Wilson Simonal - Na Odeon 1961 - 1971 (2004)

December 25, 2013, 3:35 pm

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WILSON SIMONAL
Wilson Simonal na Odeon 1961-1971

9 CD Boxset
Released on EMI, 2004






Disc 1 - Tem Algo Mais and A Nova Dimensão do Samba (1963-64)


1- TUDO DE VOCÊ
2- AMANHECENDO
3- TELEFONE
4- SAUDADE
5- SAMBA CROMATICO
6- MENINA FLOR
7- LAGRIMA FLOR
8- BALANCO ZONA SUL
9- MENINO TRISTE
10- MEU COMPORTAMENTO
11- SAMBA E VERBO
12- MANHA NO POSTO SEIS
13- NANA
14- MAIS VALIA NAO CHORAR
15- LOBO BOBO
16- SO SAUDADE
17- ELA DIZ QUE ESTOU POR FORA
18- SAMBA DE NEGRO
19- JEITO BOM DE SOFRER
20- ELA VAI, ELA VEM
21- RAPAZ DE BEM
22- INUTIL PAISAGEM
23- CONSOLACAO
24- NANA
25- MAIS VALIA NAO CHORAR

 


Disc 2 -  Simonal and S'imbora (1965)

 1- GAROTA MODERNA
2- SELECAO DE SAMBA DE ARY BARROSO
3- SO TINHA DE SER COM VOCÊ
4- MARINA
5- MESTICO
6- AS MOCAS DO MEU TEMPO
7- RIO DO MEU AMOR
8- OPINIAO
9- JUCA BOBAO
10- CHUVA
11- DUVIDO DIVIDIR
12- BRUXARIA
13- MANGANGA
14- FICA MAL COM DEUS
15- SONHO DE CARNAVAL
16- SAMBA DO CARIOCA
17- DUAS CONTAS
18- SE TODOS FOSSEM IGUAIS A VOCÊ
19- LADEIRA DO PELOURINHO
20- BALANCO ZONA SUL
21- NOS DOIS
22- O APITO NO SAMBA
23- O TEU AMANHA
24- LENDA
25- LADEIRA DO PELOURINHO




DISC 3 - Vou Deixa Cair and Tempos De Pilantragem (1966-67)

1- VENTO DE MAIO
2- MEU LIMAO MEU LIMOEIRO
3- O CARANGO
4- MINHA NAMORADA
5- SEM VOCÊ EU NAO VIVO
6- ENXUGUE OS OLHOS
7- MARIA
8- A FORMIGA E O ELEFANTE
9- MAMAE PASSOU ACUCAR EM MIM
10- FRANQUEZA
11- TEM DO
12- SAMBA DO MUG
13- SE VOCÊ GOSTOU
14- A BANDA
15- DISPARADA
16- QUEM SAMBA FICA
17- MASCARA NEGRA
18- TRIBUTO A MARTIN LUTHER KING
19- DEIXA QUEM QUISER FALAR
20- ELA E DEMAIS
21- BALADA DO VIETNAM
22- O MILAGRE





DISC 4 - Show Em Simonal (1967)

1- BARRA LIMPA
2- RODA
3- THE SHADOW OF YOUR SMILE
4- CANTIGA BRAVA
5- ESTRELA PRINCIPAL
6- ROCINHA ESTUPIDA (SOMETHING STUPID)
7- CONSOLACAO
8- O MORRO NAO TEM VEZ
9- O QUE FACO P´RA ESQUECER
10- PEGUEI UM ITA NO NORTE
11- UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME
12- NEM VEM QUE NAO TEM
13- MEXIRICO DA CANDINHA
14- QUEM TE VIU QUEM TE VE
15- CONSELHO
16- ARUEIRA
17- MEU LIMAO MEU LIMOEIRO
18- TRIBUTO A MARTIN LUTHER KING
19- ESTA CHEGANDO A HORA






DISC 5 - Alegria, Alegria Volumes 1 and 2 (1967-68)

1- OS ESCRAVOS DE JO
2- AGORA E CINZA
3- VESTI AZUL
4- AOS PES DA CRUZ
5- BELINHA
6- PRA QUE ?
7- NEM VEM QUE NAO TEM
8- FIM DE SEMANA EM PAQUETA
9- PARA PEDRO
10- ESTA CHEGANDO A HORA
11- REMELEXO
12- DISCUSSAO
13- ALEGRIA, ALEGRIA
14- PATA PATA
15- SA MARINA
16- CAE CAE
17- MANIAS
18- RECRUTA BIRUTA
19- NESTE MESMO LUGAR
20- ZAZUEIRA
21- NAO TENHO LAGRIMAS
22- DE COMO UM GAROTO APAIXONADO PERDOOU POR CAUSA DE UM DOS MANDAMENTOS
23- CARTAO DE VISITA
24- PARAÍBA
25- GOSTO TANTO DE VOCÊ
26- VAMOS S'IMBORA
27- NAMORADINHA DE UM AMIGO MEU








 

 DISC 6 - Alegria, Alegria Volumes 3 and 4 (1969)


1- SILVIA LENHEIRA
2- MUSTANG COR DE SANGUE
3- MENININHA DO PORTAO
4- SILÊNCIO
5- PRECE AO VENTO
6- WHAT YOU SAY
7- MOCA
8- ALELUIA, ALELUIA
9- MAMAE EU QUERO
10- MEIA-VOLTA (ANA CRISTINA)
11- PENSANDO EM TI
12- ATIRA A PRIMEIRA PEDRA
13- MULHER DE MALANDRO
14- SE VOCÊ PENSA
15- MAQUILAGEM
16- PORQUE HOJE E DOMINGO
17- EVIE
18- BRASILEIRA
19- OLHO D'AGUA
20- CANCAO DA CRIANCA
21- EU FUI NO TORORO
22- QUE MARAVILHA
23- UMA LOIRA
24- QUEM MANDOU
25- PAÍS TROPICAL
26- ADIOS, MUCHACHO v
 

 
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DISC 7 - Simonal and Jóia (1970-71)

1- SEM ESSA
2- DESTINO E DESATINO DE SEVERINO NONÔ NA CIDADE DE SAO SEBASTIAO DO RIO DE JANEIRO ( OH YEAH! )
3- COMIGO E ASSIM
4- O MUNDO IGUAL DE CADA UM
5- SISTEMA NERVOSO
6- NA BAIXA DO SAPATEIRO
7- MORO NO FIM DA RUA
8- DEIXA O MUNDO E O SOL ENTRAR
9- AI VOCE COMECA A CHORAR
10- NAO TEM SOLUCAO
11- NA TONGA DA MIRONGA DO KABULETÊ
12- OURICO
13- AFRICA, AFRICA
14- DE NOITE NA CAMA
15- GEMEDEIRA
16- IMPOSSIVEL ACREDITAR QUE PERDI VOCE
17- TRISTEZA
18- TUDO E MAGNÍFICO
19- LAMPIAO EM PROSA E VERSO
20- GAROA DIFERENTE
21- VOCÊ ABUSOU
22- NA GALHA DO CAJUEIRO
23- FOTOGRAFIA






DISCs 8 and 9 - Singles, lados B e raridies (Singles, B-sides, and rarities)


1- TEREZINHA
2- BIKINIS E BORBOLETAS
3- EU TE AMO
4- BEIJA MEU BEM
5- TEM QUE BALANCAR
6- OLHOU PRA MIM
7- ESTA NASCENDO UM SAMBA
8- GAROTA LEGAL (You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby)
9- FALE DE SAMBA QUE EU VOU
10- WALK RIGHT IN
11- SO DANCO SAMBA
12- NAO PODE SER
13- EU SOU MAIS EU
14- DE MANHA
15- DAS ROSAS
16- CUIDADO CANTOR
17- TA POR FORA
18- MAMAE PASSOU ACUCAR EM MIM
19- MAMAE PASSOU ACUCAR EM MIM ( Versao em Espanhol inedita )
20- A PRACA
21- SAMBA DO CRIOULO DOIDO
22- A ROSA DA RODA
------------------------------------------
1- TEREZINHA DE JESUS
2- A SAUDADE MATA A GENTE
3- CORRENTEZA
4- PAÍS TROPICAL
5- ECCO IL TIPO CHE IO CERCAVO
6- NO CLARAO DA LUA CHEIA
7- AS MENININHAS DO LEBLON
8- KIKI
9- EU SONHEI QUE TU ESTAVAS TAO LINDA
10- AQUI E O PAÍS DO FUTEBOL 11- HINO DO FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DA CANCAO
12- CANCAO Nº21
13- QUE CADA UM CUMPRA COM O SEU DEVER
14- RESPOSTA
15- BRASIL EU FICO
16- OBRIGADO PELE
17- O XOTE DAS MENINAS
18- MADALENA
19- A NOITE DO MEU BEM  

========================================
 208 songs
Nearly-complete artwork (booklet will not scan)
Composer credits embedded in ID tags
Correct Portuguese orthographic characters in ID tags
This box is out of print
========================================

So a few days ago, stuck in a mire of holiday malaise, I considered closing this blog completely.  Five years is a long time to keep one of these things going, even though I don't update it as often as I would like.  I took it offline temporarily, and the only way to do that was to "restrict" access to blog authors, but the settings here made it look like it became an invitation-only place.  Don't worry, you were not excluded from the club, it was just a party of one over here.

I reconsidered.  Thanks to M. for being reasonable when I couldn't manage it, and to the handful of people who sent messages.  They were much appreciated.

To make up for the brief lapse in judgment, I am sharing this behemoth of a boxset.  I have contemplated doing to many, many times, but always felt this massive burden of having to write some insightful and elegiac homage to Simonal and so I never felt up to the task.  This is in addition to feeling like I had to write reviews of every album here.  The guy was putting out two records a year for a ten-year span, so excuse me if this write-up consists only of saying "Hey this is really good and you should check it out."  Simonal had been one of Brazil's most popular singers before some unfortunate altercations with his accountant and/or the military government put him on the wrong side of history for a few decades.  A documentary film about his career as well as this boxset - both mostly spearheaded by his sons - managed to reset the scales of justice a little.  The guy was a force of nature, with a croony swagger that could evoke casino show-biz performances, chilling on the beach, or cruising in your favorite fashionable low-mileage automobile.  This is the part of the write-up where I could just start dropping names to emphasis how important he was so why not just get right to it - Carlos Imperial, Elis Regina, Som Três and César Camargo Mariano, Orlandivo, Jorge Ben ... Mug.  

I am not even going to try and start singling stuff out, because some internaut hipster will come by and leave comments to the effect of "I can't believe you didn't mention X, Y, or Z, which is so obviously the best thing here yadda yadda", like some people did for the Marcos Valle posts I did a few years ago.  And then I would start thinking about closing the blog again.  So to hell with it, it's Christmas, you got this stuffed in your stocking and if that's not enough then I  can insert a piece of coal in your orifice of choice.

This is a lot of music.  It will take anyone a while to digest it.  One of these days I might start posting some of needledrops, as I have mono pressings of some of these that sound quite different - in those days, a stereo hi-fi was basically a piece of furniture with speakers built in, so stereo panning tended to be quite dramatic by today's standards.  I think the mono mixes have a little more UMPH in many cases.  So whenever I get around to that, I will give more individualized comments on these records.

Did I mention this is filled with rarities?  Almost every disc has some bonus tracks, and then the final 2-CD set is entirely comprised of - you guessed it! - singles, B-sides, and rarities.  In some cases this means we get versions of the same song in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian by who cares. 

