Egberto Gismonti - Academia De Danças - EMI-Odeon Fonográfica, Industrial e Eletrônica Ltda 1974

For me, owning a record is the ultimate way of showing my allegiance to the artist. Making the commitment to physically protect it no matter how may times I move it to a new home. It being the largest tangible format, it rewards me with an ever rotating gallery of 1ft ² artwork to display as I listen and learn all I can through the album art and credits. I'm the curator of these sights and sounds in my own home as the historian of my musical experiences. Internet research is an awesome thing but there is no comparing to the presentation a record and artist can give you in the full realized concept of an album. No matter how extensive the story behind every record is, I'm like any addict who is equally obsessed with the ritual, as I am with of the high...

And I love getting high off vinyl reissues. I like owning an original copy of most anything for its historical significance but often times a reissue has the bonus of extra songs and liner notes detailing the story of the album. Another benefit to new and reissue vinyl releases, is that there's often times a download code with the record. Let's be honest, you can't possibly take your records with you everywhere so it's been quite the blessing to be able to download or stream your vinyl purchases away from your turntable. It seems the most popular website for download codes is bandcamp.com. There's a good reason for that too. In a world of being nickle and dimed for everything we buy or try to sell, bandcamp.com is a rare exception in the music industry. If you're unfamiliar with this incredible website, they describe themselves as

"An online record store and music community where passionate fans discover, connect with, and directly support the artists they love."

"When a fan buys something on Bandcamp, an average of 82% of the money goes to the artist or their label — typically in 24-48 hours — and the remainder covers our revenue share and payment processor fees."

"Since we only make money when artists make a lot more money, our interests remain aligned with those of our community. It’s a straightforward, artists-first approach, and one we’re happy to say works well. Fans have paid artists and their labels $766 million using Bandcamp, and $220 million in the past year. In the past year, fans have bought 16.0 million digital albums, 6.6 million tracks, 2.3 million vinyl records, 1 million CDs, 550,000 cassettes, and 500,000 t-shirts."

The statistic bandcamp.com states of vinyl selling over 1.3 million more records than CD's is an amazing stat and conquest for any vinyl enthusiast. Which creates other problems for vinyl production but that should be a topic for another blog post.

There's no denying that bandcamp.com is hands down the best way for independent musicians to be supported. Including myself. I have 2 vinyl LP's for sale on bandcamp.com. Check them out here.

Spacebag - Party Prog Nights

Eye Of Nix - Ligeia

The path that led me to to discovering Egberto Gismonti, started at Bandcamp.com. Sometimes I'll go on the site and browse in the "Fusion" sub genre section of the "Jazz" category. I like to randomly check out albums of all genres for the spontaneity of hearing something new. At that time, at the top of the "fusion" page was a self titled album by Brazilian artist Marcos Resende & Index. The description from the label Far Out Recordings had my attention.

"Beyond their highly sought after 1978 album Festa Para Um Novo Rei - home to the mystical jazz-funk classic ‘Vidigal’ and released on Philips’ iconic Musica Popular Brasileira Contemporanea series (MPBC) - little is known about Marcos Resende & Index, even to aficionados of obscure Brazilian music. Far Out Recordings is immensely proud to present their previously unreleased self-titled debut album from 1976, contributing a crucial missing work from the glory days of progressive Brazilian instrumental music."

"he travelled to Lisbon in the 60s to study medicine. Yet continuing to explore his musical passion on the side, he formed a trio which went on to open for Dexter Gordon at the Cascais Jazz Festival in 1971. From here he formed the electronic oriented prog-jazz group Status, who opened shows for the likes of Elton John, Phil Woods, Stan Getz, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, but in spite of their relative live success they have no known recordings."

"Now established as a highly regarded keyboardist, composer, and innovative electronic musician, Resende returned home to Brazil following Portugal’s Revolução dos Cravos in 1974. Inspired by US jazz and British progressive rock he’d experienced while residing in Europe, Resende went all out acquiring a keyboard arsenal to be reckoned with, which included the Prophet 5, Yamaha CP-708 and Mini Moog. Determined to integrate his newfound inspirations with Brazilian rhythms and jazz traditions, he formed a new quartet with Rubão Sabino (bass), Claudio Caribé (drums) and the late great Oberdan Magalhães, of Banda Black Rio and Cry Babies fame. Marcos Resende & Index recorded their self-titled debut at Sonoviso Studios with the legendary sound engineer Toninho Barbosa, known as the ‘Brazilian Rudy Van Gelder’"

