Celeste "Cinco E Triste Da Manha" (Tapecar, 1978) (LP)
A competent, though unenthralling, version of the dominant MPB sound of the mid-1970s... Originally from Bahia, Celeste Vanuchi had a nice enough voice, and sounds like a fair approximation of Gal Costa. What this album lacks, however, is the radical spark that set MPB's pioneers apart from their imitators. This disc is noteworthy, however, for the inclusion of several songs by an up-and-coming composer named Djavan, who at the time was barely on the radar. This is probably one of the first records to feature cover versions of his work. Again, it's nice enough, and not in any way an unpleasant record... I'm not sure there's anything here I need to come back to, though...
Celeste "Laco De Cobra" (Odeon, 1979)
(Produced by Renato Correa & Geraldo Vespar) (LP)
Thick, jazzy MPB arrangements drape around Celeste's husky vocals which, again, can charitably be compared to Gal Costa... Mostly, though, it's a little difficult to listen to: the music is too glossy and fusion-y for my tastes, while her vocals are kind of rough and grating... and when the two extremes meet, they create a sense of pure melodrama and bombast. This album's a rarity, but it's not really my cup of tea. Some one more devoted to slick, syrupy '70s MPB might really dig it, though.
Celeste "Celeste" (Selo Pentegrama, 1983)
Vicente Celestino "Vincente Celestino" (Revivendo)
One of Brazil's earliest recording stars, Vicente Celestino made his first record in 1916, although he was mainly known as a song stylist until decades later, when he started to write his own material. He remained popular throughout his life, and near the time of his death in 1968, he was honored in a tribute concert by no less than tropicalia firebrands Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. (Caetano later recorded Celestino's "Coracao Materno," which is included here in its 1937 version...) This disc collects some of his best 1930s material on the RCA label -- corny, romantic and really appealing. Nice stuff, but more in the operatic tango and bolero camp than the other, more samba-centric material of the time.
Vicente Celestino "Noite Cheia De Estrelas" (Revivendo, 1998)
Vicente Celestino "Mestres Da MPB" (Warner, 1999)
Vicente Celestino "In Memoriam" (BMG-RCA, 1999)
This single-disc collection tilts heavily towards Celestino's more Italianate, operatic leanings, and may be too bombastic and corny for the average listener... The sound quality is pretty good, but the music is kind of hard to take. No indication of when, specifically, these recordings date from, but they clearly overlap with the early work in the Revivendo collection reviewed above, just with even less of the samba influence to be heard.
Vicente Celestino "Em Suas Cancoes Celebres" (RCA, 1961/2001)
Horrendously schmaltzy later recordings by this legendary singer. This stuff is super-brega-plus; swooping and operatic, to an explicitly Italian degree. I had hoped that, like other volumes in BMG's "100 Anos" series, this CD would be a higher-fidelity collection of some of Celestino's classic work from the 1930s and '40s, but instead it's an ultra-florid, highly formalized set of Brazilian boleros. May be of interest to the historically-minded, but I think this lacks the spontaneity of his early work.
Vicente Celestino "A Voz Orgulho Do Brasil, v.1" (Revivendo, 2007)
Vicente Celestino "A Voz Orgulho Do Brasil, v.2" (Revivendo, 2007)
Vicente Celestino "A Voz Orgulho Do Brasil, v.3" (Revivendo, 2007)
Vicente Celestino "A Voz Orgulho Do Brasil, v.1-3" (Revivendo, 2007)
All three volumes, together as a box set.
Celia "Celia" (Continental, 1971)
Cerebro Eletronico "Pareco Moderno" (Tratore-Phonobase, 2008)
Electro-tinged, folky indie rock... Fairly amorphous and spacy; didn't really grab my imagination, but it sounded mellow and easy on the ears...
Chico Cesar - see artist discography
Silvio Cesar "Silvio Cesar" (EMI-Odeon, 1968)
CeU "CeU" (Six Degrees/Urban Jungle, 2006)
Fluid, honeyed samba-synth-soul, in the same tradition as other Six Degrees Brazilian crossover divas such as Bebel Gilberto and Cibelle. Originally released on a Brazilian indie label, Urban Jungle, this is a smooth set of modern pop-electronica, impressively packed with over a dozen original compositions, and just two cover tunes, one by Joao Bosco and one by reggae legend Bob Marley. Hailing from Sao Paulo, CeU ably represents the unrepentant pop sentiments of the city's musical scene, and while few of these tracks stand out as the kind of song that will get stuck in your head all day long, the album itself is quite lovely, a disc that you can leave in the stereo for weeks on end and never tire of... Definitely worth checking out. (Note: if you like this album , you should also check out her work with the experimental pop ensemble, Sonidos.)