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Flabbergasted Freeform Radio #7

December 30, 2013, 4:07 pm

≫ Next: Jamelão - A Voz do Samba Vol. 2 (2002)

≪ Previous: Wilson Simonal - Na Odeon 1961 - 1971 (2004)

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Flabbergasted Freeform #7 by Flabbergasted Vibes on Mixcloud

Happy New Year to everyone! 

It is completely accidental, but there is a preponderance of songs from 1973 in this podcast. Perhaps for next New Years the podcast will be heavy on tunes from 1974...

Playlist will be up in about a week. My compulsive obsession about surprises and spoilers prevents me from sharing it here until every man, woman, and child has heard podcast first.

 320

 FLAC

Jamelão - A Voz do Samba Vol. 2 (2002)

January 28, 2014, 2:49 pm

≫ Next: Caetano Veloso & Banda Black Rio - Bicho Baile Show (1978)

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Jamelão
A Voz do Samba, Volume 2
2002 Warner Brasil (092745933-2)


1. Vingança   
2. Nervos de aço   
3. Ela disse-me assim   
4. Exemplo   
5. Volta   
6. Nunca   
7. Meu natal   
8. Torre de babel   
9. Meu barraco   
10. Loucura   
11. Cadeira vazia   
12. Esses moços (Pobres moços)   
13. Quem há de dizer   
14. Sozinha
   
All songs composed by Lupicínio Rodrigues, with the following tracks featuring co-authors: "Meu Barraco" with Leduvy de Pina; "Cadeira Vazia"  and "Quam Há De Dizer"  with Alcides Gonçalves. 

Original recordings spanning from 1959 to 1987.

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In my last post on Jamelão, Volume 1 of this anthology, I was pretty emphatic in my disinterest for hearing an entire hour of samba-enredos back to back, as well as my belief that the record didn't really do justice to Jamelão.  The man himself would probably have disagreed with me; at least regarding the first part of this complaint, because he was in fact exalted as a master of the form of samba enredo.  But I'll continue to stand by the second half of my gripe:  the "Jamelão I know and love" is right here on THIS disc, which begins in the 1950s and is comprised entirely of compositions from his friend Lupicínio Rodrigues.  The 50s were an auspicious time for Jamelão:  he moved from the Sintér label to Discos Continental and began working with the wonderful Orchestra Tabajara, with whom he criss-crossed Brazil and made it as far as France on tour.  It was while touring with Tabajara that he crossed paths with Lupicínio in Porto Alegre, and soon after the two began a partnership that would make their names practically synonymous with each other.  A great many artists have recorded memorable versions of Lupicínios work, some preceding Jamelão like Orlando Silva and Francisco Alves, and many who followed him - two tracks on this collection, "Nervos de aço" and "Volta" both received impressive renditions by Paulinho da Viola and Gal Costa, respectively, which I happened to be listening to recently because I have become fixated on the magical year of 1973 for some reason.  The list of other renditions of these tunes would doubtless be quite large, but it was the voice of Jamelão that made Lupicínio Rodrigues a household name and etched him in the collective consciousness.  Orchestra Tabajara, who had relocated from Paraiba to Rio right about the time Jamelão approached them with songs to record, pull off some swinging performances with inventive arrangements.  Pianist and bandleader Severino Araújo,  could give the ubiquitous Maestro Gaya a run for his money.  The brass charts are all delicious, and check out the jazzy interplay on "Vingança" or "Meu barraco."  

This collection is so good that I even like the tracks recorded in the 1980s, so often a decade of embarrassment for artists whose careers began elsewhere in time.   As is sadly typical of Brazilian reissues, this collection is sparse on detailed notes, apart from a brief text written by the stalwart Tarik de Souza.   Seems like typical record label suits skimping on the artistic patrimony of a giant like Jamelão who deserves better.  The dodgy mastering job is credited to a generic "Oficína de Áudio e Video", and some of the cuts from the 60s sound like they had reverb added to them.   This was probably done to give more continuity to the collection - indeed, it is hard to distinguish what decade each song was recorded in without peeking at the credits - but this is also due as much to the infallible integrity of Jamelão and Orchestra Tabajara, without the "help" of any digital enhancement.   

Sometime this year I will post some of the Continental LPs I have Jamelão. I posted about the first disc in this series here.  And you can find more of his stuff at Orfãos do Loronix.

Caetano Veloso & Banda Black Rio - Bicho Baile Show (1978)

February 16, 2014, 5:24 pm

≫ Next: Ataulfo Alves - Vida de Minha Vida, Vol. 1 (1933 -1956)

≪ Previous: Jamelão - A Voz do Samba Vol. 2 (2002)

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 Caetano Veloso and Banda Black Rio
Bicho Baile Show (1978)

1.  Intro
2. Odara
3. Tigresa
4. London, London
5. Na Baixa do Sapateiro
6. Leblon via Vaz Lobo
7. Maria fumaça
8. Two Naira fifty Kobo
9. Gente
10. Alegria, alegria
11. Baião
12. Caminho da roça
13. Qualquer coisa
14. Chuva, suor e cerveja

Producedy by Caetano Veloso and Banda Black Rio.  Recorded by Mazola at the Teatro Carlos Gomes, Rio de Janeiro, 1978


Long-time readers of this blog may be surprised to see this post, because there seems to be a mistaken assumption that I somehow strongly dislike work of Caetano Veloso.  This is not true but is a direct result of my "trolling" the public, and particularly the gringo public, by saying that I in general I would rather reach for a Jorge Ben record, any day of the week, over most Caetano records.  That statement was actually about Jorge Ben and the degree to which his music has not been regarded as "culturally significant" art as has someone like Veloso, but the ensuing comment thread turned into something completely different.  I still stand by the original statement, but I gave up "trolling" in my New Years Resolutions, so why not let's have a blog post that treats Caetano a bit more seriously than all that.

In recent years it is not uncommon to hear fans of Caetano employing a "you have to be able separate the art from the artist" argument, which puts him in the same uneasy company as famous film directors accused of child molestation or rape, so I'm not sure if that is a line of reasoning that works for him in the long run.  And the fact is that this kind of compartmentalization might be more valid if the man himself didn't insist on being such a public figure, and continuously baiting the Brazilian public with polemical statements.  Why can't he just be the reclusive genius I want him to be?  Well, if he did that, then he also wouldn't really be Caetano. Fair enough.  But artists who make a point to that kind of high profile are also fair game for a little malicious snark from the likes of bloggers, especially when these artists start spouting reactionary inanities and conservative bullshit.  Granted he has not gone all Ted Nugent or anything (yet) but  in the words of one Frank Vincent Zappa (in self-parody), "shut up and play your guitar" already.  Even Caetano's own mother wished he would shut up and stop giving interviews.   I could ignore his provocations more easily if it didn't seem partly a maneuver to stay "relevant" in the public eye long after his stopped creating music of any real consequence, records that more often than not are embarrassing to listen to, with attempts to sound contemporary by singing Nirvana songs, or "rapping" on his mediocre 'Tropicália 2' record with Gil, or be "alternative" by channeling 1980s U2 in a record made in the late-2000s.  When Bob Dylan suddenly converted to evangelical Christianity, he made a fantastic gospel-tinged album, so it was easier for me to swallow whatever nonsense was going on with him personally.   Perhaps this will sound laden with "ageism", but flailing around on stage like a ragdoll and writhing on stage in near-fetal position (c.f. the film of Phono 73, his performance of  "Asa Branca") is perhaps edgy performance art when you are in your twenties and its 1973 (emphasis on "perhaps", by the way), but running around the stage and out into the audience and high-fiving audience members like some kind of faux-Tropical-Springsteen when you reach your 60s just seems kind of desperate (c.f. Caetano on his tour for the album "Cê"

Iconoclasm has always been a major weapon in Caetano's trick bag, and for the most part it has served a useful and important function, engaging with contemporary debates about culture and authenticity and subverting orthodoxies.  He did this during the televised song festivals when he and Gilberto Gil "went electric" in the moment of Tropicália, angering cultural nationalists who thought of electric guitars as weapons of imperialism;  He did this during the Phono 73 concert by bringing Odair José, a famous singer of so-called "low quality" romantic pop-rock or brega on stage for a duet of one of Odair's big compositions of the day; and he did it with his album Bicho from 1977 and the live show that promoted it.  Now regarded almost universally as a classic of 1970s post-Tropicália MPB, it may be difficult for the outsider to fathom how it could have caused controversy or polemic in it's day.  Many critics and cultural gatekeepers seemed to hate it.  In an echo of complaints from similar quarters ten years earlier, objections were raised to his appropriation of "foreign" sounds, in this case funk or disco (sort of, but only from a disco-phobic perspective).  In fact both Bicho and Gilberto Gil's Refavela were inspired by a trip to Lagos, Nigeria, for the Festival of Black Arts in 1977.  Gil's record has a proto-world beat sound to it, and is celebratory, energetic, and uplifting in the way you might expect.  Bicho on the other hand tended to be more ponderous, sonically murky, and emotionally mood, but also full of inspired songs with engaging arrangements and brilliant lyrics (this goes without saying for Caetano, and is the one saving grace on even his most musically stale records).  (** see the important note at the bottom if you've never heard this album..)

I'm not sure how much of the live show for Bicho was planned before the album was released, or if the show was Caetano's way of upping the ante even further with his detractors.  For his backing band he chose the ensemble Banda Black Rio.  Now, I happen to like Banda Black Rio quite a bit, but once again here was a group that challenged what it meant to make "Brazilian music" and had some commercial success while doing it (which music critics from seemingly all countries repeatedly used to marginalize or ignore certain kinds of music during the 70s and 80s).  Stylistically they shared as many similarities with Earth Wind and  Fire or The Crusaders as they did with Dorival Caymmi, making largely instrumental records filled with jazz-funk-fusion which they tempered with dendê and coconut.



I remember when I first heard about the existence of this record and was so excited to hear it, only to feel a big disappointment.  Had I just set my expectations too high? Maybe but I don't think that's all of it.   I think it is more that this collaboration was one of those ideas that sounds better on paper.  At first listen the whole show sounds almost kind of unrehearsed, but the musicianship is of course impeccable and there's not really a note out of place - Brazilian musicians of this caliber just don't "do" unrehearsed.  Maybe it was over-rehearsed to death, then?  It's not so much like polishing a diamond as sanding all the facets down.  Banda Black Rio were maybe just incapable of injecting the needed emotion into their playing to make these collaboration work.  Their own first few albums were, by and large, instrumental affairs.  Several of the tunes here have these wonderfully moody intro bits that make you think you are about to hear some seriously heavy stuff, and then the song kicks in and just kind of stays at a plateau of sameness.  They get several pieces all to themselves where they stretch out and do that thing they do - playing classics of the canon like Ary Barroso's "Na baixo do sapateiro" and Luiz Gonzaga's "Baião" and turning them into funky rumb-shakers wherein their soloists let loose their formidable jazz chops.   It's a shame they can't muster the same level of presence into the material with Caetano, because these are some of his best songs.  The opening cut Odara ought to literally blow us away, but it just lacks the urgency of the album version, a track that is most likely the deepest funk Caetano has ever put his name to.  This live version sounds like Caetano performing with a pickup band in a casino, albeit in 1978 which means I still would have thoroughly enjoyed it.  Interestingly the next track, the mellow Tigressa, comes across much more convincingly and could be (or could have been:?)  my favorite thing on the whole record.  Perhaps because Caetano's acoustic guitar sets the pace - the guy is a master of lilting downtempo stuff like this that isn't quite a ballad but simmers along nicely.  His astoundingly well-crafted lyrics, and his way of working a melody all sustain this evocative portrait, and then Banda Black Rio even manage to fuck that all up by going into double-time at the end of the tune, instead of just staying in the same tempo and laying into it, swinging it a little harder.  These guys could have benefited from a summer camp retreat with Isaac Hayes (hell, who couldn't?).   Now although I am putting the blame on them them here, I will admit that I wasn't hanging around at the rehearsals, and I have no doubt in my mind that the arrangement would not be this way if Caetano wasn't okay with it.  In fact he may have insisted on it:  here again might be that particular aspect of his iconoclasm that starts to try my patience, pushing an idea farther than it probably deserves to go in the interest of his larger masterplan, turning on the boogie with a song that plainly doesn't need it.

