This Just In . . .

Just a few minutes ago I got this email from a guy I emailed in the off chance that he was the same Roger Bruno that knew and played with Tim Maia, then known as "Jimmy" or "Jimmy the Brazilian."











Hi Allen,

This is really something. Yes, I'm the same Roger Bruno who wrote and performed with Tim Maia (aka Sebastian Maia, aka "Jimmy the Brazilian") in the early 60's as "The Ideals."

Jimmy was pretty amazing both as a musician and as a person. I pretty much lost track of him after his deportation, but I'd like to discuss him and that time period with you and hopefully fill in some of the blank spaces for both of us.

If you're interested, and want to send your phone info, I'll give you a call. Thanks for getting in touch.

Best.

Roger

More updates to follow after talking to Roger . . .

Tim Maia Investigation Update

The Tim Maia investigation is proceeding with a few new leads, but nothing solid resulting yet. Hop over to Soul Detective to see the updates that Red and I have been posting there.

I've removed the version of "Gostava Tanto de Voce" that was here, as I didn't realize that it was Tim's 80s remake of the song. Ewww. Sorry about that. Here's another great song from Tim's 4th self-titled album from 1973


Download:Reu Confesso

To summarize, we deduced that the recording was made in or around November of 1962, because the legendary Brazilian drummer Milton Banana supposedly played on the record and he would have been in New York City for the historical Bossa Nova concert that year at Carnegie hall. Next, we identified the second song-writer, a one Roger Bruno, who was probably another member of the group, The Ideals. We're hoping to get a hold of Roger and see if he can shed any light on this situation.

One of the most interesting things that came out of this little excersize is that Tim Maia's only legitimate, blood son, Carmelo Maia contacted me to chime in. He didn't have much to say about the Ideals single, but he did mention two other interesting tidbits, which have yet to be confirmed by yours truly.

The first is a mythological meeting of Tim Maia and James Brown . . . well at least James Brown's band. Supposedly the President of Philips Brasil wanted to thank Tim for his impressive record sales by arranging a recording session for Tim with James Brown's band (also on Philips/Polygram). As the story goes, there was a recording session somewhere in the U.S., but no one seems to know when, where or what happened to the tapes . . . But not to worry, I'm on the case.


Download: Do Your Thing, Behave Yourself

The second bit of information is something that I had heard about, but now that I'm hearing about it from a second source, I'm feeling like it might actually be true. So, if you watched the little Tim Maia video on the Luaka Bop site you know about Tim's stint in an extraterrestrial cult. Well, he made two incredible albums during this phase and then supposedly destroyed everything associated with the cult once he left the cult. Evidently he made some more recordings that were not destroyed, which would have become Tim Maia Racional Volume Three. Carmelo claims to have seven or eight of these recordings that he plans to release at some point.

The two songs I have posted here are two more from Tim's excellent 1973 album that "New Love" came from. This was the last album before he joined the cult. Its my single favorite album of his, because it has such incredible songs and great arrangements that really bridge the gap between soul and samba in a way that had never been done yet. Gostava Tanto de Voce was a major hit and still brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. The other track, "Do Your Thing, Behave Yourself" is a groovy little tune that shows that Tim was keeping tabs on the sounds and the vocab of his north American soul brothers.

Soul Spectrum visits the Soul Detective

Sherlock Holmes: I've heard of a long lost 45 rpm single recorded by the Brazilian Soul Brother, Tim Maia, that he recorded in the U.S. as a member of the vocal group "The Ideals" before he got deported back to Brazil for marijuana possession. Watson, any idea where I can find this mysterious record or learn more about it?

Watson: How about asking over at Soul Detective . . .

I chanced upon Red's blog when looking up a great old-school southern soul singer by the name of Roscoe Robinson. He played a dynamite show at South Paw in Park Slope, Brooklyn over the summer and his name came up in the liner notes to the Sam Cooke SAR Records box-set . . . but I digress. I found Red's other site, the Soul Detective and thought where better to ask this lingering question I had about the earliest known Tim Maia release. If you don't know who Tim Maia is, best to watch the video on the link above.

Here is the later version of the song "New Love" from Tim Maia's 4th solo album, released in Brazil in 1973


Download: New Love

If readers here know anything about the mysterious "New Love" 45rpm by "The Ideals" please drop a note over at the Soul Detective site.

