Odair Cabeca De Poeta "Rebulico " (RCA, 1979)
Lyricist Odair Tadeu de Freitas, along with his band Capote (featuring guitarist Vincente Barreto) crafted an at-times uneasy blend of rock, funk and northeastern baiao and forro. Taken from the Brazilian standpoint, as an extension of traditionally-inclined styles, this is pretty wild stuff. But viewed through the filter of North American rock and funk, it's pretty goofy-sounding and clumsy. Still, Odair was one of the most important Northeastern rockers to follow in the path laid down by Alceu Valenca, and this record actually sounds more interesting than most of the Valenca albums I've heard to date. Didn't rock my world, but it's worth checking out.
Cabruera "Cabruera" (Alula, 2002)
Cabruera "O Samba Da Minha Terra" (Nikita, 2004)
Cabruera "Proibido Cochilar: Sambas For Sleepless Nights" (Piranha, 2005)
A reshuffled version of their O Samba Da Minha Terra album... A dense, challenging, lively, irritating, inventive, noisy, amazing blend of regional Brazilian styles (such as forro and coco, along with creatively appropriated rock, rock-funk and tweaky acid-rock-samba... As on their earlier albums, Cabruera touch bases with contemporary manguebeat bands such as Pato Fu and Nacao Zumbi, as well as older psychedelic/samba pioneers such as Novos Baianos, who also mixed rootsy regional sounds with hard-edged "American"-style rock'n'roll... This is a little too aggressive and Red Hot Chili Peppers-ish for me, but in between the slamming testosterone injections, there's some really cool, surprisingly subtle experimental musicmaking... Definitely worth checking out!
Jorge Cabeleira "E O Dia Em Que Seremos Todos Inuteis" (Sony/Manguenitude, 1994)
An underwhelming, noisy, busy-sounding alt-rockish manguebeat set... Sounds sort of generic and flatly produced... Lots of noise, but little direction. Anyway, it didn't do much for me.
Caju & Castanha "As Melhores De Caju & Castanha" (EMI/Copacabana, 2005)
An interesting set from this long-lived duo hailing from Pernambuco, in the Northeast... The sound is quite stripped down, just plain vocals and percussion on most tracks, with a simplicity and pureness that makes it quite striking. At first I thought it sounded like Bahian samba de roda, but then I realized the vocals were quite different -- whereas the samba de roda singers tend to chant rhythmically and repetitively, the cajueiros seem to be constantly improvising and dance around the rhythm, building little micro-melodies. A few tracks include a forro-style accordion. Anyway, this is kinda different-sounding, and kind of addictive. The liner notes on this particular collection are a bit vague, but I think this disc includes recordings with Ricardo Alves da Silva, who was the original "Caju," later to be replaced by another, younger singer.
Alberto Calcada "Cascata De Valsas" (Warner-Continental, 1958)
Alberto Calcada "Cascata De Valsas, v.2" (Warner-Continental, 1959)
Sedate easy listening, with a regional flair... Not unlike, oh, say, Sardinian folk albums produced for a tourist market in Europe... This is professionally crafted, but ultimately quite dull, with little variation from song to song. These two albums of Brazilianified waltzes were re-released as a single CD in the "Dose Dupla" series.
Adriana Calcanhotto "Enguico" (Sony-CBS, 1990)
A strong debut from this native of Porto Alegre, mixing various styles and approaches... The opening number, "Enguico," is a brassy, Vegas-y big band number, with Calcanhotto -- a former cabaret singer -- belting out a swank MPB number (one of two Calcanhotto originals on this album...) A pronounced jazz sensibility lurks close under the surface of the rest of the album, along with a dash of bossa, rock and tenago.... Gradually she settles into a more standard-issue, classic MPB style, much in keeping with Gal Costa's work, which is appropriate given their vocal similarities. There's also a restlessness at work, a sense of Calcanhotto prowling about the confines of pop style like a tiger in a cage, ready to burst out. There's also a slight preciousness and somewhat florid production -- how you respond to this album will depend a lot on how you approach it. Those steeped in and appreciative of the 1970s school of MPB -- fans of Chico Buarque, et. al., -- will probably love it, while listeners who are looking for more rootsy music will find this hard to sit through. I heard after first exploring her later albums, and thought it was pretty fascinating, given the directions she took a few years later... Worth checking out, even if it is a bit on the glossy-poppy side.