 "London, London", his most famous tune from his "exile" recorded under the colors of the Union Jack, works far better than it ought to given all the above circumstances.  Enough to rekindle my hope for this venture.  It's solid.  Then three consecutive instrumentals from Banda Black Rio while Caetano goes backstage or maybe out in the alleyway to have sex in a taxi cab (he is fond of getting it on in taxi cabs, as seen here in this 1983 film).  BBB sounds damn good here on both the originals and reinterpretations.  Then comes another tune that seems ON PAPER like it would work really well.  "Two Naira Fifty Kobo" is one of my favorite songs on "Bicho," and this ... just... doesn't... work.   Mind you, I saw Caetano perform the same song twenty-two years later with a different arrangement and that one sucked too.  Maybe I am just being a bastard here - How he dare he mess with MY song! It's his and he can do what he wants with it, fair enough.  When I saw that show I thought his rendition of the song was watered-down and tepid and a product of a decade of drifting towards 'world music'-isms; had I only known this 1978 version at the time, I would have realized he had managed to water it down plenty in just a year after first recording it. 

"Gente" is a song that naturally lends itself to the jazzed up execution of this band, but (not to repeat myself or anything) it just isn't anywhere near as strong as the version performed for the Doces Bárbados show.  In fact this ventures into just plain cheesy territory with some of the choices of instrumental embellishments and flourishes.   But wait, there's more - you haven't yet heard the disco-funk interpretation of the song that forever changed the course of contemporary Brazilian music, "Alegria Alegria," the anthem of Tropicália.  At this point I begin to suspect that Caetano is just trolling us and trying to piss people off.  (And hence, I don't mind trolling a certain component of his devotees).  Is he serious?  One never knows with him.  This song serves no purpose unless it is to illustrate "we did it because we can."  More instrumental tunes.  I'd like to think Caetano is offstage doing some blow but he was probably writing off editorials to send to the New York Times or Le Monde or something.  Then he comes back and they phone in a version of Qualquer Coisa, a perfectly good song from his album of the same name, but which in this version has all the period charm of the plaid wallpaper we used to have my basement in the house where I grew up.  If you looked at it while listening to music and let your focus go soft, you might sometimes have a vision of a kilted Scotsman sporting a giant afro.  If only this track left such an enduring memory.  Or any memory at all.  I've already forgotten it.  Then the album ends with a frevo, "Chuva, suor e cerveja," which I think Caetano also recorded for that carnaval album he made with a whole bunch of frevo on it, I don't remember and I'm too lazy to check right now.  Hell if you actually made it this far into "Bicho Baile Show" and still care, you win the Stalwart Listener Award and I tip my hat to you.

Of course don't let ME tell you what to think, give it a spin!  I feel badly now, like I should attach a motto to this blog, "Ruining Your Favorite Music Since 2008."  I swear I thought I was going to write a fairly positive piece about this album when I decided to blog about it, reassuring my readers that I do in fact have a healthy appreciation for Mr. Veloso.  I thought I'd pick a less obvious choice, but I guess there is a reason why this record is seldom talked about.  I promise to pick a better one next time.

Fun drinking game, at least?  Take a shot of your favorite artisinal cachaça (Caetano won't be having any Pitú) every time he meows like a cat or yelps like a dog!  Just don't drive home, kids.  Take a taxi.  And hope Caetano isn't in the back making out with anybody when you climb inside.




 ** Note:  If you have not yet had the pleasure of hearing 'Bicho', which is truly a great album, do yourself a favor and make sure you seek out the *original* mix and now the godawful travesty that is the last reissue of the record.  This is not just me being a purist here -  As murky as the original mix might have been in certain spots, it is far superior to what he did on remixing it.  In part, that remix involved splashing everything with reverb to presumably make it sound more "modern" than the very dry 1977 mix, and the drums sound like they could have been re-recorded (although I don't think they were) with an awful gated-drum sound that could have come off a record from 1991.  The result is a completely different aesthetic experience, so seek it out in its original.  

Ataulfo Alves - Vida de Minha Vida, Vol. 1 (1933 -1956)

March 2, 2014, 3:33 pm

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VIDA DE MINHA VIDA - ATAULFO ALVES VOL. 1
Ataulfo Alves 1993 Revivendo (RVCD 086)

1 Sexta-feira (Almirante, 1933)
2 Saudades do meu barracão  (Floriano Belham, 1935)
3 O coração não envelhece  (Ataulfo Alves e Seu Estado Maior, 1950)
4 Teus olhos  (Aurora Miranda, 1939)
5 Mulher, toma juízo (Gilberto Alves, 1938)
6 Canção do nosso amor  (Déo. 1939)
7 Não irei lhe buscar (Ataulfo Alves e Suas Pastoras, 1944)
8 Fale mal, mas fale de mim  (Aracy de Almeida. 1939)
9 Até breve  (Sylvio Caldas, 1937)
10 Vida de minha vida  (Ataulfo Alves, 1949)
11 Mensageiro da saudade  (Elisete Cardoso, 1950)
12 Eu não sabia  (Anjos do Inferno, 1943)
13 Rainha da beleza  (Orlando Silva, 1937))
14 Mártir no amor  (Ataulfo Alves e Suas Pastores, 1945)
15 Mulher do Seu Oscar  (Odete Amaral, 1940)
16 Mil corações  (Nuno Roland, 1938)
17 Quanta tristeza! (Carlos Galhado, 1937)
18 Quem me deve me paga  (Ataulfo e Suas Pastores, 1956)
19 Errei sim (Dalva de Oliveira, 1950)
20 Pelo amor que eu tenho a ela  (Francisco Alves, 1936)
21 Pai Joaquim d'Angola  (Ataulfo Alves e Suas Pastoras, 1955)



Produced by Leon Barg
Engineering - Ayrton Pisco

Recordings originally made for the following labels: Odeon, RCA Victor, Columbia, Star, and Sínter

 Ataulfo Alves was a badass.  He was one of a rare handfull of samba composers of his generation who also had a successful career as a recording artist at the same time, and was amazing in both roles.  He had striking good looks and stage charisma, a marvelous singing voice, and his arrangements of his own tunes are some of the funkiest things you'll hear from the golden age of samba.  These two volumes from Revivendo (a label that is to older "Velha Guarda" music what Chronological or Yazoo are to U.S. music) do a fantastic job of presenting some of his own recordings alongside hits by huge icons of the day like Francisco Alves, Silvio Caldas, Aracy de Almeida, Almirante, Orlando Silva and others.  They all bring tremendous vivacity to his work.  Both Carmen Miranda AND her sister Aurora are represented.  Another rarity of note is one side of Elizete Cardoso's very first 78 rpm recording.  Apparently the release was recalled "for technical reasons" (no idea what that means), and no indication is given of what was used for this CD - in spite of the date being 1950, the sound is much worse than the tracks dating from the 30s.  Anyway it is cool to have it.

I love the Revivendo label.  The sound is typically very good, avoiding the pitfalls of trying to "polish" these old gems with heavy-handed noise reduction and so on.    I wish they would hire a decent graphic designer, though.

Ataulfo deserves a long blog post celebrating his life and work.  But it is carnaval right this second and what are you doing at home on the internet anyway?  If you aren't in a carnivalesque country, at least put on some music and dance around your room.

It is hard to pick a few tunes off this for a short playlist because, seriously, they are all great.  But here are a few, including one performed by the Anjos do Inferno, a group whose name translates into "Hell's Angels" which is kind of funny since they couldn't be more temporally or culturally removed from the biker gang or from Roger Corman exploitation flicks.   These are Hells Angels you could invite over for tea.  

 

Tim Maia - Tim Maia (1977) (repost)

March 16, 2014, 11:58 am

≫ Next: Bettye Crutcher - Long As You Love Me (1974)

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Because a neo-colonial gringo record label released a compilation of Tim's material a while ago, heavily promoted by hipster-indie icons to sell CDs and overpriced vinyl to the trendy gentrifiars of American urban spaces, all of my Tim Maia blog posts got shut down on the same day.  I am reposting them for historical, archival purposes complete with my inane writings of the time they were originally posted.  Make sure to read all the appreciate comments and you will thank me later. 


1 Pense menos

(Paulo Ricardo - Tim Maia)

2 Sem você

(Paulo Ricardo - Tim Maia)

3 Verão carioca

(Paulo Roquete - Reginaldo Francisco - Paulo Ricardo - Tim Maia)

4 Feito para dançar

(Paulo Ricardo)

5 É necessário

(Tim Maia)

6 Leva o meu blue

(Tim Maia)

7 Venha dormir em casa

(Tim Maia)

8 Música para Betinha

(Carlos Simões - Reginaldo Francisco - Paulo Ricardo - Tim Maia)

9 Não esquente a cabeça

(Carlos Simões - Tim Maia)

10 Ride twist and roll

(Tim Maia)

11 Flores belas (Instrumental)

(Tim Maia)

12 Let it all hang out

(Tim Maia)


Tim Maia - Vocal, drums, congas, acoustic guitar, percussion
Paulo Ricardo R. Alves - 6 and 12-string guitars, vocals,
Reginaldo Francisco - Acoustic and electric piano, organ, arp, vocal
Paulo Roberto R. Nazareth - guitar & vocal
Carlos Simões - bass
Geraldo - trumpet
Darci Seixas - trombone
Sebastião - alto saxophone
José Mauricio - guitar, vocal
César Fernando - congas, vocal
Paulo do Couto - cowbell
Guto Graça Mello - string arrangements

Production, horn and vocal arrangements - Tim Maia

Released on Som Livre 1977, reissue

According to Nelson Motta's biography of Tim Maia, "Vale Tudo," this record had a working title of "Verão Carioca" and marks the period where Tim began imbibing large quantities of coke. Whatever, Motta's book is in fact poorly written, lacking any kind of sources, or even a comprehensive discography (or a partial one, for that matter). What is for certain is that this is the record where disco begins to be felt in his music in a positive way. Rug burners like "Feito Pra Dançar" nestle alongside heavy funk like "E Necessario." Another highlight is "Não Esquente a Cabeça" which has memorable hooks and melodies, and tasty electric piano and guitar work over a smokey post-bossa pan-latin groove. It's probably the catchiest song on here. This is prime material by polymath Tim Maia -- producer, multi-instumentalist, and arranger on this record.


Motta does relate an anecdote about the rehearsals for the album, when there was construction going on right next door and all the songs ended up being arranged to the tempo of a jack-hammer. There is a reference to this on the 'thank you' section of the original album's back cover.

