One of the great things about being married to a South-American girl is you get to discover all sorts of music you previously hadn’t really bothered with. These days Barry Towers is bugging the neighbours not so much with Frank Zappa ditties, rather than with the mellow, seductive rhythms of bossa, samba, tango and salsa. Antonio Carlos Jobim! Celia Cruz! Caetano Veloso! Gilberto Gil! This, my friends, is music that shines with an infectious lust for life while encompassing a deliciously refined, sophisticated complexity. Havaianas para siempre! … and now back to your regular schedule…
7 thoughts on “Havaianas”
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Revenge of the vreemdeling foreigner renegade… I hadn’t give up on my love for Zappa, it’s just i like to be a pain in the ass for our (put up the volume, please) FLEMISH BLOK neighbours, hehe :-)
So many people aren’t generally aware of all the great Latin music there is. Their loss! Other than Zappa, the biggest influence on my musical life has been music from the Caribbean and South America.
In case you haven’t heard much of him, check out a Brasillian artist named ‘Djavan’. He has sort of retired nowadays (trying to help his son in his career, I heard), but he is a great song-writer and singer, and made lots of good albums in the 70s and 80s.
The good Doctor sent me a Caetano for Christmas a couple of years ago… I was blown away by the sheer musicality of it. Copies of it went out to my close friends for Christmas this past year; everyone has been very positive about it.
Thanks Doc. I love it!
SOFA
Saw Caetano live three, no, four times now. His live shows are really impressive, whether it’s with electric band, percussion quintet, horn section or just solo voice and guitar…
Gilberto Gil i’ll be seeing live again in about a month, and am very much looking forward to it(even though going to see him 45minutes away from home means that i won’t be going to see ike willis+ossi duri+elioelestorietese 6 hours away from home…too bad!).
Tom Jobim…One word: heaven.
While we’re at it, may i recommend the works of Baden Powell, Joyce and Joao Gilberto? Or if you’re into more recent stuff, Vinicius Cantuaria, Bebel Gilberto or Celso Fonseca…
Why don’t you marry a South American woman, Barry?
However , yes indeed, that music is great.It’s melody & rythm combined in Mastery. Just listen to the music from the Nordeste in Brasil : Forró.Just great : accordeon, triangle, voice.
By the way, jonnybutter,thanks for the suggestion, Djavan. I’ ve been looking for Brazilian music since many years. I heven’t heard anything about Djavan.
How to solve this as a Belgian? Well, the place to be is Passage 44 ( under the Dexia bank, close to the Botanical Gardens ) in Brussels.There are two things over there:
-“La Médiathèque ” , providing one of the most comprehensive collections of CD’s from all over the world. I went there often with jazz men, visiting BXL, they all were stunned to find all thier albums there.
– The Brazilian shop : they have a limited selection of B. CD’s available, however they’re ready to order whatever you want.
well, what’s better for the summer than brazilian music??
I hope she won’t be putting any tango on your stereo. if she does, make sure you first hear “bajofondo tango club” (or well, you better don’t).
make sure to hear Paquito D’Rivera, a cuban jazz composer that kicks ass. and finally, you should see “buena vista social club”, which deeply depicts the relation between cuba and its music.