Bahia Com 'H'
"Ethereal, sensual, subtle," are the opening words of producer, journalist and"living jazz encyclopedia" Arnaldo DeSouteiro, who authored the extensive liner notes to this essential and first vinyl reissue of Brazilian singer Maria de Fátima's only solo album "Bahia com H". Originally recorded in Uruguay in 1981, "where she had settled with her then husband, the synthesizer wizard and producer Hugo Fattoruso, the album combines Maria's own compositions with her unique takes on some Brazilian classics by Ary Barroso, Denis Brean, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, [blending] elements of Candombe, provided in part by an all-star lineup of Uruguayan musicians."
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1953, over the course of her career, this "muse from Tijuca" worked alongside artists such as Milton Nastimento, Gilberto Gil, Arthur Verocai, Airto Moreira & Flora Purim, Chico Buarque and Lincoln Olivetti, to name a few, but also "became a mythological figure on the Californian music scene in the second half of the 1970s."
On "Bahia com H", Maria's spellbinding voice soars over the airy synth lines and audacious keyboard playing of Hugo Fattoruso, bold and explorative yet rarely demanding center stage. "There is a high dose of originality, an inebriating aesthetic transparency, which explains the great interest in the album by Brazilian music enthusiasts in Japan," the liner notes reveal. Slapping bass lines, resplendent chord patterns and scintillating percussive grooves cross paths with pensive, joyful, but also irresistibly playful arrangements, radiating warm and soulful ingenuity.
You can stream/buy the full release on the Altercat Bandcamp page or website. Easy breezy.
More posts
Red Sands
At the start of a new week, we would like to point you in the direction of Melbourne-based artist and broadcaster Ajak Kwai, who released her powerful EP "Red Sands" on Music in Exile late last year. Well known to the Australian music community, she is a strong voice for "inclusion and the celebration of cultural diversity found throughout Australian society." Kwai herself hails from the historic city of Bor in South Sudan.
In her shows for both PBS and 3CR, [...]
Me Da A Onnda
Julien Lebrun and Djamel Hammadi's Paris-based afro-soul and tropical funk imprint Hot Casa Records is literally a hotbed of quality releases and reissues and always worth a visit. The label has apparently also managed to license many a rare hi-life and afro-funk album from the family of late Ghanaian singer and composer Alhaji Kwabena Frimpong, or simply K. Frimpong.
Born in 1939 in Ofoase in Ghana's Ashanti Akim district, K. Frimpong launched his musical [...]
Åland Islands
Islands themselves are a wonderful natural concept, come to think about it. Simply describing a piece of land surrounded entirely by water, the word itself evokes a world of imagery and sentiments, a metaphor, deeply ingrained in the human experience. Islands are vastly symbolic and often excite mixed feelings. They are ambiguous at best, representing both isolation and refuge, a welcome escape or even a place of no return. Though not all islands are [...]
From Here
Born in New Jersey in 1990, Palestinian-American violinist, composer and producer Akram Abdulfattah moved back to his parents' rural hometown Kaukab Abu al-Hija in Northern Galilee in 1995. Having relocated at an early age and having to adapt to a new, yet fascinating environment with a rich cultural heritage, will surely have made a lasting impression on the young boy. But it also resulted in a newfound sense of belonging and the discovery of local musical [...]
Ya Raï
Raït here, raït now, we are sipping on some mint tea and rejoicing in the wavy, lo-fi, synth-tastic tape sounds of iconic Algerian singer Cheb Hasni. Born Hasni Chakroun in 1968, he is widely considered one of the greatest vocalists of the raï genre, although his burgeoning career was brought to a sudden end at the age of 26, when he was tragically murdered outside his parents' home in Oran.
Hasni's career was nonetheless prolific: After releasing his first [...]
Albat Alawi Op.99
One man's trash is another man's treasure. As cliché as that may sound, there's no denying that it's a pretty good fit for Tel Aviv-Yafo-based artist Eyal el Wahab's DIY approach to making music, as impressively brought to fruition on his recently released second album on Glitterbeat Records. El Khat is the name of his stimulating retro-futurist project, named after the plant-based drug commonly chewed in North East Africa and the Arabian Penisula.
After being [...]
Russian Warship
This aggression will not stand! It has been one day and a month sind Putin launched the unlawful and utterly senseless Russian attack on Ukraine. Yet despite Ukraine's valiant resistance, the war machine keeps churning. In all its wanton horror, however, war can also have a unifying effect and forge new alliances amidst its inherent drive to total destruction. Subsequently, a wave of disbelief and solidarity has swept across many parts of this world to reveal [...]
Felicita
Judging a record by its cover is not always the worst thing. Neither is taking a closer look at it and trying to immerse yourself into the assumed conceptual environment of what you are about to listen to. Naturally, we approached this album with a certain bias. Having previously reviewed and raved about Anadol's 2019-released album "Uzun Havalar", we couldn't wait to see, what she had intricately pieced together this time around.
The album cover is a [...]
Susuma
Cohesion is commonly defined as the act or fact of sticking together tightly forming a whole and it is a word that comes to mind, when listening to the brand-new album by Berlin-based multi-cultural afro-soul outfit Jembaa Groove. Founded by German bassist, composer and producer Yannick Nolting alongside Ghanaian singer, songwriter and percussionist Eric Owusu at the tail end of 2020, the project eventually evolved into a versatile seven-piece bridging [...]
Matir Gaan
Breathe in, breathe out, as the waves ebb and flow and our minds travel. It's stories like these that purvey deeper meaning in artistic production and resonate with us, both spiritually and sonically. Brighton's Hive Mind Records has released a truly divine new record, featuring a stirring collaboration between young Bengali migrant Mohammed After Hussain and Italian electronic artist Andrea Rusconi, aka PAQ. "Matir Gaan: Songs from the Earth" sees the two [...]
Yellah, Let's Go
It's been a long, long time and a lot has happened in the world since London-based Sudanese collective The Scorpios released their critically acclaimed debut album on Afro7. Five years is it? Luckily for us, we first heard of the band via Astrid Engberg's Palmspree Mix and thus had a somewhat shorter wait.
"Let's Go" is the title of album number two by The Scorpios and it does not disappoint. Having added Japanese keyboard legend Izumi Kobayashi to the already [...]
Life Is A Heavy Burden
"Life is a Heavy Burden" is the title of the latest release on Strut Records, as the always stellar London-based imprint launches its new United Sounds of Asia series, a "project celebrating musical routes, journeys and histories across Asia [that is] helmed by the Paradise Bangkok founders Maft Sai (Zudrangma Records) and Chris Menist (Awkward Corners)." This is a special one, seeing as it is "the first compilation of legendary Afghan Ghazal singer Dr. [...]