, some information about the song itself:

Samba de Roda is a style of samba particular to the Northeast, specifically Bahia. It is a slower, more relaxed version of samba, though it is not exactly reflected in the song. My guess is that the song is an updated version of an old samba tune, reinterpreted by her and the band. Marinheiro So simply means "Lone Sailor," though I'm not exactly sure about the lyrics themselves.

Thanks to everyone who has been posting comments. Check out the links in the blog roll, and tell you friends!

a week off...

2004-12-29T02:22:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody...

I'll be back in the new year... My thoughts and deepest sentiments are with the people of Southeast Asia, who are coping with a tragedy that few can comprehend. As we come to the end of the year, the events truly put everything in perspective, particularly as we take time to spend with family and friends. The beautiful thing is that the global response has been inspiring to watch. Ok, not much else I feel entitled to say right now. I look forward to the new year.

-Ari

a vida aquatica com estevie zissou

2004-12-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

Seu Jorge, Carolina: Em Nagoya Ey Vi Eriko and Mangueira

It's hard to talk about your artistic tastes (some would say impossible) without divulging information about your personality... That being said, I love Wes Anderson films. Rushmore remains at the top of my favorites, while The Royal Tenenbaums holds a special place in my heart because it's the only movie in recent memory with a lead character named Ari. Bottle Rocket... well, there's always the other two.

I've been following the developments of the newest Wes Anderson Joint for the last two years or so, eagerly anticipating its finishing and release... What I didn't count on was one of my favorite Brazilian musicians doing most of Ziggy Stardust as the soundtrack for the film.

The many hats of Seu Jorge: musician, actor, civil rights activist. Seu Jorge's film debut (as we know it) came in 2002's City of God, the stellar look at the lighter and darker sides of Rio's favelas. He played Knockout Ned, the unassailably cool busdriver who Rocket can't bear to rob one night. Little did we know at the time that City of God would propel him into an American acting career, as Pele in the Life Aquatic.

I spent months trying to track down Seu Jorge's latest disc in Brazil, Carolina, and it was until my last couple of weeks, while in Rio (at Modern Sound, the most ridiculous music store in the country) that I finally found it. Of course, with the popularity of this movie, I imagine his CD will be all over the place in the States, so pick up a copy.

Seu Jorge's musical background mainly consists of a long stint as the lead singer and songwriter of the band Farofa Carioca, a funk band from Rio whose live shows are a thing to behold. I saw them accidentally one night in Rio, back in July, and the show was incredible. My friend invited me to go to a nightclub, and not realizing that there would be live music, I decided to tag along anyway. Little did I know that I would see some of the funkiest sh*t ever... Finding their cd, Moro no Brasil, was no easy task either.

Jorge breaks out on his solo debut, with a funk epic of Brazilian proportions. Covering Jorge Ben Jor (I finally got the story behind the move from Jorge Ben->Jorge Ben Jor... coming soon) while adding most of his own flavor, this album is a solid dance disc all the way through. So in honor of everyone over at Team Zissour, I give you... Seu Jorge.

UPDATE: Poll is up! Vote for your favorite trax thus far...

Feliz Natal da Bahia

2004-12-23T20:32:00.000-05:00

Novos Baianos, Acabou Chorare: Misterio do Planeta

After a few posts, I've begun to realize that some of this music is not so new, so I guess I will remove some of my self-imposed rules and stop being so self-conscious of my postings... Let's just say it's music you might not have had access to, or known about. It's December 23rd, so it's reasonable to say that I'm going to take a few days off to celebrate the holidays with the fam.

Os Novos Baianos... The New Bahians (hailing from, you guessed it, Bahia, though not so new anymore...). Moraes Moreira, Pepeu Gomes, and Baby Consuelo (turned Baby Brazil) fronted this talented supergroup from the post-Tropicalia era of MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira... also, I'd like to apologize for not using accents... they're a pain in the ass to put in, and I'm having enough problems as it is trying to make Mozilla work with blogger).

