Tag: Brazilian
UK-based DJ, radio broadcaster, and selector Luke Una, who made his mark in the underground scenes of Manchester beginning in the mid-80s, has teamed up with the Mr Bongo label and record shop for a brilliant and wildly eclectic new compilation, titled É Soul Cultura.
Legendary Brazilian jazz vocalist Flora Purim, who has rightfully been declared by many as the “The Queen of Brazilian Jazz”, giving the world all-time classic gems like “Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly”, “500 Miles High”, “Light As a Feather”, “Casa Forte”, “Moondreams”, “Angels”, “Samba Michel” and so many others (often collaborating with her husband and percussionist great Airto Moreira), has returned and released her first new full-length album in 15 years on London’s Strut label, titled If You Will.
This Saturday, April 23rd is the first of two Record Store Day’s in 2022. This now bi-annual event has become the prime day in which many labels release limited-edition or never-before-released vinyl albums, singles, compilations and reissues. While the day usually attracts many hardcore collectors, shops also often see a large influx of casual music fans and possibly a smaller number that might be buying their first record. Regardless, these are all great things.
The London-based Far Out Recordings continues it’s deep exploration into the roots of the greatest Brazilian fusion/jazz-funk band, Azymuth, and has recently reissued two outstanding mid-sixties recordings from the late founding member and the band’s original keyboardist, José Roberto Bertami.
Brazilian pianist Erik Escobar has released a superb new jazz funk/fusion EP with bassist Michael Pipoquinhal and drummer/percussionist Miguel Assis on Steve Conry and Cziz Hall’s Ten Lovers Music label, appropriately titled New Brazilian Trio EP.
Following Mr Bongo’s reissue of the highly sought-after 1971 Ritual album by Nico Gomez And His Afro Percussion Inc., the UK-label and record shop has also recently re-released another rare gem from the Belgium orchestra bandleader, titled Soul Of Samba.
Once declared by Miles Davis as “one of the most important musicians on the planet,” Alagoas native Hermeto Pascoal is a Brazilian music legend who’s unique recordings and playing have always had a deep spiritual connection to nature and his surrounding environments, which has resulted in some of the most original and adventurous music of our time. London’s Far Out Recordings has just unearthed a previously-unreleased live recording from Pascoal and his iconic band simply known as “O Grupo” (The Group) from 1981.
Over the past twelve months, not only was there a tremendous amount of great new music put out into the world, but we also saw a high-level of incredible reissue releases, including many previously unreleased recordings that had been shelved for 30-40 years or more.
Bassist of the legendary Brazilian fusion trio Azymuth, Alex Malheiros, who has also contributed his pioneering space-funk sound on records by Jorge Ben, Milton Nascimento, Roberto Carlos, Marcos Valle, Mark Murphy, and others, has recently released a brilliant new album on Far Out Recordings, appropriately titled Tempos Futuros.
As we move into the warmer months of summer, it’s great to see that many of the record shops that were either closed for over a year and/or only doing online sales are finally opening up again. In my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than a Saturday trip (or any day really) to the local record shop(s). Somewhat similar to last year, this year’s typical annual Record Store Day has been broken up into not just one, but two Saturdays (or what is being referred to as “Drop 1” & “Drop 2”) on June 12th and July 17th.