Bettye Crutcher - Long As You Love Me (1974)

March 27, 2014, 7:38 am

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Bettye Crutcher
Long As You Love Me
Original release 1974 Enterprise / Stax
Reissue 2013 Ace Records
Remastered by Duncan Cowell at Sound Mastering

01 - As Long As You Love Me
02 - When We're Together
03 - Passion
04 - A Little Bit More Won't Hurt
05 - Sunday Morning's Gonna Find Us In Love
06 - Sugar Daddy
07 - Call Me When All Else Fails
08 - Up For A Let Down
09 - So Lonely Without You
10 - Sleepy People

BONUS TRACKS

11 - So Glad To Have You
12 - Don't You Think It's About Time?
13 - Make A Joyful Noise
14 - We've Got Love On Our Side
15 - Walk On To Your New Love
16 - I Forgive You

Rhythm by Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Horns and strings by The Memphis Symphony Orchestra

Produced by Bettye Crutcher and Mack Rice
Arranged by Johnny Allen
Engineers - Pete Bishop, Jerry Masters, Steve Melton
Cover design and creative direction - The Stax Organization
Mastering - Larry Nix
A Very Special Thanks to: Bobby Womack
Photography - Frederic Torna
---------------------------------------------------------


Unless you are the type who habitually reads the credits on album jackets, you've probably never heard of Bettye Crutcher.  A victim of both a chauvinistic industry and a mismanaged label at the end of its lifespan, as a recording artist her one and only album fell between the cracks of Stax and has been relegated to a cult object for the last few decades.  It was finally issued on CD last year, together with a smattering of bonus tracks that include a few demos - this is, as far as we know at present, the entire recorded legacy of Bettye as a performer.

As a writer, however, she left a much larger body of work.  She penned a ton of hits for the likes of Johnny Taylor, Carla Thomas, Soul Children, William Bell, The Staple Singers and others.  She formed part of a triad of writing partners, We Three, that was a bit like the Stax version of The Corporation, cranking out great tunes for their roster of artists.  For this album she worked with Mack Rice as a writing and producing partner, and the material is more low key, with even the funkier tunes coming out mellow. 

Fabulous production and arrangements, filled with just enough patches of strings and horns and Isaac Hazey flute riffs, would make this a joy to listen to even if the songs were mediocre.  But the songs are excellent and Bettye has an alluring personality as a singer.  Like a sort of southern soul Carole King, her voice isn't quite ideal for the funkier tunes on the album but she approaches them with enough charm to make them work.  You might notice that a lot of her vocals are double-tracked to give her voice a thicker sound (this is a studio technique that I like quite a bit, so mind you I am not bashing it).  The opening track is probably the strongest thing here and sets the bar really high, meaning that what follows may take a few listens for its goodness to fully reach you.  There are no throw-away tunes on it, and a lot going on to keep your ears busy and happy.  Swinging effortlessly between deep southern funk, delicate ballads, and AM-radio pop-soul bliss, it is baffling that this album received no attention at the time.  It may not qualify for breathless declarations of "lost genius soul classic" but it is easily as good as dozens of other albums released in 1974 that received critical and financial compensation, and a lot of it really is brilliant.

Unlike Carole King, there are no re-recordings of her famous compositions recorded by other artists, and the liner notes shed no light as to why not (artistic choice of Bettye's, or contractual stuff with other Stax artists?).  In fact Stax shamefully did not even release a single off this album in the US (they did release "Sugar Daddy," a track I do not feel is representative of Bettye as a performer, a year later in the UK).  Just as puzzling is the existence of four completed recordings of very high quality that never saw the light of day until this reissue, where they are included as bonus tracks.  "So Glad To Have You" and "Don't You Think It's About Time" are exhilarating songs that would have been ideal singles.  Four tracks, two A and B sides - these aren't even rough mixes, but rather polished, finished product.  Liner note author Tony Rounce muses that it might have been Bettye's life situation as a single mother, unable or unwilling to go out on the road, that made Stax reluctant to promote her.  But Stax was so close to bankruptcy at this point that it is almost a pointless exercise to try and guess the logic behind anything going on in their disorganized offices.  Two demos tacked on to the end of the disc are solid, but we know nothing about them - when and where and with who they were recorded.  But as I said at the outset, this disc represents the entire legacy of Bettye as a recording artist unless someone finds some tape reels hidden away under their bed, so you'd better enjoy every last second of it.


Bettye sitting in between We Three partners Homer Banks and Raymond Jackson and a stack of what look like Universal Audio compressors.

Nara Leão - "Descontrolada" (1976) unreleased single!

April 1, 2014, 9:51 am

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Well this is a new thing for the blog, the first time I have ever hosted a "leaked" track unavailable elsewhere, and hopefully it won't get us shut down after managing to survive this many years.  The track below was deemed unsuitable for release on the rarities discs included with the recent 2103 Nara Leão boxset, and was passed along to me by an audio engineer in friend in São Paulo who made me swear never to share it with anyone except at home through a stereo.  Well that guy turned out to be a royal prick so I am disregarding the promise now.

In the mid-1970s, Nara had gone into semi-retirement in order to raise her children and eventually pursue a degree in psychology.  I suppose the urge to perform in someone as creatively powerful as Nara doesn't just go dormant, and the retirement didn't last all that long by today's standards. These days it is normal for pop stars to release one record every three years, because they are mostly overpaid lazy fucks,   but it must have seemed an eternity to her fans back in the day.   She returned to recording with a deliberately nostalgic work looking back to the golden age of Brazilian song, hence the title, Meu Primeiro Amor ("My First Love").  It is a great record but probably came across a bit anachronistic in  light of the whirlwind of changes - social, musical, political - that had swept across Brazil in the decade leading up to it: changes which, of course, Nara played pivotal and multiple roles as a cultural and musical icon.  Given how the newly-uncovered track featured here lay buried for almost forty years with no indication that it ever existed, it is difficult to say if this recording session was simply an attempt by Nara to musically invent herself, to experiment with new sounds, or maybe to make a little cash with a more contemporary-sounding single.  Whatever the case, she apparently did not care for the resulting recording and disowned it.

For the session, she chose João Donato to work out the arrangements and take on production duties  (he would later end up producing her next album, Os Meus Amigos São Um Barato ).   The complete personnel on this track is unknown, but what little was written on the insert inside the tape reel documents that the session involved Hyldon and Cassiano on guitar, both seminal figures in the Brazilian soul scene of the mid-70s, and the melody sounds like one or both of them may have a writing credit here.  And though I can't prove it, I swear I can hear their friend Tim Maia on backing vocals.  Normally his voice overtakes everyone else on every session he was ever on, however, so maybe they just kept him really far from the microphone or made him sing in the hallway.  The tune starts out with a throwback nod to her bossa-cum-capoeira heyday, but the intro is just an illusion that does not prepare the listener for what comes next: some of the most funky pieces of music to be made in Brazil in the mid-70s, music that is so forward-thinking it wouldn't sound out of place on the radio decades later.   All that being said, as incredible as it is to have an unissued track from Nara Leão with these unlikely collaborators, I can understand why she chose not to release it.  Her voice just isn't particularly suited to funk and soul music, and although she did have a reputation for iconoclasm in the 60s, perhaps in the mid 70s she opted not to jeopardize her good standing as a canonical MPB singer by attempting a polemical style like funky samba soul, especially with such sexual overtones.  She even chose to sing, rather awkwardly, in English, which would have further enraged much of her devoted following.

So here is the track, titled "Descontrolada", and if it doesn't get this blog shut down for good, I hope to see you all soon in another post.  If the gods have mercy, I promise to post more often than I have been lately.

---

Chanson - Chanson (1978) 24/96khz

April 8, 2014, 9:05 am

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CHANSON
"Chanson"
1978 Ariola Records  SW-50039

A1     Don't Hold Back    4:23
A2     I Can Tell    7:03
A3     I Love You More     3:49
B1     Why     4:25
B2     Did You Ever    4:33
B3     All The Time You Need    5:10

LINEAGE: Vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable (with Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply); Creek Audio OBH-15; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; Click Repair; individual clicks and pops taken out with Adobe Audition 3.0 - dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced (for 16-bit). Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

James Jamerson Jr - lead vocals and bass guitar

David Williams - lead vocals, guitar

David Paich - Keyboards

Jeff Porcaro - drums

Eddie Bongo Brown - congas, bongos

Ollie Brown - percussion on "Did You Ever"

Al McKay - guitar

Steve Porcaro - Synthesizer on "All The Time You Need"

Linda Evans - lead vocal on "I Can Tell"

Horns - Donald Myrick, Michael Davis Michael Harris, Louis Satterfield, Fred Jackson Jr., Willian Green, Oscar Brashear, George Bohannon

Backing Vocals – Julia Tillman, Lorna Willard, Marti McCall

 Recorded At – Kendun Recorders

 Mixed At – Kendun Recorders

 Mastered At – Allen Zentz Mastering

 Arranged By – Benjamin F. Wright Jr.

Art Direction, Illustration – John Georgopoulos

Published by Kichelle Music/Jamersonian Music/Cos-K Music ASCAP.

Produced for MK Productions.

   

    Concertmaster [Strings] – Janice Gower

      Contractor – Don Myrick

    Coordinator [Production Coordination] – Susan Evans

    Engineer [Recording and Mixing] – Richard Heenan

    Executive Producer – Marc Kreiner, Tom Cossie

      Mastered By – Brian Gardner

    Photography By [Back Cover] – Art Maruyama

    Photography By [Front Cover] – Sam Vinci

        Typography [Lettering] – Tom Nikosey

Recorded and mixed at Kendun Recorders.

Mastered at Allen Zentz Mastering Inc.

"Chanson" was a project of  James Jamerson Jr. - son of the great Motown legend James Jamerson, and who had played with a bunch of Motown bands in his own right, including the 70s incarnation of the Temps - and David Williams, who had played with The Dells.  The two standout tracks were released on the single - "Don't Hold Back," the manically funky anthem to the 70s philosophy of "if it feels good do it" (actually a lyric in the chorus, shamelessly) with which they had a reasonably big hit and which features a classic breakdown in the middle, and the slower tune "Did You Ever," which sounds like it might have been aiming for the Quiet Storm radio format.  Ollie Brown's percussion on that tune is some of the most quiet conga playing I have ever heard and the whole tune works real nicely.  "I Can Tell" is straight-up disco-funk with lots of conga and a nice vocal from Linda Evans.    "I Love You More" is a  modern soul number with a funky verse, a pop hook in the chorus, and a tight little flute riff.  Side One only lasts about fifteen minutes (the whole album clocks in a half an hour).  So at this point you would get up and refresh your drink, powder your nose or whatever other rituals compel you, and when you flipped the record over hopefully you wouldn't notice that the next song "Why" has the exact same chord pattern as the last tune.  Except it sounds more like Billy Ocean or maybe the Doobie Brothers covering a song by Billy Ocean.  It's not bad but at this point you start to wonder if some of this record isn't a kind of "paint by numbers" modern soul / R+B album.  The mellow "Did You Ever" brings things back from the brink and keeps it interesting, and the album goes out on another slow-burner, "Take All The Time You Need". 


The playing is all super-tight and the arrangements are solid but lean, with a live-band sound to all of it even though there are some string overdubs.  I particularly like how they favored using acoustic piano over keyboards, kind of an unusual production choice for an album of this kind in 1978.  The few synth patches here and there stand out because of that, but in a good way, like in the lead off track.  All in all, this group had potential but sort of prove that oodles of talent and tight grooves can only get you so far without the stellar songwriting available to the environment nurtured Jamerson's dad.  The whole thing has a pretty radio-friendly sound, and the first track will stay stuck in your head for days, but the rest of the tunes may need a little superglue or chewing gum.  They made one more album, which I have but about which I can literally remember nothing at all.  Which leads me to believe this is the better of the two, although I suppose I can dig that one out again sometime.

P.S. - Louis Satterfield of Earth Wind and Fire toots a horn on this record.

Flabbergasted Freeform Radio Hour # 8

April 18, 2014, 6:59 pm

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FLABBERGASTED FREEFORM No.8
April 2014

Well it's about time for another podcast.  I hope you enjoy it.  You can listen to it on either Mixcloud or Soundcloud, or get yourself a direct download from the link at the bottom.

