Tim Maia Mania - Raridades, Part 2

Back with some more Tim Maia rareness, this time from a little later in his career and again limited to "covers" or guest vocal spots for the Brazilian Soul Brother Number One. At the end of last "episode" our hero was on the verge of becoming one of Brazil's biggest pop stars. His first four albums sold extremely well and he was regularly sending singles into the Brazilian top-40 orbit. So much so that his style and even his songs were getting play from other established and up and coming artists.

Brazilian Boys - Nossa Senhora do Tim
The Brazilian Boys were a group of mostly white dudes playing portuguese language cover versions of Simon & Garfunkel and Johnny Nash and dabbling in the dancable "Samba Rock" style coming out of Sao Paulo. Their best song from this album (I believe their first, though they do have another one) is a cover/adaptation of Tim Maia's "Salve Nossa Senhora" from his second album. They basically cover the song but add the line "que Tim Maia falou" which means "what Tim Maia said."

During Tim's golden years he declined nearly every offer to guest on other people's a semi-official position based on two factors: 1) Tim's ego was too large to play second-fiddle to anyone, and 2) Tim had his own style that no one else really came close to and he was notoriously difficult to work with. So it was only at the beginning of his career, when he needed the boost, and as his career started losing steam that he teamed up with other artists for some notable duets or collaborations.

Rosana - Chegou a Hora (with Tim Maia)
Thanks to Elan aka DJ E-Zinho for this one. I had never even heard of this 1979 collaboration and the otherwise exhaustive Nelson Motta book makes no mention of it either. This was from Rosana's first album and despite being a fairly major recording artist, this album is poorly documented online, hence the poor cover image. It makes some sense that Tim would be on this recording as the players, producers and song-writers on her album were basically the same people on his albums from the period: Lincoln Olivetti, Robson Jorge, Tiberio Gaspar, etc. And the sound is pure Lincoln Olivetti & Robson Jorge - the Quincy Jones of late 70s and early 80s R&B. What is strange about this is that initially Tim only agreed to guest on songs of his close friends, first Fabio and Hyldon and then (as we shall see below) Erasmo Carlos . . . but, Rosana?!? He must have had the hots for Rosana, or was financially in pinch, which was usually the reason for any collaboration during the second half of his career (1980 and on . . .)

Erasmo Carlos - Alem do Horizonte (with Tim Maia)
Erasmo's last decent album features the Brazilian king of rock dueting on every track with a veritable who's who of Brazilian superstars. Tim joins Erasmo on a classic Roberto & Erasmo composition that once again shows obvious signs of Olivettiana. The sounds might be a bit dated, but I love the horns and Tim really does wonders on this track, making Erasmo sound like the guest vocalist.

Check back soon for some deep cuts from the man himself.

Tim Maia Mania - Raridades, Part 1

I'm in full Tim Maia Mania. I'm finishing up Nelson Motta's excellent biography of the man, the myth, the legend aka Tiao Marmiteiro, Tiao Maconheiro, Jimmy the Brazilian, O Rei do Samba Soul - Tim Maia. I decided to take this mania public and I'll be posting some classics and some obscurities for as long as I can stand it, which could be awhile.

Also, I IMPLORE you to check out this clip I posted over at Soul Spectrum Videos that features some ridiculously rare Tim Maia footage from his Racional phase as well as from his excellent post-Racional 1976 album. Jaw-dropping stuff here.

In researching Tim's life its interesting to note that his success was almost single-handedly attributable to his own charisma and single-minded vision of becoming a rock n' roll star. Unlike today where an iota of talent and millions in marketing dollars can make a star, Tim was about as pure a star as you can imagine. He fought every known stereotype and triumphed to become one of Brazil's biggest pop stars of all time. He was fat, black, irresponsible, a stoner, a coke-head, a philanderer, was momentarily a cult-member, he was imprisoned in the US and Brazil multiple times and yet he still managed to stay in the limelight for over two decades.

