José Roberto Bertrami from Azymuth (and Tatuí, a small city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo) — not to mention his work for Elis Regina, George Duke, Sarah Vaughn, Jorge Ben, Eddie Palmieri, Milton Nascimento, Flora Purim, and Erasmo Carlos, among countless others — playing piano alongside his bro Claudio on double bass, a horn section, and an organist. With compositions by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra, Durval Ferreira, and Adilson Godoy, the album also features Bertrami’s own A Bossa Do Zé Roberto, mesmerising bossa jazz which ensconces him amongst the bossa greats, even at the age of nineteen.

‘Amazing record,’ attests Floating Points. ‘One of my top five.’
JM’s mournful, melancholic singing creates a dark, brooding, atmosphere in stark contrast with the prevailing joyfulness and high-spirited rhythms of Brazilian pop at this time. The mood is foreboding but ecstatically hypnotic; the music complexly staggering. A lost masterpiece.
Secret weapon of Madlib, too.

‘On every track the frenetic energy in the studio is palpable, giving the recordings a beautifully personal feel and a sense of the phenomenally creative vision Bertrami, Malheiros and Conti were realising at the time. Fifty years on, Azymuth’s earliest recorded music retains an ineffable, futuristic quality, standing amongst their most captivating and moving work.’

The genre-slaying, polyharmonic, polyrhythmic ‘universal music’ of Hermeto Pascoal and his bassist Itibere Zwarg, performed in 2001 by a workshop comprising twenty-nine of Rio de Janeiro’s most exceptional young musicians.
An overlooked masterpiece amongst recent Brazilian recordings: invigorating and marvellous; warmly recommended.

Eumir Deodato and his group Os Catedráticos.
‘The magical, hazy sound of sixties Rio, with monster samba grooves, scorching organ solos and big brass arrangements (featuring trombonist Edson Maciel); all buoyed by the hip rhythms of drummer Wilson Das Neves and Ruebens Bassini on percussion. Besides Deodato’s own, there are compositions by Marcos Valle, Baden Powell and Luiz Bonfa.’