Adriana Calcanhotto "Senhas" (Sony-Columbia, 1992)
Adriana Calcanhotto "A Fabrica Do Poema" (Sony-Epic, 1994)
Calcanhotto's third album. Although this opens with a burst of BRock-derived pop ("Por Que Voce Faz Cinema?"), it quickly settles into more a sedate, reflective acoustic style. Her voice is beautiful, but the record becomes monotonous after a while. Calcanhotto's silken, Sade-ish side is only hinted at here... it's possible that if the delicate horn arrangements had been a little less artsy, I would have responded differently to this disc. Just seems a little stilted to me, somehow.
Adriana Calcanhotto "Maritmo" (Sony-Columbia, 1996)
Anyone enamored of Bebel Gilberto's bossa-electronica efforts owes it to themselves to check out this similarly experimental, similarly energetic stylistic whirlwind. If anything, Calcanhotto is more adventursome and varied than bossa's prodigal daughter: in addition to loping, clubby beats, Calcanhotto mixes in swirly guitars, angular artsy riffs, and even a whiff of avant-jazz, courtesy of Hermeto Pascoal. This is one of the more accomplished Brazilian modern pop albums, on a par with Arto Lindsay, Marisa Monte and Arnaldo Antunes... oh, yeah... and Bebel. She even covers one of Bebel's older tunes, "Maiz Feliz," co-written with '80s rocker Cazuza. Nice record, well worth checking out.
Adriana Calcanhotto "Publico" (BMG-Ariola, 2000)
A live album that is one of her most compelling and emphatic performances. The shrill cheers of the crowd can be a little distracting (welcome to the world of live albums!), but Calcanhotto's sweet voice and magnetic persona come through loud and clear. This is an interesting move for an artist best known as a hands-on, hi-tech, knob-twiddling self-produced auteur, but it works just fine. Recalling Gal Costa's fab 1971 album, A Todo Vapor, midway through the album transitions from solo acoustic into a stripped-down BRock style, all perky and bouncily melodic. Recommended!
Adriana Calcanhotto "Cantada" (BMG, 2002)
Adriana Calcanhotto "Adriana Partimpim" (BMG, 2004)
Adriana Calcanhotto "Partimpim -- O Show" (BMG, 2005)
Adriana Calcanhotto "Perfil" (Som Livre, 2001)
A best-of set...
Luiz Caldas "Magia" (PolyGram, 1985)
Despite his outlandishly New Wave-y appearance on the cover art, and the obvious MTV-ish musical aspirations, this isn't actually nearly as bad or as wimpy as one might expect. In fact, if you take in to consideration the kind of stuff Caetano Veloso was doing just a year or two earlier, this batch of Bahian soft rock holds up rather well. Not great, but not awful.
Luiz Caldas "La Vem Da Guarda" (Polydor, 1987)
Lightweight axe music from the wimpier end of the spectrum. His Michael Jackson-y appearance on the cover -- a Sgt. Pepper-y outfit complete with epaulets; a Geri-curled mullet -- make his mainstream aspirations all-too plain, and the tinkly arrangements inside don't do much to help. There are interesting elements to the overall mix, but really, it wouldn't be very hard to find much, much more interesting material from the axe scene to enjoy. This mix of early MTV soft-pop and Disneyesque Carribean riffs is a little nauseating.
Luiz Caldas "...E Convidados: 15 Anos De Axe" (BMG, 1999)
A retrospective set, made of re-recorded versions of some of Caldas' old hits. Plenty of guest performers, too, including Banda Eva, E O Tchan, Margareth Menezes, Daniella Mercury, Timbalada and others...
