Brazil - Rough Guide To Brazil

Brazil is so vast and its people so diverse that it would stand to reason that a torrent of wildly different musical styles would emerge from the nation -- just as in the U.S. However, say the words Brazilian music and most will immediately think of samba and bossa nova, the country's most prominent cultural exports since the 1960s. The Rough Guide to the Music of Brazil, the second such overall collection from the World Music Network (other sets have focused on specific individual Brazilian styles), aims to dispel that notion by spotlighting as much of a mix of Brazilian sound as can fit onto one CD. Like the first compilation, released in 1998, this follow-up (which doesn't indicate that it's the second volume, which might cause some confusion) is full of surprises, from the accordion-fronted forro of O Karaiva to the swampy electronica of Vanessa Bumagny to the jazzy breeziness of the Orquestra Popular de Câmara. Female singer Mylene applies an insistent dance rhythm to her bluesy, samba-esque "48 Horas" and gafieira legendPaulo Moura's set-closing "Um a Zéro" is something of a psychedelic Gypsy swing klezmer romp, Brazilian style. Few of the artists will be familiar to the casual American listener -- Bebel Gilberto is probably the most famous -- but those in the know will nod appreciatively upon noticing that the two artists chosen to lead off the set are among Brazil's greatest living: Chico Buarque and Carlinhos Brown. Buarque's career as a singer/songwriter stretches back to the 1960s and the samba presented here, "Dura Na Queda," is as pretty and moving as anything he's done. Brown, who teams here with Tata Monalê on the call-and-response Afro percussion fest "Aguaxire/Saleromi," is a younger, more progressively minded star who takes on a Yoruba prayer with thrilling results. The delights are many here, and the listener will come away either learning something new about the breadth of Brazil's musical world or simply luxuriating once again in those riches. ~ Jeff Tamarkin|