Wha' Happened? The WFMU Record Fair and the Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Money

If you are reading this blog entry then undoubtedly you personally know a "record nerd." Sometimes I try to distance myself from this demographic by turning a blind-eye to a flea market or I might even buy a CD or cassette tape (for the car), but who am I trying to kid, I'm a card-carrying "record nerd" myself. This past weekend I was not alone.
What used to be a biannual event now just happens once a year in early November when dozens, if not hundreds, of record dealers descend upon a large room in Chelsea to hawk their wares. Dudes (and I do mean dudes - the male:female ratio is approximately the inverse of any given lingerie store) prowl the aisles with a fierceness in their eyes and bulging wallets in their pockets all hoping to snag that record they've been looking for FOREVER before some other chump does. But to be a girl here would be dangerous, as every record nerd is looking for a record nerd-ette and your mere presence at the fair implies that you tolerate record nerds and might even be one yourself.

I nearly had to elbow this kid in the tie, because he was standing between me and a mono pressing of Moacir Santos' "Coisas":
What was exciting for this record nerd is that WFMU is just about the only place in the US (aside from Joel's great record store in the East Village, Tropicalia in Furs) where you can find some great Brazilian records for sale. Joel was there of course, but so was Wolmar and Danilo and his friend Sergio from Sao Paulo. Wolmar's been coming for a few years now, but Danilo & Sergio came up for the first time this year. I managed to spend all of my money in my wallet and then go out to the ATM to pull out the max just to bring home a handful of Brazilian platters. I went in telling myself that I was limited to the 50 bones in the wallet, but as soon as I saw some of these records that I had been drooling over on the internet and in my vivid vinyl imagination, I turned into a mad man. This condition can be referred to as recordnerditis.

The only way to treat this illness is to: (a) not buy anymore records for awhile (until recordnerditis re-emerges), and (b) to share your finds with friends and loved ones, or in this case, I'll make an exception and post some highlights here. Here is a song apiece from each of the albums I picked up:

I've just switched from divshare to hipcast for hosting my songs, so let me know what you think in the comments section.

Dominguinhos - "Oi, La Vou Eu" 1977
Here's a funky little forro tune with a killer bass line.


Download: Não Tem Jeito Que Dê Jeito

Banda Black Rio - "Gafiera Universal" 1978
Here's one of my favorite songs from this legendary band of the Black Rio scene. This one is more Disco than Samba, but I don't mind.


Download: Expresso Madureira - Banda Black Rio

Gilberto Gil - "Gilberto Gil" 1971
This is the only classic Gil album I didn't have and it's a great one, very spare, funky in Gil's special acoustic way and lots of the songs are in English too. He recorded this one while in exile in London. This song is an early collaboration between Gil and another favorite of mine, Jorge Mautner.


Download: Crazy Pop-Rock

Marku Ribas - "Mente & Coracao" 1980
This was the final Marku album I needed to finish my collection and it features some contributions from the man, Joao Donato. Here's a nice samba mixed with forro:



Download: Olha Brecha

Joao Bosco - "Galos de Briga" 1976
This one is for a friend, John Bosco aka "Bosco" and shows how his Brazilian name sake can get down with some psychedlic samba action . . .


Download: O Ronco da Cuica

Various Artists - "Abertura" 1975
Burnier & Cartier have to be my favorite Brazilian Law Firm ever! Hah, sounds like a couple of lawyers, huh? These guys have the most incredible harmonies and that suingue! That's "swing" in portuguese. This is an exclusive track of theirs from this excellent compilation.


Download: Ficaram Nus

Os Mutantes - "Jardim Electrico" 1971
This is possibly my favorite Mutantes song and it sadly was not featured on the Luaka Bop compilation of a couple of years ago. They played this at the show I saw over the summer. Check out the interview I did with Sergio Dias.


