brazilian

Tom Jobim: Matita Perê (1973)

2017/09/20

Lightness, sweetness, and melancholia those are things that define Tom Jobim’s career. You don’t need me to regurgitate a whole Wikipedia page to stress his heralded place in Brazilian music history. Together with João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim allowed for things like space, quietness, and off-beats to have a place in pop music. Everything we…
Almir Sater: Instrumental (1988)

2017/09/13

Something so simple as an album of 10-string viola caipira instrumentals shouldn’t sound so impressive, but leave it to Campo Grande native Almir Sater to make you rethink a whole lot of something. This release, Instrumental, was more than just a musical document of some brief musical sojourn, it was a massive peek into the…
Mix: 5. Trás-os-Montes

2017/07/14

When conceiving my latest mix all I could think about was the works of master Impressionist painters. Where other painters try to highlight the contours and contrasts shapes, objects, and environments have between each other, these Impressionists tried to understand connections found among still and moving life. It’s an understanding of the beauty of gradients…
Flávio Venturini: Nascente (1981)

2017/04/04

There are few albums that just put me in a special place. Flávio Venturini’s Nascente is one of them. When it’s on, it seems my whole spirit bends to its will. Overrun with string instruments, mostly warm-sounding, and some of the most captivatingly tender harmonies on any side of the hemisphere, or era, Nascente just has…
Mix: 3. What Do You Do When It’s Spring?

2017/03/20

In a way, rebirth is exactly what my third mix is about. Taking cues from various feelings springtime evokes, I wanted to compile a set of songs that moved in concert with the season. By themselves, each song has a faint musical seed that germinates and blooms into a much more pronounced, powerful direction. However, taken as part of a whole, despite…
Beto Guedes: Amor De Índio (1978)

2017/01/30

here’s always a tinge of nostalgia I feel when I play any album by a Clube Da Esquina alum. Once you hear that Minas Gerais sound, it’s easy to spend all day just going back trying to rediscover or share these forgotten gems of dreamy Pop music. There are simply so many forgotten, inspiring albums out there, from that region, and that…
Milton Nascimento: Clube Da Esquina 2 (1978)

2016/11/02

At least for me, some of the most interesting albums are the ones released by artists long after their much more lauded work. I say this, because these deep cuts usually detail a bit more history and show the weather of age a bit more clearly than earlier works. This is my thinking: what happens…
Cartola: Cartola (1976)

2014/07/13

Saudade you have taken a hold over me. Forget that my month long retrospective of Brazilian music draws to an end, no, its the feeling invoked by Cartola’s music that draws the most pining for me. Cartola and his wife Dona Zica, will never win any awards for creating the most avant garde music out…
Jorge Ben: Bem-Vinda Amizade (1981)

2014/07/12

As the World Cup draws to a close, so does my series of great Brazilian albums. For some of y’all this is the first time discovering these new types of sounds, and for some, like me, it’s rediscovering a deeper love that will always exist for them. One love that will never die is my…
Marcos Valle: Vontade de Rever Você (1981)

2014/07/11

I remember funk Fridays. Anyway, its been a while since I posted a truly funky album. No sweat, Marcos Valle’s Vontade de Rever Você is just jaw dropping brilliant. Recorded at a time of great change in Brazil, with the dictatorship finally losing its hold on power, and a renewed optimism by its citizenry, it…