You can definitely hear the Tropicalista influence on their tunes... The sophisticated arrangements, the rockin' out, the definitive Brazilian sound. In retrospect, it reminds me a lot of Os Mutantes stuff from the '70's, without the copious amounts of acid (though I suppose there was a fair bit of that going on... Os Novos Baianos lived together on a farm outside Rio during a four or five year period I believe). Like I was saying, post-Tropicalia. Though these guys had the benefit of Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, and the early 70's.

Misterio do Planeta is probably my favorite cut from this disc, which is a real lost classic in the annels of MPB. If you can find it, I highly recomment picking up the whole album. Other stuff, after Moreira left the band, is a bit more questionable though that's on a case by case basis... It seemed like Moraes really mellowed the rest of the band out, because when he left to pursue a solo career, Pepeu took over the compositions and everything became cracked out (musically speaking, of course). They started playing a lot of frevo (a really fast style of Samba) and trio electrico stuff which is crrrrazay. That being said, it's totally open to interpretation.

Incidentally, the Novos Baianos reunited last year or the year before and recorded a live album of the concert. It's definitely not as solid as the original stuff, but hey, if you're into reunions then by all means. Also, Davi Moraes, Moreira's son, is a talented musician in his own right, married to super-Axe-diva Ivete Sangalo, whose song "Boa Sorte" you have certainly heard if you've traveled to Brazil in the last year or so.

Ok, I'm gonna put up a poll soon about the best trax so far... This site has passed the "100 visitors in a day" milestone, so I want to thank everybody that is checking out the music. Tell your friends (virtual or otherwise)! Also, if you think I should be checking anything out (not just Brazilian... some day I'll post a complete list of my likes and dislikes up here), feel free to drop me a comment or an e-mail.

i am... in love

2004-12-20T14:07:00.000-05:00

mylene, _mylene: pipoca contemporanea
caetano veloso, joia joia: pipoca moderna

I found this record while browsing at one of my favorite record stores in all of Brazil, Desafinado in Fortaleza, CE. It's a really great family run store that I highly recommend if you happen to be in the northeast travelling around. The staff is highly personable, and they had CD's that it seemed no one else in Brazil carried, ironically enough.

Mylene's self-titled debut is no exception. After grabbing a stack of about 25 cds to listen to (by the way, a great idea that should be adopted here more often), this disc... well, to be honest, the cover... caught my eye. I popped it in, and heard one of the brightest underground talents in Brazil that literally no one has ever heard of.

Afte a little bit of research on the internet, it turns out that this CD has been released on an American label, Fast Horse Recordings, and has actually had quite a bit of attention over here, leading me to believe that this CD is marketed more towards the "chill-Brazilian" crowd in the states than it is to Brazilians. But don't let that dissuade you (that is, if it would dissuade you). This is one solidly-crafted album, and Mylene has made a more intelligent album than perhaps her genre would indicate.

She hails from Rio, and it's definitely got some of your typical chill-Brazilian production sensibilities. But underneath there is far more going on... This song, Pipoca Contemporanea, or Contemporary Popcorn is a take off on the Caetano song of the post-Tropicalia period, Pipoca Moderna, or Modern Popcorn. Interlaced with a few Chomsky soundbites, this album is decidedly political, as is much of the underground music coming from Brazil. I put up the Caetano song for comparison, so I hope you dig these holiday gems.

Culture Czar

2004-12-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

Gilberto Gil, Refavela: Era Nova and Refavela

Well, I was going to try and stick to new Brazilian music, but occasionally I'm going to stray. If you were directed to this site, you most likely know all about Gil (Minister of Culture and all-around mackdaddy of Brazilian music). However, this track, Era Nova, is off of a little-heard album from the mid-70's entitled Refavela.I met the producer while working on an independent research project on Tropicalia in Bahia, which was really exciting considering this is probably my favorite album that Gil recorded in his career.

The title Era Nova is a clever wordplay on the phrase "it was new" which is sometimes substituted with "nova era" during the song, meaning "new era." The album was recorded after Gil and others made a trip to Nigeria. You can hear the heavy afro-pop influence on the style of the album, which is really solid all-around.

