Maria Fumaça cover

Maria Fumaça

Released

As the long arc of MPB took Brazilian popular music from early ’60s samba to late ’60s psychedelia to early ’70s folk and soul, it would inevitably lead to at least one late ’70s reckoning with jazz-funk that would rival anything recorded above the Equator. Banda Black Rio’s Maria Fumaça is just that album, the stunning debut of a seven-member ensemble who were purpose-built to accomplish that very task. And the slinky / slippery / sleek instrumentals on this record so seamlessly embody a simultaneous tradition of Afro-Brazilian and Black American traditions — especially in their blazing horn charts and hipsway-engineered basslines — that it’s hard to tell where the Jorge ends and the Herbie begins. Call it Terra, Vento e Fogo.

Nate Patrin

Suggestions
Shinbangumi cover

Shinbangumi

Ginger Root
Sextet cover

Sextet

A Certain Ratio
Head Hunters cover

Head Hunters

Herbie Hancock
Bridges cover

Bridges

Brian Jackson, Gil Scott-Heron
Les Stances à Sophie cover

Les Stances à Sophie

Art Ensemble of Chicago
Life on Mars cover

Life on Mars

Dexter Wansel
Freedom Flight cover

Freedom Flight

Shuggie Otis
Step on Step cover

Step on Step

Charles Stepney
Instant Funk cover

Instant Funk

Instant Funk
Switch cover

Switch

Switch