Africa-Brasil Appreciation
fishmongerfunk
4,154 Posts
i guess this record is pretty basic or well-known, but hadn't put this on in years and its just sooo good on this hot summer day. every song bangs.
like harlem river drive, it is a fully realized fusion of styles. hoping to see this one on the strut top 100.
like harlem river drive, it is a fully realized fusion of styles. hoping to see this one on the strut top 100.
Comments
I can't speak Portuguese but I always sing along phonetically to "Xica da Silva". And I love that the first tune is a football tune.
miriam makeba does a decent cover...
tune is just 2 chords and real fun to play on an acoustic...:
Gm: 355333
F: 133211
Kind of disagree with this, there's tons of great Jorge Ben covers.
Who's better?
I listened to "A Tabue de Esmeralda" this morning. So good!
as far as whole career ark, number of solid recordings, exerted influence, pure artist factors (lyrics, unique voice, inventing his own style)
an argument can be made for GOAT he released so many year after year...all fresh sounding, continuing yet evolving
incredible artist all around
Truth.
Yes, I don't mean to suggest there are no good covers of his music, but when it comes to "Mas Que Nada" or "Pa??s Tropical" or "Carolina Carol Bela" or whatever, his version is usually the definitive one.
Huge cosign.
Pretty much his entire catalog is fire. There have been numerous occaisions ive had trouble deciding what to put on and jorge Ben always fits the bill no matter what kind of mood I'm in. Not many artists do that for me these days.
Just the same, the better the songwriter the better the cover versions.
Jorge Ben has been covered by some of the cheesy artists in the most sappy settings, and still it sounds good.
He's my GOAT... hands down. Saw him live in Rio a couple years ago... such a great performer with tons of energy. The crowd ranged from age 18 to 80 and every single person there knew every single word to every single song. It was rather amazing, but made perfect sense given the number of straight up timeless essentials he wrote.
I've been meaning to do a mix of just JB covers... I agree with Horseleech, there are a lot of good ones out there. For example, Maria Alcina's Fio Maravilha always slays the dancefloor. There's too many to count... so a mix is due!
It's worth noting that dude's personal style was something of a surprise: He had on an American-style football jersey, sweatbands on both wrists, baggy slacks, and some locs, wearing it all well and looking at least twenty years younger than he oughta. When he was leaving the (like, half-foot-tall) stage after the umpteenth encore, a bunch of girls ran up on stage wanting a picture with him; he threw one arm each around the two ladies closest, chunked the deuce, waited for the flash, then vanished behind the curtain like the fucking Batman. His opening act was a local capoeira troupe, and during the portion of their routine where they got busy to a chant based on "Mas Que Nada," Jorge could be glimpsed in the wings, head-nodding with arms folded high in a textbook DMC-circa-1985 b-boy stance. Dude was fly, no question.
and must add
i was saying that his style progressed per release while maintaining a continuity
well every record has a strong variety of moods but stay cohesive as well
i mean on the same record with take it easy my brother charles, criola, pais tropical there is this
and then you think of each song and there is always a progress soft goes to frenetic there is almost never the same hook interpretation
also
he survived many an era and it seems even with label/arrangement he was able not only to weather the storm but the musical influences seemed to gravitate toward him. He broke out of the bossa packaging and made the psychedelic tropicalismo his own, string arrangement and children vocals never sounded corny they actually added to his oeuvre
many personal recordings so many songs written and a nod to some of his other work link together many releases
furthermore if you speak portuguese he is nominated for greatest song titles
and the sheer number of quality releases would mean he could take down other GOAT contenders
even his medley /best of album (one of the first records i owned, passed on in my dad's collection) sounds fresh and his christianity and futbol passion served to create amazing songs that are never tacky. and what other artist has this level of universal appeal yet distinctive style. you could find a song for almost every life circumstance.
literally I EMBRACE HIS ENTIRE CATALOGUE and speaking of which I need to complete the discography
finally
tabua de esmeralda had always escaped me although it was the one album that never left the 128kb mp3 rotation
during my time in brasil me and my soon to be wife would listen to the whole thing just chillin in a hamac
she was discovering jorge and insisting on repeating it (i gladly obliged)
a couple years later i get a wedding gift from a friend
he tells me his brother has a collection of records and he asked him for some brazilian stuff since i travelled there
he had no idea what this record meant to our couple
it's another cover/title but it's tabua so it was a double surprise for me
i'll make sure that the first song my children hear is magnolia
There's one more by Serginho Ventura called Carolina, but I don't have it yet to share, soon though... :P
I had the album, but that's the only good song on it, imo.
One of the better covers out there:
I'm going to agree with Horseleech.. Jorge Ben has been covered brilliantly by many artists. He's very much like Stevie Wonder in this respect.
- spidey