Download: Top Top - Os Mutantes

Essential Brazilian album courtesy of Loronix

I made a decision when starting this blog to focus on quality over quantity with the music I post. This means I will only rarely post an entire album. This is not to say that I don't love the blogs out there that do post entire albums, but that's just not going to be my "thing" at Soul Spectrum. However, some albums are just perfect with no sacrifice in quality across a greater quantity. I was in the process of piecing together a list of essential albums, Brazilian and otherwise when I saw that Loronix had reposted one of my all-time favorite Brazilian albums, "Orlandivo" Self-titled from 1977. It is also sometimes known as "Orlandivo Com Joao Donato" because of J.D.'s signature touch on all sorts of keyboards and all over the arrangements. To me, this is like the third album in the Joao Donato series that began in 1973 with "Quem e Quem" and continued in 1975 with "Lugar Comum." Truly essential in all of its funky, laid-back, jazzy glory. And be sure to cruise around Loronix if you haven't already, its a treasure trove of lost Brazilian music.

Loronix

Orlandivo post

Brazilian Sound Clash: Soul Grand Prix vs. Soul Layzer

Gatefold of 1976 Soul Grand Prix Album
And now for the Brazilian action, but rather than dive straight into it, I'm giving a little dose of American Funk and Soul by-way-of Brazil. One of my more esoteric genres for record collecting is the Brazilian DJ Crew party albums. I have no idea how many of these are out there, but they are awesome. Far from your K-Tel comps with 12-tacks crammed onto flimsy vinyl, these are soul and funk compilations culled by the biggest DJs of "Black" (pronounced BLA-Kee in portuguese) music in Rio de Janeiro and often mixed together or edited to give the effect of a non-stop party. I've discovered dozens of songs through these albums, many of them very rare. This is what I had to say about them in my Wax Poetics article:

"A good five years before the pioneering disco collection, “Disco Gold,” or Gloria Gaynor’s “Never Can Say Goodbye” LP, both done by legendary disco re-mixer Tom Moulton, Ademir’s LP’s had no actual mixing, but cued his favorite tunes back-to-back to produce a disco-like experience. For Ed Motta, keeper of the Brazilian funk flame and nephew to Brazil’s number one soul brother: Tim Maia, Ademir’s selections still surprise. “Actually he has some records from these sessions that are very hard to find independently released soul & funk [45s], like the DJ Shadow compilations [Brain Freeze with Cut Chemist]. . . people don’t know, for example that some DJs from these days used to travel using cheap chartered flights, flying 35 hours to buy records [in the U.S.], then coming back to Brazil.”

Ademir about to detonate a bomb (left) and Big Boy scoping the crowd for a "Big Girl" (right)

Ademir was one of the first and definitely the most prolific in releasing these funk compilations with at least three compilations under his belt and a fourth one in partnership with Brazil's superstar of youth radio, Big Boy. Ademir & Big Boy even teamed up to host a weekly party in Rio de Janeiro, called Baile da Pesada, the "Heavy Party." This weekly party contributed to the growing popularity of Soul and Funk music in Brazil and spawned many imitators, as I wrote in the Wax Poetics article:

"Competitors sprung up all over Zona Norte, now organized as DJ crews, or equipes de som. Like Jamaica’s mobile DJ sound-systems that started in the early sixties, these homemade sound-systems were generally owned by a local businessman, and operated by an underpaid and anonymous team of DJs. Ed Motta might have still been in diapers then, but his research into the topic reveals that, “they used to listen to loads of American Soul and Funk and some things that were playing in the Northern Soul scene, like some hard-to-find [albums] like Reality, Cane & Able and Mickey Murray.” Ademir’s monopoly on the funk came to and end with the market now flooded with equipes: Soul Grand Prix, Black Power, Mr. Funk Santos, A Cova, Petru’s, Dynamic Soul, Um Mente Numa Boa, Tropa Bagunça, Cashbox, Soul Layzer, Furacão 2000, Mind Power as well as celebrity bailes hosted by Big Boy, Ademir and DJ and TV host, Messiê Limá. Some of these equipes, most notably Furacao 2000, are still active and successful today."

So the post today focuses on some of the later Equipes do Som that became famous in the late seventies in Brazil. Soul Grand Prix is undeniably the best known of the early Equipes due to its leadership from DJ Don Filo (pictured) and that Atlantic records head, Andre Midani, took a risk and made one of Atlantic Brazil's first releases a SGP compilation. From the SGP album I have a rarity in the form of the allstar band dubbed the Hot Stuff Band, made up of Azimuth augmented by drummer Wilson das Neves, doing a funked-up cover of Passport's "Ju Ju Man."



