• Music

    Fabiano Do Nascimento – Mundo Solo

    December 2, 2023 - By 

    The indubitable Far Out Records have produced what might be my favorite record of 2023, a guitar album by Brazilian guitarist and fellow Los Angeleno Fabiano do Nascimiento.  I’ll let the label’s crack promo team describe this absolute beauty of a record below: “Adopting Hermeto Pascoal’s concept of Universal Music, a rejection of nationalistic tendencies in order to express all of one’s musical influences all at once, Fabiano avoided leaning too heavily on any particular musical language, without denying his own musical roots. After studying classical piano as a child, the Rio de Janeiro native discovered the guitar aged 10.…

  • Music

    Joyce Moreno – Visions of Dawn

    May 9, 2023 - By 

    I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing Joyce Moreno’s music in November of 2022, and it looks like the legends at Far Out Recordings have found yet another long lost masterpiece by the Brazilian queen of Brazilian acid-folk.  Does such a genre really exist?!  Take a listen to the track Jardim dos Deuses and you tell me!

  • Music

    Soyuz (Союз) – Force of the Wind (​С​и​л​а в​е​т​р​а​)

    November 9, 2022 - By 

    Belarus is not what one would think of as a Brazilian music hotspot, though, if my friends in the country could enlighten me to the local music scene, I would really appreciate it.  Still, Soyuz, led by singer Alex Chumak blend a Brazil-meets-Santana-meets-funk beat and this album engages you quickly, making the listener want to sway with the rhythm. From their Bandcamp site: “SOYUZ (which translates as ‘union’) is a creative collective from Minsk, Belarus, led by composer, arranger, and singer, Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist, Mikita Arlou, and drummer, Anton Nemahai. SOYUZ’s previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented,…

  • Music

    Joyce Moreno – Feminina (produced arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman)

    November 5, 2022 - By 

    Joyce Moreno (known mononymously simply as Joyce in Brazil) is one of the country’s finest exports, bringing a sultry and joyful voice to bossa nova, Música Popular Brasileira and jazz. She’s been covered by artists like Annie Lennox, Gerry Mulligan and Omara Portuondo, but this piece, a one-track opus, is one her finest works. It is a collaboration with German arranger, pianist and composer Claus Ogerman, and it sizzles.

  • Music

    Various Artists – Brazil USA 70: Brazilian Music In The USA In The 1970s

    July 1, 2021 - By 

    We’ll have to rely on a different way of hearing the tracks on this phenomenal comp released by Soul Jazz Records and Mr. Bongo.  Consider heading over to Sounds of the Universe’s page to sample tunes from one of the best and widest-ranging comps I’ve had the pleasure of hearing in some time now. From Sounds of the Universe’s website: All of the music featured here on this new Soul Jazz Records collection was created by Brazilian artists living and working in the USA in the 1970s. The album brings together some of these finest works and comes complete with…