Latin | Brazil Vinyl 536 Items

23 Tracks - Limited 180-gram Virgin Vinyl Edition. Born in Bahia, Brazil, singer/song writer Joao Gilberto (1931-2019) was a true legend of bossa nova. While Antonio Carlos Jobim set the standard for the creation of bossa nova in the mid-'50s, with songs like "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Desafinado", it was Gilberto who brilliantly reimagined and, arguably, defined the genre. This edition includes the complete contents of the album Brazil's Brilliant Joao Gilberto, which received a five-star rating from AllMusic, plus several of his greatest hits from his early years. "This vitally important record introduced Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and thus, bossa nova to the United States in 1961, a year before Stan Getz scored a hit with 'Desafinado'."- AllMusic (Richard S. Ginell), 5 Stars

180-Gram Limited Edition. Brazilian poet, lyricist, essayist and playwright, Vinicius de Moraes (1913- 1980) became a seminal figure in modern Brazilian music and literature. Along with his longtime collaborator, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994), known in Brazil as Tom Jobim, he composed hundreds of songs which have become true classics and have transcended the bossa nova, as they continue to be played and recorded by countless singers and instrumentalists within Brazil and throughout the world. This LP set compiles some of the earliest recordings by Vinicius.

Established in 1948 by César Roldán, Discomoda is one of the earliest record labels of Venezuela and the oldest family operated label in the country. Home to one of the most complete folkloric and popular music catalogues of Venezuela, the label also invested heavily in Afro-Caribbean and tropical rhythms that became popular in the 60s and 70s. In the 1960s and before the Salsa era truly kicked off, Venezuela had a significant dance orchestra and big band movement. Unlike local record competitors dedicated to selling foreign productions, Discomoda achieved its leading position by recording the most important national bands, including Los Megatones de Lucho, Orquesta Sonoramica and Super Combo Los Tropicales; all featured in this compilation. Later on, surrounding the festivities for the 400th anniversary of Caracas in 1967, the word "Salsa", which had been recently coined by famed radio host Phidias Danilo Escalona, was formalized to identify an Afro-Caribbean musical style with growing popularity in Venezuela and beyond. By then, the country was among the top 20 music markets in the world, with the local label Discomoda leading the way, responsible for one out of every five records sold in the country. With the prolonged celebrations approaching due to the 400 years of the city, Discomoda and other labels began to capitalize on this new musical style by betting on both established and new local bands, such as Nelson y sus Estrellas, Los Kenya, Principe y su Sexteto and Los Satélites. As a result, this would kick off what could be considered a golden era of Salsa in Venezuela and which lasted until the mid-70s. As we approach the 80s and with the emergence of new musical styles and bigger multi-national record labels funded by larger pockets, a lot of the previously popular bands begin to disband or choose to leave the country. Nonetheless, a few artists, like Rodrigo Mendoza, La Renovación and Grupo Yakambu, were still pushing out quality music. We are thrilled and honored to celebrate one of Venezuela's and, equally, Latin America's most significant record labels, and to share a slice of their enduring influence in advancing Venezuelan-made Salsa music.

Now-Again Records presents catalog-wide reissues of Latin music propellant Joe Bataan’s legendary Ghetto Records. Next up in the series - La Fantastica. This brash, big band Latin orchestra from Brooklyn debuted on Ghetto Records with an underground Salsa album which also contains the beguiling, English-language Psychedelic Soul of "Latin Blues." Ghetto Records was Joe Bataan’s way to get over on “The Man” and out of the ‘hood, a bold move by an artist looking for independence and creative control in an industry that had exploited his talents and treated him like chattel. As Bataan puts it today, “Ghetto Records was part of my journey, a stepping stone to everything else that I’ve done. I learned enough that it enabled me to get out of the box with my thinking, it showed me how to deal with adversity.” Like many dreams and schemes born of the street, this one was audacious, perhaps even reckless to a fault. Hatched from desperation yet full of hope Ghetto Records came crashing down shortly after its inception. The seven albums in its discography languished out of print - until now. These are the definitive reissues of these albums, licensed from Joe Bataan, with his oversight and input into a 16 page oversize book by Pablo Yglesias that details Bataan’s larger-than-imagination life and his little Latin label that could.

