Various Artists "GAFIEIRA BRASIL" (BMG, 1999)
Wahoo!! Some truly swingin' big-bandish samba-jazz from the 1950s, '60s and '70s, dance music that hearkens back to older styles like the maxixe and baiao, while fusing them with a hard-edged, American bandstand jazz. It's a style of Brazilian pop I haven't heard much of, made by artists who have been largely forgotten over the years. Os Velhinhos Transviados, Ases Do Ritmo, Fats Elpidio and others are anthologized along with 1950s bandleader Aristides Zacharias, someone I'd only known before from cheapo, budget label LPs ("Romance In Rio!", etc.) and whose work I'd dismissed as kitschy, sell-out, faux-Braziliania made for the North American easy listening crowd way back when... Well, it turns out he really rocks! Modern-day Brazilians don't seem to care for these guys much either; this album is the only place I know of that you can get any of their work on CD... A pity, because it's fun stuff, and deserves a fuller exploration in the digital reissue age... There are also some more recent recordings from Paulo Moura, who I guess is the main modern exponent of the gafieira style... Anyway, if you can track this disc down, it's totally worth it. (I got my copy through SomLivre.com...) Recommended!

Various Artists "QUARTIN" (Far Out, 1997)
Music from Roberto Quartin's early-'70s jazz-oriented Quartin label... A little too jazz-oriented for my tastes... This disc includes a few tracks off Jose Mauro's excellent Obnoxius album, and some interesting instrumentals by guitarist Piri (backed up by Wilson Das Neves and a young Danilo Caymmi) ... Unfortunately, it also contains most of the tracks off of an instrumental jazz Jobim tribute album by alto sax player Victor Assis Brasil, every one of which I found to be tedious -- a braz-jazz cross between Charlie Parker and Kenny G, perhaps. Doubtless the acid-jazz crown will flock to this collection; I was able to part with it without much sorrow, especially considering the entire Mauro album is also available as a reissue.