Category: Brazilian

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Leny Andrade – Estamos Aí (1965)

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Leny Andrade
“Estamos Aí”
Released 1965 on CID/ODEONProduced by Milton Miranda
Orchestral arrangements by Eumir Deodato1-Estamos aí
(Regina Werneck – Maurício Einhorn – Durval Ferreira)
2-A resposta
(Paulo Sergio Valle – Marcos Valle)
3-Pot-pourri:
• Deixa o morro cantar
(Tito Madi)
• O morro não tem vez
(Tom Jobim-Vinicius de Moraes)
• Opinião
(Zé Keti)
• Enquanto a tristeza não vem
(Sergio Ricardo)
• Reza
(Edu Lobo-Ruy Guerra)
4-Clichê
(Maurício Einhorn – Durval Ferreira)
5-Olhando o mar
(Ronaldo Soares – Arthur Verocai)
6-Banzo
(Odilon Olyntho – Marcos Valle)
7-Samba de rei
(Pingarilho – Marcos de Vasconcellos)
8-Tema feliz
(Regina Werneck – Durval Ferreira)
9-Razão de viver
(Paulo Sergio Valle – Eumir Deodato)
10-Esqueça não
(Tito Madi)
11-Samba em Paris
(Nelsinho)
12-Coisa nuvem
(Roberto Nascimento – Victor Freire)

Recorded when she was only 22 years old, this record is what one might call a “powerhouse.” Not only is she performing compositions by a stable-full of the great songwriters of bossa nova — Tito Madi, Marcos Valle, Jobim & Vinicius, Edu Lobo / Ruy Guerra, Zé Keti, and the still under-appreciated Arthur Verocai — she is also one of the most energetic and sophisticated vocalists of the genre. In particular she brings an incredible jazz sensibility and ferocious scat singing to many of these songs. Just last weekend I had the privilege of watching her perform with Roberto Menescal, and was blown away by her phrasing, her scat improvisation, and her voice that is still in top notch shape. Leny Andrade has a place among the greatrdy jazz singers of North America. This record is a delight from start to finish. If you ever have some unlightened person in your house, your apartment, or your car who refers to bossa nova as “elevator music,” put on this record and they will shut the hell up.
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bio from allbrazilianmusic

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Leny Andrade began studying the piano at the age of six. Later on, she sang on radio shows for amateur performers and won a scholarship to study at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music. At 15, Leny debuted as a professional singer as crooner of Permínio Gonçalves’ Orchestra. Subsequently, she performed at the nightclubs Bacará (with Sergio Mendes trio) and Bottle’s Bar. In 1965 she caught the public’s attention with the show “Gemini V”, performing with Pery Ribeiro and Bossa Três at the nightclub Porão 73, and released the live recording of that show. After a successful tour round Argentina, Leny moved to Mexico, where she lived for 5 years. In the 70’s, she made albums that mixed samba with avant-garde music, like “Alvoroço” (73) and “Leny Andrade” (75). In 1979, through Columbia, Leny recorded the LP “Registro”, returning to samba-jazz, a music style that Leny has always mastered.

Performing with renowned artists like Dick Farney, Luiz Eça, Wagner Tiso, Eumir Deodato, Francis Hime, Gilson Peranzzetta and João Donato, Leny Andrade established herself as the best Brazilian jazz singer, due to her outstanding ability to improvise. In the 80’s and 90’s, she divided her time between Brazil and the U.S., where she made several samba-jazz records, including classics like “Luz Neon”, for Eldorado. Leny also paid tribute to samba composers like Cartola and Nelson Cavaquinho. Some of her discs include the songs by composers like Cesar Camargo Mariano (“Nós”), Cristóvão Bastos (“Letra & Música/Tom Jobim) and Romero Lubambo (“Coisa Fina”). Leny also recorded a CD of American standards shaped as bossa nova (“Embraceable You”).

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Toni Tornado – B.R. 3 (1971)

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Toni Tornado
B.R.3
Released 1971 on Odeon
2002 reissue, Odeon Cem Anos

Another great album from Toni Tornado, the “James Brown of Brazil.” But first off — here is the deal with this CD pressing: There is a really annoying defect on the first track, Juizo Final (*not* the Nelson Cavaquinho song, by the way), where it skips obnoxiously within the first ten seconds. This is not a problem with the individual disc or the rip. How do I know this?? I bought two of them… Same exact skip in the same exact place on both of them.

