Legally blind from birth, Brazilian keyboard player and composer Manfredo Fest contributed to a number of great recordings during the sixties and seventies, both as a solo artist and with the group Bossa Rio. London’s Far Out Recordings has just reissued, what arguably might be his greatest recording, in his 1976 jazz funk masterpiece Brazilian Dorian Dream.

This brilliant seven-track recording brings together Brazilian rhythms with funky electric jazz fusion grooves, spacey atmospheric synths, and complementary vocal melodies chants. Musically sounding well ahead of it’s time, the album has an overall cosmic Brazilian space-funk vibe should definitely have fans of the legendary fusion group Azymuth taking notice.

On this session, Fest plays a wide range of keys, including Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, Arp and Moog synthesizers. He is backed by bassist Thomas Kini , drummer/percussionist Alejo Poveda and Roberta Davis on vocals.

Due to being released in limited quantities on a small independent label, original copies of this under-the-radar gem are almost impossible to find, which make this worthy reissue from Far Out Recordings very much welcomed.

Manfredo Fest — ‘Brazilian Dorian Dream’
(Originally released: 1976 / T&M Productions)
(Reissued: 2020 / Far Out Recordings)

1. Brazilian Dorian Dream
2. Facing East
3. Jungle Cat
4. That’s What She Says
5. Slaughter On Tenth Avenue
6. Who Needs It
7. Braziliana No.1

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• Brazilian
• Jazz Funk
• Reissue