Flabbergasted Freeform No. 8 by Flabbergasted Vibes on Mixcloud

in 320 

  in FLAC

The Awakening - Hear, Sense, and Feel (1972) [Black Jazz BJ9]

May 4, 2014, 6:43 pm

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≪ Previous: Flabbergasted Freeform Radio Hour # 8

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The Awakening
Hear, Sense and Feel
1972 Black Jazz Records BJ9


1     Awakening - Prologue / Spring Thing     9:36
2     When Will It Ever End    7:16
3     Convulsions     6:37
4     Kera's Dance     10:05
5    Jupiter     7:33
6     Brand New Feeling    5:50
7    Awakening - Epilogue     1:08


    Bass – Reggie Willis
    Drums – Arlington Davis, Jr.
    Flugelhorn, Trumpet – Frank Gordon
    Piano, Electric Piano – Ken Chaney   
    Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Ari Brown
    Trombone – Steve Galloway
    Electric bass on "Brand New Feeling" - Richard Evans

Produced by – Gene Russell
Recorded at Streeterville Studio, Chicago

-----------------------------------



A lovely, dare I say a gorgeous record from jazz ensemble The Awakening, all of whose members seemed to have connections of the AACM collective founded by Muhal Richard Abrams in Chicago.   While Frank Gordon and Ken Chaney were co-credited as bandleaders, the record has the kind of musical egalitarianism you might expect.  Recording for the short-lived Black Jazz label, they were only around for about four years and put out two excellent albums of mostly mellow, modal, moody jazz in the more soulful corner of the Afrocentric "spiritual" jazz idiom.  In spite of having a track titled "Convulsions", everything on the record is melodic, with the occasional free riffing or over-blowing coasting on top of solid grooves.  The record opens up with a invocation-type poem that leads into "Spring Thing," which eases us into the album.  If I have any criticism of the record it might be that, while this first track features obligatory solos from everyone as a way of introducing their voices, it somehow ends up not particularly representing the musical identity of the group.  But that is okay, because 1972 was a time when people seemed to have more time to sit and listen to music and didn't have to be `hooked` in the first few minutes to stay interested. Patience, my friend.  "When Will It End" has a circular-time thing going apropos of the title, with the bass playing a five-note ascending riff that barely changes over the course of seven minutes.  Chaney switches to electric piano for this one with delicious results.  Speaking of piano, for whatever reason, random association or coincidence, the two compositions by (trumpeter) Frank Gordon remind me a lot of McCoy Tyner

With the exception of special guest Richard Evans, who plays the only electric bass on the record on the funky closer "Brand New Feeling,"  the two members with the broadest pedigree outside the AACM seem to be Steve Galloway and Ken Chaney.  Galloway played with Count Basie in addition to credits on the cult-classic "Funky Skull" album by Melvin Jackson and a respectable number of soul sessions (Jerry Butler, The Dells, The Staples), and Ken Chaney, who among his other accomplishments played on the massive hit "Soulful Strut" by Young-Holt Unlimited.

"Hear, Sense, and Feel" is an immediately accessible, uplifting jazz record.  Their next album, "Mirage," was a bit funkier and a little bit more "out" as well.

A long time ago I promised to share a whole bunch of stuff from the Black Jazz discography.  Well as the saying goes, promises were meant to be broken.  Anyway this should help ease the pain until I dip back into their catalog again here.

Candeia - Luz da Inspiração and Axé (1976-78)

May 13, 2014, 5:22 pm

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CANDEIA
Dose Dupla (2 on 1)
Luz da Inspiração (1976) and
Axé! Gente Amiga do Samba (1978)


LUZ DA INSPIRAÇÃO
1977 Atlantic/WEA

1 Riquezas do Brasil (Brasil poderoso)
(Waldir 59, Candeia)   
2 Maria Madalena da Portela
(Aniceto)   
3 Olha o samba sinhá (Samba de roda)
(Candeia)   
4 Vem menina moça
(Candeia)   
5 Nova escola
(Candeia)   
6 Já curei minha dor
(Padeirinho)   
7 Luz da inspiração
(Candeia)   
8 Me alucina
(Candeia, Wilson Moreira)   
9 Falso poder (Ser ou não ser)
(Candeia)   
10 Era quase madrugada
(Casquinha, Candeia)   
11 Cabocla Jurema
(Candeia)   
12 Pelo nosso amor
(Cartola)   

AXÉ! GENTE AMIGA DO SAMBA
Candeia   
1978 Atlantic/WEA

1 Pintura sem arte
(Candeia)   
2 Ouro desça do seu trono
(Paulo da Portela)   
Mil reis (Candeia-Noca)

3 Vivo isolado do mundo
(Alcides Malandro Histórico)   
Amor não é brinquedo (Candeia-Martinho da Vila)

4 Zé Tambozeiro [Tambor de Angola]
(Vandinho, Candeia)   
5 Dia de graça
(Candeia)   
6 Gamação
(Candeia)   
Peixeiro granfino (Bretas-Candeia)
Ouço uma voz (Nelson Amorim)
Vem amenizar (Candeia-Waldir 59)

OMITTED FROM CD VERSION - 7 O invocado
(Casquinha)   
Beberrão (Aniceto do Império-Mulequinho)

______________________________________________________________

Dia de Graça
Hoje é manhã de carnaval (ao esplendor)
As escolas vão desfilar (garbosamente)
Aquela gente de cor com a imponência de um rei, vai pisar na passarela (salve a Portela)
Vamos esquecer os desenganos (que passamos)
Viver alegria que sonhamos (durante o ano)
Damos o nosso coração, alegria e amor a todos sem distinção de cor
Mas depois da ilusão, coitado
Negro volta ao humilde barracão
Negro acorda é hora de acordar
Não negue a raça
Torne toda manhã dia de graça
Negro não se humilhe nem humilhe a ninguém
Todas as raças já foram escravas também
E deixa de ser rei só na folia e faça da sua Maria uma rainha todos os dias
E cante o samba na universidade
E verás que seu filho será príncipe de verdade
Aí então jamais tu voltarás ao barracão

It's the 13th of May, a holiday in Brazil commemorating the abolition of slavery in 1888, when Princess Isabel found it in her benevolent, saintly heart to "free the slaves."  Commemorations only work well when you exclude the inconvenient, which in this case would involve decades of debt peonage, landlessness, discrimination, and systemic racism shielded by a self-serving myth of so-called 'racial democracy' ("Brazil does not have a race problem, it has a class problem...").  It is inconvenient for commemorations to pay attention to the harassment of people of color simply for being in the "wrong place" (like a shopping mall), to the militarization of the slums to make sure that people "know their place," or if that still doesn't work, vigilante citizens chasing and beating a teenage petty thief, stripping him naked and then chaining him to a lamppost with a bike lock.  Inconvenient that all of these last items have happened in the 21st century, in spite of provisions in Brazil's 1988 constitution that make racism and racial discrimination a crime punishable by prison time, but which is of course never enforced.  It's also probably best not to think about the voluminous documentation of forced slave labor and human rights abuses in the remote interior of the country (mind you, as an occasionally pedantic American historian insisted to me once, this is "not the same as the chattel slavery" of the transatlantic slave trade.. She's right, but she was also kind of missing the point). 

So with all that in mind, a blog post of music by Candeia might be better suited for the holiday commemorating the death of Zumbi of Palmares rather than this patriotic flag-waving, parade-holding one.   After all Candeia did found his own samba organization called Grêmio Recreativo de Arte Negra e Samba Quilombo.  The song "Dia de Graça" is a gorgeous little composition, whose lyrics (cited above) trace a hopeful, somewhat utopian vision that messes with the classic "inversion" theme of carnival that is a beloved subject of erudite analysis from Bakhtin to Roberto DaMatta to that annoying book by Alma Guillermoprieto.  That well-trodden debate tended to be framed as:  Is the upside-down, burlesque and irreverent world of carnival - where the poor and dispossessed could dress and act like aristocrats or royalty -  a kind of social critique made by those whose voices were historically silenced, or was it a kind of 'steam valve' to release the bottled-up tensions of a hierarchical society to prevent them from erupting into genuine chaos and disorder.   Candeia's poem, however, is from the point of view of the people who participate in the courtly procession of the samba school, which has roots stretching back to the black brotherhoods of Our Lady of the Rosary and the coronation ceremonies of the Congo Kings of the colonial period.  My 'free' translation with no attempt to maintain meter or rhyme, hence laid out as a paragraph here:

It's carnival morning in all its splendor, the samba schools are going to parade in their elegance; these people of color with the majesty of kings are going to stride along the concourse (hail Portela!). Forget our troubles and suffering that we've lived through, live the happiness that we dream of all year long, give our hearts, happiness, and love to everyone with no regard for their color.  But when the illusion is over, poor thing, the black man returns to his humble shack.  Black man wake up, it's time to wake up.  Don't deny your race.  Make every morning your day of grace and freedom.  Black man don't be humiliated and don't humiliate anyone else, all of the races were also once slaves.  Stop being a king only in the pageant and make your Maria a queen for all days.  Sing samba in the universities, and see that your son can be a true prince in real life, and then you will never again have to return to that humble shack.

Samba has no shortage of bittersweet  songs about carnival, but I can't think of too many that also sneak in jarringly direct negations of the supposed inferiority of black people with a line like "todas as raças já foram escravas também."  It's a we-shall-overcome expression of racial uplift clothed in the silk and velvet of Louis the XV.

--------------------------------

"Dia de Graça" is from Candeia's greatest album, "Axé - gente amiga de samba"  recorded shortly before he died.  He was a samba purist in the era of the commercialized spectacle that would culminate in the building of the Sambadrome, disillusioned with the direction of the samba schools were taking.  His father was a flautist who played choro and was part of Portela's first comisão da frente. In his own words, Candeia was something of an intermediary between the generations, bridging the two Paulos - the original Paulo de Portela, and the great Paulinho da Viola.  You can see both Candeia and Paulinho (although not at the same time) in this amazing short film by Leon Hirszman called Partido Alto



The first half of this film centers around Candeia holding court from his throne of a wheelchair, giving a didactic demonstration of the partido alto style, its base in improvisation and similarity to Northeastern repente or embolada, different ways to sing it and dance it.  Check out the posters from Senegal on the walls behind them, which are very possibly from the first Festival of Black Arts held in Dakar in 1966 which had a big Brazilian contingent.  The second half, "In the house of Manacéia" captures as well as any film can the informal cauldron of creativity at a Sunday lunch of feijoada and samba with the old guard, seemingly extending quite long into the evening.  Paulinho, in the only narration in the film placed at the very end, talks about how from a very young age he saw partido alto as a type of communion, a participatory rite in which everyone could enter in their own way of improvising.  He remarks how "today" (i.e. the latter half of the 70s), samba had so many external obligations, emphasizing the "spectacle" at the expense of the sambista.  Returning to the partido alto was a way to stay grounded in samba's authentic roots.  The concept of "authenticity" is one that has preoccupied me on this blog and in other writing that I don't put here.  Typically, along with my fellow travelers, I am preoccupied with the way elites have created and sustained the notion of an "authentic" form of culture, excluding much in the process, at the service of one or another ideology (both conservative and revolutionary).   What I've been interested in lately is the different ways that the idea of "authenticity" is used by participants themselves of a given form of cultural expression as a way to safeguard against the cooptation of outsiders.  Of course this gets hopelessly complicated when we have to consider state interventions that designate "patrimony," and partido alto received that official recognition by IPHAN in 2007.  Journalist Lena Frias points out on the back cover of "Axé" that Candeia launched his Samba Quilombo foundation without any reference to the "whitening" of the art form that was a polemic at the time, and cites lyrics to show that he wasn't interested in excluding anyone from the world of samba based on skin color.  A valid observation, but it doesn't contradict in any way that Candeia felt pretty strongly about defending the black, Afro-Brazilian roots of the art form.

