We almost spat our tea all over the computer screen when we got the notification this morning of a new Banda Black Rio album. Having just recovered we then almost choked on our toast and marmite when we read they had also dragged Seu Jorge, Marcio Local, Elza Soares and Caetano Veloso amongst others into the studio as well. They've even enlisted Flame Killer and GOD PT3 from the Mobb Deep crew on 'Back to the Project' to share their ghetto drug and violence tales, all too familiar in the favelas, to keep the cross cultural vibes right up to date.
Formed in Rio De Janeiro, 1976, Banda Black Rio pioneered the soul-funk movement in Brazil led by renowned saxophonist Oberdan Magalhaes. As global stars of the politically charged Black Rio movement, emerging almost a decade earlier from the Soul Brasileiro genre, BBR brought together Rio's black funk scene to rally against repression, a conservative record industry and white middle class press to mobilise disenchanted black Brazilian youth against the military dictatorship that mirrored the struggles in North America. Banda Black Rio released a string of great recordings in the late-1970s from 1977 debut album, Maria Fumaça, on Warner Music to 1978's Gafieira Universal on RCA Recordings that is considered one of the all-time great Brazilian jazz-funk records. The third album, SaciPererê, was also released in 1978. After a renaissance in Brazil's black music culture led by a new generation of soul, funk and hip hop artists BBR finally arrived back with a brand new formation for comeback album Rebirth in 2000, before Super Nova Samba Funk - the group's sixth studio album produced and led by William Magalhães.
The album is great start to finish with the uptempo vocal jazz fusion on 'Louis Lane' feat Seu Jorge - one of our favourite modern samba soulsters, Marcio Local doing the business on the broken, building soul killer 'Quem Vem Lá', the fresh Brazilian boogie of 'Som De Preto' and the classic sounding,, string laden mellow vibes of 'Aos Pes do Redentor' featuring Caetano Veloso being just a few highlights. The aforementioned hip hop track sticks out a bit awkwardly compared to the rest of the soulful album and will inevitably get on the nerves of some but really it is just a modern extension of the bands original musical fusion mission and the message is all too relevant to modern Brazil's poorer areas.
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