"At the time of recording, Resende had hoped to release the album on the famed CTI Records, and although a deal with the label almost came to fruition, it fell through and the album was shelved by Marcos. Thankfully Marcos kept the tapes from the Sonoviso sessions safe and presented them to Far Out’s Joe Davis at his home in Lisbon in 2018, but only after 25 years of Joe pleading to hear them. Marcos has worked closely with Far Out towards restoring these recordings over the last two years, but tragically passed away after a battle with stomach cancer on 12th November 2020 at the age of 73, only a matter of weeks before the album was due to be unveiled to the world. With the blessing of his family who wish to honour his memory by ensuring these historic recordings see the light of day, Marcos Resende & Index will be available on vinyl, CD and digital formats from 29th January 2021."

https://www.faroutrecordings.com/products/marcos-resende-index-marcos-resende-index

So I impulse bought this record and accidentally got put on the record label Far Out Recordings mailing list. One day I happen to be digging through my email and was bored enough to actually look at the "promotions" tab of my gmail. I found an email from Far Out Recordings that had a link to a playlist on a streaming service titled Rhodes & Moogs: Electronic Brazilian jazz of the 70's. Being the keyboard nerd I am, I had to hear this! It's the aural equivalent of being in a Brazilian synthesizer theme park! And I picked the perfect drive to listen to it on.

On one road trip in the early summer of 2021, me and my wife went to the visually stunning Palouse Falls State Park in Eastern Washington. Carved more than 13,000 years ago, Palouse Falls is among the last active waterfalls on the Ice Age floods path.


Palouse Falls

On our drive home back home to Seattle, passing through the The Channeled Scablands of the Palouse Falls region. An area of Eastern Washington that was scoured by more than 40 cataclysmic floods during the Last Glacial Maximum and innumerable older cataclysmic floods over the last two million years. These floods were periodically unleashed whenever a large glacial lake broke through its ice dam and swept across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Ice Age. The last of the cataclysmic floods occurred between 18,200 and 14,000 years ago.

While driving through this vast landscape, I felt that the soothing tropical sounds of the Rhodes & Moogs: Electronic Brazilian jazz of the 70's playlist would be the perfect contrast to the undulating plains and big sky of The Scablands. A sight brazen in its persistence of relentlessly inundating your curiosity of how these floods must have looked like?


Photo I took that day of Palouse River right before the falls

One song on the playlist that really stuck out was "Jardim De Prazeres" or "Garden of Pleasures" by Egberto Gismonti. This track is way different than most of the chill moog laden bossa nova songs on the playlist. This being a heavy jazz rocker that begins with a stumbling piano intro that lays the red carpet down for a fantastical acoustic guitar journey. One of intricate picking and big chords. Summoning enough power to go toe to toe with any electric guitar rock of its time. All while being honed in by a profusion of eccentric jazz drum fills that creates a sound that seems straight out of a spaghetti Western film soundtrack. Even with the language barrier, the vocals of Gismonti and company follow the guitar note for note in a commanding profession of the admiration of his utopian pleasure garden.

In the moment I asked myself, "Is this the Brazilian answer to the French Jazz/Prog band Magma?!" For my taste, absolutely! I made a note to research this when I got home and eventually found an original copy on vinyl.

Me being completely new to Brazilian music except Sepultura, Ha! This Egberto Gismonti record and the world of Brazilian synth/moog jazz is fascinating and left me with so many questions.

In investigating this album, There was little I could find on the album itself except for a few Brazilian music blogs translated from Portuguese. Most were minimal and vaguely only quoted his wiki page. As short as his page is, it can set one down an inexhaustible well of Brazilian musical culture. I was excited to go to task of using this amazing collection of songs to have an excuse of understanding how it came to exist. One resource I was really hoping to use is a short book written by Charles Gavin that looks super cool but is written in Portuguese. I bought an electronic version but I can't find an easy way to translate the entire book at once. Ha!

What I did learn is that Gismonti is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer. The first attribute about him I was struck by is his especially prolific guitar sound that he accomplished by designing 8 and 10 stringed guitars.

"He approaches the fretboard as if it were a keyboard while his playing gives the impression of more than one guitarist."

