Brazilian Hits & Funky Classics

Performer: Jorge Ben
Distributor: Select-O-Hits

Notes: Liner Note Author: John Armstrong . A towering figure in Brazilian music, and with an exceptional discography spanning five decades, Jorge Ben is rightly considered the godfather of Brazilian popular music: his influence on Brazilian artists is comparable to James Brown's impact on American soul. Every stage of Jorge Ben's career is worth exploring and Manteca's collection BRAZILLIAN HITS & FUNKY CLASSICS does an admirable job of assembling Ben's finest releases from 1976 to 1984, a period during which Ben was masterfully blending Brazilian folk forms with the more aggressive textures of American funk and disco. The results of this fusion are uniformly excellent. The hypnotic melody of "Taj Mahal," which Ben debuted on his 1975 collaboration with Gilberto Gil, GIL E JORGE, but revisits here in a disco style, is insistently propulsive and eminently memorable, while "O Reino Encanto Do Amor" proves that Ben retained an affection for stripped-down, hardcore samba late into his career.

Originally a disciple of the bossa nova movement, Rio de Janeiro native Jorge Ben Jor (AKA Jorge Ben) scored his first of many hits with "Mas Que Nada" in 1963. Ben Jor's music soon embraced elements of rock, funk, and African rhythms, creating a highly distinctive sound and making Ben Jor one of the most popular artists of the '70s in Brazil. Though less well-known abroad than some of his contemporaries, Ben Jor is one of Brazil's most original and influential songwriters.

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