Customer Reviews

Tropicalia Essentials

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Beware of this CD.

After you buy it, you'll want more Tropicalia. You'll want more Brazilian things in your life in general. You may even be tempted to learn Portrugese, head down to Rio de Janiero, and live down there for at least the next several months, sunning yourself on the beaches, drinking tropical drinks, and all the while listening to wonderful, wonderful Tropicalia.

Personally, I don't normally like happy music. I tend to prefer melancholy late-night stuff--driving, intense, icy, moody music. (Or angry chick-punk.) But after watching "City of God" a few years ago, I became a bit of a Brazil nut. And while Brazilian culture's produced its share of intense, moody stuff ("City of God," the depressing and awesome documentary "Bus 174"), it has also produced this music, which is like a warm happy blast of tropical sunshine.

The people who made this music were basically Brazil's answer to the hippies. Against the repressive military regime that came to power in 1964 (a regime far more authoritarian than any that came to power in the U.S. or Western Europe), they marshalled an integrated movement of music, art, theater, and life.

On this CD, the tastiest fruits of their labors are collected together in a sumptuous cornucopia. The music is alternately happy and melancholy, driving and mellow--one moment dramatic and tense, the next flitting off freely like a bright tropical parrot. Instrumentation varies dramatically--horns, violins, electric guitars, everything but the kitchen sink. (Actually, there might even be a kitchen sink in here--one of the movement's leaders was clasically trained but reportedly used everyday objects like blenders and typewriters in his compositions.) So there's a bit of a Sgt.-Pepper's-Lonely-Hearts-Club-Band eclecticism to the compositions, but that's good, because they (primarily Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso)pull it off without pretension or showiness, blending it all together in a tasty tropical mix that will make you think of Carnival and beaches and happy people dancing in the streets while jugglers throw flaming batons in the air behind them.

So buy this CD. You won't understand the lyrics, but that's OK--it can be more fun not knowing. (Of course, if you're really really curious, they've helpfully provided Portrugese-English transcriptions of the lyrics in the excellent liner notes. But then, like I said, you might be tempted to learn Portrugese. And fly down to Rio. And never come back.)

Given its variety, selection, and the quality of the tracks, this is a wonderful anthology of the musical diversity and experimentation that TROPICALIA was about. It includes the banner song of the movement as well as some of the best pieces by most of its members. This is a great starting point for aficionados to the history of music, as well as for those who love Brazilian rythms.

A good cross section of Tropicália. The liner notes are great, they are in Portuguese and English with the song lyrics in Portuguese with English translations. When I got this I listened to it for two weeks straight, everytime I got in the car.

The music on this record is old, almost as old as that Bossa Nova stuff most people associate with Brazil. You can tell when you listen that most of these recordings are from the late 1960's. But, as in pop music of the English speaking world, the late 1960's were a period of light-speed evolution, growth, eperimentation, whatever you want to call it in Brazilian music. The music and artists featured here transformed Brazilian music from a handful of folcloric sounds and rhythms to a truly cosmopolitan and progressive expression of the most radical artistic aspirations. Anyone who wants to deepen their appreciation for the music made in Brazil over the last 30 years would do well to learn this album, the songs on this album, and the artists who appear here, because after making this album they all moved on to very long and influential solo careers. In sum, Tropicalia produced some truly amazing works of art, and many of them are featured here on this disc.

Great stuff, and translations make it, as the editors say, something even those of us who have a lot of this material should buy. I consider Gilberto Gil easily the equal of John Lennon or Paul McCartney; I never listen to the Beatles any more but I can always hear the early Gil material, any time. One reviewer above referred to that "bossa nova stuff," which may reveal a certain ignorance of where the tropicalists came from in the first place. Gilberto Gil is the equal of Lennon; I would say that Joćo Gilberto, the inventor of bossa nova, is the equal of Miles Davis. And I would go further and say that bossa nova, which began around 1958, is more important to the history of popular music than the Beatles. But, you know, North Americans tend to be rather closed-minded about the world. Buy this if you have the songs, or if you want great intro to the world of Brazilian pop music.

Heaven is Caetana Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and gang.

This C.D. will rock your world.