"Basically, I’m a piano player that plays guitar. Because of the piano’s range I have tuned my ears to bigger intervals than the guitar’s intervals. That’s the main reason I use more strings. The tunings are different for each guitar, but all of them have high strings on the 7th and 9th." - Gismonti

Again, as a keyboardist myself, this insight was a fraction of an epiphany as to why I was drawn to this entrancing alien sound.

Gismonti

Academia De Danças is not just an album title but an orchestra that made 3 simultaneous albums under the moniker. Academia De Danças the album, is arguably the most ambitious of the 3, if not his entire career?

Gismonti sings and plays electric and acoustic piano, whistles, Indian flute, organ, ARP Odyssey synthesizer (a staple in 70's jazz, rock and beyond). The orchestra includes drums, another electric pianist and organist, flute and bass flute, 16 violinists, 4 violists and 3 double bassists.

Arp Intruments Ad, 1979

The album also features a handful of incredible vocalists. However the one that's most intriguing, has to be Dulce Bressane, also known as Dulce Nunes. She was a famous Brazilian actress who left acting to pursue a similarly successful career as MPB (Música popular brasileira or Popular Brazilian Music) singer-songwriter. With a beautiful soprano voice she had a three solo album career as a mainstay in the Brazilian Bossa Nova industry of the 1960's. She was married to Bené Nunes, the famous actor, composer, pianist and notorious lady’s man. They eventually divorced and in 1967 she later married Gismonti, who was her ex-husband's nephew. Kind of crazy right? A 15 year age difference too. Yet they were married during the making of Academia De Danças. Which is yet another endearing factor to what makes this album so great. Her connection and contribution was pivotal for Gismonti because even when they divorced in 1976, she continued to sing and assist in the production of his albums into the early 1990's. She sadly died of Covid-19 at the age of 90 in Rio De Janeiro on June 4th, 2020.

Dulce

The vision coinciding with the orchestration and production of this album is no doubt an impressive feat. One that at the time of its release, many critics controversially dismissed it as less than scholarly. Myself being a novice to jazz and especially Brazilian jazz, perhaps "the outsider" is just the type it's calling to? Or maybe it can best be visually described as in the discordant sheet music in the liner notes?

To grasp Gismonti's musical intention, I would be remiss to not mention his influences. There were quite a few mentioned in his brief and various internet biographies. I personally needed to educate myself on all of it. So I apologize if I cover some obvious basics of Brazilian music . However, it's been an enlightening journey that was long overdue. The power of music, always the honest ambassador.

Gismonti's musical make up is owed in part to the Brazilian natives of the Amazon, as well as the traditions of batuque, Carioca samba, Northeastern frevo, baião, forró and chôro. Gismonti is said to emulate the true spirit of Brazil in a manner that can be primitive, yet advanced, which is demonstrated through his personal experience, elaborated by many years of basic teaching and literacy in an abundance of musical dialects where jazz plays a substantial part.

"Choro represents the foundation of our music. To play, to understand, to be, to think Brazilian music, everyone must cross by the concept and the music of choro." - Gismonti

"The word chôro is Portuguese for "weeping", "cry", and came to be the name used for music played by an ensemble of Brazilian street musicians (called chorões) using both African and European instruments, who improvise in a free and often dissonant kind of counterpoint called contracanto."

- Wiki

For a more entertaining in depth look into the fascinating history of chôro in Brazil, look nor further than this eloquent and charming explanation by the charismatic pianist and composer Henrique Eisenmann

Gismonti is clearly a proud Brazilian with a great veneration of his cultural heritage. For starters there's Heitor Villa-Lobos. The Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist and classical guitarist. Who's considered "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music." Listen below.

Every country has their version of pop music and Gismonti is no stranger to it. As mentioned previously about Dulce Bressane, In Brazil it's called MPB or Música popular brasileira (Popular Brazilian Music). Which is a trend in post-bossa nova urban popular music of samba, samba-canção and baião, combining them with foreign influences, such as jazz and rock.

For a rock aficionado like myself, I was then led to possibly the most interesting form of the MPB sub-genre? Tropicália. A Brazilian art movement of the late 60's that was an amalgamation of Brazilian MPB, African rhythms, avant-garde and American/British psych/pop rock. It's purpose was to give the connotation of a "tropical paradise" and a "field for reflection on social history."

