VA - Putumayo Presents: Acoustic Brazil (2005)

With its amazing mix of Portuguese, African, and Indian musical genres, dances, and instruments, Brazil's pop scene is unique because so much of it is acoustic. This disc is a pleasing potpourri of mostly non-electronic tunes sung by some famous and not-so-famous artists. Of course, the samba--the country's most dominant genre--and its offshoots are well represented here. The disc includes some well-known, previously released selections, including the Bahian, Tropicalismo pioneer Caetano Veloso's existentially poetic "Cajuina," guitarist Marcio Faraco's festive, Nordeste-nuanced "Ciranda," with the superstar vocalist Chico Buarque, and the perky, Maranhao-born Rita Ribeiro's samba-reggae number "Tem Quem Queira." Some lesser-known artists include the Arab-Brazilian vocalist Glaucia Nasser, Lula Queiroga, and Monica Salmaso, whose "Moro Na Roca" is a powerful, Angola-derived lundu/jongo homage to the legendary Clementina de Jesus. This disc adds credence to the phrase, "keep it real." --Eugene Holley, Jr.