BRAZILIAN SOUL – WIN IT BEFORE YOU CAN BUY IT!

Guimaraes E O Grupo Som Sagrado: Our Sound + Os Diagonais: Na Vou Chorar
From Black Rio 2: Original Samba Soul 1971-1980 (Strut, 2009)

June 23rd sees the release of the second volume in the Black Rio series. The first in the series is now out of print. Compiled by DJ Cliffy, an expert in the field of Brazilian music, the set explores an explosive period in Brazilian soul and funk.

The album features a wide range of style with two of my favorites I’ve posted above. The first by Guiamaraes E O Grupo Som Sagrado starts off with a wicked rhythm guitar and some nice percussion.

The second by Os Diagonais has a very funky and heavily American-influenced feel (called Soul Brasileiro) that grabs the funky bass lines of the James Brown sound, and, in the middle section, a gruff voiced singer jumps in and reminds you of Kool & The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie.” This song knocks about as hard as any of its American brethren.

I may not know what they’re singing about in all the songs (my Portuguese never was what it should have been), but I can dig the groove. It’s not all foreign tongues. There was a group of singers known simply as The Brazilian Singers such as Otavio Augusto Fernandes Cardoso (aka Peter Dunaway), Jose Eduardo Franca Pontes (aka Joe Bridges), and Mauricio Alberto (aka Morris Albert) that were well known in Brazil for singing in English, even if it meant being castigated by local critics. But as it was, times were changing and this was one of the best ways for them to get heard on radio.

With summer upon us, it’s definitely a good pick up when you’re out record shopping later this month. Courtesy of Strut, Soul-Sides is giving away FIVE copies that you can win before you can even buy it! Answer the three questions below for your chance to win. Many thanks to Strut for the giveaways, and to you, our readers, for your continued support of Soul-Sides!

Even if you don’t think you know all the answers, give it a shot. You can’t win if you don’t enter!

Contest Rules:

1. Contest ends at midnight on Friday, June 19, 2009. Entries that arrive after that time are ineligible.
2. Only US addresses are eligible. Sorry international readers!
3. Should there be more than five contestants with all correct answers, five names will be chosen in a drawing of those who answered correctly. Should fewer than five people answer correctly, then winners with all correct answers will automatically win with the remaining winners to be chosen by a random drawing.
4. Your first response is your official and final response.
5. You are only eligible to win one of the five CDs.

Questions:

1. The Batmacumba is a club where DJ Cliffy spins Brazilian music in what city?
2. Name the world-famous landmark seen here.
3. What is Brazil’s official language?

E-mail your responses to soulsideseric AT gmail.com and put Black Rio in the subject line.