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Tamba Trio – Tamba Trio (1975)

Tamba Trio (self-titled) RCA 888430906624 Original release 1975 Reissue 2014 (EU) 1 – 3 Horas Da Manhã  (Ivan Lins, Waldemar Correia) 2:42 2 Visgo De Jaca (Sergio Cabral, Rildo Hora) 2:35 3 Ou Bola Ou… 

João Gilberto – O amor, o sorriso, e a flor (1960) (Odeon MOFB 3151)

João Gilberto – O amor, o sorriso e a flor
1960 Odeon – MOFB 3151
This pressing, early 1970’s, mono mix

A month ago, the world mourned the loss of a gentle musical soul,  and an icon of a Brazil that ceased to exist long ago.  Like many others, discovering João Gilberto’s music beyond the Getz/Gilberto album was a major “event” in my life that made me want to understand more about a country that could produce such a messenger of raw beauty.  Twenty-odd years later and I am still coming to grips with understanding the place – as are many Brazilians these days – but this much is certain:  Brazil will never produce another João Gilberto.

Som Três – Som Três Show (1968) (BOM24183)

Som Tres – Som Tres Show (1968)
Original: 1968 Odeon MOFB 3541
Reissue: 2010 Bomba Records, Japan – BOM24183
Originally Odeon MOFB 3541

1. Leonardo
2. Falsa Baiana
3. Amazonas (Keep Talking)
4. The World Goes On
5. The Look Of Love
6. Frevo Rasgado
7. Jungle
8. Sá Marina
9. Watch What Happens
10. Emília
11. Balanço Zona Sul

Dora Lopes – Enciclopédia da Gíria (1957 Mocambo)

Dora Lopes – Enciclopédia da Gíria
Mocambo / Rozenblit 1957

Is this a Pride Month post?  Sort of, because Dora Lopes was possibly the first “out” singer in Brazilian popular music.   But this record was  before anyone outside Rio scenesters knew or cared about her sexuality, and even before she was the proprietor of O Caixotinho, one of Rio’s first lesbian nightclubs that served the Copacabana area beginning in the second half of the 60s.  This 1957 album is notable for other reasons, like being released on the small Recife imprint Mocambo, and for the fact that Dora gets composer credits on all but a couple songs here in a era when women songwriters were not the norm.  The songs and arrangements fit more in the jazz-samba world than the nascent bossa nova scene.

Walter Wanderley Trio – Chegança (1966) (1971 reissue)

The Walter Wanderley Trio – Cheganca
Original release 1966 on Verve
1971 Reissue MGM Records
Series: MGM Latino Series – 10,010 MGS 610

Like many musicians looking for reprieve from the turmoil of mid-60s Brazil, keyboardist Walter Wanderley had left the country and settled in the United States.   He emigrated at the behest of Creed Taylor and made half a dozen albums for Verve. Most of them can be classed under ‘lounge’ or ‘exotica’ music, which has its own charms, although often as sweet as the half ton of bagged sugar featured on the front of this album.  But “Chegança” is more like the bossa-jazz records Wanderley made in Brazil and has much less of the Creed Taylor background-music schmaltz factor.   The whole band grooves together.  There is appropriately unsubtle cuica playing on O Ganso (“The Goose”)  The highlight, though,  is still the organ playing.  Have a listen to the solo in “Você e eu” below.