Tuesday, December 11, 2012

40 Year Itch: 1972 - The Best of Brasil




As spectacular a year as 1972 has been for progressive rock, glam rock, Krautrock, Italian rock n roll, soundtracks, and R and B...what truly made it an outstanding year for music is what happened in Brazil. MPB, Musica Popular Brazileira, is a blending of traditional Brazilian samba with contemporary folk, rock and jazz sounds. Its innovators, Os Novos Baianos, Jorge Ben, Chico Buraque were joined by psychedelic 60's/Tropicalia veterans Tom Ze, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Clube da Esquina mainstays like Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges to create an unforgettable year.

There are three must have albums from Brazil circa '72. Acabou Chorare by Novos Baianos tops this list for reasons discussed in an earlier post. Jorge Ben's mostly acoustic album, Ben, has the  most played song on my iPhone "Caramba". Both "Caramba" and "Fio Maravilha" were on the Brazil Classics compilation David Byrne put together in the early 90's. Finally there's Clube da Esquina which has been called the Brazilian Sgt Pepper's. It's lush recorded by Milton Nascimento with some input from Lo Borges. You could really make somebody's Christmas by buying them all three.

 Here are video clips from some of the best Brazilian music from 1972.































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