Kosher Eucharist / יוקאריסט כשר

A friend of mine recently asked me to turn him on to some tasty new music. I recommended a crash course in classic MBP, the catch-all term for Brazilian pop. And since it’s convenient, I’m using the blog as a platform, from which I imagine some of our other readers could potentially benefit.

I chose to keep it simple and focus on the uncontested kings of MPB from the ’60s through the ’80s: Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.

Jorge Ben – Mas, Que Nada

and
É Só Sambar

The original “Mas, Que Nada.” Fuck Sergio Mendes and all his Black Eyed Peas. This is from Mr. Ben’s first album, full of charmingly polite yet insidiously funky samba ditties.

Caetano Veloso – Alegria, Alegria

and
Superbacana

These are from Caetano Veloso’s second album, the Sergeant Pepper’s of the Tropicália movement. Tropicália is a little too complex for me to feel like going into, but in short: in the late 1960s, a Brazilian offshoot of hippie culture sprang up, characterized by self-consciously psychedelic and eclectic music, art and fashion, but unlike American hippies, the Brazilians were living under a recently-founded military dictatorship and thus actually had something to be DayGlo-bitchy about. Eventually, the government kicked some of them out of the country, including Caetano Veloso. Anyway, this album straddles a delicate line between completely awesome and utterly cheesy, which is why I have to recommend it.

Gilberto Gil – Pé da Roseria

and
Domingo no Parque

Gil is essentially a fellow Tropicália traveler of Caetano Veloso, but, y’know, black. He got kicked out of Brazil too.

Caetano Veloso – Mora Na Filosofia

Four years after Tropicália, Caetano had decided to stop being so damned weird.

Jorge Ben – Eu Vou Torcer

and
Magnólia

Errare Humanum Est

Zagueiro

Jesualda

If it’s not apparent, I love me some Jorge Ben. Especially his mid-70s period, when the blood in his veins was apparently replaced with funk.

Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben – Nega

and
Taj Mahal

Gil and Jorge are incredible on their own, but together, armed with two acoustic guitars and one percussionist, they blow their entire recording catalog out of the cachaça. Rod “Constant Decline” Stewart liked “Taj Mahal” so much that he stole it in its entirety and gave it a thorough disco gutting to create the execrable “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” over which Jorge Ben sued (and won).

Now wasn’t all that tastier than an Instant Caipirinha Party?