Novos Baianos – Vamos Pro Mundo (1974)

baianos

1 Vamos pro mundo (Galvão – Pepeu Gomes)

2 Guria (Galvão – Moraes Moreira)

3 Na cadência do samba (Paulo Gesta – Ataulfo Alves)

4 Tangolete (Galvão – Moraes Moreira)

5 América tropical (Pepeu Gomes – Moraes Moreira)

6 Chuvisco (Pepeu Gomes – Moraes Moreira)

7 Escorrega sebosa (Paulinho Boca de Cantor – Galvão – Moraes Moreira)

8 Ô menina (Galvão – Pepeu Gomes – Moraes Moreira)

9 Um dentro do outro (Jorginho – Pepeu Gomes)

10 Um bilhete pra Didi (Jorginho)

11 Preta pretinha no carnaval (Galvão – Moraes Moreira)

One look at the album cover, and you know that all is not well here…..

As somebody who was previously only familiar with their first few albums, one of them being the “most important Brazilian album” according to Brazilian Rolling Stone, I have to say that this album leaves me frustrated, if not quite cold.

It is sad to admit this but it took almost a whole listen to realize what is sorely missing from this record — Moraes Moreira! Although he has writing credit on it, he is not playing or singing on the album.

To give you the succinct low-down: This feels like HALF a great album to me, which is what makes the non-great half so frustrating. Literally half the record is instrumental, and while they are undoubtedly all talented players, this material seems largely inspired to me, as if they had run out of songs and just needed to fill up the other half o the record. But if you like jamming-for-the-sake-of-it type stuff, this album could make your day, who know?

The first four songs are all excellent, particularly the second track Guria which is simply gorgeous. Baby Consuelo is in fine form on these and her energy only increases my desire to make out with her in 1974. The fourth track Tangolete sees the Baianos taking up their rockier side, with Paulo Boca de Cantor singing. From this point on, things get more and more uneven. The instrumental ‘America Tropical’ sounds the band doing their best Santana impression, followed IMMEDIATELY by another instrumental (whose sequencing idea was *that*?), the acoustic choro-flavored “Chuvisco.” The next two tracks are delicious — the jazzy post-bossa acoustic laid backness of Escorrega Sebosa winds up with a little coda of samba de roda (hey i made a rhyme!), and thes stylized samba canção of ‘Ô Menina’ once again makes me pine for nutty Baby Consuelo. Then, if you are like me, you will find yourself turning the album off after this track as the last 12 or 13 minutes takes a serious nosedive into mediocrity. Two more BACK TO BACK instrumentals (really now, what were they thinking?), complete with dueling guitars and a gratuitous drum solo …. Zzzzzzzz. Um Dentro do Outro is the more interesting of the two, slightly funky, slighly progged-out ensemble playing; but the second, Um Bilhete para Didi, is just irritating to me, although it does have what appears to be a bowed bass solo in the middle of it. I remember hearing this track as an Mp3 years ago and thinking it was pretty cool, but at this point I… just don’t. And then the clincher — an abominable version of Preta Pretinha played in hyperdrive trio electrico style, here called “Preta Pretinha no Carnaval”.

I wish I knew the story about why Moraes Moreira has writing credits on half the songs (even the lackluster instrumentals) but then left the band for a while. In any event, it does confirm his place at the center of what made the magic happen. For even when this album is good — and I do think the highlights I’ve mentioned here ARE quite good – they still lack a certain energy, cohesiveness, and inspiration that they had going earlier. Of course by 1974 the hippie lifestyle was wearing down a lot of bands, so the Baianos aren’t exactly an exception.

This album, on the whole, confirms my belief that when (non-jazz) bands start putting drum solos on their studio albums, they are basically running out of ideas…

Still this is a worthy addition to any Brazilian music collection and especially anyone who likes Novos Baianos.

Novos Baianos – Vamos Pro Mundo (1974) in FLAC LOSSLESS

Novos Baianos – Vamos Pro Mundo (1974) in 320kbs mp3

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6 Comments

  1. "Guria" is one of my all time favorite MPB songs songs, and I totally agree with you that this is a flat record…

  2. Great post again, thanks a lot!

  3. Hahaha, eu me achava meio lélé por sentir esse tesão doido na Baby Consuelo mas parece que isso não é tão estranho afinal de contas. Tinha alguma coisa de muito atraente naque jeitinho dela, e aquela voz… é de arrepiar.

  4. só queria saber onde está o misterioso link pra download?

  5. Hi!
    Thanks for this!

    But where the link?
    Thanks, again!

  6. Where’s the link to download the album???

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