 When I first did some blog posts of Candeia records I was mildly chastised by a French blogger friend for not having written more at length about the greatness and importance of this important artist.  Naturally this discouraged me from posting anything else about Candeia for the better part of two years - What is it with these French dudes and their impressive 5000-word posts about samba, ain't nobody got time for that!

Anyway, it is a non-trivial travesty that the Brazilian recording industry (and/or its multinational overlords) let this album stay out of print for decades.  Too add insult to injury, when Warner finally did reissue this album, as part of a double disc set including both of his Atlantic records, they left off the final track for no reason that I can discern.  Possibly an issue over publishing rights, but it could also just as likely be pure negligence or sloppiness on their part.  This was sort of a budget release (R$30 when it came out, now going for  R$20), but doesn't even bother with even a blurb of text from Tarik de Souza, let alone actual liner notes.  I hate to praise EMI for anything but their budget series of 2-em-1 CDs from the early 00's did much better in this regard.  It also fails to note the participation of other great sambistas like Dona Ivone Lara, Manaceá, Clementina de Jesus, and Aniceto de Império who all sing on different tracks.  Seriously, none of these people get mentioned anywhere on the CD.   I will say one good thing about this reissue - the remastering is quite nice and a huge improvement over the garbage reissues that the label Discobertas put out.

Which reminds me that I've yet to offer a single word about the other album in this set, Luz da Inspiração from 1976.  It is a fine album in its own right,  overshadowed by Axé but a very different record in a lot of ways.  Opening with the samba enredo of "Riquezas do Brasil", it also has some first-rate offerings in the partido alto style - "Maria Madalena de Portela," "Olha o samba, sinhá," and "Vem menina moça."  There are slower tunes too, almost samba-canção, like "Me alucina" and the title song whose arrangements have flavors of the Golden Age of samba (and, incidentally, a lyric about slaves transformed into kings).  The tune "Nova Escola" seems like it had his new foundation Quilombo in mind.  A few tunes have a more 'samba de asfalto' style like the work of Paulinho da Viola or João Nogueira, and then there's the spare spiritism of "Caboclo Jurema."

"Luz de Inspiração" is a more stylistically diverse album than "Axé" but also less cohesive as an artistic statement.  "Axé" really shows Candeia firing on all cylinders, with writing partners spanning his entire lifetime as a sambista, from Paulo de Portela to Martinho da Vila.  In fact the album deserves a post all to itself, but I will either leave that to the French, or perhaps I will make another one using a vinyl needledrop since it has ALL THE SONGS ON IT for fuch's sake...

This blog post doesn't really come around full circle to 13 de Maio or anything like that.  It's a day for parades and for getting drunk.  Freedom is never "granted" by princesses or politicians.  Everyone knows that.

James Moody - The Blues And Other Colors (1969)

May 27, 2014, 5:46 pm

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James Moody
THE BLUES AND OTHER COLORS
Original release 1969 (Milestone MSP 9023)
OJC Reissue 1997

1. Main Stem
2. Everyone Needs It
3. Savannah Calling
4. A Statement
5. Gone Are The Days
6. Feeling Low
7. You Got To Pay
8. Old Folks
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Lineup

Tracks 1, 4, and 8

James Moody: flute, soprano sax
Johnny Coles: trumpet, flugelhorn
Tom McIntosh: trombone
Joe Farrel; alto flute, oboe, alto sax
Cecil Payne: baritone sax
Kenny Barron: piano
Ron Carter: bass
Freddy Waits: drums

Tracks 2 and 3
add Sam Brown - electric guitar, Ben Tucker (acoustic and electric bass) replaces Ron Carter

Tracks 5-7

James Moody: flute
Britt Woodman: trombone
Jim Buffington: french horn
Linda November: voice
Alfred Brown: viola
Charles McCracken: cello
Kermit Moore: cello
Dick Katz: piano
Ron Carter: bass
Connie Kay: drums

Recorded August 14, 1968; January 3, 1969, and February 11, 1969

-----------------
Produced by Dick Katz and Orrin Keepnews. 
Recording engineer - George Sawtelle
Digitally remastered by Kirk Felton (1997, Fantasy Sound Studios, Berkeley, California).
------------------
=======================================================




Well this is an odd little record.  James Moody's body of work is kind of all over the place but somewhere between Dizzy Gillespie, his Argo albums, and his Perception Records albums, he found time to make a handful of records for the Milestone label.  This one, recorded with two entirely different ensembles (except for Ron Carter, who is the common denominator of all jazz equations, apparently*).  It runs the gamut from modern jazz, hard bop, and toe-tapping soul jazz.  A lot of it is the sound of a small band playing big band arrangements courtesy of trombonist Tom McIntosh, who dropped out of jazz shortly after these sessions.  And the arrangements here are always interesting.  The dissonant soul treatment of Ellington's "Main Stem" is a gem  The summer stroll through a city park that is "Everybody Needs It" is lovely.  The jazz combo + chamber ensemble idea works well on this record, better than his Moody With Strings album on Argo, for example.   And considering that the album is culled from two sessions separated by six months, it holds together as a long player.  About the only weak spot for me is "Gone Are The Days," a deconstruction of Stephen Foster that was probably intended as sociomusical critique but ends up being just kind of forced.  (I was somewhat surprised to see that it scored so favorably on the liner notes, both of the reissue and the original release).  Maybe it doesn't work for me  because it seems to be trying so hard to make a statement, and pales before the previous track, ironically titled "A Statement," which is truly breathtaking.

The presence of frequent collaborator Johnny Coles is welcome here, as is Cecil Payne.  Kenny Baron plays capably.  Holding down the drum throne are future M'Boom member Freddie Waits and MJQ stalwart Connie Kay.

The last batch of compositions feature wordless vocals by one Linda November.  Her calendar-girl name sounded vaguely familiar but I couldn't place it, so I looked her up.  Alongside her credits as a pop backup singer, she more famous as the anonymous voice of TV jingles like the Meow Mix song and the "I'd Like To Give The World A Coke" song.  I have no idea how she ended up on this record.  Even when it's awkward it still works, though, like on the McIntosh composition "You Got To Pay," which I happened to have played recently on one of my freeform radio hours. The one fact that might legitimately scare some people off is that Moody eschews alto and tenor sax for soprano for the first half and stays on flute for all of the second half.  I happen to love jazz flute but it drives some people crazy for reasons I refuse to comprehend so don't even bother trying to explain it to me.


* There is an equation for predicting the probability of Ron Carter appearing on any given album.  Take the year of release, add the catalog number (substituting numerological values for any letters), divide by the number of tracks, and multiply by 100.

Aldo Sena - Solo de Ouro (1984)

June 8, 2014, 8:07 pm

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Aldo Sena e Seu Conjunto
SOLO DE OURO
1984 RGE 309.6006

01     Big Show   
02     Lambada Do Papão   
03     Juliana   
04     Lambada Do Campeão   
05     Paraíso   
06     Gosto De Você   
07     Solo De Ouro   
08     Lambada Do Leão   
09     Menina Do Cinema   
10   Lambada Do Bomba   
11     Festa Do Amor   
12    Transfusão De Bordão

This post is obviously coming far too late in the day for you to break it out at your Sunday barbeque or churrasco, but there is always next weekend.  It's been a while since I posted anything and I've been told that it is of paramount important for your "brand" to stay constantly active in social media.

This is Aldo Sena, one of the greats of guitarrada, a party music from Pará listened to by working class people, and hence largely ignored by the Brazilian cultural elite because they only care about poor people when they can be turned into folklore.  The songs on this record comfortably move between related styles like lambada and brega, and there is even a reggae-brega that isn't half bad.  When I first heard the vocal tunes on this record, I felt like they were filler, but I no longer feel that way.  They are pretty good, especially Menina do Cinema which has that strum-along sing-along Jovem Guarda thing going, and I like Gosto de Você although it may be the least dread faux-reggae song you've heard in a while (hopefully you won't find it dreadful..).

Most of Aldo's repertoire here is instrumental music, centered on his electric guitar that has a clean tone you might associate more with surf music than Brazilian music.  A lot of the popular music of northern Brazil has as much if not more in common with things happening with its neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean than with the sounds found in MPB.  You are more likely to hear music that sounds like bachata or cumbia than bossa nova.  Mestre Vieira, who is kind of the godfather of this stuff (more James Brown than Corleone of course), used to play lots of choro and chorinho at the very beginning of his career, but also played lots of mambo and merengue, an omnivorous music appetite that would have caused music critic José Ramos Tinhorão to begin foaming at the mouth.  If guitarrada suddenly came on the scene today, there would be people using words like "transnational" and "hybrid" and "postmodern," but in the 70s and 80s the gatekeepers of taste would have been, well, unlikely to use those words.  Words weren't really necessary anyway when you could just keep people from being part of the conversation from the beginning.

Things have changed, though, with Aldo Sena having been featured as the youngest member in a "supergroup" called Mestres de Guitarrada along with Mestre Vieira and Mestre Curica.  They received attention via showcase presentations at  Itaú Cultural in far away lands like São Paulo, and a CD of music released in a great looking but highly impractical wooden box format that has been pretty much out of print and scarce since it the week it was released.  Neither of those things would have happened without the intervention of researchers and producers with access to the cultural elite.  So it goes with "cultural preservation" and "rescue" missions.  You can see a clip of one of these Itaú Cultural shows below, with some of the audience restricted to chair-dancing until finally people can't resist any longer and end up dancing in the aisles. 
 
Although the power of AM radio airplay should not be underestimated, the bread and butter of artists like Aldo Sena was in live performances.  The other live clips, filmed more recently by an audience member at a small club in Ceará, proves that he still sounds great, and the people still dance.  Boy do they dance.  In the clip that I've put first, the band rips through the song "Melô do Bode,"  a song by Vieira e Seu Conjunto that is one of my favorite things in the whole world (you can find it here), and the clip below it featuring the fabulous dancers is a carimbó.  The last two clips below that are studio tracks from the actual album featured in this post.

** Interesting side note: this needledrop is from an LP that once belonged to Rádio Tamandaré, an AM station in Recife that began in the 1950s and has since converted to an entirely evangelical Christian format (100% Jesus!).

Videoclipes:

Marinês e Sua Gente - Nordeste Valente (1976)

June 19, 2014, 2:09 pm

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Marinês e Sua Gente
Nordeste Valente
1976 CBS 104333

 01. Nordeste valente (João Silva – J. B. de Aquino)
 02. Casa de marimbondo (Djalma Leonardo – Antonio Barros)
 03. Carimbó de vovó sinhá (Naldo Aguiar)
 04. Flor de croatá (João Silva – Raymundo Evangelista)
 05. Sou o estopim (Antonio Barros)
 06. Grilo na moringa (G. de San – José Gomes Filho)
 07. No laço do carimbô (Naldo Aguiar)
 08. Você me machucou (Kim de Oly – André Araujo)
 09. Mestre mundo (Julinho – Luiz Bandeira)
 10. Nosso amor está morrendo (Antonio Barros)
 11. Maracá de menino (Assizão)
 12. Como vai passando (Cecéu – Ademar Caetano)

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Here's a thoroughly pleasant album by forró singer Marinês, the Queen of Xaxado, because I've been remiss in commemorating the Festas Juninas this year.  It probably won't knock your socks off or anything, but the arrangements and playing are very tight and a make for fun listening.  There are also no less than three tracks of carimbó here, a style that is northern rather than northeastern, proving again that Nordestinos embrace good dance music no matter where it's from.  And also that the carimbó was getting super popular in the second half of the 70s.