Download: Ju Ju Man

I also have a unique medley of Archie Bell & the Drells tracks made exclusively for this compilation: "I Just Can't Stop Dancin'/Tighten Up." The additional significance of this track is that SGP actually hosted a tour of Archie Bell & the Drells in Brazil in the mid-seventies that evidently was a major bust, forcing SGP to sell some of their sound system to afford Archie and crew to fly back to the states!



Download: I Just Can't Stop Dancing/Tighten Up

Soul Layzer is a far less known Equipe do Som. I found this record among a handful of beat up records at a streetside book seller's shop in Sao Paulo. I didn't think much of the tracklist at the time because I was still very firmly entrenched in the mindset that anything released in the latter half of the seventies (god forbid the eighties!) was inferior to earlier releases. Soul Layzer's sole LP compilation (the I know of) was released in 1980 and was composed of two extended mixes: side A is funky and side B is romantic. Hitting the record shelves in 1980, Soul Layzer's release perfectly captured the divide taking place within the Black Rio scene. Equipes became known by the kind of music they played, either "Funk" (pronounced FUN-KEE) or "Charme" (pronounced SHAR-MEE) and most Equipes catered to one of these two dancing subsets. The "Funk" audiences were the antecedents to what is now known as "Baile Funk" or "Funk Carioca", while "Charme" continues to exist more as a nostalgia movement with well-dressed men and women executing coordinated partners dances to smoothed-out R&B. It might help to think of the difference in terms of the scenes' respective American influences:

"Funk":Hip-Hop ala 2 Live Crew
"Charme":R&B ala The Gap Band

When in Rio I asked some old scensters about Soul Layzer and they recalled the equipe as being from the very neighborhood we were in at the time, but the recollections stopped around there. However, the Side A from their LP is a treasure of early eighties disco gems mixed to perfection by the equipe so skillfully that I often throw this record on while DJing if I need to head for the bathroom, grab a bite, or make-out with a hot DJ groupie (kidding, Baby). I've since tracked down nearly all of the tracks on here for my own collection, but I still struggle when trying to recreate their seamless mixes on here. Side A of "Soul Layzer" is the more uptempo side, featuring tracks from Central Line, Starpoint, Fatback, Lizzy Mercier Descloux and more.
Equipe Soul Layzer - Funk Side
This is a 22-minute MP3, so it might not play too well in the flash player, but be sure to download it for an instant party whenever and wherever you need one.

People Get Ready . . . There's a Train a Comin'

I've begun posting some of my personal stash of videos, painstakingly ripped from VHS tapes by my own hands, for you all to enjoy. These are loaded up on youtube, but in order to avoid them getting removed, I haven't labeled them in any searchable way, so you'll basically just have to watch them here. I'd like to think they are also of a higher quality than lots of other youtube videos out there.

In the near future I hope to have them available in an even higher quality, wide-screen format. Stay tuned.

Coming soon: more Soul Train line action, some more Al Green, some Stevie Wonder, the Godfather, Mandrill, K.C. & the Sunshine Band (killer) . . .

Click Here to watch some videos.

Come on Rod Temperton, "Lay It On Me"

I have a fascination with white musicians that have found success in the world of R&B, a traditionally "Black" field. There are many of them and I'm sure I'll be posting about some others in the future. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think they are better than their darker-skinned brothers making funky music, but they do face a bit of a reverse-racism in their chosen field.












I can relate. I think that's why I like them, being white myself and unapologetically fanatical about "black" music. Funk is color-blind, but let's just say as a rule, it comes off as "darker than blue." Rod Temperton, is by no means my favorite, but following on the "Thriller" post I thought I could drop some classic Heatwave tracks from their first album, "Too Hot To Handle" from 1976.

Heatwave is best known for their hit disco-era jams "Boogie Nights" and "Groove Line," two ubiquitous disco chart-toppers and songs that by now most of us have learned to tune out from mere over-exposure. But, I dare you to listen to "Boogie Nights" again with some fresh ears. The intro is completely jazzy with some fresh vocal harmonizing before the beat drops HARD - BOOGIE NIGHTS!

My brother, Charlie, turned me on to Heatwave because of the song "Lay It On Me."

It's a bit of a slowie, but man is it sweet and it had e hooked immediately. Then I picked up the LP which is easy to come by and found the songs "Ain't No Half Steppin'"


and "Super Soul Sister" along with the anthemic "Boogie Nights." A solid debut and one of the corner-stones of the often overshadowed side of the disco boom, the Funky Disco or Disco Funk, however you prefer to refer to it.








