Far Out Recordings reissues Antonio Adolfo’s obscure 1979 Brazilian jazz-funk album ‘Viralata’
Due to continued demand, London’s Far Out Recordings has reissued for a second time in four years, pianist and composer Antonio Adolfo’s highly obscure 1979 Brazilian jazz-funk album Viralata.
Considered by many as one of the greatest jazz-funk recordings to come out of Brazilian during the late seventies, the twelve-track recording combines influences of tropicalia, funk, MPB, jazz, and samba. The album’s opening track “Cascavel” became a London jazz-dance classic in the early ‘90s after Far Out label boss Joe Davis discovered a handful of copies in a second hand shop in Sao Paulo and brought them back to London to sell to DJs like Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge. The track has been a constant staple for many other notable DJs like Floating Points, Mr Scruff and Andrew Ashong. It was also the final song to ever be played on the soundsystem of London’s legendary club Plastic People.
Even though the album’s opener makes this record worth owning all by itself, the record is solid from start to finish, featuring a number of great tracks that have a similar Brazilian jazz-funk vibe, including “Diana E Paulo”, “Caminhada”, “Assanhada”, “A Marcha”, and the more breezy easy-listening title track “Viralata”. Antonio himself describes the recording as “a product of my hybrid musical influences that joins together flavours of marchinhas de carnaval, frevo, toada, classical, baião, mpb and jazz, etc.”
Rightfully hailed as an apex for seventies Brazilian jazz, it’s great to see that Far Out Recordings has made this essential album available once again. Don’t sleep on this one, I expect it to sellout again quickly!
Antonio Adolfo — ‘Viralata’
(Originally released: 1979 / Artezanal)
(Reissued: 2017, 2019 / Far Out Recordings)
- Cascavel
- Paraiba Do Sul
- Brincadeira Em Ré
- Brincadeira Em Mi Bemol
- Caminhada
- Vermelhinho
- Nordeste
- Alegria De Carnaval
- Diana E Paulo
- Viralata
- Assanhada
- A Marcha