The Tropicália movement came to fruition (pun intended) at a time when Brazil's military dictatorship and left-wing ideas held distinct but prominent amounts of power simultaneously. The Tropicalists' rejection of both sides' version of this nationalism (the military's conservative patriotism and the ineffectual bourgeois anti-imperialism) was met with criticism and harassment. The anarchistic, anti-authoritarian musical and lyrical expressions of the Tropicalistas soon made them a target of censorship and repression by the military junta that ruled Brazil in this period.

One of the most well known and regarded groups/albums from the genre has to be the highly beloved and coveted record (especially in the vinyl community), the self titled 1968 album from OS Mutantes.

Further down the rabbit hole of Gismonti's musical DNA through MPB, is samba rock. A Brazilian dance culture that fuses samba with soul, rock and funk. The genre became defined by the drum kit, bass guitar, keyboard, brass instruments, a strong groove and "tumxicutumxicutum", an onomatopoeia referring to samba rock's distinctive rhythm. In case you need a refresher like i did? Onomatopoeia is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle). Jorge Ben is considered the "father of samba rock." The proof of his greatness in the pudding. Take a listen to his infectious song "Take It Easy My Brother Charles" which is considered integral to the genre.

By the early 70's, Gismonti was listening to musicians as wide-ranging as Django Reinhardt and Jimi Hendrix. For him, Hendrix's achievements were proof that "popular" and "serious" idioms need not remain opposite poles: "There's no difference between the two kinds of music..." - Gismonti

Academia De Danças definitely travels far and wide between the two idioms. On my first listen from the beginning to the end, I was mesmerized! There's no denying that Academia De Danças is a symphonic rock composition of the highest caliber. One parallel I would personally make is that it easily falls in line with his musical contemporary and fellow visionary, Stanley Clarke's song "Concerto for Jazz/Rock Orchestra." Which is the mind bending epitome of heavy orchestral rock music. Especially the horn section at 9:20!

Another factor to having such a large rock sound could be the contribution of two giants of Brazilian instrumental music, Roberto Da Silva and Luis Alves. Former members of the group Som Imaginário. A band who accomplished an impressive variety of sounds within a 3 album discography. Touching on elements of traditional Brazilian chôro, Brit pop, fusion, psych and prog while always finding its way back to a relaxed atmosphere of jazz. I was especially impressed with the opening track "Armina"on the album A Matança do Porco (The slaughter of the pig) released a year before Academia De Danças in 1973. A heavy prog fueled composition that seems to pay tribute to probably one of the heaviest Beatles songs ever? "I want you (She's so heavy)." However there's something for everyone in their discography and definitely worth looking into.

Even after drinking from the fire hose of Brazilian musical history, Academia De Danças continues to be a fascinating musically anomaly for me. This album seems to lean more on the avant-garde side of MPB where the absence of electric guitar allows acoustic guitar to be the showcase of its heavy rock sound. A sound that shares the spotlight with a very classical, progressive and cinematic nature. All while written during the effects of many years of military dictatorship in Brazil.

I'm having a hell of a time finding songs from Academia De Danças on Youtube to share with you on this blog. I of course recommend finding this on vinyl but you can always check it out on many of the various streaming services out there. That being said, here's my rundown on some of the songs from the album.

Inside Gatefold

The entire album plays out like a film score even if there's no movie to accompany it. The opening track translates to "Palace of Paintings." (All song titles will be translated from here on out) It encapsulates your full attention into a grandiose sense of imagining an opening credits scene of a classic film. Where one can find themselves basking in beautiful acoustic guitar arpeggios and a classical string section that acts as your tour guide through a world renowned gallery of master works. Then the heavenly sound of a synthesizer emulating a theremin, guides you down the corridors of an unpredictable phantasmagoria.

"Enchanted portal" is an action packed cinematic chase scene formed around a killer progressive acoustic guitar riff exploding with jarring plucks from the entire string section. Laid out brilliantly across the entire spectrum of the stereo field. Convincing you enough to watch your fucking back! Then the synth joins the flight path of the strings and guitar in formation through a storm of staccato rain and unexpected cowbell. Crashing face first into the next song.

Out of the wreckage of "Enchanted Portal," "Scheherazade" wrestles itself up from the ground with a heavy free form jazz drum part and bizarre synth arpeggio. Akin to seeing stars after a tumultuous fall. Then the song revisits the same exact musical passage of "Garden Of Pleasures" except with brief moments of crowd applause. (Which whenever I hear that on any album, it always reminds me of the Rush song "Spirit Of Radio?" Ha!) Then out of nowhere the song ends with a huge gong hit! Which is also the end of side 1! Genius!

