Search - Various Artists :: Rough Guide: The Music of Brazil

Leave it to the savvy impresarios of Rough Guides (home of the handy travel and discographical reference tomes) to bring armchair backpackers one of the finer single-disc anthologies of Brazilian music on the market. Rather than foolishly trying to encapsulate the stylistic breadth of Latin America's mega-populous country, this 19-song compilation largely covers the lighter, popular regional forms, like the samba and bossa nova of Rio de Janeiro, which, on occasion, surprisingly transcend their inherent cheesiness. Lively accordions and polyrhythmic drums represent the more hip forro and carnival grooves. But the real treats come in fresh Afro-European-American hybrids like Bahian rap ("Charles Anjo 45"), Latin-jazz funk ("Negada da Lapa"), Maranhaon bottleneck blues ("Isso"), an old choro on cavaquinho (mini guitar) and harpsichord ("Carinhoso"), and Marlui Miranda and Uakti's dazzling arrangement of "Tchori Tchori," a traditional fishing tune from the indigenous Jaboti peoples. --Sam Prestianni