CeU "CeU Remixed" (EP) (Six Degrees, 2007)
(Originally produced by Beto Villares & CeU. And then, y'know... remixed.)
Four songs -- "Malemolencia," "Roda," "Lenda" and "Rainha" -- with six remixes by artists including Instituto, Bombay Dub Orchestra, ZAMAN 8 and others. A little too clubby for me, but CeU's electro fans might dig it.
CeU "Vagarosa" (Six Degrees, 2009)
(Produced by Beto Villares, Gustavo Lenzo, Gui Amabis & Ceu)
Wow. This one's a doozy. I've been getting more and more tapped into CeU, particularly in her role as the "face" of the newly invigorated Sao Paulo pop scene. Not only is she pals with some of the most creative young musicians in Brazil, but she's a singularly appealing vocalist in her own right; her tone is pleasant, and her phrasing is decisive and strong. This record floored me, though. Indeed, I had trouble getting past the second track, "Cangote": it took me almost a week to quit hitting the rewind button, because I kept getting tingles each time I heard it. It's a rich, fresh mix of styles, a heavy dub reggae, mixed with Brazilian harmonics and some tweaky melodic elements, particularly some Arabic-flavored lead organ and mellotron riffs that bring to mind the Ethiopian groove of Mahmoud Ahmed. It's such a cool song. So totally cool. The track that follows, "Comadi," also shows a strong familiarity with the best classic Jamaican dub, although this time with a ska-like uptempo vibe. Maybe Sly & Robbie never got to cut a session with Gal Costa back in the day, but if they had, it might have been this good. Anyway, a whole album in this reggae stylee would have been fine by me, but the tracks that followed were equally rich and rewarding, blending samba, jazz, bossa nova, indie rock and more dub in an entirely satisfying, confident mix. Along for the ride are Sao Paulo scenesters such as Gui Amabis, Curumin and Beto Villares, as well as a number of guest performers, including old-time soul star Luiz Melodia, who is surprisingly good in his duet cameo. Although there's still some of the sexy, mellow electronica cool of CeU's labelmate Bebel Gilberto in the mix, these guys have gone way past the chill-room club mix mentality, and they're making some of the most adventurous yet sensuous music modern music coming out of Brazil today. I think you'll really like this record.
Ceu Da Boca "Serie Millennium" (Universal, 2002)
A best-of collection featuring tracks off the albums Ceu Da Boca (1981) and Baratotal (1982), originally released on the Polygram label. Features choral versions of songs by Gilberto Gil, Lula Queiroga, Luiz Eca, and others.
Sylvio Cezar "Amor Demais" (Musidisc, 1961)
Chapeu De Palha "Choro, Samba E Gafieira" (Radio MEC/Rob Digital, 2003)
Charlie Brown, Jr. "Transpiracao Continua Prolongada" (Virgin, 1997)
Charlie Brown, Jr. "Preco Curto, Prazo Longo" (EMI, 1999)
Ye gods. Loud, wanky, corporate "alt rock" with a wide variety of styles, all of them uniformly irritating. The best parts are the fast, flashy metal-raps (which are horrible and obnoxious) and the the Green Day-ish power-chord punk; the worst are the hard rock guitar numbers with the shrill, note-heavy leads... I dunno, I'm sure this was exciting to Brazilian rock fans, but pretty much in the same way that 14-year old mall rats here in the States think that Linkin Park and Korn are rilly bitchin' bands, man. I'm an old-school punker, and I don't like this kind of paint-by-numbers aggro-rock when it's sung in English. And in this case, the novelty of hearing it sung in Portuguese doesn't do much to make it more interesting. They're big in Brazil, but they don't do much for me.
Charlie Brown, Jr "Nadando Com Os Tubaroes" (Universal, 2000)
Charlie Brown, Jr "100% Charlie Brown Jr: Abalando Sua Fabrica" (EMI, 2001)
Charlie Brown, Jr. "Bocas Ordinarias" (EMI, 2002)
Skillfully produced, if tremendously generic alt-rock, of the commercialized "hard" variety practiced in the USA by bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. Crunchy guitars, thumpy drums, simple, slightly proggish chord progressions, and a sad sort of desperation to appear offensive and edgy, even as one is being sold as a corporate commodity. I don't listen to this kind of stuff in English (I prefer my punk from the '70s and early '80s, when I was still a kid and they didn't package for television) but I can recognize that this is a well-made record. If you're a fairly adventurous "alt" fan who'd like to check out something from far-off lands, then you'd probably really dig this disc. Heck, it even won a Latin Grammy, so it must be good. Still, to quote a wise man I once knew: I prefer Foghat.