Refavela comes from an architectural movement of the time, very much influenced by the make-shift constructions in Brazilian favelas, or shantytowns (bringing to mind the whole Derelict thing from the movie Zoolander, except without the comedy). It was meant as an ironic statement concerning the appropriation (and really exploitation) of the favelas without any returning of the favor.The album was slammed by the press when released in 1974, as being "over-political." The song "Que bloco e esse?" (recorded under the title Ile Aiye on the album) was dedicated to the afro-bloc Ile Aiye, a really phenomenal organization from Bahia that combats racism through its songs and dance. More about them later... for now, enjoy these two cuts.

as if Brazilians needed more incentive to get freaky

2004-12-14T11:08:00.000-05:00

Jair Oliveira, Outro: Dor de Ressaca

Jair Oliveira, son of legendary Brazilian soul singer Jair Rodriguez, is a talented composer, singer and producer. After studying at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, he returned to Brazil and started recording albums for the Trama Label. This song, Dor de Ressaca, or Pain of a Hangover (thanks Mike D.!), is a mellow samba/r&b groove. The production would remind anybody of Babyface or any other sort of mid-90's r&b production, but the Brazilian influence adds a freshness to the sound that doesn't make it sound antiquated. Dig.

For those of you who have been digging the music and been looking for more, Trama Records is a great place to start. An artist run label, Trama is the biggest and best-known independent label in Brazil. They distribute Matador Records in Brazil, which should tell you indie rockers out there how money this label is. Many of Brazil's most innovative artists are on the Trama label, and with any luck they'll become wider-known here as well. If you want to check out some free Trama .mp3's, look no further than http://www.tramavirtual.com.br, where you'll be able to find huge numbers of slammin' trax to download.

Again, I wanna put in a request for comments. It helps keep me inspired to keep putting tracks up every few days or so if I know what people like and what they don't like.

painting the country red

2004-12-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

Frank Rich, in today's New York Times:

"Kinsey" is an almost uncannily helpful guide to how these old cultural fault lines have re-emerged from their tomb, virtually unchanged. Among Kinsey's on-screen antagonists is a university hygiene instructor who states with absolute certitude that abstinence is the only cure needed to stop syphilis. Sound familiar? In tune with the "moral values" crusaders, the Web site for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has obscured and downplayed the important information that condoms are overwhelmingly effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases. (A nonprofit organization supporting comprehensive sex education, Advocates for Youth, publicized this subterfuge and has been rewarded with three government audits of its finances in eight months.) Elsewhere in "Kinsey," we watch desperate students pepper their professor with a series of uninformed questions: "Can too much sex cause cancer? Does suppressing sex lead to stuttering? Does too much masturbation cause premature ejaculation?" Though that sequence takes place in 1939, you can turn on CNN in December 2004 and watch Genevieve Wood of the Family Research Council repeatedly refuse - five times, according to the transcript - to disown the idea that masturbation can cause pregnancy.

Lenine, not that one...

2004-12-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

Lenine, A Falange Canibal: Sonhei

It occurs to me that I posted the wrong track from Vanessa da Mata last week (i.e.: not the track I wanted to post). That's been corrected, and in addition you get this track from Brazil's most talented contemporary songwriter, in every sense of the phrase. His albums are phenomenally well-produced, his writing is original, and his lyrics are political. What more could you ask for, other than a copy of Falange Canibal for Chanukkah or Christmas?

Lenine follows in the tradition of Chico Science (see previous post about Mundo Livre S/A), hailing musically from the musically vibrant northeastern state of Pernambuco. Check out the mix of Radioheadish production techniques, regional flava, and beautiful instrumentation. Not to mention having Ani diFranco, Steve Turre, Yerba Buena and others on your album... Dig.

The Love Belo...

2004-11-20T13:54:00.000-05:00

Vanessa da Mata, Self-Titled: Eu Não Tenho
Vanessa da Mata is a talented songstress from Belo Horizonte, the capitol of the state of Minas Gerais. I was fortunate enough to have caught her in concert in Salvador last June, in a great show at the Teatro Jorge Amado.

