Houston Music Blog

​Plastilina Mosh has a new CD out, All U Need Is Mosh, on Nacional Records, and brings its international sound to Houston Thursday for a free concert with Venezuela's Los Amigos Invisibles. That's right, it's free - all it costs is a very worthwhile trip outside the Loop.

Rocks Off hasn't picked up All U Need yet, but here are three picks from the album that should convince you to do it:

"My Party"

"Let U Know"

"Pervert Pop Song"

P-Mosh (you try spelling it correctly!) is made up of only two members, J.R. Gonzalez and Alejandro Rosso, both from Monterrey, Mexico. Rocks Off caught up with Jonaz in Brazil at the beginning of the duo's "All You Need is Mosh" tour.

Washington Possato

Samba is not just a single musical genre; it's actually subdivided into countless sub-genres ranging from the party-friendly Carnaval beat to the highly subtle bossa nova made famous by the likes of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto. However, among the best-loved in Brazil (and least-known internationally) is the variation called samba-canção, a more melodic style that especially thrives in Rio de Janiero.

Samba-canção's lyrics are mostly romantic, waxing poetic about love won and lost, the love of music, soccer and of course about Cariocas' (the name given to those born in Rio) endless infatuation with their native city. Among its rising stars is Diogo Nogueira, a 29-year-old singer and songwriter who launched his career two years ago following in the footsteps of his late father, samba legend Joao Nogueira, who passed in 2000 of a massive heart attack as he prepared to go on stage at a Sao Paulo music venue.

Mango Punch

Una Casita Blanca

www.mangopunch.com

Mango Punch's Walter Shur is a great front man (as multiple Houston Press Music Awards wins prove), but his real talent lies in songwriting. His band Mango Punch's new CD, Una Casita Blanca (A Little White House), shows Shur's considerable range as a writer with tunes that range stylistically from flamenco to sweet, simple pop and folk-tinged dance numbers, all of them radio-ready.

Note: Part 1 is here.

While anti-Vietnam protests escalated in both sides of the Atlantic , the scenario was quite different in Brazil: in March 1964, a military junta toppled democratically elected president João Goulart and installed a cruel dictatorship that stayed in power for two decades - in 1968, the government enacted AI-5, a unilateral executive act that gave it unlimited powers to arrest anyone suspected of "subversive" behavior without any kind of warrant or explanation.

In December 1968, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were arrested at their homes in Sao Paulo, and were taken to a jail in Rio de Janeiro, where they remained for three months plus another six under house arrest. None of this was made public then, and during the period in house arrest in their native Bahia, they were both allowed to record new albums under the production of maestro Rogerio Duprat.

Mariachi Real de San Diego

Mariachi Classics

www.mariachi4u.com/usa/Real_de_San_Diego.htm

Mariachi music has been present in American culture as long as I can remember - I recall watching old Hollywood films set in Mexico or Southern California, where the inevitable trio would come out for a song or two. As a result, tunes like "Sabor Ami," "Solamente Una Vez" and "El Mariachi" became permanently ingrained in my memory, even if back then I only had a vague idea of what they were about.

In northern Mexico, Mariachi music is part of everyday life, played at christenings, weddings, masses and even funerals. For Mexican expatriates, it's a connection to their childhoods and the life they left behind. Today, many once-beloved tunes have been dropped by more contemporary Mariachi groups, who apparently prefer to work with newer material (which is quite plentiful).

Because of that, various melodies were almost becoming forgotten, until California-based Mariachi Real de San Diego came along to change that. The group's mission is not to let those oldies go away, and the members have done intensive research to make sure that doesn't happen.

Ernest Barteldes

Marcio Local

Says Don Day Don Dree Don Don: Adventures in Samba Soul

www.luakabop.com

During the late '60s and early '70s, Brazilian songwriters like the late Tim Maia and Jorge Ben became increasingly frustrated with the creative limitations of samba, and also felt out of place within the rock movement, though both did score hits within those genres - Maia wrote "Nao Vou Ficar" for then-teen idol Roberto Carlos, while Ben came up with "Mas Que Nada," the second-most covered Brazilian song after "The Girl From Ipanema."

The two musicians were later pivotal for the creation of Brazilian soul, a genre currently enjoying a revival in its native land via a group of young artists including Curumin, Moreno Veloso, Lulu Santos,CeU, Cibelle and especially Marcio Local, a Carioca (meaning born in Rio) singer-songwriter whose debut has just been released stateside, after a successful showcase at this year's GlobalFest in New York City.

