Brasil

Sonia Santos - Poema Ritmico Do Malandro (Balanço do Crioulo)A beautiful track from the instantly recognisable Sonia Santos. Drifts from classic to psychedelic samba, laden with strings, horns and crown noise. Originally released on 7" by Copacabana in 1971, but never on an album, and now fetches up to £100 per copy. A different version of this song also appears on the truly excellent Zito Righi 'Alucinolandia' LPJoao Donato - Cala Boca MeninoThis is the second track on Brazil 45's taken from Joao Donato's much sought after and requested 'Quem É Quem' LP. Quirky percussion, bubbling keys, horns and a hypnotic vocal. Donato is a hugely prolific force in Brazilian music and worked with the likes of including Tom Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, Cal Tjader, Dom Um Romao and Gilberto Gil amongst others. Cala Boca Menino was released on a 7" in 1973 in Brazil, but is very difficult to find at a reasonable price and in good condition these days.

Rita Lee & Tutti Frutti - Agora e ModaAgora e moda is a psychedelic, disco-boogie-groove monster, brought to our attention by Greg Caz and Sean Marquand aka Brazilian Beats Brooklyn. Originally released on her Babilônia LP on Som Livre in 1978. Rita Lee was lead singer of Os Mutantes and a hugely important figure in the Tropicalia movement. She remains one of the biggest personalities in Brazil, much loved both in and out of the music world. Perhaps not the most well known artist internationally, but within Brazil she is as well known as, if not more so, the likes and of Ben and Simonal.Pete Dunaway - Supermarket'Supermarket' is a Rare Groove/AOR masterpiece, killer baseline, drums and heavily string laden with a perfectly delivered English vocal! A lovely oddity. Pete Dunaway, real name Otavio Cardosa was a singer, composer, arranger and multi instrumentalist from Sao Paulo, who spent the majority of his time composing for TV themes and library instrumentals

Azimuth - A ManhaKey track from their all-time classic self-titled 1975 LP on Som Livre. Lush percussion laden, rhodes driven jazz-fusion groover.The legendary trio are one of the most well-known and most loved Brazilian exports, still regularly touring, including dates worldwide.Most prolific during their time signed to Milestone, where they released 10 LP's between 1979 and 1988.Osmar Milito e Quarteto Forma - America Latina'America Latina' is taken from the soundtrack to the Rede Globo soap opera "Selva De Pedra”, released on Som Livre in 1972. A cheerful, upbeat MPB song with a killer chorus drop. Milito began his career in 1964 artists as Nara Leão, Maria Bethania, Vinicius de Morais, Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben and Elis Regina amongst others. He worked in the USA with Chico Buarque and Sergio Mendes for several years in the 70’s, also appearing alongside artists including Liza Minelli, Mark Murphy, Spanky Wilson and Sammy Davis Jr.As sampled on Madvillain ft. M.E.D 'Raid', and featured in the Floating Points and Fourtet Plastic People mix!

Marcos Valle is back again, this time with the almighty ‘Estrelar’, his most well known disco/boogie track co-written with Leon Ware. Added hints of Yacht Rock too!The video (see below), filmed in Rio in the early 1980’s, is particular special and is well worth 5 minutes of your time. Marketed as “workout music" at the time, ‘Estrelar’ was his best-selling record with a total of around 90,000 sales.‘Estrelar’ is taken from his 1983 self titled LP released on Som Livre.Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti - Alleluia Two of the masters of the Brazilian Boogie sound joined forces to make a self-titled LP released in 1982 that epitamised the sound of early 80’s Rio de Janeiro. Synths and keys float over razor sharp samba, jazz and 2-step drum grooves backed by huge layers of horns. Production is as shiny, bright and ultra clean as it ever got!‘Alleluia’ is a mid tempo groover, with rich horns, guitar, synth and vocal lines. An end of the night jam if ever there was one.Released on the LP mentioned above and also on 7” in 1983.https://youtu.be/r7oAAUsKssE

2 years after the release of his first solo album, Favorite Recordings proudly presents SOLAR, second album by acclaimed Brazilian composer Lucas Arruda.Lucas Arruda’s born in 1983, in a Brazilian state called Espírito Santo, near Rio de Janeiro. Coming from a musical family (his dad and older brother are musicians) he started playing and listening to music very young. At the age of 13, he was also playing professionally already. After studying electric guitar and playing in various bands, Lucas passion quickly turned into Rhodes and keyboards, expanding his musical range of skills.At the same time he started his own home-studio and a real musical career in Brazil, playing and producing for various projects with his older brother Thiago, and gaining great local support from people like Ed Motta, William Magalhães (Banda Black Rio), Robert Lamm (Chicago) or Hyldon (Brazilian soul legend).In 2012, Fabricio Di Monaco (from Modo Solar) introduced Lucas’ music to Favorite Recordings’ head honcho, Pascal Rioux, who was immediately seduced by Lucas’ demos and talent. One year after, Favorite Recordings released Lucas Arruda’s first solo album titled Sambadi, and received great supports from many international DJs and media, who all acclaimed Lucas’ natural skills for composition and arrangement.Following this successful first effort, here comes SOLAR, new and second solo album by Lucas Arruda. Pursuing the sound established with Sambadi, this new project is again fully composed by Lucas, and filled with his fusion style, mixing influences and elements from his Latin musical background, with his genuine admiration for Jazz, Soul and Funk music; On “Melt the Night” for example, Lucas asked legendary producer Leon Ware for his help, reminding his collaborations in the 80s with Marcos Valle, when they perfectly merged together the sophisticated Boogie and AOR touch from California, with the blazing sense of rhythm from Brazil. For “Uma Onda”, he invites Alex Malheiros, bassist of the famous Jazz band Azymuth, for a splendid tribute to their specific fusion sound and influence on the Brazilian music scene. Finally the song “Agua”, co-written with his longtime friend Fabricio Di Monaco, is a beautiful ballad which illustrates perfectly Lucas’ passion for Soul music stars such as Stevie Wonder or Curtis Mayfield.On top of these great collaborations and a few more surprises, SOLAR also differs from its predecessor by a lot more elaborated production process, offering an authentic and warm sound, faithful to Lucas’ heroes and inspirations. Mostly recorded at Sala A Studio in Brazil, many drums parts were also taken at the fully analog Ambience Studios in Finland, by label mate drummer Jarkko Lepisto. The entire mix was also done in Finland on a Neve 8108 console from 1978, and under the direction of Andre Solomko and Petri Asiala, using only analogic technology and a Studer master tape to record the final pre-master.The result is a timeless album, which should definitely established Lucas Arruda as one of the greatest and most talented Brazilian musicians these days.SOLAR will be released as a deluxe gatefold double LP and limited CD edition on May 4th 2015.

The title says it all: Joia rara...Rare jewels. The well-established and authoritative knowledge and enthusiasm of Mojoknights blog comes correct on this collection of boogie, funk and soul rarities from the Brazilian motherland. From the staccato narrative and slinky boogie guitars of Jackson Goes "Variacoes" to the Parliament-style chants, heavy percussion and Chic/Sugar Hill references of Bons Tempos "Sao Paulo" to the velvet lounge-lashings of Brasil Show's piano-happy "Lagrimas", the whole collection sparkles with myriad sunny-side soul grooves and Latin heat that has largely been unavailable until now. Universal.