What keeps this record from rising above merely average is the sparsity of stand-out compositions on it, a failing of a lot of records in this genre from the time.  I mean, the first song is kind of an earworm.  I've always liked that word, "earworm."  For me it always seemed like an earworm ought to be a sinister psychic phenomenon from the world of Dune.  You are stranded somewhere on Arrakis with a song you can't get out of your head.  You start tapping your foot involuntarily, and within seconds a gigantic spice-crazed sandworm has appeared from the ground and swallowed you. My point is that earworms can kill you.  As further evidence I present "Sou o estopim" - I am the fuse - which is clearly intended to manipulate the listener, Manchurian Candidate-style, into blowing up a government building with homemade explosives.

Actually the latter song was written by Antônio Barros, composer of a ton of forró and a performer in his own right along with partner Cecéu, who also has a credit on the final song of this record.  Look, I don't want to compare all songwriters of forró or baião to Zé Dantas or Humberto Teixeira, because that would be like comparing every English pop band to The Beatles.  It's not fair.  I also don't know nearly enough about Antônio Barros to make bold claims, but there is something formulaic in his writing that just doesn't do it for me.  It's sort of the "hook school of songwriting" that pushes all the buttons you are supposed to push to make a catchy memorable song, but still ends up producing something that is essentially forgettable as soon as the next catchy song comes around and pushes it out of your ear canal.  He's got song credits all over the place, including Jackson do Pandeiro's albums from the 1970s that nobody remembers.

I feel the opposite way about the track featured here from João Silva (and Ronaldo Evangelista), "Flor de Croatá."  It has a beautiful melody, one that works at different tempos with equal effect.  Check out these two very different versions, the one from this album and another from Jacinto Silva








 Good, innit?

Well, enjoy the Festas Juninas if you have one in your area.  If not, and don't have any trendy Euro-American faux forró bands playing in a gentrified neighborhood near you, at least you can put on this record.  It's fun for a least a spin or two.

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The Return of Flabbergasted Vibes / Freeform Radio Hour #9

October 27, 2014, 11:23 pm

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It's back.

Enjoy the music.

320 kbps   /   FLAC

Flabbergasted Freeform No. 9 by Flabbergasted Vibes on Mixcloud

Lord Nelson - Then and Now (1974)

November 14, 2014, 6:28 am

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Since I recently took a long break from blogging after being called an imperialist gringo pig spreading misinformation about cultures and countries that aren't mine. So it may be a while before I begin posting lengthy pontifications again about whatever records happen to be tickling my earhole on any given week. Let me be perfectly clear that I am not from Trinidad andTobago, Barbados, Brooklyn or the Bronx and can make no pretense of authority on this music.  In fact I only started collecting it a few years back.  I could extrapolate on how I am interested in the ludic, carnivalesque aspects of it from a cross-cultural perspective, its place in the black musical diaspora and Caribbean history and sugar production, it's cutting and off-color humor...


Or I could just stay that I'm drawn to it because it's groovy.

This blog is about the discovery of music.  Sometimes for you and sometimes for me as well.  I started this blog in 2008 as just a fun way to kill some time when I was 'between jobs', so to speak, and while it has grown into something else I still like to think I'm approaching it the same way, as a genial way of sharing music about which I'm interested and usually at least a little enthusiastic, and about which I try to be informed to some degree.  I have no problem with somebody chipping in to the conversation to drop some knowledge about an artist or a genre or a supporting musician if you're inspired to do so, and if I'm mistaken about something, I'm generally happy to be enlightened.  But if you come here to one-up anybody, to talk down or diminish with your conspicuous hipness, well then fuck you and the sanctimonious horse you road in on.  Especially if you're just here to spout some cultural nationalist horseshit about how foreigners can never understand your music and they should all stop listening / enjoying / talking about it.  And especially when you haven't even read the whole post I've written and just want a soapbox for your insensate hostility.   The minute you open your mouth and that sort of drivel comes out, you've proven yourself an idiot.

And take note, because that's about the only time you'll hear me say that.  I may be opinionated about some of the records I post, and sometimes curmudgeonly  in my tastes, but I will never call someone an idiot for not agreeing with me about whether a song, record, or artist is good or great or awful.   (OK, so if I'm completely honest with myself, this has sort of happened at least once in 6 years that I can remember.  It involved somebody who was repeatedly slagging off Tim Maia because they "hated that disco stuff."   Perhaps I would be more diplomatic in my snark today than I was then..)   Some of you will surely say I ought to have a thicker skin, and you wouldn't be the first to say so.  But sometimes I think it's a rhinoceros typing in front of a computer on the other end, which would explain all the typos.      To stop blogging on account of a handful of clueless asshats might have seemed unfair to the "fans" of this blog, and I know that those fans do exist.   Guys and gals, sorry about the unexpected break.  But you know, I've quit salaried jobs with good benefits and a pension and given less notice than I did for this blog.  Maybe that impulsive attitude accounts for some of the mess in my life, but I have no qualms about moving on to something more interesting when things become a drag and harsh my mellow.  So now before I go to play my bongos on the beach, let me tell you about this great calypso record I found.

/rant



Lord Nelson
Then & Now
1974 Camille Records LP-9039


1. So Sweet
2. Old Youth
3. Immigration
4. Pressure
5. Stella  (Jump Up Records, JU-527)
6. Sugar  (National Records 101)
7. Itch  (Dem Boys Records DB-101, CAB records 107)
8. Garrot Bounce  (previously on an LP by National Recording Company
N.R.C. 01-1, and most likely as an early-60s single too)
 9. He And She (1960s recording, I can't find release info)

Produced by Camille E. Hodge
Photography - Woodie Wilson
Cover design - Murray Sincoff


Flabbergasted rip.  Vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable (with Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply); Creek Audio OBH-15; M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 96khz; Click Repair; individual clicks and pops taken out with Adobe Audition 3.0 - dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced (for 16-bit). Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

All the tracks on side 2 are monoaural recordings, collected from various singles on different labels.  I did a stereo to mono fold-down on this side of the record.
=======================================================================

 One of the great calypsonians here, Lord Nelson aka Roberto Nelson aka Nelo, always brings the bounce.  From what I can tell, this album is one side's worth of "new" material, and a second side comprised of songs previously released as 7" singles.  The album should really be called "Now and Then", because the first side is stuff that definitely hails from the early 70s, with little wah-wah guitar licks and somewhat funky arrangements, while Side Two shows more of the huge jazz influence in early 60s calypso.  Lord Nelson had made records for the Camille label in New York since the mid-60s, most notably with Milo & The Kings on "Dove and Pigeon."  But these tracks are a bit earlier, and had all been released on labels like Dem Boys Records, Stateside, and National Recording Company.  These labels were all based either in Trinidad and Tobago or in the UK.   The LP's failure to explain any of this possibly means the recordings weren't being licensed through the proper channels, but presumably since Nelson was putting out full LPs on Camille in the mid-70s, this was fine with him.  I guess that puts this album in the long tradition of "we don't have enough new material for a full album, so lets scrape together some old chestnuts with those couple of new tracks you have."  Like a lot of genres, calypso was more of a singles market until the 70s anyway.  Although the difference between the two album sides is definitely noticeable, the end result is less of a patchwork than it sounds and really a very enjoyable listen.   As I said above (c.f."rant"),  I'm sort of new to collecting this stuff, but a lot of 70s calypso LPs seem to have a few really strong tunes or maybe even a fistful, but also some filler.  Whereas previously there would be a surge in singles released for every carnival, now artists were putting out full LPs.  This one, though, is all killer.     It's got a lot of really clever and funny stuff on it.  Calypso is famous for its unsubtle double entendre, but Nelson excells at weaving narratives, like the wonderful "Immigration" which basically describes the results of someone jokingly shouting that word on a boat full of West Indians on the Hudson River, with an aftermath the equivalent of the proverbial "shouting FIRE in a crowded theater" scenario.  This was a different time in the United States, when wry jokes and colorful stories could be told about flouting immigration laws, long before the massive deportations, draconian laws, and creepy wall-building of today.

"Garrot Bounce" is one of Nelo's signature tunes.  I'm confused about the provenance of this recording.  I'll presume it is the same version that appears on an N.R.C. long-player of the same name released in 1965. But there is a 1969 version on Youtube that is about six minutes long, the second half of which is one big jam.  It appears to actually be the A and B sides of the 45 edited together flawlessly by the uploader.  For the A side it cold almost be the same recording as this one (except in stereo).  Anybody want to play spot the difference?  Ain't nobody got time for that.  The backing group is Milo & The Kings and I suppose they had played this crowd-pleaser thousands of times, so an essentially note-for-note rendition shouldn't surprise me.  But flip the 45 over, and the song breaks down into this monster jam.  I almost wish I hadn't heard it, because the original is fantastic, but this version with an instrumental bridge has blown my mind.  Anyway, check it out as it will give you a taste of Lord Nelson, but don't get too excited about the awesome jam at the end because it's not on it.  I don't see the 1965 version up on the 'Tube  (there is even a version up there falsely attributed to Nelson that is totally not him).


So, the first side of the "Then And Now" LP is cool and should titillate the soca fans out there and for people like myself who enjoy anything from the early 70s regardless of the genre, but the real gold here is on Side Two.  "Stella" is another classic and wonderfully silly, not quite wacky enough to get played by Dr. Demento but it's pretty funny.   "He and She" manages to get in some observations on gender double-standards alongside some good jokes about ugly babies, and "Itch" is probably about VD.


In case you've forgotten or in case you're new here, you gotta visit the comments section for the links, where the record fairy always seems to post them.


Here's a photo of label head Camille Hodge holding this LP in his cramped little store in NYC.  Courtesy of a really awesome website that hosts an original interview with him, Other Sounds

Gerson King Combo - Gerson King Combo (1977)

November 25, 2014, 1:04 pm

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Gerson King Combo
1977 Polydor

1     Mandamentos Black    
2     Just For You    
3     Andando Nos Trilhos    
4     Esse É O Nosso Black Brother    
5     Swing Do Rei    
6     Hereditariedade    
7     Foi Um Sonho Só    
8     Uma Chance    
9     God Save The King    
10     Blows



I'm wasn't planning on writing at length about this album, but November is 'Black Consciousness Month' in Brazil.  I'm running out of time to post a record in solidarity, and recent events in AmeriKKKA have left me feeling pretty shitty today.  So why not spread some cheer?   Mind you, it is kind of ludicrous that there even *needs to be* a "Black Consciousness Day" in the one country that has the most people of African descent outside the continent of Africa, but there you go...  The actual holiday was November 20th, to mark the date in 1695 when the ex-slave and quilombo leader Zumbi of Palmares was beheaded.  The commemoration itself wouldn't exist if it weren't for some serious grassroots mobilization that went on in the 70s.  In short, it means different things to different people, it has its problematic aspects, but it's definitely worth some respect.

One could say the same about Gerson King Combo, actually.  I sometimes think I'm in the minority in my opinions about Gerson King Combo, but then again at some of my friends share them so maybe I'm not such a freak.  Let me start by saying I've had the pleasure of seeing Gerson perform live four or five years ago at the Mercado Eufrásio Barbosa in lovely Olinda, and the guy is still quite a showman and force of nature.  I have no regrets about making that show, none at all.

