Gostosa . . . It's Only the Beginning

I'm thrilled to have a good buddy Freddy Anzures of P-R-O-P-S.com working with Jacob (aka DJ Guillermo) and yours truly on our new look for the monthly Brazilian affair at Casanova in the Mission. If it's not already crystal claro . . .

Gostosa = Hot or if you want a more prosaic answer, read this.

So, for each monthly party we're gonna feature a different Artista Brasileira (Brazilian artist of the musical variety) on our flyer, eventually culminating in a calendar. It'll be way classier and collectible than a Snap-On Tools cheesecake/soft-porn affair - we're talking only the best of the best from classic Brazilian album covers, back covers, wherever we can find images that cry out "Gostosa".

For our first month we have the lovely and criminally underated Astrud Gilberto. She may have started her career on a fluke: she just happened to be in the recording studio with her then-husband Joao Gilberto during the recording of the classic Getz/Gilberto album and at Creed Taylor's suggesting she sang the English version of "The Girl from Ipanema" lyrics because Joao refused, but she has proven herself to be a classy interpreter of Brazilian and American/Anglo pop songs as well. Her first solo album is a real treat with both Jobim and Donato providing arrangements and she was also responsible for being the first to release many classic Brazilian songs in the US.


Astrud Gilberto - Beginnings
DJ Guillermo hipped me to this tune after wrongly thinking there was nothing worth hearing on some of these late 60s Verve albums. Damn, was I wrong. This, the opening cut off her "September 17, 1969" album is a surprisingly good Brazilian-style cover of the Chicago Transit Authority tune. I was sure Airto was in on this, especially given the percussion breakdown, but its some unknown Italian producer who put this together.

Jerry Butler: Should I Stay or Shoul I Go?

Here are two tracks from a recent acquisition of mine. I'm not a huge Jerry Butler fan, but I generally flip over his records when digging through the stacks, mostly to find that album with the Method Man sample. This is not the one, but while scanning the back cover I saw two other names that I know and adore: Donny Hathaway and Terry Callier. Donny arranged "Sail Away" and Terry wrote "Windy City Soul." By this time in 1971, Donny was already on his way to fame and Terry was just getting started and both were probably honored to be working with Jerry Butler, Chicago soul royalty.

These two songs make for nice bookends as one longs for an escape from one's locale and the other is about a homecoming.


Jerry Butler - Sail Away
Jerry Butler - Windy City Soul

Leroy Hutson, "The Man"

I've been reading this book lately, "Curtis Mayfield: People, Never Give Up", and while its reminded me of some great Curtis songs and albums as well as some lesser known colleagues of Curtis' the book is a real snoozer. If you check out the few reviews on amazon I'm relieved to find that I'm not alone in my sentiments. On Wednesday I went by "Israel's record dungeon" for what might be my last time as a New Yorker and lucked out in finding Leroy Hutson's first album "Love, Oh, Love" in great condition. I've been so impressed with Leroy and wanted to share some of my favorite tracks.

Leroy took over for Curtis when the little man went solo, but before long it was clear that Leroy had the potential to go solo as well. I've not heard Leroy's work with The Impressions, but I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled for the one record that he sings on: "Time Have Changed".

Ground Hog - Bumpin'
Around the time of his work with the Impressions and working on his first solo record he put this little song together with Curtom arranger, Rich Tufo. I noticed Leroy's name on the writing credit, but until I was reading the Burns biography of Mayfield I didn't realize that this was a Hutson project and not just a song of his.

Leroy Hutson - Lucky Fellow
Great song from his album "Hutson" which I need to track down.








Leroy Hutson - Love the Feeling
Leroy Hutson - Don't It Make You Feel Good?
Here are two of my favorite Hutson joints from my favorite album of his (so far). There are at least two other great songs on this album that you should track down on reissue LP or CD here.