MR BONGO_part2

Nancy Holloway - Hurt So Bad

The tenth record in our Brazil 45s series - http://www.mrbongo.com/products/jorge-ben-joao-donato-7

A. Jorge Ben & Toquinho - Carolina, Carol Bela
AA. Joao Donato - Ara

Jorge Ben & Toquinho - Carolina, Carol Bela 

Jorge Ben is a name that any lover of Brazilian music will be very familiar with. He is widely regarded as the James Brown of Brazilian music and is famed for writing the Brazilian anthem ‘Mas Que Nada'. For the duet ‘Carolina, Carol Bela' he teamed up with the singer & guitarist Toquinho. Toquinho is best known for his collaborations, as composer and performer, with Bossa Nova poet Vinicius de Moraes.

'Carolina, Carol Bela' featured on the album ’Toquinho’ by Toquinho. It was originally released in 1970 on the small independent Brazilian label, RGE. This version is the first time it has been reissued as a 45.  

The song was sampled by DJ Marky and XRS for their Drum & Bass track ‘LK’ (V Recordings, 2002). This went on to be a huge chart hit across the world, and a number one hit in the UK.

Joao Donato - Ara

Joao Donato is a Brazilian Jazz and Bossa Nova Pianist. He has collaborated with many of the greats of Brazilian Music, including Tom Jobim, Astrud Gilberto and Gilberto Gil. He was one of the few Brazilian artists who went over to perform in the States during the Bossa Nova boom of the late 60’s. The song ‘Ara’ was originally released on his seminal album Quem é quem”, (EMI, 1973), an album that is full of great tracks and was considered as one of the 100 best albums in all times by the Rolling Stone magazine. 

See more of our Brazilian 45 series here.

Joao Donato - A Ra

All The Same

Brazil 45, number 21: http://www.mrbongo.com/products/azymuth-a-manha-osmar-milito-e-quarteto-forma-america-latina

Azimuth - Manha

Key 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!

Azimuth - Manha

Ana Mazzotti - Agora Ou Nunca Mais Www.123savemp3.com

Trio Mocotó

Swinga Sambaby

Robson Jorge e Lincoln Olivetti

Aleluia

Squash

Raton

No Bom Sentido

Pret-À-Porter

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Far Out Recordings proudly presents two albums of previously unheard Azymuth demo recordings from 1973-75

Since their debut album release in 1975, Azymuth have risen to rank alongside the world’s greatest jazz, funk and fusion artists. As young men in Rio de Janeiro, they stood out for both their exceptional talent as musicians, and their wild rock ‘n’ roll antics in the predominantly middle-class worlds of bossa nova and jazz. Their signature ‘Samba Doido’ (crazy samba) sound ruptured the tried and tested musical structures of the day, resulting in what can only be described as an electric, psychedelic, samba jazz-funk hybrid.
But before they became Azymuth, Jose Roberto Bertrami (keyboards), Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti (drums), Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ariovaldo Contesini (percussion) played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil.

Bertrami was also contracted as an arranger and songwriter at some the biggest labels of the era: Polydor, Philips, Som Livre, and EMI being just a few. Azymuth’s name can be found on record sleeves by the likes of Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Marcos Valle, Ana Mazzotti and countless others. But at the dawn of the seventies, fascinated by developments in improvisational music - from jazz in the US, to progressive rock in the UK and of course samba, bossa and tropicália on home turf - the energetic young group were inspired and ready to move forward.Any spare moment in which they weren’t in sessions and writing music for other artists, they would be carving out their own sound.

These previously unheard recordings took place between 1973-75 at Bertrami’s home studio in the Laranjeiras district of Rio de Janeiro. At the time of recording, there was nothing in Brazil, less the world that sounded anything like them, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that when Bertrami presented his demos to the record companies he had been working for, he was turned away, and told in effect that the music was ‘wrong’.

One of the demos ‘Manhã’ would be picked up by Som Livre and Azymuth released their seminal debut album in 1975. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, the group released a series of now classic albums for Milestone Records, before taking an indefinite hiatus to pursue their individual careers.
When English producers Joe Davis and Roc Hunter arrived in Brazil in 1994 to record the first Azymuth album in over a decade, Bertrami dug out the demos which had sat virtually untouched for over twenty years. Joe recalls how he was “blown away by the freedom and intensity of the music, as well as the genius of the ideas musically.” Beginning a long and fruitful relationship, ‘Prefacio’ would be the first track Azymuth recorded for Far Out Recordings and was released on the Carnival album (1996).

Along with ‘Manhã’ and ‘Prefacio’, only a handful of these demos were ever professionally recorded and released, making this the first opportunity to hear many of these early Azymuth compositions in their raw, original form.

On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.

Vinyl / CD / Digi

Azymuth - Manha

The Dreaming Jewels

Sapphire Dreams

Raton

Robson Jorge

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