Sunday, December 16, 2007

Chico Buarque - Meus Caros Amigos (1976)

Here we have a truly awesome album, easily on any top ten listing of Brazilian popular music records from the 70's. I had a great time listening Meus Caros Amigos today, and it was not necessary to spin it to remember theses songs, they were all inside my head, including arrangements. It is also unbelievable that has gone out of print at Amazon.com. Loronix does not have much from Chico Buarque and I'm really happy to include this fantastic album on our archives.

This is Chico Buarque - Meus Caros Amigos (1976), for Philips. It is not necessary to understand Portuguese to get the most from this album, recorded while Chico Buarque was exiled from Brazil and brings a strong and very intelligent dissatisfaction message to Brazilian dictatorship government of that time. This is the kind of album where everything really goes right, from the repertoire selection to the arrangements in charge of Francis Hime, Luiz Claudio Ramos and Perinho Albuquerque, leading a constellation of Brazilian musicians. Tracks include:

Personnel

Francis Hime
(arrangements, piano)
Luiz Claudio Ramos
(arrangements, violao, viola)
Antonio Adolfo
(piano)
Arthur Verocai
(violao)
Luizao, Sergio Barroso, Moacir Albuquerque
(bass)
Elber Bedack, Papao, Eneas Costa
(drums)
Braz
(oboe)
Aureo, Ariovaldo, Hermes, Djalma Correa, Conjunto Cream Crackers
(percussion)
Jorginho, Celso, Franklin
(flute)
Swab, Toninho
(trompa)
Ze Bodega, Luiz Andrade
(clarinet)
Formiga, Darey, Hamilton, Heraldo
(trumpet)
MPB-4
(choir)
Maciel, Joao Luiz, Flamarion
(trombone)
Luiz Andrade
(sax tenor)
Jorginho
(sax alto)
Geraldo
(sax baritone)
Neco
(violao)
Alceu
(cavaquinho)
Dino 7 Cordas
(violao 7 cordas)
Joel
(bandolim)
Altamiro Carrilho
(flute)
Abel Ferreira
(clarinet)
Risadinha
(pandeiro, reco-reco)
Nei
(surdo)

Track List

01 - O Que Será (À Flor da Terra) (Chico Buarque) with Milton Nascimento
02 - Mulheres de Atenas (Chico Buarque / Augusto Boal)
03 - Olhos nos Olhos (Chico Buarque)
04 - Você Vai Me Seguir (Chico Buarque / Ruy Guerra)
05 - Vai Trabalhar Vagabundo (Chico Buarque)
06 - Corrente (Chico Buarque)
07 - A Noiva da Cidade (Chico Buarque / Francis Hime)
08 - Passaredo (Chico Buarque / Francis Hime)
09 - Basta Um Dia (Chico Buarque)
10 - Meu Caro Amigo (Chico Buarque / Francis Hime)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much--I lived in Brasil for a couple of years as a Mormon missionary and learned to love the music and the people. One of my favorites was Chico Buarque and am glad to be able to listen to his music.

Anonymous said...

I'm very surprised to hear Meus Caros Amigos has gone out of print, I just bought a brand new copy here in Finland a couple of months ago! It's definitely one of the most brilliant albums of the 70s, in Brazil or the world. Amazing stuff.

Marcelo said...

He wasn't exiled, but his friend, Augusto Boal. He wrote Meus Caros Amigos as a letter to him, who was living in Portugal at this time.