Don Day Don Dree Don Don: Adventures in Samba Soul, though, differs from most Brazilian soul discs because it is more samba-based than most releases.

2009 marks the 45th anniversary of Getz/Gilberto, the album that established bossa nova in the international market - something that came at the right time, as the popularity of the unapologetically apolitical genre had begun to wean in its native Brazil.

But it was not like Verve Records was excited about it at the time: in early 1964, Verve producer Creed Taylor finally decided to release the product of two days of recording sessions done in September of 1963 with saxophonist Stan Getz, Brazilian singer/guitarist Joao Gilberto and composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Essentially, Taylor wasn't sure how to market the tapes. Though Getz's Jazz Samba disc (recorded in 1962 with guitarist Charlie Byrd) had sold respectably, the follow-up Jazz Samba Encore! (with Jobim and guitarist Luis Bonfa) failed to ignite much interest from jazz fans.

www.brasilbrazilshow.com

Formed by veteran Brazilian singers Ana Gazzola and Sonia Santos, Los Angeles-based band Brasil Brazil celebrates the music of their native country with an elaborate show that includes several standards and original songs - a formula they devised when they first started the project over a decade ago as the U.S. hosted the 1994 soccer World Cup.

They have since been touring massively, appearing at various festivals around the globe with an upbeat, rhythm-filled show that narrates the history of Brazilian music through song. They have yet to make a stop in Houston, but told Rocks Off they would very much enjoy doing so.

The duo has recently released its third self-titled CD, which includes classics like "One Note Samba," and "A Felicidade" (from the soundtrack of Black Orpheus) alongside a bossa-nova take on Nirvana's "Come As You Are" and Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E." As on previous discs, the tracks blend into each other without interruption - pretty much as they do live.

Rocks Off recently caught up with Ana Gazzola via e-mail...

Carnaval, the four-day festival that precedes the beginning of Lent for Catholics, is probably Brazil's biggest Holiday. During this period (which officially ends at noon Ash Wednesday - people need their sleep), revelers take the streets and dance to the beat of the Afro-inspired drums of samba, Axe (pronounced a-shE), pagode (pa-go-dji) and other beats. Reportedly, some couples even go their separate ways during the festivities, returning home only after the parties are over - with no questions ever asked once the hangover is cured.

While the U.S. has nothing like that (save maybe Mardi Gras in New Orleans), Houston does get a piece of the action this evening, when Planeta Bar-Rio hosts the Brazilian Houston Carnaval, an event that is happening here for only the second time in response to the city's growing population of party-friendly Brazilians (mostly students and engineers hired by Petrobras, the national oil company of that country).

The party, includes a giant screen with a live feed from Rio de Janeiro (where they have the samba schools parade), scantily clad dancers, typical Brazilian food and drink and music by Los Angeles-based band Samba Ja. We caught up with producer and organizer Lydia Pinto, the event's organizer, who relocated here from L.A. two years ago to start Next Brazilian Productions, whose mission is to spread the seeds of her native country's happy people among Texans, who she describes as "incredibly welcoming" to her people. She told Rocks Off (in Portuguese) about the event's origins and what goes on during that one crazy night.

Photos courtesy of iFest

Beoga

Since we're already playing hangman today, here's another riddle: What do America's finest genre-hopping Latino band, Houston's best Guinness-chugging rockers, a daughter of the nation's premiere gospel family, a perennially unsung honky-tonker who sounds like the ghost of Hank Williams, a bayou-born boogie-woogie piano queen, a Grammy-winning Tejano godfather, two of Louisiana's hottest young Cajun groups, more regional zydeco groups than you can shake a Hohner accordion at and the '70s funk lords whose biggest hit supposedly contains the screams of a woman being murdered in the studio next door have in common?

That's an easy one: They're a small fraction of the musical lineup for this year's Houston International Festival, April 18-19 and 25-26 downtown, spread over more stages than the Austin City Limits festival. See who they are, and a whole lot more, after the jump.

Niyireth

Musica Colombiana Andina - Music from Colombia (Arc Music)

When we hear about Andean music, the first thing that comes to mind are those Peruvian pan-flute players who perform on city streets, either playing traditional tunes like "El Condor Pasa" and "Fina Estampa" or adapting American pop songs into their own style. But there is much more music that comes from the South American mountains, like this disc from UK-based label Arc Music.