Luiz Caldas "Ao Vivo En Salvador" (Universal, 2006)
A live album, with guest appearances by Carlinhos Brown, Ivete Sangalo, Raimundo Fagner, and others.
Luiz Caldas "Minha Historia" (PolyGram, 1997)
Luiz Caldas "Serie Millennium" (PolyGram, 1998)
No real surprises here: lightweight pop which ranges from fluffy orchestral pop to disco-y lambada and perky ditties with toned-down Afro-Brazilian percussion. For what it's worth, this is a the good collection of his work, but it's not a keeper as far as I'm concerned.
Sylvio Caldas "Serie Bis - Cantores Do Radio" (EMI-Brasil, 2000)
Although Caldas' career extended well into the 1950s and '60s, this set is a delight because it sticks strictly to his recordings of the 1930s, during the Depression-era golden years of Brazil's radio performers. A genteel, relaxed vocalist with the smoothness of Russ Columbo (but not the stylized panache of Bing Crosby), Caldas has a pleasant, calm delivery and all these antique-sounding classic samba cancao arrangements frame first-rate material. This is one of the gems of this series -- highly recommended!
Sylvio Caldas "Sylvio Caldas" (Revivendo, 1998)
Sylvio Caldas "O Seresteiro" (Mocambo, 1958)
Decades after he pioneered the fledgling samba cancao style, Caldas returned to the studios for this notably toned down, milky-sounding set of slow, syrupy ballads. The orchestral backing doesn't wear well, and Caldas's voice also ain't what it used to be. This set may have some specific nostalgic or cultural resonance for an older generation of Brazilian samba fans, but for an outsider looking in, it wasn't that much fun to listen to.
Sylvio Caldas "Serie XXI" (Sony, 2000)
Augusto Calheiros "Serie Bis - Cantores Do Radio" (EMI-Brasil, 2000)
One of the first major stars to hail from Brazil's rural-identifed Northeast, Calheiros was originally in the 1920s group known as Turunas da Mauriceia, along with Luperce Miranda (later a mainstay of Carmen Miranda's band). His nordeste roots may partly account for the comparative roughness of Calheiros' vocals, as opposed to the smoother Carioca and Paulista singers of the '30s and '40s. He was also a bit older than many of his contemporaries - this collection tracks his career from the mid-1930s up to the 1955, just before he passed away in '56. The arrangements are a little stiff, but still this is nice stuff, with a slightly different flavor than many of the other collections in this series of pre-bossa recordings.
Waldir Calmon "Uma Noite No Arpege" (Long Play Radio, 1956)
A souvenir album for one of the seven bazillion nightclub performers roaming around Rio in the pre-bossa nova era. This LP features two bouncy, album-length medleys of Brazilian sambas, Cole Porter dance tunes, mambos by Xavier Cugat and Perez Prado, and even a choro tune credited to Bola Sete ("To De Snooker"). Sure, it's a corny performance, but not as cheesy as you might imagine... in fact, I wouldn't mind having this combo playing in the background of the next bar I go to...
Waldir Calmon & Angela Maria "Quando Os Astros Se Encontram..." (Copacabana, 1958)
Angela Maria "Quando Os Maestros Se Encontram..." (Copacabana, 1957)
Reissued on CD as a twofer by EMI, these '50s albums represent a different type of Brazilian pop -- not samba, not bossa, not MPB -- not even plain pop vocals, which were common at the time... Nope, this has the sound of a full-on MGM or Broadway musical... outlandish orchestral swells, swooping vocals -- and it's pretty damn good! Vocalist Angela Maria's career continued on at least into the 1990s (!) but I have no idea how well she was able to hold her own in the changing tides of style. She certainly had as good a voice -- if not better -- than most of the highly vaunted vocalists of the MPB era. The songs are Brazilian originals, including a few from well-remembered composers such as Dorival Caymmi, Pixinguinha, and Ary Barroso -- but mostly this is forgotten musical turf. A note of caution: the second album, with organist Calmon, has some instrumental touches that may make loungecorers giddy, but which might scare the rest of us. Mostly, though, this rocks.
