Brazilian Lounge

It is impossible to deny the influence that Brazil has on today’s global culture. From music and film to fashion and dance, Brazil has become one of the world’s most important resources of popular art and entertainment. Brazilian Lounge is a collection featuring the sultry voices and urban grooves of many of Brazil’s finest contemporary musicians.

Brazilian Lounge will take the listener to the contemporary bars and lounges of Rio and Sao Paulo, where a new generation of musicians is reinvigorating the classic sounds of samba and bossa nova.Tri-lingual liner notes include a recipe for a caipirinha cocktail, provided by Sagatiba, enabling you to quench your thirst Brazilian style.

A portion of Putumayo's proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to Rukha, a non-profit organization working to change the current condition of street children in Brazil.

Putumayo's latest excursion into chill-out features twelve urbane tracks that, even at their most laid-back (and Brazilians have raised this state of being to an art form) are saturated with a languid, sweaty tropical ardor. Icy, metronome-like beats and electronica are powerless against a Carioca heat-wave, just as a cold Brahma cerveja (beer), while momentarily refreshing, cannot affect prevailing weather patterns. But the irrepressively creative mixmasters of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro seem to revel in these very incongruities, frosting florid acoustic sounds and warmly human vocals with subtle yet transformative computer-generated wizardry. Notable tracks include "E Depois" by singer/actor Seu Jorge (City Of God, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zizzou) and emerging star Luca Mundaca's "Há Dias." In Bebel Gilberto's "August Day Song," romance is compared to a drenching downpour; her slightly nostalgic style often evokes that of her father, sixties icon, João Gilberto. Additional reasons to purchase the album -- the trilingual liner notes offer a recipe for the national caipirinha cocktail and a portion of profits from the CD will be donated to Rukha, an organization dedicated to rescuing Brazil's street children. --Christina Roden