But his actual records present an uncomfortable thing for me - I often find myself wishing I could just listen to the Combo swing their thing without Gerson singing on top of them.  The band is tight as hell and the arrangements are smart and engaging.  But as someone who's been a big James Brown fan since I was twelve years old,  it's hard not to break out laughing when I hear Gerson shouting "good God!!!"..  Most of the funk jams on the record don't feature him singing so much as vocalizing, occasionally bursting into exclamations of  "aaachk-ck-ck-ck-ck-ck-aaaack owww!!" To me it almost begins to seem like a parody, as if Gil Brother was fronting a band in the 70s.  Oddly enough when he does some soul ballad crooning, like on "Foi um sonho só," he's not a half bad singer at all, even if he's certainly no Tim Maia.  But on the dance-floor rump shakers, I find his vocals kind of distracting and in constant danger of giving me a case of incurable giggles.  I think it's fair to say that Gerson King Combo's importance lay more in the role he played in iconography of the Black Movement of the time, whether as a performer or as an immediately recognizable sound when a DJ put on one of his records at a baile.  He cut an imposing figure, and it's a case where the attitude and image were inseparable from the music.The significance of that shouldn't be underestimated, but his recorded output and legacy does not cast the long shadow that many of his peers can claim. 

The opening cut, "Mandamentos black," is a classic of the genre.  And there is lots of other fun stuff here (Swing do Rei, Hereditariadade, Uma Chance are all winners), and some socially conscious lyrics in the middle of it all.  Even my ears eventually "adjust" to Gerson's voice when I'm in the mood for this album.  But still, if anyone uncovers a tape of the all-instrumental mixes, please send me an email, okay?

Mongo Santamaria - Afro Roots (1958 - 1959)

December 17, 2014, 10:12 pm

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Mongo Santamaria - Afro Roots
Prestige PRCD-24018
Previously released as "Mongo" (1959) and "Yambu" (1958)

1. Afro Blue
2. Che-Que-Re-Que-Che-Que
3. Rezo
4. Ayenye
5. Onyae
6. Bata
7. Meta Rumba
8. Chano Pozo
9. Los Conguitos
10. Monte Adentro
11. Imaribayo
12. Mazacote
13. Ye Ye
14. Congobel
15. Macunsere
16. Timbales Y Bongo
17. Yambu
18. Bricamo
19. Longoito
20. Conga Pa Gozar
21. Columbia

Mongo Santamaria (conga, bongo, percussion)
Armando Peraza (congo, bongo, percussion)
Willie Bobo (timbales)
Vince Guaraldi (piano)
Paul Horn (flute)
Al McKibbon (bass)
Cal Tjader (vibes)
Francisco Aguabella (conga, percussion)
Modesto Duran (conga, percussion)
Emil Richards (vibes)
"Chombo" Silva (tenor sax)
Carlos Vidal (conga, percussion)


Tracks 1-12 recorded May 1959 and released as the LP "Mongo" (Fantasy 8032)

Tracks 13-21 recorded December 1959 and released as the LP "Yambu" (Fantasy 8012)


The track "Mi Guaguanco" was left off due to the time constraints of the CD. Oh, the 80s!
_____________________________________________________

Well there was a bit of unexpected news announced today and my mind is kind of blown.  And burned out too - I'm working against several deadlines right now and have not really had any time to think much about this blog.  But I can't resist posting today, given that history was just made and all that.  And it is just as well that I don't have time to pontificate, as even the usual pontificators and bloviators out there seem to have been caught off guard, and even my preferred news sources have largely just fallen back on reporting either contemporary or historical factoids and sometimes a bit of context.  In other words, there will be plenty of time for analysis soon.

The record I've chosen for this post is not particularly symbolic.  It's a CD of two records from the great Mongo Santamaria that literally straddle the cusp of the Revolution.  The earlier album was put last in the sequence presumably because Prestige/Fantasy thought it might scare white people in the 1980s.

And now for some nice liner notes by Ralph Gleason.  Nice liner notes are really the main reason to buy CDs rather than original LPs, aren't they?  Oh, that and the outrageous prices that original pressings are fetching now.  Actually the notes are kind of odd in that they say very little about this particular set of recordings and more of an abbreviated primer in music history.  The stories of Cuba and it's relationships with the US may be complicated and tendentious, but they've always had a great soundtrack.

 Thanks to my friend Ossian for the EAC rip.  Enjoy, and I'll try and post again before the end of the year!

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 LINER NOTES:

Although the American public got its first view of conga drums in,of all places, the I Love Lucy show via Desi Arnaz ,those portions of the public more into jazz, specifically, or just entertainment, generally , had been familiar with the sound of the instrument and what it stood  for musically  back to the 30s.

Until Castro, Havana had been a kind of Latin Las Vegas catering to the East Coast (particularly in winter) tourists with gambling (not just casinos but excellent racing at Oriente Park) , night clubs and girls. The cultural cross fertilization had begun early, back as far as the beginnings of jazz when Cuban and Caribbean melodies and rhythms brought to New Orleans by black exiles from the Caribbean Islands, were incorporated into the new music.  Havana's adaptation of swing style big bands and Latin rhythms crossed back to the United States  in the  rhumba and then  the conga line dance crazes of the 30s. In the 50s it was the mambo and the cha-cha-cha which brought many Cuban musicians to the States to work  in the Broadway  night clubs or the Hollywood  studios  in bands  such  as  Noro Morales, Enric Madriguera and Xavier Cugat.

Out of them came Miguelito Valdez, who had quite a run as a popular dance band leader and who  included in his band some of the very best Cuban percussionists. Musicians such as Chano Pozo worked for him and to all students of conga drumming, Chano remains the King.

Chano Pozo (Luciano Pozo y Gonzales) was a black Cuban, two generations from Africa and a native of the Cayo Hueso in Havana where he was a member of the Abakwa cult. He had been working in the big commercial Latin bands in New York in the early 40s and had composed several Latin hits. Dizzy Gillespie, who had long been fascinated by the whole Afro-Cuban rhythmic concept, brought him to the attention of the world of jazz by featuring him with the Gillespie big band of the late 40s which recorded "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", "Manteca" and "Guarachi Guaro". Chano Pozo was killed in a Harlem bar in 1948, but despite his brief career in jazz was THE dominant influence in Cuban rhythm.

Present day jazz audiences are probably unaware of it, but when they hear Joe Cuba playing "I'll Never Go Back to Georgia" they are hearing the Dizzy Gillespie big band (with Chano Pozo) version of the Gillespie-Pozo composition "Manteca" and when they hear Cal Tjader's hit, "Soul Sauce" they are hearing another Gillespie-Pozo collaboration,  "Guarachi  Guaro ."

Although the Miguelito Valdez band (which was  a  lot  more  ethnic  than  most  people thought; it included almost complete the whole Cuban brass section concept as well as the conga drumming) was popular, it did not last and  the  main commercial  carrier  of  conga drumming in the pop world was left to Nat King Cole. Stan Kenton featured  a Chicago  born dancer named Jack Costanza as bongo and conga drummer on several tours and numerous records and Costanza later joined Nat King Cole and toured with him for several years.

Meanwhile the authentic Latin bands in New York disappeared , as far as the general public was concerned, playing mainly for their own ethnic audience. Machito with arrangements by ex-Cab Calloway trumpeter, Mario Bauza and lito Puente did play the big jazz clubs occasionally as did the more widely known Perez Prado (remember his hit discs, "EI Mambo" and "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White"?). Those bands built up a heavy circuit of engagements in New York with occasional tours to the West Coast.

Emerging  from  those  bands  in the  mid-50s were three musicians who have become highly  influential  in jazz while retaining their musical authenticity: Mongo Santamaria , Armando Peraza and Willie Bobo. Mongo toured with Prado and later joined Tito Puente and then Cal Tjader . In the latter two bands he was joined with Willie Bobo in some of the most exciting Afro Cuban rhythymic exchanges the continental United States has ever heard. Armando Peraza, oddly enough, worked for a long time initially with Slim Gaillard (he taught Slim how to  play  cow  bell!) and then toured for many years with George Shearing  and  Cal  Tjader .

During the  later 40s and early 50s, the United States still had a series of taxes on  entertainment   which   included  a night club tax that  applied only when there was singing. This inhibited, believe it or not, any of the Afro Cuban bands or groups from using many of the chants (the rituals dating back to their origins in the barrios or the hill country in Cuba) that might otherwise have been used. Jazz audiences in general dug the sounds of the rhythm instruments but were less entranced by the vocals even when, as in the case of Carlos Vidal who played briefly with Charlie Barnet, the two were intertwined in an exciting mixture.

Tito Puente and Machito, as well as the Pal­ mieri brothers and the other Latin big bands , were unable to make regular tours outside the ethnic showcases for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the whole economic pinch which had reduced the big bands to a mere handful. But both the Shearing Quintet and the Tjader Quintet worked constantly through the 50s and 60s and brought to every jazz club-and to the  giant  jazz  festivals-in the country authentic Cuban percussion virtu­ osi in Mongo, Armando and Willie Bobo.

Tito Puente and Machito, as well as the Pal­mieri brothers and the other Latin big bands , were unable to make regular tours outside the ethnic showcases for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the whole economic pinch which had reduced the big bands to a mere handful. But both the Shearing Quintet and the Tjader Quintet worked constantly through the 50s and 60s and brought to every jazz club-and to the  giant  jazz  festivals-in the country authentic Cuban percussion virtu­ osi in Mongo, Armando and Willie Bobo.

As evidence of the importance  of  Chano Pozo, there is Mongo's own composition in his honor on this album . Most of the numbers in this package, incidentally , are compositions of Mongo Santamaria and sev­ eral of them include chants and have sym­ bolic and direct references to various aspects of authentic Afro Cuban culture . Mongo's own composition, "Afro Blue" , has had at least 17 versions by other artists in the years since it was first cut by him. Joining Mongo in some of these numbers is another Cuban virtuoso percussionist , Pablo Mozo, who is well known in Latin musical circles though almost totally unknown to the public. He is an expert in the dexterous use of sticks on any object that will produce a sharp resonance. Even a chair or box will sometimes do. He is also an expert on the use of the cowbell and was  brought to these sessions specifically to perform that function.

Once,  in a  rare  interview,  Mongo  Santamaria said that the best and most important of all rhythms was produced by "skin on skin". His whole life has been a proof of that.

-Ralph J. Gleason

 

Flabbergasted Freeform Radio Hour # 10 - Festivus edition

December 25, 2014, 1:43 am

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Flabbergasted Freeform No. 10 by Flabbergasted Vibes on Mixcloud

I will post two downloadable versions later today, in mp3 and FLAC.  Gotta sleep now, Santa is tired.

320 kbs download

FLAC download

Note: I mistakenly read from my notes that I had played the track "Tequila" by  Juncal y Sus Calistos!  I actually dropped this tune from the set, because it's so damn sloppy that it pretty much brings your groove to a crash landing.  Fun tune, but not fun enough.

 

Primeiro Eu - Elza Soares

Sumpin’ Jumpin’ Around Here – Sandy Williams Big Eight feat. Johnny Hodges

Shark – Mixed Bag

Hang In – Gwen McCrae

Find Out – Monomono

Calypso Be Bop – Lord Flea

Groovin High – Dizzy Gillespie with Gil Fuller and the Montery Jazz Orchestra

Batucada   Surgiu -  James Moody also with Gil Fuller and the

Os Olhos – Rubinho e Mauro Assumpção

Carimbó de Dezembro – Candango de Ype

Ce Pas – Tabou Combo

Born in Bethlehem – The Stape Singers

 

That’s How It Goes – Black Merda

Come Into My Life – The Supremes

Middle of the Night – Lalo Schifrin

Corrina Corrina – Bukka White

J.P. Boogie – James P Johnson

Estrada do Sol – Sylvia Telles

Mestre Sala dos Mares – Elis Regina

Windmills of your Mind – Barbara Lewis

Satan – Jon Lucian

Angel of the Morning – Joya Landis

My Favorite Things - John Coltrane (featuring Eric Dolphy)