 

On the whole the album is less funky than his 1972 album that would follow this but it is no less soulful for it. The repetoire seems him giving soulful treatments to two Roberto Carlos / Erasmo Carlos compositions (Não lhe quero mais, and Papai, não foi esse o mundo que você valou); a song by Hyldon (O repórter informou) and of course the title track that was a big hit (penned by Antônio Adolfo and Tibério Gaspar). This song would gain awards at the annual Festival of Song, in 1970, after which his career took off. The title, B.R.3, besides referring to the highway that connects Rio to Belo Horizonte, is also street slang for an intravenous injection… Giving the refraine “A gente corre, a gente morre, na B.R.3” a different shade of meaning.

The heavy influence of American black music was truly revolutionary, but also very “foreign” for Brazil, leading to some amusing parodies on TV that Toni himself participated in, on the show Os Trapalhões. These clips give you the idea, no portuguese necessary

And this one, of horrible VHS quality but even more silly, performing B.R.3. Filmed around the time of this record, this one pokes fun at the Toni’s rather idiosyncratic way of dancing while singing the tune at this point in history, sort of an odd power-walk/march. Note all the wigs of cabelo “Black Power”….

Short bio of Tony Tornado from allbrazilianmusic. com , a site from UOL that I actually forgot existed!! I could have been saving myself time on translations lately!

Born in São Paulo, Antônio Viana Gomes moved to Rio at age 11, after his father died. He worked as a shoeshine boy and sold candy until turning 18 and joining the Army (as a parachutist). He initiated his career as a rock’n’roll singer, using the stage name Tony Checker. Then, he joined the music & dance group Brasiliana and toured the world for the next ten years. He lived in New York for 3 years, and there he met Tim Maia. He was arrested in Brazil, once, accused of reproducing the Black Panthers compliment. Back in Brazil, he continued as a crooner, being eventually discovered by songwriter Tibério Gaspar. Tibério and Antônio Adolfo chose Tornado to interpret their songs, “BR-3” at a very important music festival in 1970, and the success was overwhelming. Another huge hit was “Podes Crer, Amizade”. He also developed his acting career, mainly in the 80s and 90s.

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Nelson Sargento – Sonho de um Sambista (1979)

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The first album on his own from Nelson Sargento, sambista of the Mangueira samba school (and sometimes Portela) is an excellent addition to any Brazilian music collection!

Faixas:

1. Triângulo Amoroso
2. Falso Moralista
3. Agoniza Mas Não Morre
4. A Noite se Repete
5. Muito Tempo Depois
6. Minha Vez de Sorrir
7. Sonho de um Sambista
8. Infra Estrutura
9. Primavera
10. Por Deus Por Favor
11. Falso Amor Sincero
12. Lei do Cão

Biography
He moved to the Mangueira hill as a child, and there he met Cartola and Nelson Cavaquinho, with whom he learned to play the guitar. The nickname “Sargento” (Sergeant) came up when he was in the Army. He joined Mangueira’s composers group by the hand of Carlos Cachaça, and wrote sambas-enredo (theme-sambas) for the school during the 1950s, such as “Cântico à Natureza” (with Jamelão/Alfredo Português), from 1955. In the 60s, he became a regular at the bar Zicartola, where he met other samba artists and musicians. Nelson became a member of the group A Voz do Morro, recording the emblematic album “Roda de Samba 2”. His greatest hit, “Agoniza Mas Não Morre”, was released in 1978 by Beth Carvalho and turned into an anthem of the samba culture in Rio. Other hits are: “Idioma Esquisito”, “Falso Amor Sincero”, “Vai Dizer a Ela” (with Carlos Marreta), “Nas Asas da Canção” (with Dona Ivone Lara). In the 90s, he made albums in Japan which included previously unreleased Cartola songs. Sargento was the subject of the awarded documentary “Nelson Sargento” (by Estêvão Pantoja). Nelson is also a writer – having published two books -, an actor and a naïf painter.
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from Sacudinben blog

Só o nome do álbum já chama atenção e aguça a curiosidade pra ser ouvido, a expectativa de que tem coisa boa aí nos leva a correr até o aparelho mais próximo na ânsia de confirmar a suspeita. Basta o primeiro acorde. De fato têm coisas muito boas aí.

Primeiro disco solo do sambista, compositor, ator e artísta plástico carioca Nelson Sargento lançado em 1979. O repertório é composto por verdadeiras preciosidades, diamantes em forma de samba. Ao todo são 12 faixas, é desse álbum o clássico “Agoniza, mas não morre” uma espécie de hino de resistência do samba, coisa finíssima. O álbum é excelente de cabo a rabo, outras que são interessantíssimas: “Falso Moralista” que se não me engano foi gravada por Paulinho Da Viola, “A Noite Se Repete” poesia pura, singela ao extremo, “Infra Estrutura” que Nelson diz ter sido o primeiro a usar tal palavra num samba rsrsrsrs e “Falso Amor Sincero” samba realmente genial.