This success did not come easy. He was deported from the US back to Brazil in 1964 after being caught in a stolen car with weed in his possession. Back in Brazil, he hit the ground running and immediately tried to get in contact with his old friends from Barra de Tijuca who had miraculously become huge teen idols: Roberto and Erasmo Carlos (no relation). Leveraging their fame and access to benefit Tim was easier said than done as these two "safe", white pop stars were hesitant about promoting an unkempt, mostly homeless, fat, black soul singer on their shows, even if he had taught them both how to play guitar. First off, nobody in Brazil knew what soul music was . . . at least at that time.

Tim managed to put out two singles in 1968 and 1969 and neither did very well and both are extremely rare. Part of their failure had to do with the incongruence of Tim's vision for Brazilian soul music and the record label's inability to properly reproduce that beat-heavy, funky sound. Tim's initial success was going to have come through writing for and producing other artists, those less black and fat than he.

Roberto Carlos - Não Vou Ficar
Tim managed to sneak into Roberto Carlos' swanky apartment building and waited for the "King" of Jovem Guarda to come home. He demanded Roberto put him on his show. Roberto compromised and agreed to record a song of Tim's, but not the one that Tim was pitching that day. He wanted something a little rougher, something with some teeth and that contagious funky soul sound that Tim knew better than anyone in Brazil. Tim came up with this song and it became a huge hit for Roberto. When you compare it with Tim's version, from his second solo album from two years later, Roberto's version sounds like muzak, but for the time, and for Roberto, this was cutting edge. Roberto's soul shouts kinda sound more like soul whimpers.

Eduardo Araujo - Você
Around the same time Tim connected with another Jovem Guarda star, Eduardo Araujo, who was taken by the soul sounds emanating from the US and together with Tim Maia's album put together one of the very first Brazilian soul albums. Tim arranged all the songs, translated all the lyrics from English to Portuguese, sang back-up and even contributed one of his songs, "Voce". The song would be a hit when Tim recorded it, again for his second solo album from 1971. This version also pales in comparison, but I think it's worth a listen.

Eduardo Araujo - A Mulher
This is Eduardo and Tim's version of one of my all time favorite soul songs, James Brown's "Cold Sweat". Enough said.

Elis Regina with Tim Maia - These Are the Songs
This is the one that put Tim on the map, because it was the first BIG record that actually had his voice on it. This duet with Elis Regina also introduced him to his future record label, Polydor and his future producer, good friend and ultimate biographer, Nelson Motta. Unlike the other songs here, THIS is the best version. Tim redid this song solo on his third album, but the later version lacks the chemistry of this recording.

Trio Esperança - Primavera
This cover version of one of Tim's big hits from his first album must have been recorded right after his version came out, because this one is also from 1970. The song was recorded by one of the best known family groups from the Jovem Guada and later, the Brazilian soul scene, Trio Esperanca. The song was written by Tim's friend and soul parter Cassiano.

Arthur Verocai live with 36-piece orchestra

When I first heard about Mochilla's plan to bring the all-but-forgotten Brazilian musician, arranger and cult-favorite Arthur Verocai to L.A. to perform his self-titled 1972 album live, I was kind of dumbfounded. Really, of all the people to invite, why pick this footnote from Brazilian MPB (Musica Popular Brasil ie "mainstream, sophisticated pop music" think Elis Regina or Milton Nascimento)? Verocai is about as obscure in Brazil as David Axelrod is here in the states, except that Verocai only had one release under his own name until 2005. Having witnessed the performance first hand this past weekend I finally get the vision of Mochilla front-man Brian Cross (and friends) who came up with this idea.

First off, the original album is phenomenal and perfectly suited for this grandiose performance with a string section, horn section, percussionists, two keyboard players, two guitarists and alternating stand-up and electric bass . . . and most importantly the ensemble pulled it off perfectly. The performance sounded great. Secondly, it was staggering to think that this was the first time that these songs had ever been performed live and the second time they have been performed at all (the first time being in the studio and most likely that wasn't all 36 pieces playing live at the same time). Lastly, it was a great concept to take this relatively obscure document from 1972 performed in 2009 and restoring it to its deserved place in history. Bottom line is that this recording may be extremely obscure and therefore considered esoteric, but the music is so good it deserves to be heard and in its original form, or better than that its original form performed LIVE!

