Os Afro Sambas by Baden E Vinicius (Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes, 1966)
IAN MASTERS
I was originally introduced to the work of Baden Powell by my good friend Mark Tranmer, AKA GNAC, in around 2000, possibly earlier. I had previously chosen not to listen to the music of a man who had the same name as the leader of the UK Scout movement. How could this person’s music be any good with such an inauspicious connection? How wrong I was, and never so deliriously glad to be wrong.
Mark had urged me to listen to the re-recorded 1991 version of Baden Powell’s Os Afro Sambas, which I immediately fell in love with. Until that time most of the Latin/Brazilian music I’d listened to had been made by non-Brazilians like Stan Getz, committed to popularising Bossa Nova and Brazilian music, but not actually Brazilian. Stan Getz’s version of Brazilian music was okay, pleasant enough, but nothing prepared me for the outpouring of emotion I felt listening to the lyricism of Baden Powell stroking and tickling his guitar, taming the wild animal: A musical sorcerer at the top of his game (though the original album had been recorded when he was only 28).
It was only a matter of weeks after first hearing this that my curiosity overflowed me to track down the original version of that recording, and since that time it’s always been in my top 10 favourite Brazilian albums, if not my favourite. I could fill a large suitcase with the amount of frisson I’ve had from listening to the LP. It was this very album that started my ongoing and probably never-ending love affair with Brazilian music. The original version, recorded with the poet-musician-diplomat Vinicius de Moraes, after Powell moved to Bahia in the mid 1960s, and with Quarteto Em Cy providing chorus duties, was released in 1966. The album starts with the much covered “Canto de Ossanha”, guitar and flute setting the scene for Moraes and Quarteto MC. The songs are a mixture of samba and other Afro-Brazilian forms such as candomblé, umbanda and capoeira, and they evoke a kind of party atmosphere with a strong spiritual undercurrent. There is a kind of beautiful chaos in the performances, very loose, extremely enticing. The polyrhythmic percussion patterns are blissfully hypnotic. Many lovers of this album point to “Canto de Iemanjá” whose lyrics concern the white “Goddess” of the sea, coming from religious content brought to Brazil when peoples such as the Yoruba were forcibly relocated to Brazil during the colonial era, as the central focus of the album. It certainly is the most delicate and soothing. The song writing on this album is exquisite, and the performances are alchemical and inspired. If you need an excuse for a dance party this is it.
The music on this album has led me down many rabbit holes to Elis Regina Como & Porque, Antônio Carlos Jobim Wave, Elza Soares A Bossa Negra, Gal Costa Índia, the seriously underrated Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66 Ye-Me-Le, Jorge Ben Africa Brasil, Gal Costa E Caetano Veloso Domingo, Marcos Valle Braziliance!, João Gilberto O Amor, O Sorriso E A Flor, Nara Leão Nara, José Prates Tam… Tam… Tam…! and many more. No wonder my ears have become so long.
The album is only about 32 minutes long. I recommend you listen to it late in the evening for the fullest majickal effect. It may be the most revelatory 32 minutes you ever spend. It was for me. I am enraged with jealousy of you, about to listen to it. Lucky lucky lucky!
P.s. in researching this article I’ve just found out about another Baden Powell album that I’ve never heard from 1970 so I’ll see you again when I emerge from that rabbit hole.
Ian Masters is presently one half of the psychedelectronica unit Isolated Gate (with Tim Koch) who released their debut album in 2023, and also releases solo music as 音好み焼き研究所 (Onkonomiyaki Labs). He is best known for being a founding member of the English band Pale Saints. Since then, he has gone on to perform in other groups including Spoonfed Hybrid, ESP Summer, Big Beautiful Bluebottle, Wingdisk and Friendly Science Orchestra. He is presently undergoing treatment for frisson addiction.