The beauty of old records, is that they could fit only so many minutes on each side. So song order was way more important than it is today. You had to make it fit on each side. Which is about 22 minutes a side at 33 1/3 RPM's. So Mood and the multiple characteristics of songs were the chess pieces of the full album experience. Two sides equals the opportunity to have two epic endings. Bonus!

So it seems what better to way to start side two after ending side one with an epic gong hit is with the "chill" songs? "Silver Wedding" and "Four Corners" are two back to back tranquil jazz/classical piano and vocal songs sung by Gismonti. Embracing the full weeping aesthetic of chôro. What really grasps at my curiosity is the use of bird sounds randomly and sparsely placed throughout the album. Which also seems like a staple of every song on the Rhodes & Moogs: Electronic Brazilian jazz of the 70's playlist? Or as eloquently stated in a review of Academia De Danças by the legendary jazz label, ECM Records website,

"The lovelorn “Bodas de Prata” walks paths of uncertainty into “Quatro Cantos,” throughout which electronic imitations of crickets and birds populate a space peripherally haunted by Bressane."

"Villa Rica 1720" possibly represents the transition of power from "Rich Valley" to "Ouro Preto" or "Black Gold" in 1720? This mining town was at the heart of the Brazilian Gold Rush and was the capital of Minas Gerais in Brazil from 1720 until 1897. A Unesco World Heritage Site for its outstanding Baroque Portuguese Colonial architecture, it sits in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains.

The songs starts off with a winding synthesizer effect into a theremin sound similarly to the winding roads of the valley. While the staccato dance of piano eighth notes are poised against the backdrop of a flourishing string section where the synthetic theremin takes the solo. All instruments are then aligned in a peaceful autonomous tranquility. Then the power dynamics of the changing times has it's way. Like a pick-axe continuously striking gold, all instruments are steered to the thunderous tom drum hits while all plucking the same note in unison. This by far being my favorite moment on the record for its chilling effect reminiscent of Bernard Hermann's score for the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's, Psycho.

"According to the height of the sun" is a serious piano/synth progressive rock ripper with a wide range of bizarre flute leads and killer jazz fusion drumming! A definite keyboard players utopia! Then they hit you with that epic gong again at the end of the song! Who says you can only use gong once an album/career? Not friends of mine.

"According to the height of the moon" goes hand in hand like a lunar eclipse with the previous song. A spectacular freakout of organ, weird synth presets, flutes, auxiliary percussion and super creepy ominous strings. A perfectly brief moment of insanity of just under two minutes. Or like slowing down traffic while driving past a fatal car accident so you can selfishly get a view.

"Night Train" is a very traditional jazz piano song but around the 4:20 mark it starts getting bonkers with super high paced bass lines, crowd cheers and a barrage of cheesy synthesizer bomb dropping sounds just like those little sound effect key chains we had as kids in the 80's! The progressive moments proliferate and dissolve into the gentle chôro sounds of piano and the subtle crying of Gismonti's vocals.

The final song, "Wake up Baião" is one that most freakishly resembles the French prog/jazz band Magma. As I referenced them earlier. It's also the one song on the record not written by Gismonti. It's written by Djair de Barros e Silva (a.k.a. Novelli) who also sings on the track and is a prolific artist in his own right.

In researching Novelli, I came across an incredible guitar album from 1975 that he plays on. One year later than Academia De Danças that "Wake up Baião" also appears on. It was re-recorded on an album with fellow Bosa Nova legends, Naná Vasconcelos and Nelson Angelo. The version of "Wake up Baião" on this album titled Nana, Nelson Angelo, Novelli, is an endearing more stripped down acoustic guitar sound as compared to the large adventurous orchestration on Academia De Danças. However there's some really compelling guitar playing on this album. I especially gravitated towards the meat of the second half of the album. I was completely mesmerized by the song "No sul do polo norte." A refreshing Brazilian take on fusion with this incredible trio of acoustic guitar mastery and contrabass! Listen below!