New Parisian label, Disques Messager, presents its new and second release. As its name suggests, the label has a simple leitmotiv: to place itself among the best messengers for rarities and sought-after gems of the international rare groove. A mission which began like fire last year with a 7inch reissue release including two Brazilian Disco bangers by Cristina Camargo. For this second efforts, the label doesn’t deviate from the artistic and quality path taken, however also making quite a U-turn, this time presenting 2 underrated kind of musical UFO, both from the French scene. Not many info can be found about Yoanson & Karamie, two young artists from the French African diaspora, who randomly met with Nessim Saroussi and his label Ness Music in the late 80s. Nessim himself doesn’t remind much about the 2 guys, except that he quickly offered to produce them, which resulted in their only EP release, Kalimba (1988). Part of this EP, “African Leaders” is a stunning track melting Afro-Tropical percussions, Disco bass, Early-Electro beats and Leftfield vocals in a way that could remind of Doctor L or Arthur Russel productions. On the contrary, Philippe de Lacroix-Herpin (aka Prof Jah Pinpin) has a long musical career started in the mid-70s and became a renowned saxophonist playing and recording for many famous French acts such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Alain Chamfort, FFF, or even rap band NTM. In 1994, he moved definitely to the Reunion Island where he quickly launched the Prof Jah Pinpin 4tet, in his own words willing to play “free/funk/jazz/rock/tropical” music… Quite a vast and large musical tag, but which immediately make sense when listening to the surprising “The Final Bird” track. Only released as CD in 1996, this instrumental production has indeed a unique sound and flavor mixing all kinds of elements together (even samples of Weather Report). Well as you can understand, words are not the best way to describe these 2 hidden treasures, so we strongly recommend the spinning to make your own view!

“During the pandemic, I was hearing drums all the time,” says Carolina Oliveros, who leads the New York-based group Bulla en el Barrio. “Not only bullerengues, but also tamboritos panamanians, solomas – like panamanian styles – also I’ve been listening to salve, which is a rhythm from Dominican Republic. I always want to try to create a bullerengue that sounds more traditional but also sounds like me with my own influences.” Since 2015, Bulla en el Barrio has been envisioned as a collective and a study group of the traditional rueda de bullerengue – dance music originating from the Caribbean coast of Colombia that transmits ancient African rhythms and knowledge. Oliveros and Bulla co-founder Camilo Rodriguez – both in NY tropical futurism band Combo Chimbita – first experimented with writing their own bullerengue during their monthly residencies at Barbès in Brooklyn, culminating in two singles released by Names You Can Trust in 2017. Thanks to these recordings, these two Bulla en el Barrio compositions are now sung in music festivals and ruedas all over Bullerengue territory. They now present eight original songs recorded live to tape, preserving and documenting the participative and rough vibes of the ruedas and performances. “We’ve been playing together since 2015,” says Rodriguez. “The group is a space to study, connect, to learn, so this record captures a moment where we were – taking a picture of a process. This was just what was happening at that time. It was a way to document what we were doing and our process of learning, documenting bullerengue.”

“Exposição Popular” is the new album from Rio de Janeiro based producer and composer Guerrinha, sonically orbits 80´s new wave & fusion jazz, imagine a lost ECM gem, layered in low-fi subterranean exoticism, that somehow conjures the soundtracks of Angelo Badalamenti. Here we find Guerrinha loosened up, the rhythm spilling out, playfully impossible to grasp as it floats over space-age ambient synth and organ work that takes references from Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Rita Lee. “The last LP, "Cidade Grande" was all about acceptance of the big city as a monolith, but here I wanted to focus on the exposition of the intimate as the most logical, obvious choice. Hence the name "Exposição Popular" (in english "Popular Exhibition"), which is wordplay, as all exhibitions should be inherently popular since they're all out about exhibiting yourself to everyone, but because of the nature of the art, it becomes the opposite of the "popular", it becomes niche.” - Guerrinha

`La Camita' is an incredible Latin funk nugget -recorded in Peru by Traffic Sound and later on by funk pioneers Black Sugar, comprising all the right ingredients to shake dance floors worldwide. Both takes on the song were released on records that today are extremely difficult to find in any condition. In 1971 Traffic Sound recorded 'La Camita' where their Latin influences overpowered the psychedelic prog vibe of their previous records. The song became a local hit and several versions were recorded by different Peruvian artists. On the other side of this single we find Black Sugar, a Peruvian band considered to be a pioneer group in Latin America in mixing funk influences with rock and Latin rhythms. In 1976, following their gig at Coliseo Amauta in Lima, opening the night for the legendary Spanish band Barrabás, they started to show a growing interest in disco music, resulting in some line up changes with members leaving the project due to their lack of interest in the new sound and new ones joining in. Their own take on 'La Camita' was released in 1978 and adds a modern twist to the original song, becoming decades later a winner spin at the most discerning dance floors worldwide. Latin party music in all its glory!