Funky Brasil

    There’s a nice article about Brazil’s Black Rio movement in the new issue of Wax Poetics. The article focuses on how a handful of DJs imported American soul and funk records, developed a thriving DJ culture, and by proxy, a helped foment a kind of black consciousness that spread through the country during the 70s. Before long local artists began putting their own spins on the music—Tim Maia, Hyldon, Gerson King, Cassiano—but as good as many of them were, they failed to generate something distinctly Brazilian-sounding. Don’t get me wrong—I love this stuff, especially Maia, but this complex movement took a long time before groups like Banda Black Rio found a way to make something more unique by decade's end. These DJ parties were where today’s Funk Carioca madness all began, way back in the 80s. While the story is spot-on in terms of history and social context, it doesn’t spend much time elaborating on the work of the Brazilian soul acts. It does, however, feature a fantastic spread of record covers by most of the prime movers—those named above, Erlon Chaves, Banda Uniao Black, Toni Tornado, Luiz Melodia, Paulo Diniz, and Marku, among others. On my recent trip to Brazil I picked up a killer CD by Marku Ribas found some middle ground between Maia’s pure soul and the Afro-samba fusion of Jorge Ben. The CD collects two fine albums—Underground 72 and Marku 75. Here’s the great opening track from the former.

Zamba Ben

Buy it here.

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[sufferwords]

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