The more I kept researching and checking out Brazilian jazz for this blog, "Wake up Baião" appeared once again! This time from Airto Moreira. An artist I was already familiar with especially through his wife, the wonderful and talented Flora Purim. The internet suggested I listen to his 1975 album Identity. Glad I took the bait cause this record is fucking fantastic! Ironically Egberto Gismonti plays Acoustic Guitar, Electric Piano, Piano and Flute on the record. And the record sounds as if it's supposed to be a direct companion to Academia De Danças?! Gismonti is credited on discogs.com as being a writer along side Novelli for "Wake up song (Baião Do Acordar)." However, I still believe Novelli is the original writer? Correct me if I'm wrong please. This amazing album also features the same killer drummer on Academia De Danças, Roberto Da Silva. There's some big names in American jazz on the album too. Including Herbie Hancock on the ARP Odyssey and Wayne Shorter on Saxophone.An album so good I bought a copy on vinyl immediately after hearing it once! Perhaps a record worth covering for a future blog post?

Gismonti's version of "Wake up Baião"on Academia De Danças leans heavily on piano as its nucleus. The song starts surprisingly with a few seconds of back masking but without any phonetic reversal or AKA, backwards messaging. A studio trick impressively and rarely used as early as 1974. Within seconds, the song quickly conjures up the spirit of Baião. A Northeastern Brazilian music genre and dance style based on a syncopated duple meter rhythm. Characterized by a primary division of 2 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 2 and multiples of 2 or 6 in the upper figure of the time signature, with ²
₂ (cut time), ²
₄, and ⁶
₈ (at a fast tempo) being the most common examples.

This rhythmic one, two punch is as fast as any thrash metal but the intricate jazz shuffle of the drums being perfectly in line with the fierce independence of the double bass (stringed instrument not drums) is well worth the price of admission. Plus the abundance of unexpected bass synth accompanying the double bass aligns the complex vocal arrangements from the chorus of singers bound by a true community spirit. The synthesizer never stops as it weaves in and out with an almost bee like sound. Pollinating the song with musical seeds. And just like that the record ends like a sucker punch. Leaving you with so many questions.

Gismonti ecmrecords.com

Academia De Danças is no doubt a disparate musical feat. I'm thankful that the spontaneity of finding it has lead to a treasure trove of Brazilian music. For me it's a great relief to find a completely new genre and vast culture of music to dig for eternally. I actually get worried sometimes that I might get stuck in a musical rut but every now and then I'm steered into a direction that keeps me busy for a lifetime. Perhaps this is the new drug Huey Lewis should try?

As I reflect on the metal band Sepultura being the first Brazilian music I ever heard as a teenager in the 90's, I keep thinking of one of their only acoustic songs, "Kaiowas." A song that is clearly a nod to their Brazilian heritage. 27 plus years later, after educating myself on Brazilian music, I definitely have a greater understanding and appreciation for the song. As well as an even greater admiration for the band who I thought I couldn't possibly love any more? I feel embarrassed it took me several years to truly attempt to listen to anything that wasn't "brutal" or just "killer classic rock." With the internet, the musical candy store is vast and I made a vow to never take that power for granted. If I had the internet when I first started collecting records and was able to check out anything and everything like I do now, I would have made myself insane not being able to afford every record I wanted. Now that I can afford and pretty much do buy all the records I want, it's starting to become a problem? A problem I don't mind having at all. Regardless, I love being a pseudo music historian! I have the records to prove it happened, what exactly happened and the proof its moment in history fucking ruled!

In the vinyl community world wide, Brazilian music is very sought after. Tucked away in the boutique record shops of non Brazilian cities like London, Amsterdam, New York and Milan, are well crafted stashes of incredibly curated sections of Brazilian jazz, rock, psychedelia and beyond. And for good reason. The un-deniability of it's rhythmic authenticity, joyous optimism and undaunted use of synthesizer in its early days, is a victorious musical success story! A story I love to visit. Especially when every song seems to be an invitation to a party? Well thanks for fucking having me!

If you aren't familiar with Far Out Recordings or a lot of 70's Brazilian jazz like I wasn't, I highly recommend the record label. They're doing the lord's work. As stated on their website...

"The label’s aim from the start has been to bring the sound of Brazil to the world – to showcase the history and culture of a land bursting with creativity and energy – from the classic to the cutting edge. There have been numerous releases from both new and established Brazilian artists."

And man are their releases quality! Follow the link below and really just check out anything but if I can make one last suggestion? Check out their re-issue of Manfredo Fest's - Brazilian Dorian Dream. Especially for the song "Slaughter on Tenth Ave."