Classically trained Niyireth Alarcón has dedicated her life to spreading the traditional folk music of the Colombian Andes. While danceable and electronic genres like vallenato and salsa have found a home in the U.S. via the many immigrant communities that have arrived here in recent years, somehow the more organic sounds styles like bambuco and pasillo have failed to fully make it across the border. 

Hendrik Meurkens

Samba To Go! (Zoho)

www.hendrikmeurkens.com

The music of Brazil has captivated a great number of fans and musicians around the world, and many of the latter have tried to emulate the country's sounds and make them their own, for better or worse. Among those who have been successful is Hendrik Meurkens, a New York-based (but German-raised) harmonica player considered one of his instrument's most important players since Toots Thielemans.

Meurkens lived in Brazil for a number of years, and while there he immersed himself in genres ranging from choro (an ancient instrumental style currently being rediscovered), samba and bossa nova. Relocating to the U.S. in 1990, he has since recorded several discs of both original material and covers of Brazilian and American standards - the most recent being Samba To Go!

Novalima

Coba Coba (Cumbancha)

www.novalima.net

If you hear similarities between Novalima's modern Afro-Peruvian music and the rhythms brought from Cuba by Celia Cruz and Tito Puente in the '50s, you're on the right track: Peruvians have borrowed a lot from the Africans taken to South America as slaves during the 17th Century - the drumming and the vocals have that same intense, ardent spirit, and many tunes from the country made their way into the Caribbean.

For instance, Cruz had an enormous hit with "El Toro Mata," a composition by Lima-born Maria Chabuca Granda. But Novalima is not your grandmother's Afro-Latin music. Formed by musicians based in different parts of the world (including Hong Kong), the band draws inspiration from the sounds of their native country while incorporating elements from electronica, hip-hop, samba and other genres, coming up with something fresh that still is closely attached to their roots. 

Sixty years ago this week in Paris, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The original text was a collaborative effort from representatives from many nations including the United States (Eleanor Roosevelt was part of the team), written as a way to repudiate the atrocities brought on by the Nazis and their allies during World War II.

At the session that approved the text, eight nations decided to abstain - including the entire Soviet bloc and South Africa, which was still under the cruel Apartheid law at the time. In the decades since its adoption, the document helped to influence human rights laws in many countries around the world, and is one of the most translated and praised written documents in recent history.

But there is still work to be done - in many places throughout the globe, people still suffer through discrimination, intolerance and simple ignorance, with dire consequences. To bring attention to this, Amnesty International has joined forces with LinkTV, Music Has No Enemies and Aterciopelados by fashioning the Colombian duo's "Cancion Protesta" into a multi-lingual anthem in favor of the principles defended by the UDHR.

Mariza

Terra (World Connection)

www.mariza.com

After being pivotal in the recent fado revival - a blues-like genre native to Portugese capital Lisbon - with her honest and impassioned interpretations, Mozambique-born songstress Mariza dares to take the genre into a new direction by adding different instruments and influences on Terra. Continuing her love affair with Brazil - two previous CDs were produced by Caetano Veloso collaborator and composer Jacques Morelembaum - here she welcomes pianist Ivan Lins to perform on his jazz-inflected "As Guitarras" and the English-language "Smile," where Mariza reveals a softer side seldom heard from fado singers.

Mariza does not, however, abandon her roots. On "Ja Me Deixou," she sings of the joy of returning to her beloved Alfama - the Lisbon neighborhood where fado was born - after a long time away. She shares the spotlight with Cape Verdean singer Tito Paris on "Beijo de Saudade," a loving tribute to Paris' native island. On "Frontiera," Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes (Irakere) adds a Latin-jazzy feel to lyrics extolling the pride the Portuguese take in their small nation. "Tasco da Mouraria" is another departure - gone are the usual guitars, replaced by piano, bass, drums and trumpeter Carlos Sarduy's subtle but highly effective riffs.

If you haven't yet discovered Mariza - who toured the States, including Houston, last year and is rumored to be doing so again in 2009 - do take the time to listen to Terra. It even comes with liner notes and lyrics translated into English, Spanish and French, effectively solving any language-barrier problem. - Ernest Barteldes