Waldir Calmon "Sua Orquestra, Conjunto E Piano" (Revivendo, 2003)
Waldir Calmon "Samba No Arpege" (Revivendo, 2004)
Four long medleys of samba-cancao oldies...
Hebe Camargo "Serie Bis - Cantores Do Radio" (EMI-Brasil, 2000)
Movie actress and TV personality Hebe Camargo came in at the tail end of the pre-bossa nova pop era, and a couple of things set this collection apart from the others in this serie. One is the sound quality - the work on here dates from 1952-67, and in general has bright, clean punchy production. Then there's the material, which more overtly tilts towards North American sensibilities, in particular towards big band and straight pop vocals -- for example, the first disc starts off with a brassy cover of Bob Merill's "Mambo Italiano", and other latin dance tracks pepper the set list. She also dips into rock-tinged girl-group-ish trills, yet with a reserved classiness typical of "grown up" pop vocals of the era. Camargo has a nice voice, too -- clear, confident and full of good humor. Worth checking out!
Hebe Camargo "Sem Limite" (Universal, 2003)
A 2-CD set
Hebe Camargo "Hebe E Convidados" (Universal, 2002)
Hebe Camargo "Pra Voce" (Universal, 2002)
Camerata Brasil "Bach In Brazil" (EMI-Varig Brasil, 2000)
Brazilian choro music, bent in the service of baroque and classical music. It's a pretty nice fit, though at times the repetitive choro instrumentation threatens to descend into mere perkiness (a hazard of the genre...) Still, the mix of music is nice, with compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Radames Gnattali and J.S. Bach alongside tunes by Abel Ferreira, Pixinguinha and other choristas. This didn't totally floor me, but it's pretty nice.
Celly Campello - see artist discography
Tony Campello "Tony Campello" (Odeon, 1959)
Singer Tony Campello, the older brother of teen idol Celly Campello, started his career singing rock and pop on a radio show with his sister. He later retired from performing to take up a career as a record producer, working with several of Odeon's more promising jovem guarda artists (such as Dino & Desi, Os Incriveis and Sergio Reis. This was his first LP, made after he'd been playing professionally for several years.
Tony Campello "Baby Rock" (Odeon, 1960)
Easygoing teenybopper rock -- early Brazilian ie-ie-ie jovem guarda pop -- with a few mildly vigorous tunes and several slower songs that seem closer in spirit to mainstream pop vocals. I guess you could characterize Campello as a Brazilian Pat Boone, though given the dearth of South American rock stars at the time, he's a little higher up the rock'n'roll foodchain than Boone was, back in the United States. This won't blow your mind, but it's better than a lot of the soft-pop JG stuff that would come later... Worth checking out.
Tony Campello "Tony Campello" (Odeon, 1961)
Tony Campello "Nao Te Esquecas De Mim" (Odeon, 1963)
Tony Campello "Tony Italiano" (Odeon, 1964)
Tony Campello "Series Bis" (EMI, 2000)
A 2-CD collection.
Candeia "Candeia" (Equipe, 1970)
Candeia "Raiz" (Equipe, 1971)
Candeia "Samba De Roda" (Tapecar, 1975)
Groovy early-70s, acoustic Rio sambas... This traditionalist album features drumming assists by Wilson Das Neves, and a rather stark, stripped-down overall feel. Cool stuff, though. Plus, it has the Paulinho Da Viola seal of approval, so you know it can't be bad.
Candeia "Luz Da Inspiracao" (WEA-Atlantic, 1977)
Candeia "Axe! Gente Amiga Do Samba" (WEA-Atlantic, 1978)
Candeia "Enciclopedia Musical Brasileira" (WEA, 2000)
Vinicius Cantuaria - see artist discography
Capital Inicial - see artist discography
(Banda) Capote "Banda Capote" (1996)
I'm not sure, but I think this is the same Brazilian band fronted by pop-funkster Odair Cabeca (listed above...) I haven't heard this album, and I'm not sure when it really came out... But I am quite curious.