Charlie Brown, Jr "Acustico MTV" (Universal, 2003)
Charlie Brown, Jr "Tamo Ai Na Atividade" (Universal, 2004)
Charlie Brown, Jr "Imunidade Musical" (EMI, 2005)
Charlie Brown, Jr "Perfil" (Universal, 2002)
A best-of set...
Erlon Chaves "Em Tempo De Samba" (RCA Victor, 1961)
Erlon Chaves "Sabadabada" (Copacabana, 1965)
Erlon Chaves "Banda Veneno De Erlon Chaves" (Philips, 1971)
Erlon Chaves "Banda Veneno Internacional" (Philips, 1972)
Erlon Chaves "As Dez Cancoes Medalha De Ouro -- Erlon Chaves E Paul Mauriat" (Philips, 1973)
Erlon Chaves "Banda Veneno Internacional, v.2" (Philips, 1973)
Erlon Chaves "Banda Veneno Internacional, v.3" (Philips, 1973)
Erlon Chaves "Banda Veneno Internacional, v.4" (Philips, 1974)
Erlon Chaves "Banda Veneno Internacional, v.5" (Philips, 1974)
Erlon Chaves "Millennium" (Universal, 2002)
Juca Chaves "As Duas Faces De Juca Chaves" (RGE, 1960)
Humorist Jucas Chaves, originally known for his written satire, uses an archaic, stripped down musical style, the modinha, to deliver his wry asides. It's an entertaining, unusual sound, but if you listen to an entire album, it all starts to sound the same. Chaves was hardly a great singer, and he plays this up to maximize the comedic effect... Which is all very well and fine, but you have to keep in mind that this album is more about word play than it is about music. An interesting cultural curio, though!
Luiz Chaves E Seu Conjunto "Projecao" (RGE, 1963)
Swank, nightclubby big band versions of recently-minted bossa nova standards, with bassist Luiz Chaves and pianist Hamilton (Amilton) Godoy, of the Zimbo Trio. This is well-performed, though unoriginal -- still, it's a good example of how high-class Ellingtonian jazz motifs filtered into the Brazilian scene. Like Ellington, Chaves straddled the classical, jazz and pop worlds, although modern listeners may find his approach little more than competent and professional. The tinkly piano work by Hamilton Godoy is the most distracting element, otherwise this has some nice moments, in a "Harlem Nocturne" kinda way; Chaves and Godoy went on to co-found the long-lived Zimbo Trio.
Chiclete Com Banana "Chiclete Com Banana (Fe Brasileira)" (Continental, 1987)
Tacky, manic, incredibly irritating pop from this long-lived, popular Bahian party band. The unrelenting tempo, jittery, tinny guitars and cheesy synthesizer tones -- accented by the nails-on-a-blackboard vocals of lead singer "Bell" -- all combine to make this a truly taxing listening experience. But what do I know? Have I ever gotten drunk and sweaty, dancing the night away while listening to these guys play their mile-a-minute beach boogie? No, I have not. So I am outside looking in, an unwelcome guest at a big private party. I am also taking this record back to my local used record store, as fast as my little feet can take me... Tchau!
Chiclete Com Banana "Os Sucesos Do Chiclete Com Banana" (Continental, 1991)
Eww! Cumbia-flavored latin pop hits Brazil... in a big way. Yeah, I guess they were kind of breaking away from the rest of Brazilian pop and all, but this is a little too manic and Miami for my tastes. Plus, that guy has a really irritating voice.
Chiclete Com Banana "Chiclete Com Banana" (RCA-Ariola, 1993)
More manic, super-perky, super-shallow pop... Folks must have loved dancing to this band, but they sure are irritating to listen to! Carlinhos Brown co-wrote a couple of these songs, but even with the Afro-Brazilian percussion, they don't really stand out. It all sounds pretty much the same: too hyper, too pop.
China "Um So" (EMI-Cardume, 2006)
A 6-song EP of contemporary rock, some of it playfully punky, some of it tempered by Brazilian bossa, and some of it kind of mellow and Calexico-ish. Worth checking out.
Chiquinho do Acordeon "Chiquinho, Seu Acordeon E Sua Orquestra" (EMI-Odeon, 1961)
Os Choroes "Chorinhos Da Pesada" (Serie Choro -- Grandes Solistas) (Odeon, 1971)
A disappointing set of modernized choro music, churned out and given a glitzy, slightly Vegas-y, big-bandish sheen. This jazz/gafieira supergroup included flautist Altamiro Carrilho, trombonist Raul De Barros, clarinetist Abel Ferreira, pianist (and grise eminence) Radames Gnattali and others... Lots of instrumental talent, but the tone of the album is a too brisk and prefab, a bit too controlled. Didn't work for me, at least.
