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
Dancing Machine cover

Dancing Machine

The Jackson 5
It's Just Begun cover

It's Just Begun

The Jimmy Castor Bunch
The Player cover

The Player

First Choice
Gratitude cover

Gratitude

Earth, Wind & Fire
Psychedelic Shack cover

Psychedelic Shack

The Temptations
Vibrations cover

Vibrations

Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Wild and Peaceful cover

Wild and Peaceful

Kool & the Gang
Head Hunters cover

Head Hunters

Herbie Hancock
A Taste of Honey cover

A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey