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What’s up Sorry Staters? Glad to be back with you again with the newsletter. Thanks for peeking and reading. I must admit that I am still fully in World Cup mode. Jolly Ol’ England are playing well and still in the tournament, although that might end Saturday when we face France. It’s been a great competition football-wise, and quite exciting. With the Cup being played in December this time around and the weather here in Carolina nowhere near wintery cold, it’s been hard to think about Christmas and the holidays. It just doesn’t feel like it at all. North of the equator problems I know.
With the radio show I do, we have been playing lots of upbeat and sunnier sounding fare to suit the mood and countries playing. So, more soul, funk, samba and the like than grey, wet, cold weather music.
To get me in the mood for the Brazil game last week, I dug into a box of international CDs I have for something to spin in the car and pulled out one called Baile Funk 2: Agora E Moda.
It’s a terrific mix CD of all Brazilian artists with some nice deep cuts. The set was compiled and put together by an old DJ friend of mine, Greg Caz. Greg was a fellow record hound and DJ who promoted a Brazilian party at a great spot in Brooklyn called Black Betty that was run by a super nice, cool couple from Brazil. The party was part of my exposure to the great music from Brazil that I had only scratched the surface of prior to moving to New York. Right down the street from the store that I worked at was a great live venue, S.O.B.’s or Sound Of Brazil. A terrific spot and always hosting great Brazilian, Latin American and Afro artists. I was like a kid in a candy store throughout those years. I loved it. So much great music to enjoy and absorb. My record collection growing at a rapid rate. CDs too, as this was still the era when great lost albums and unreleased music was being issued on CD.
Greg had given me a few mix CDs and CDRs and they were all great, but this one was one of my faves. He squeezed over thirty tracks on the disc and mixed them well. The flow and transitions are really nice. There’s a good mix of artists and bands. Some legendary and some more obscure. I was introduced to many a name from this CD and hipped to some cool shit. Typical with these types of deep dives, a lot of these records would be tough to find as originals and if you did, you’d have to pay high for them. Perhaps now with the internet etc. some might be more easily available, but back in the late 90s/early 00s it was a much different landscape.
Musically speaking, the mix covers tunes cut between the mid-sixties through the late seventies for the most part. Over repeated listens I have got to love certain moments, but I still love how the first three or four tracks flow. Beginning with Os Incríveis who recorded a ton of records throughout the sixties and into the seventies, this tune came from a 45 they recorded to tie in with one of the Disney Herbie movies featuring the famous racing VW bug. It’s a cool beginning and then we hear from Rita Lee, one of a few names I did at least recognize at the time as Os Mutantes were on my radar by then. This cut is pulled from one of her later solo albums.
Third up is Rosa Maria with a cut from a single she released in 1972 that as an original goes for three figures. Luckily, over the years, the awesome Mr. Bongo label has reissued great tunes like this one, so a lot are at least accessible now. Again, twenty-plus years ago it was a different ball game. You had to work a lot harder to hear more obscure, deeper cuts. Now in 2022, a lot of these names on the mix are more widely known and many of the tunes themselves have become staples in DJ sets and compilation albums, but back in the early 00s hearing these songs for the first time was mind blowing and dare I say life altering.
There are so many more cool cuts later in the mix. Azymuth, the great jazz funk band, gives us the funky Zombie. Jorge Ben serves up some Jazz Potatoes and the great Tim Maia is represented with a cut taken from his self-titled late 70s album. All terrific.
You can click here for a link to listen to the mix. It’s not the actual mix unfortunately and a couple of tracks are missing, but you’ll get the music. It will make the perfect playlist to watch the football to. Obviously I am hoping England does well, but I’ll also be pulling for Brazil.
Oh, and I am aware that Brazil is spelled with an S, at least on their football jerseys, but for ease of writing, spell check etc., I have gone with the Z spelling here. Don’t get bent out of shape, please.
Okay, that’s my recommendation for you this week. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading and see you next time. Cheers and Via Brasil - Dom