Congrats to the entire Mochilla crew for a great show!

Even though he has a new album out on Far Out, called Encore, and his original 1972 self-titled album was reissued by Ubiquity, both are now out of print or at least out of stock at Dustygroove. If you wanna know how much OG Verocai-related vinyl goes for, here's a sampling. I personally know of one person (DJ Nuts) who owns an original Arthur Verocai album.

I can't not mention the universe of stars and legendary musicians that were part of these 36 pieces. You can kind of make them out in the picture, so I'll try to point them out in the picture.

1) Arthur Verocai, man of the hour (center stage in suit, very skinny, clapping in direction of the string section)
2) Airto Moreira (right below the bottom right corner of the screen)
3) Ivan "Mamao" Conti, drummer from Azymuth (middle, clapping hands with white hair)
4) Carlos Dafe (below Airto with "panama hat")
5) Jose Roberto Bertrami, keyboards from Azymuth - played Hammond B-3 for the show (furthest right in white baseball cap)
6) Justo Almario, saxophone (in red shirt on far left clapping and bit blurry)

Arthur Verocai - Presente Grego
This is for the beat-heads. What a great thing to hear those horn swells live!
Arthur Verocai - Pelas Sombras
What I didn't know until recently was that the male vocal on the original recording was noneother than Carlos Dafe and he was in the flesh for the performance as well. He killed it on this one! A soaring and impassioned vocal part that made my hair stand on end!

Arthur Verocai - Caminho da Roça
A chill instrumental from his new album.

Arthur Verocai - Bis (featuring Azymuth)
Azymuth chipped in on a couple tracks on his new album. This is one of my favorites. Overall, the 1972 album is better but this is a very respectable follow up. And when he performed it was difficult to tell the new songs from the old having not memorized either album . . .

I just found this great interview of Verocai from recently explaining his new album "Encore" and his background:


A clip from the performance courtesy of Mochilla:


For more Verocai listening check out Loronix.

The Ambassador Presents . . . AZYMIX!

The Ambassador - Azymix (Crazy Samba)
This was a long time in the procrastinating . . . I had been planning on making an all Azymuth mix since they had their long-awaited show in L.A. this past summer. The mix runs just a bit over an hour and covers some of their more rare collaborations, appearances, exclusive tracks and songs where the trio (Jose Roberto Bertrami, piano and keyboards; Alexandre Malheiros, Bass; and Ivan Conti (aka Mamao), Drums) made up the core of the band. I hope you enjoy and if you want to know what or who a particular track is, just post a comment including at what minute:seconds the track commences.

O Som Dos Blacks

I'm a big fan of Brazilian DJ records from the 1970s. Taking a look at the tracks that were picked and all of the pictures and documentation of that era is like a secret window into a scene that is long gone. Sure, the Baile Funk parties that continue to rage in the same neighborhoods of Rio owe alot to their precursors such as the the parties thrown by Luizinho Disc Jockey Soul and his cohorts. This particular LP is from 1977 and shows what the height of the Black Rio DJ scene was all about. This album has got some serious funk on it and most of it is pretty deep. I've picked my favorite four cuts from here, but there are some other great ones to sample. If this scene is interesting to you and you wanna learn more, check out Thomas Fawcett's excellent website - Brazil Soul Power. Further down, I embedded a clip from the film "City of God" otherwise known as "Cidade de Deus" which has a scene depicting a favela soul baile. If you haven't seen the movie, check it out (the music is SUPERB!) or just peep the video to get a taste of what one of these 1970s soul parties must have been like. You gotta love the cover of this album. You just couldn't do this in the US! But Brazilian racial politics are different and being a "white" guy who DJs "black" music you could legitimately dress up as a half-black-face uncle sam. God Bless Brazil!


