Spring...... Tropicalia....... BARBICAN

For the past three years, upon returning from my annual extended vacation to Texas and Brasil, I have found myself repeatedly trying to coax the Spring out of Ohio earlier than it allows. The windows are open, my jacket is hanging in the basement, and plenty of Tropicalia is playing around the house.

It's unlikely that I need to go through a lengthy primer on the genre and its players, and after digging deeper into the vaults I've found some gems (I must share) that stray away from the big four (Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Ze) and the greatest band of all time Os Mutantes........



Along with the early 70's rock/samba oriented Tropicalia movement, a number of musicians embraced Black American Soul and gave it a regional twist. Joyce, Hyldon, Tim Maia, and especially Milton Nascimento produced a smoother, nuanced, response to the opressive times. Nonetheless, it's still as potent and psychedelic as the music that was made by their more radical comtemporaries.

Lately I've been entranced by, Clube da Esquina, an album recorded live by Milton and the Minas Gerais-native garage band Lo Borges.......



If I could only finance a re-issue label like the brilliant Numero Group, this long, lost record would be first on my list. Once I get through the extensive listening pile I've prepared for myself, I will report other recordings that maintain the mellow atmospherics and blissful moments this album reverberates.

But in the meantime........

...It seems only the British get it right. For the entire month of April and into June, the Barbican in London is celebrating the colors and sounds of those heady times in Brasil with an art exhibit, a film retrospective, and most importantly a line-up of amazing live shows that ends with a reunited Mutantes (minus Rita Lee, but most Brasilians will attest this is a good thing).

Luckily the Mutants are playing New York's Webster Hall in July, or else I'd be on a plane to the United Kingdom. I am so there.