Happy Birthday Airto!

Raising a glass to Brazilian jazz legend Airto Moreira with a few stellar performances and a couple of his timeless recordings. 

Happy Birthday Airto Moreira!

Celebrating Airto Moreira's 82nd birthday with his Quarteto Novo debut album and a couple of recent tribute performances. 

Hear Flora Purim & Airto with Cannonball Adderley at Terminal Island in 1975

Check out the audio of the explosive Terminal Island show backed by George Duke, Miroslav Vitous and Ndugu from 1975.

DJ Luke Una's É Soul Cultura comp moves beyond typical dancefloor jams

While offering few head-turning discoveries, Luke Una's slightly offbeat track selection admirably bucks club convention.  

Here's the scoop...

With some of the best DJs and selectors there is a certain mysterious sound or underlying feeling which unites the music they play, regardless of genre, year or tempo. Luke Una is a master of telling a story through music and this compilation is a perfect example of his musical alchemy in action. Featuring tracks from Yusef Lateef, Airto Moreira, Crooked Man, Henri Texier and many more, it is a collection of new, old, rare and under-discovered music from around the world, all united by Luke under the banner of “E-Soul Cultura”. 

It’s best described by Luke himself, who writes: “As the 5AM city sleeps and the strobe lights are slowly turned off, we gather on the wrong side of town in a transcendental journey alone together. We are the late night disenfranchised holding on in various after parties, flats, lofts, random kitchens and basements into the outer cosmos with É Soul Cultura. Music from exotic tear jerkers, Afro-spiritual jazz, cosmic Brazilian celestial grooves, machine street soul, dark horses, lost B-sides, £1 bargain-bin bombs, hidden gems, late night Italo dubbing, deep velvet N.Y.C garage, bass buggin sonic futurism, wrong speed 33BPM pitched up +8 new beat, majestic sunset strings, sweet vocals from heaven, no half steppin' jazz dancing in outer-space and odd numbers. Yes… magical moments, together, holding on in witness protection suburban cul-de-sacs and Castle Court flats. Cosmic É high, 3000ft above the city getting evangelical to murky, wonky timeless beautiful music. This thing of ours dreaming of better days. Fail we may, sail we must, the sun will come up again.”

Beginning his career as an original Sheffield house young blood in the mid 1980s, Luke’s move to Manchester and partnership with Justin Crawford saw the birth of Electric Chair, a cornerstone cult night in the UK underground club scene, and later Electric Elephant, a Croatian festival paying homage to their wild eclecticism from Balearic to Brazilian to E soul, house, disco and techno. Luke’s much loved, long running Homoelectric night and more recently Homobloc sell out festival for 10,000 souls has been at the forefront of Manchester’s LGBTQ cultural landscape. 

Luke’s Friday evening show on Worldwide FM has captured imaginations and has already become a cult four hour must-listen monthly journey with fans all over the world. Today Luke remains, as ever, at the forefront of a changing scene, pairing the momentous legacy of Manchester’s 80s and 90s scene with the delivery of what today’s club communities need to get down. 

Get a copy of Luke Una's new É Soul Cultura compilation via Bandcamp right here. Check out Yusef Lateef's performance of "Robot Man" – which is more entertaining that hearing the audio clip of the studio version – along with a few tunes from the collection followed by the track list and a recent interview with Daniel Dylan Wray for The Guardian below. 

Various Artists – Luke Una presents É Soul Cultura

1. Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti – Eva 5:45

2. Chêne noir - Le Train 4:36

3. Metropolis – Every Time I See Him 4:02

4. The Brand New Heavies feat. N'Dea Davenport – Stay This Way (Lunar Dub) 5:26

5. Typesun - The P.L. (Extended Edit) 5:17

6. King Errisson - Space Queen 7:04

7. Yusef Lateef - Robot Man 6:35

8.  Henri Texier, Daniel Humair, François Jeanneau - Le Cyclope 4:47

9. Airto Moreira - O Galho Da Roseira 7:54

10. Francisco - Waché 6:07

11. Nar'Chiveol - Apocalypse Now Ho 4:42

12. On - Southern Freeez 8:03

13. Soylent Green - After All 6:24

14. Crooked Man - B&E 5:34

15. Michael J. Blood & Samizdat – Love Locked 8:52

LINKS
The Guardian DJ Luke Una: "With ADHD, life can be torturous. Music stops the noise"

Brazil's Flora Purim sneaks out "This Is Me" in advance of new album If You Will

Check out Flora Purim's great new track "This Is Me" off her forthcoming album If You Will out April 29th. Have a listen below.

Here's the scoop...

Flora Purim, one of the all-time greats of Brazilian jazz fusion, returns with If You Will – her first studio album in over 15 years! 

Conceived as a celebration of her music and collaborations, the album explores new compositions alongside fresh versions of Flora’s favourite personal songs and positive lyrics from across her varied career. Title track ‘If You Will’ reprises a song from her inspired collaborations with George Duke: “You will find... good love, real joy, so much peace of mind, if you will…”; the resilient ‘This Is Me’ updates an Airto jam band tune ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Myself Again’; ‘500 Miles High’ marks the heyday of the late Chick Corea’s Return To Forever band and ‘Zahuroo’ interprets a song by Claudia Villela about “a shapeshifting animal creature, a messenger who acts as a bridge between our thoughts and the universe.” 

A family affair recorded primarily in Curitiba and Sao Paulo, ‘If You Will’ brings together many of Flora’s closest circle of musicians including Airto Moreira, guitarist José Neto, her daughter Diana Purim on vocals and percussionist Celso Alberti. 

The album is the latest chapter in Flora’s long, illustrious and varied career. As well as her celebrated partnership with Airto and her early days with Quarteto Novo, Flora has worked with Stan Getz, Gil Evans, Miriam Makeba, George Duke, Chick Corea (as an original member of Return To Forever), Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra, Uruguayan band Opa and many more. Her solo albums on Milestone remain true jazz fusion classics. 

You can pre-order Flora Purim's new album If You Will via Bandcamp right here. Check out "This Is Me" followed by an online performance and chat. 

 

Happy Birthday Airto Moreira!

Here's an overlooked gem Airto Moreira cut with Brazil's influential Quarteto Novo back in 1967.