Hudson County - Bim Sala Bim
This is a rare one that's been comped here and there. Killer track.

Brother Soul - Cookies
Love it. That opening must have been sampled somewhere. This should have been my theme song from my cookie-stealing adolescence.

Zulema - Wanna Be Where You Are
A great cover of this tune done in a really upbeat style.

Chocolate Milk - Never Ever Do Without You
I've always liked Chocolate Milk for their work with producer and songwriter Allen Toussaint, but I had never heard this uptempo number until Luizinho introduced me.

And here's the "City of God" video. Skip ahead to 14:00 for the beginning of the party. I recognized the following songs in this sequence:
1) Dance Across the Floor - Jimmy 'Bo' Horne
2) So Very Hard To Go - Tower of Power
3) Kung-Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas.

Also, Seu Jorge's character is getting down at this party, towards the end.

La cité de dieu partie 4
Uploaded by zouz90

The following are all images from the back of the LP. The miracle of modern technology is that I can take pictures and blow them up. These are the best of the bunch. I particularly like Luizinho's "O Som Dos Blacks" logo!

Chove Chuva

It's been raining for a couple days straight here in the Bay Area and god knows we need it, but shit is kinda depressing when it rains non-stop. We have a couple of leaks in our storage area with the requisite drip-dropping of slowly filling receptacles. I like the rain because it forces you to slow down and relax or at least sharpen your focus to what's in front of you in your immediate INDOOR vacinity.

My all time favorite song about rain is Jorge Ben's classic "Chove Chuva." The melancholy melody and simple-as-pie lyrics ("Chove Chuva, Chuva sem parar" = "The rain is raining, rain with no end") matched with a killer slow-burn jazzy groove make this an understated masterpiece from one of the greatest Brazilian songwriters and he recorded it at the age of 21. The summer I spent in Brazil I had the chance to spend the weekend with some Brazilian peers (friends of a friend where I was interning) at a beach near São Paulo called Ubatuba. As we were driving out there Ligia warned me that it was probably going to rain the whole time, so not to get too excited about the "beach." The local nickname for the town is "Ubachuva". Sure enough it poured the whole time, but we all had a great time chilling on the hammocks in the garden, grilling up fresh fish, drinking beers, playing cards and listening to tunes from the guitar and the boombox. I happened to have a CD or two (pre-Ipod days) of some Brazilian tunes and thankfully one of them included "Chove Chuva". When that song came on it just fit the mood so perfectly and I could finally imagine the approximate atmosphere, down to the climate, of where the king of Samba Soul, Jorge Ben(jor) wrote one of his finest tunes.

Here's a post inspired about Jorge's tune and a relaxing and much needed Brazilian or Bay Area rain.

Jorge Ben - Chove Chuva
The classic from Jorge Ben's breakout album on Phillips from 1963. Not owning the original vinyl myself (though I do have a 4 song EP from this album) I don't know the details, but according to Joe Sixpack, "Here Ben works with several of the best samba-jazz and pop bandleaders of the bossa era, including Maestro Gaya, Meirelles, and Luiz Carlos Vinha... Combined with Ben's sleek vocals, each arranger spins magic."

Elza Soares - Chove Chuva
This song, evidently, is an extremely rare non-LP track that may originate from a single, but can also be found on a double LP label sampler called Tesouro Musical. Or you can get the pretty dope "Brazilian Funk Experience" CD. There's several more notable versions of this song, but there's one that can't be avoided . . . Topo Gigio's version. Topo Gigio was a puppet mouse with a TV show, duh.

Antonio Adolfo - Essa Chuva
We've already heard some sad Antonio Adolfo music before and even from this album. There's a lot more to go 'round. This album is a real masterpiece and is way up on my list of albums to track down.

Hyldon - Na Rua, Na Chuva, Na Fazenda (Casinha de Sapé)
We're hearing from Hyldon again and this his most famous song. Tim Maia covers this one with a superb reading on his Nuvens album. Hyldon's is still the best. I remember this song was used to great effect in the film City of God. The reluctant drug dealer was scheming with his girlfriend how they were going to escape the favela and move to the country and start a marijuana farm.

