Deejaying in the clubs can have its downsides. Everything becomes focused on seeking out music that has the maximum get-up-and-shake-yer-ass value. It’s times like this that we suddenly realized we don’t take enough time to listen to acoustic music. But fortunately for us, and everyone else, the new compilation Acoustic Brazil (Putumayo) has all the remedies in hand!

Gal Costa’s sublime “Aquele Frevo Axe” brought on a huge bout of saudade, longing in for Brazil. The jazzy conventions do incredibly beautiful things with the elastic vocal chords of this legendary singer. This immaculately recorded bossa nova written by Caetano Veloso and Cezar Mendes spearheaded her 1998 critically acclaimed album by the same name.

Brazilians can go hard, incredibly hard – there’s nothing quite as heavy metal as the din of 400 drummers playing samba in a Rio carnival parade – yet when Brazilian music goes downtempo, it is with incredible grace and intellect. The pearl of this compilation is the second track: When Paulinho da Viola sings “Meu Samba e a Voz do Povo” (My samba is the voice of the people), he is singing the people’s story: the poor, the artists, those who suffered repression under the military dictatorship. This song was written and recorded for the tribune album for legendary Northeastern lyricist Joao do Vale (whome we had the pleasure of meeting shortly before he passed away in 1996). In the metaphor of the “flower that the wind cast to the ground,” this song exemplifies the fascinating trend in Brazilian music (created by censorship) of writings lyrics full of criticism of the government and status quo, cleverly encased in giria (slang) and extended metaphors.

Marcio Faraco is Brazil’s Jack Johnson (who lives in Paris). His music is so good it deserves to be incessantly played on the radio. Faraco grew up moving around with his family all over Brazil. This gave him a taste of many different folkloric and popular musical traditions – he doesn’t draw too much from any of them. His style is truly all his own. This song is the title track off his debut album Ciranda (2000). This album took many people by surprise, definitely us. After the obligatory review, it actually stayed in the player. And stayed. Which doesn’t happen with many of the new MPB artists.

“Eu sou assim/quem quiser gostar de mim.” (This is the way I am/like it or not.) With these flippant lyrics on “Meu Mundo e Hoje,” Teresa Cristian sings the innate pride of the povo brasileiro (Brazilian people), at home and scattered across the world. This is the way we are: idealistic, like this song, which speaks of making choices to avoid a life of crime and violence. Opportunistic, like Wilson Batista, the author of this masterpiece of poetry. Batista wrote songs about the early favelas, which were a bit like a life in the roca (the country). An unsung musical treasure, Batista was a notorious malandro (rogue, player) in the Lapa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro in the 1930s. He was a member of the first generation of musicians to crystallize the musical style that had begun to widely call itself “samba” (the perversion of polka that it was at the time). His phonograph recordings are preserved in the archives of the Museum of Image and Sound, alongside his colleagues in the precious history-in-vinyl of Brazilian popular music.

Northeastern groover Rita Ribeiro contributes a bouncy, saucy number “Tem Quem Queira” (There are plenty who want me…if you don’t). New artist Glaucia Nasser proves herself with “Labios de Cetim,” a song that starts off somber with cello, building to a guitar and piano bridge, and catapulting itself into a dubby, experimental and slightly psychedelic finale accompanied by udu, all very, very beautiful due to her bell-clear voice. And gifted Pernambucan produce and songwriter Lula Queiroga brings up the rear with “Noite Severina,” a poignant, beautiful baiao. A great mix of classic and new acoustic music.

-Mara Weiss & Nego Beto