Her songs have been recorded by Daniela Mercury, Maria Bethania and Chico Cesar, but on her debut self-titled album, she and her band have a sound all their own.

This song isn't indicative of the album as a whole, but in this case that's a good thing... The style's on the album are varied, but it blends very well as an overall scheme. Some is more traditional samba/batuque stuff, other stuff is more pop oriented in general.

I'm looking for some expanded webspace, and when I find it I'll try to re-post some older songs...

2004-11-17T11:38:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to point you in the direction of Alizinha's webpage, for all things related to Brazilian music in NYC. If you're in or near the tri-state, check her page out for all the happenings.

thank you, america (aka my first political post).

2004-11-15T19:09:00.000-05:00

You know, I was hoping that with the election behind us, I could give my mind a well-deserved break from contemplating the obsurdity of the last four years. But it looks as though that's not going to happen anytime soon, thanks to the hard-hitting journalists over at ABC News. At least this story is somewhat apropos to the theme of this blog, but I honestly don't know what to make of this.

If it were me, I would just change the lyrics at the end of the song, resubmit it for copyright under the new lyrics, and sue Bob Dylan for copyright infringement. After all, isn't that the American way?

Happenings in the northeast

2004-11-14T20:25:00.000-05:00

Mundo Livre S/A, O Outro Mundo de Manuela Rosario: Caiu A Ficha

The northeast of Brazil is routinely cited by development agencies as the poorest region of the country, with the greatest amount of economic disparity between rich and poor. Thus, many of the great socially conscious movements within the world of MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian Popular Music) originated in the northeast.

The Mangue Beat movement is no exception. Mundo Livre S/A, from Recife, along with NAÇÃO ZUMBI, Mestre Ambrosio and Lenine carry along a movement pioneered by Chico Science, the original lead singer of NAÇÃO ZUMBI. Science was killed in a car accident in 1997, but the movement is still flourishing under the auspices of Zumbi and others. Mangue Beat is a combination of various northeastern rhythms (maraketu, embolada, forro, baiao) with hip-hop, punk, r&b, funk and other contemporary styles. This, coupled with socially progressive lyrics, characterize the movement.

The success of the movement has led to the development of the Recife Pro Rock Festival, an annual Rock festival held in the capitol of Pernambuco.

Ok, I'll be posting a lot of stuff from these groups, as they don't have even close to the exposure that they should have. Enjoy...

and so it begins...

2004-11-13T14:37:00.000-05:00

Monobloco, 2002: Madureira...É Assim Que É!

A big cyber hello to everyone out there... this audio blog is primarilly going to be dedicated to Brazilian music, since niches seem to be the trend out there, but naturally like anyone dedicated enough to post music to share with the world, I'm not going to be restricted to posting Brazilian tunes. Nor will the posts be relegated to the musical world, because it is often difficult to keep my big fat opinionated yapper shut. Nevertheless, here we go...

That being said, the first track is Monobloco, a Carnival Bloc from Rio de Janeiro. The 50 or so musicians in the group play a blend of Samba Batucada and hip-hop (or hippie hoppie as is it so affectionately known in Brazil). This track can be found on their 2002 recording.

The group was started by Pedro Luis, borne from his group PLAP! or Pedro Luis e A Parede (Pedro Luis and the Wall). Luis, a reknowned percussionist from the Tijuca area of Rio, started PLAP! in the early 90's, where they remained a key fixture in the underground music scene of Rio.

First, a couple of thank-yous. This website is indebted to O-dub and Soul Sides, the first music blog I frequented, and which is always filled with interesting and noteworthy posts. The other thank you goes to all the people I befriended in Brazil who were more than happy to pass along the names of groups I'd be interested in, so, pra vocês, eu mandou um abraço grande. Let's get this party started...

every music blog must begin somewhere.

2004-11-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

music will be up sometime over the weekend... for now, welcome.