The band itself was quite an eclectic one with band members from Spain (bassist Mario Mantese), Czechoslovakia (drummer Emest Berger), England (keyboardist Rod Temperton) and the U.S. (guitarists Jesse Whittens and Eric Johns and vocalists brothers Johnnie and Keith Wilder) and the band first came together in Germany!

Rod was recruited to join the band and they relocated from Germany to London. Rod became one of the driving forces of the band and in the process, caught the attention of super-producer Quincy Jones. Jones asked Rod to collaborate with him for Michael Jackson's breakthrough album "Off the Wall," penning the title track and the classic "Rock With You" for MJ. He also wrote several albums for MJ's "Thriller" including the title track, "Baby Be Mine" (a personal favorite and a would-be classic if "Thriller" didn't already have so many other immortal tracks) and "The Lady In My Life." He also worked with other Quincy Jones' artists: the Brothers Johnson and Patti Austin in addition to Herbie Hancock and Rufus & Chaka Khan. Rod, welcome to Soul Spectrum's "Funky White Boys Hall of Fame."

Darkness Falls Across The Land . . .

To make up for my lameness of not doing anything for Halloween this year, I'm gonna reminisce about the good times I had last year. My excuses this year have to do with still feeling sick after a couple weeks and needing desperately to unpack my shit after the recent move. Maybe I'll watch a scary movie later tonight.

So, last year I had a great costume, possibly the best ever. Here I am with my Halloween posse during our pre-party before heading out to the real party in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I'm the one in the middle, rockin' the mini-turntable (a vestax, in case you're curious). Maybe you need a closer look at the dopeness of my costume. See below:

The turntable was connected to an "amp-can" in my backpack behind me which made a whole lot of noise. At one point I walked on to the dance floor at the party we went to and tried to take over with my mobile DJ costume and I would have had a chance, but Mr. Stationary DJ wasn't having it and tried to drown me out. I would like to think if I was DJing a party and some dude walked on to the dance floor with a costume like mine, I would give him some time to shine . . . Come on, I had a disco ball floating over-head even and a holster full of funk and soul. So I retired to the upstairs and we had our own little party in the living room which I DJed.

I remember one of the "musical" high-points of the night was when I played the monologue from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" as spoken by Vincent Price. I remember sitting in silence listening to the monologuge, unaccompanied by any music, and it's truly haunting. It's available on the 2001 "Thriller" resissue. The monologue contains a second verse to Vincent Price's "rap" that went unused:


The demons squeal in sheer delight
It's you they spy, so plump, so right
For although the groove is hard to beat
It's still you stand with frozen feet
You try to run, you try to scream
But no more sun you'll ever see
For evil reached from the crypt
To crush you in it's icy grip

Vincent Price (with a particularly wimpy intro from MJ) doing his "Thriller" Voice-over



The CD also has Rod Temperton, the mastermind behind Heatwave, who wrote the lyrics to "Thriller" talking about how he whipped up the "rap" in the limo on the way to the studio to record with Vincent and Michael.



For the liner-notes readers only, the interview excerpt from Rod Temperton discussing the making of "Thriller"



More from Rod Temperton coming soon . . . don't sleep on Heatwave. 'Til next time . . .

Some homework for my faithful readers . . .

when I'm not working as a non-profit fair trade vigilante, I like to dabble in music journalism. Over the course of the past few years I've written a handful of articles that have been published in Wax Poetics and the Fader. I've posted the Wax Poetics article as PDF in the left hand banner, or you can click on the links below to find them:

My first published article (in the U.S.):
"Also Sprach Deodato"
from issue 7 of Wax Poetics

"Black Rio: Brazilian Soul & DJ Culture's Lost Chapter"
from issue 16 of Wax Poetics

"Bossa's Boss: Joao Donato Steered Brazilian Music in New Directions"
from issue 22 of Wax Poetics

Next on the horizon are projects about Tim Maia, Os Mutantes and maybe Cal Tjader . . . stay tuned.

I will soon post my two articles from the Fader on Tim Maia's Racional phase and a profile on tropicalist Jorge Mautner. As you can see my writing specialty is Brazilian music and I know, I've been holding out on the brazilian tunes, but not for much longer . . .