Fabio "Os Frutos De Mi Tierra" (Polydor, 1970)
Spacy, starry-eyed folk rock (there's even a Cat Stevens cover!) from this little-known Brazilian hippie pop singer. Some of this is fun in an archival, nostalgia time-casule kind of way, although very little of it is really that satisfying to listen to: his vocals aren't always great, and the music often meanders. Some great folk-freak noodling, though, as well as some boring attempts at straight pop songwriting. Not a gem, but still a nugget. Fabio was also mildly infamous for recording a 1968 single called "LSD" ("Lindo Sonho Deliriante") which did not make it onto this album.
Fafa - see "De Belem, Fafa"
Raimundo Fagner - see artist profile
Fala Mangueira! "Fala Mangueira!" (Odeon, 1968)
A magnificent old-school samba album. It's a little difficult to know just where to file this one... "Fala Mangueira" is actually the album title, but while five of the greatest traditional samba artists of the 1960s and '70s share the stage, as it were, on this disc, they are all performing together, taking turns singing the leads on longer medley tunes. At any rate, if you want to hear Odete Amaral, Nelson Cavaquinho, Cartola, Clementina De Jesus and Carlos Cachaca all busting loose on a nice set of tunes associated with (and about) Cartola's famous samba school, then check this disc out. The arrangements and performances are all first-rate, and this has a really nice, friendly feel. Recommended!
Marcio Faraco "Ciranda" (Universal/Blue Thumb, 2000)
Gentle acoustic pop from a Brazilian expatriate living in France, this has traces of early Joao Bosco, Edu Lobo and Chico Buarque (who Faraco worked with in the 1980s, and who joins him for a duet on the title track)... For a more North American reference point, think -- perhaps -- of early Bruce Cockburn material: soft at the core, but not overly cloying. These bossa-derived ballads are pretty easy on the ears, and while your attention may drift a bit, there's nothing on here that will make you cringe in terror. An artist with a smooth voice and a light touch.
Marcio Faraco "Interior" (Universal, 2003)
Vital Farias/Elomar/Geraldo Azevedo/Xangai "Cantoria 1" (Kuarup, 1984)
Beautiful, relaxed live acoustic recordings by this informal foursome from the Brazilian Northeast... The more upbeat numbers echo Gilberto Gil's acoustic improvisations, while the quieter numbers seem to draw on the Latin American "new song" movement... At any rate, these are gentle, stately performances, and well worth checking out.
Vital Farias/Elomar/Geraldo Azevedo/Xangai "Cantoria 2" (Kuarup, 1985)
Dick Farney - see artist discography
Farofa Carioca "Moro No Brasil" (Universal, 1998)
Contemporary samba-soul... Features vocals by future solo star Seu Jorge...
Os Farroupilhas "Os Farroupilhas Na TV" (Columbia, 1960)
This perky group (aka Conjunto Farroupilhas) starred on Brazilian TV during the first bloom of the bossa nova movement, and although they were known in part for their popularizing of various "regional" styles, they also tackled plenty of bossa material as well. This album has several nice bossa covers, including "O Pato" (complete with duck quacks at the end), "Samba De Uma Nota So" and "Dindi," all sung with such a brazen commercial appropriation that they are utterly charming. There are also several international songs -- one in French, one in German, another in Italian, a swinging Perez Prado-style cha-cha-cha number and a realy silly-bad English-language rendition of "When The Saints Go Marching In." It's all sung with great gusto by a tight, modest-sized male-female chorus, with punchy arrangements: if Mitch Miller came from Sao Paulo, this is what his music would have sounded like. I never would have suspected how appealing this group would be -- indeed, where I find Quarteto Em Cy and the MPB4 to be rather irritating and bland, this band was pretty fun.
Os Farroupilhas "Gauchos Na Cidade" (Columbia, 1960)
