samba

Mix: 27. Ruas Y Cidades (Minas Gerais Special: 1973-1990)

2019/06/14

Cover Photography by @krstnshtlv As a writer, one always has floating on one’s head drafts of things to cover. For various years I’ve always wanted to really tell the story of the music of Brazil’s Minas Gerais region, post-Clube Da Esquina. That’s part of the reason I chose to focus intently on it for my…
Urszula Dudziak: Ulla (1982)

2018/06/12

Someone, somewhere, (maybe a massive Polish Jazz aficionado), is absolutely, positively going to hate me for doing this: but I have to profess/confess my absolute love for Urszula Dudziak’s Ulla. Riding that same copacetic wavelength as Maki Asakawa’s Nothing At All To Lose, Urszula Dudziak’s Ulla transformed someone known as the Yoko Ono, Linda Sharrock,…
Judith Ravitz Participagao: A Banda Do Zé Pretinho – Bolerio (1983)

2018/04/17

Perhaps Yehudit Ravit’s story can explain the appeal of Brazilian music to the Israeli citizenry. Not to go into deep into cultural history (because Brazil does play a role in it to its storied, political relationship with Israel), but it seems due to its location right on the Mediterranean and it’s quite lovely, simpatico weather,…
Tuca: Dracula, I Love You (1974)

2017/10/31

Periodically, I like to dive into my old “A Track, A Day” blog archives for music I’ve written about before but I feel still hasn’t gotten its fair shake. What better time than Halloween to revisit Tuca’s (real name Valeniza Zagni da Silva) curious masterpiece: Dracula, I Love You? Curious because it’s unlike much released at…
Yukako Hayase: 薔薇のしっぽ Roses’ Tails (1989)

2017/10/20

Where does one start with Yukako Hayase? That’s the question I asked myself when debating, for what seemed like forever, what would be the album I would recommend others to explore, to give them a better sense of why Yukako is such a deeply important artist (and one sadly lost to time). Thankfully, with time,…
Sonia Rosa: Samba Amour (1979)

2017/05/16

Heady, windswept, gauzy saudade that could only come from someone like Sonia Angelica De Carvalho Rosa, are things that don’t quite reveal themselves when you hear Samba Amour. Sonia Rosa had an unlikely musical career. Although she was born in São Paulo, Brazil it wasn’t there where’d she stake her claim to fame. A precocious child, she taught herself Joao Gilberto’s songs when…
Pierre Barouh: Le Pollen (1982)

2017/02/17

News travels so quickly now that it’s hard to keep up with the cycles of life. Word of Pierre Barouh’s passing, at the end of December 2016, didn’t come recently to me, it came to me this week. It came when I discovered them while researching this thought in my head – of sharing his work at FOND/SOUND.…
Isabelle Antena: En Cavale (1986)

2016/09/23

It seems I’m running out of summer, and in this case Isabelles, but before I do, I have to share one of those perfect albums that just scream: Can you hold on, just for a bit more? Isabelle Antena’s En Cavale released on uber-stylish indie Belgian record label Les Disques Du Crépuscule, and graced by a gorgeous watercolor album cover…
Bernard Lavilliers: San Salvador (1975)

2014/09/25

Bernard Lavilliers Now here’s a man that walked the walk and talked the talk. Today’s track of the day, the unique groove of “San Salvador” by Bernard Lavilliers introduces us to the sound of the Southern hemisphere via the offbeat French pop we all might not know nor love. There’s something about Bernard that informed…
Cartola: Cartola (1976)

2014/07/13

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