MHJ’s Brazilian Classics Mix (with plenty of Nascimento)

This mix is admittedly a bit outside of the kind of music we usually feature in our mixes, but we have always prided ourselves on our range. The influence of Brazilian music is far reaching, and can be heard in musicians as different as the Sea and Cake, Jon Hassell, Madlib, and Chick Corea‘s Return To Forever. As a flutist in my youth, I had encountered some of the standard Bossa Nova and Samba tunes through the jazz world, most notably via Stan Getz‘s classic collaboration with João Gilberto. But in 2007 Matthew Hayes Jacobs passed me two CDRs he’d burned of an excellent playlist he’d compiled of Brazilian music, introducing me to Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Quarteto Em Cy, Djavan, and many others. I found Veloso’s “Lost in Paradise” to be so disorienting—with its psychedelic lead guitar,  surreal lyrics in broken English, and smooth string accents punctured by discordant brass arrangements—that I quickly found myself down the rabbit hole of Tropicalia, Oswald de Andrade‘s “Cannibalist Manifesto,” the fiction of Clarice Lispector, and the history of Brazil’s military dictatorship. I owe a lot to those two CDRs. So when my old friend Matthew recently released a couple songs under the moniker Sage of New England, I thought I would invite him to produce a new mix to share his love of Brazilian music with our readers.

I’d always heard rumors from mutual friends of Matthew’s skills as a musician and songwriter, but he had never released any recordings. Luckily that’s finally changed, and in 2021 he’s begun to release singles on Bandcamp and other platforms. Sage of New England is Matthew’s new project with producer Justin Tracy, taking its name from a one of Matthew’s songs about a woman who becomes disillusioned by her search for inner peace, but who learns from a farmer that wisdom can be found anywhere. There is an undercurrent of Buddhist imagery and narrative in Matthew’s work, which reminds me that I am also indebted to him for introducing me to the writings of Shunryu Suzuki. I think you’ll find some of that spirit in his songs “Fire Tales” and “Encounter with a Guide,” with their rhythmic propulsion, beautiful chord voicings, and plaintive singing style. The influence of his beloved Brazilian music should be apparent, but he also brings this mindful attention to the careful pacing of this mix. Enjoy. (Joseph Sannicandro)

MINI-INTERVIEW

Please introduce yourself.

0:00 Milton Nascimento – Ponta De Areia

5:10 Joyce – Aldeia de Ogum

9:34 Vinicius de Moraes – Voce Abusou

12:07 Milton Nascimento – Os Escravos de Jo

15:05 Herbie Mann – Consolocao

19:25 Baden Powell feat Quarteto Em Cy – Canto de Xango

24:01 Sergio Ricardo – Conversacao de paz

27:09 Milton Nascimento – Dancing

29:32 Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges – Um Girassol da Cor de Seu Cabelo (1997)

31:01 Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges – Clube Da Esquina N°2 (1997)

33:45 Gal Costa – Lagrimas Negras

37:17 Joyce and Elza Soares – Samba De Silva

40:38 Antonio Carlos Jobim and Paulinho Jobim – Eu E O Meu Amor

42:12 Milton Nascimento – Os Povos