Some More American Rarities By Way of Brazil

I've already posted a few songs culled from Brazilian DJ compilations (here and here), but I've been meaning to post some more, so here it goes! These songs are actually ripped from the original US-pressed 45s, but I first heard these songs on the following Brazilian compilations. Most of these 45s didn't set me back too much probably because they're not as well known as some of the other collectible funk 45s out there, but the old school Brazilian DJs, they knew . . .

Mod Singers & Mod Lads - Let's Have Some Fun, Part 1
This is a crazy track and never ceases to get inquiries when I play it out. The flip is an instrumental with a cookin' guitar part filling in for the vocals. Makes ya wanna have fun, don't it? Anyone have any info about this group? Somebody can pick up a copy here.

The Happenings - Tomorrow, Today Will Be Yesterday
This is a great little psych-soul stomper from the otherwise cheezy group, The Happenings. I think this single is not on any LPs, but could be wrong. The lyrics are pretty corny, I mean c'mon, "Tomorrow, today will be yesterday"? About as deep as a mud puddle. But that percussion break-down in the middle is smokin'.

The Assembledge - Satisfaction
This one comes from another DJ compilation from the early 70s in Brazil and also on TopTape records, however DJ Monsieur Lima compiled this one. He's sort of the third musketeer of the early Brazilian DJ scene.

Plumbing the Depths of Black Rio

It's been a month and a half since I've arrived in San Francisco and it's slow going getting all of my ducks in order. I've moved into a great apartment and even unpacked all of my vinyl (not that I can find anything as its mostly unsorted and disorganized), but AT&T is giving us the royal run-around so I'm still not connected to internet at home. This means if I am to post to SS I have to do this on the sly from work, which is what I am doing now. This might explain the infrequent posts. Hopefully, next week I'll be back up to speed.

I was hoping to do a Azymuth post in honor of their first show in over 20 years that they will be doing in LA this weekend (yes, I'm going). However, this post will likely only appear after the show.

What we do have today is a little grab-bag of lesser known Black Rio stuff. The photo up top is a rare piece I got courtesy of DJ Sean Marquand who got it from members of Banda Uniao Black. Before they renamed themselves, they gigged around Rio and other Black hot spots in Brazil as "Banda de Soul Music Africa Brazil."

The songs we have today are courtesy of DJ Ezinho, a SF friend of mine whom I met while trying to make some extra cash by selling records on eBay while I was down in Brazil. He's one of the few cats I know whose knowledge of and appetite for Brazilian music continues to amaze me. So, he came by the new place the other night with some new treats and I managed to rip these two singles from his collection over beers and beats.

Estrela d'Alva - Socrates
If I hadn't included the artist's name I doubt any of you would have thought this was by anyone other than the late, great Tim Maia (at least that was my first guess upon hearing this). Sure enough, Socrates looks like Tim, sounds like Tim and recorded in a nearly identical style as Tim. This is actually the b-side and while the a-side is a bit more up-tempo, the hook on this one and the female back-up vocals gave it a little extra sumfin' to get it posted here. Even though there is no date on this one, Ezinho and I agree it must have come out around 1973 as the sound is a dead ringer for a knock-off of Tim Maia's sound (lazy, acoustic samba soul) from his 4th solo album from the same year.

Súplica Cearense - Tony Bizarro
Disclaimer: the photo to the left is NOT the actual picture sleeve for this single, but I like having an image accompanying the songs and this is the best one I could find. Also, without a date, Ezinho pegs this one as late 70s and I'm gonna agree. Check out the killer rhythm track on this one and that great intro.

The following video is from an early Brazilian Hip-Hop hit that has a sort-of "back in the day" vibe about the Black Rio scene with a lot of references to DJs, artists and the scene back in the late 70s and early 80s. I found this while looking for info on Tony Bizarro who's referenced in the lyrics.

Thaide & DJ Hum - Que Tempo Bom