Acho que é isso…

“…Samba, agoniza mas não morre, alguém sempre te socorre, antes do suspiro derradeiro…

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Includes full artwork at 600 dpi and all the rest

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Toni Tornado – Toni Tornado (1972)

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Toni Tornado – Toni Tornado (1972) 320kbs
Odeon Records

This album has one major deplorable flaw — it is too damn short! Only 26 minutes of pure bliss may be all some of you can take, but I find myself playing this one twice in a row, and I almost never do that… Oh my what a fine record this is! Toni Tornado is associated with the Black Power movement in Brazil (the English phrase was actually used — even today, someone sporting an Afro here is referred to as having “cabelo Black Power.”) Along with people like Tim Maia, Cassiano, Hyldon, Jorge Ben, Banda Black Rio, *whew* I’m out of breath… Well, all these folks were taking cues from black music in the US, which made them rather polemical at the time, culturally speaking, in a place where the gatekeepers would scream bloody murder about cultural imperialism and “alienation” ever since the Jovem Guarda and “ia ia ia” bands started pulling out electric guitars and copying The Beatles. A variety of cultural nationalism that celebrated the heterogeneous population(s) of Brazil in a way that ironically promoted what in crucial ways was a homogenous image of “The Brazilian People” — this type of stance did not tolerate anybody pulling out claims of a distinct ethnic identity (except for Brazil’s indigenous people, who were not considered citizens until fairly recently.. but that’s another story). For the cultural nationalist, “The Brazilian People,” one and all, were ALL equally African-Indian-Portuguese. Brazilians were supposed to only listen to samba and chorinho and bossa nova. I am simplifying and being droll, as I am wont to do. Hey, it’s my blog.

So, embracing black music from North America was one way of shaking up this attitude and asserting a black identity in a place where people had always tended to aspire towards the ideal of whiteness, which is where and how social mobility happened. But all of what I have written here thus far is just cultural critique and interpretation, in very important ways it MISSES THE WHOLE POINT of great music like this, the kinetic energy, the movement.. Although you will hear a few yelps of “good gawd” ala James Brown on this record, songs clearly influenced by sixties and seventies US soul, by blues music, by more James Brown, and Toni Tornado looks remarkably like Al Green on the cover of this album — you won’t just be hearing imitation of music from the US, but innovation. This musical community, like others in West Africa and elsewhere, was building an aesthetic of its own, embraced and celebrated by the DJs of the big ‘funk’ parties of the favelas — as featured memorably in the film Cidade de Deus (City of God), this was Brazilian funk before its bundalização in the last few decades.*

What makes Toni Tornado stand out from his contemporaries is that his music is wilder, maybe even unhinged at times, more raw. This album, issued on CD in 2002, is already out of print again. Treat yourself, get twisting and do the Tornado!

*The term “bundalização” is a translation of the term “assification”, a neologism coined by The Frankfurt School in a treatise on cultural production titled “The Commodity Fetish and The Crappification of Everything.”

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Jorge Ben – Africa Brasil (1976) [320]

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Some great funk here and a classic still going strong! I´ve enjoyed this album so many times and I was thinking there might be some not listened to it yet. Now´s your chance!

Review by Phil Jandovsky, All Music Guide
This 1976 album is undoubtedly one of the greatest classics of Brazilian popular music, with Jorge Ben mixing funky samba, Afro-Brazilian beats, and crunching guitars to create one of the most fascinating sounds ever recorded in Brazil. The album kicks off with the raw, energetic “Ponta de Lança Africano,” and from there on it never slows down, but continues to pile up one fiery, funky gem after the other. The samba soul and samba funk scenes of the ’70s in Brazil produced many great artists and many great recordings, fully comparable with the best soul and funk music recorded in the U.S. during the same period. Jorge Ben was the most prominent figure of this scene and África Brasil is probably the most famous of his ’70s recordings. For any person who is interested in the music of Jorge Ben, or indeed Brazilian funk in general, there is no better sample of it than África Brasil.

1 Ponta de Lanca Africano (Umbabarauma)
2 Hermes Trimegisto Escreveu
3 O Filosofo
4 Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro
5 O Plebeu
6 Taj Mahal
7 Xica da Silva
8 Historia de Jorge
9 Camisa 10 da Gavea
10 Cavaleiro Do Cavalo Imaculado
11 África Brasil (Zumbi)

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