Tag: samba

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sessa Shares Swinging and Strutting “Nome de Deus”

São Paulo-based singer/songwriter and musician Sergio Sayeg, best known as Sessa will be releasing his third album Pequena Vertigo de Amor on November 7, 2025 through Mexican Summer.

The nine-song album is not just an evolution of the Brazilian artist’s sound; it’s a thorough transformation. Sayeg describes the album’s material as “a bit more nocturnal, open-ended, crooked funky,” while highlighting inspiration from soulful influences across both North and South America, including Shuggie Otis, Roy Ayers, Sly Stone, Erasmo Carlos, Tim Maia, Hyldon and more.

Recorded to tape at Cosmo, the studio that the Brazilian artist co-founded with Biel Basile, over five sessions between last April and March 2025, Pequena Vertigem de Amor sees Sessa expanding his sonic palette and stretching in multiple directions simultaneously. There’s a greater emphasis on rhythm and enhanced tempos, as he experiments with new vocal cadences and textures, and the addition of instrumentation not heard in his previously released work like piano, synthesizer, wah-wah pedaled guitar and even a primitive drum machine.

Sayeg describes the forthcoming album’s songs as “a mix of personal chronicles and quiet meditations about life in the face of personal change, of experiencing something so big that you realize your insignificant size in space and time.” That new perspective and reality wound up remaking his personal life and his connection to music. “For the first time I saw music move from the center to the side of my life.” The radical reordering of priorities presented fresh opportunities in his music. “In an interesting way, music became more mixed with my life,” Sessa explains as he found ways to conjure melodies, lyrics and inspiration from the daily rhythms of life.

His personal evolution has brought into sharp contrast “the ambiguities and contradictions in life, which is a place that has always inspired my writing.” Pequena Vertigem de Amor reminds the listener that experiencing vertigo can be simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating, sentiments expressed through the material’s lyrics and overall aesthetic, a fusion of novel and familiar sounds, styles and instrumentation.

In making Pequena Vertigem de Amor, a cosmic connection by way of his son’s pre-school managed to yield a missing musical ingredient—an “element on piano, which I had never put in my music, that fulfilled my search for a classic samba jazz sound,” Sessa says.  A fellow musician and parent at his son’s pre-school suggested pianist Marcelo Maita, the younger brother of São Paulo samba legend Amado Maita. Sayeg invited the younger Maita to contribute to a few songs, including the album’s second and latest single “Nome de Deus” (“Name of God”).

Maita’s urgent, staccato piano attack paired with Biel Basile’s rolling percussion and a supple, throbbing bass line create a soulful, mischievously swinging and strutting samba-inspired bed for Sessa’s impassioned vocal defiantly asserting agency in bold defiance of deities and nonsensical laws and rules.

Directed by Rollinos, and shot in a cinematic black and white with illustrated burts of color exploding across the screen, the accompanying video features the Brazilian artist playing all of the song’s instrumentation and singing in a recording studio.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Gabriella Lima Shares a Quiet Storm-like Bit of Samba

São Paulo-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter Gabriella Lima relocated to Paris back in 2014. And since locating to The City of Light, Lima has been busy crafting material that pushes genre and cultural boundaries. 

Lima’s 2021 full-length debut, the nine-song Bálsamo found the Brazilian-born, French-based artist writing material that drew from soul, pop, samba, chanson and several other styles. Back in 2022, I wrote about album closing track, “Samba de l’amour,” a breezy song featuring twinkling keys, fluttering synths, strummed acoustic guitar and gently swaying samba rhythms paired with Lima’s gorgeous vocal singing bittersweet lyrics in French and Brazilian Portuguese detailing love gained and quickly lost. 

Lima’s latest single “Meu Lugar” is a Sade/Quiet Storm-like touch on samba and Bossa nova featuring an atmospheric yet percussive arrangement with strummed acoustic guitar that serves as a lush bed for the Brazilian-French artist’s achingly tender delivery.

She explains that the song’s lyrics talk about a deep emotional delivery and the transformation of an intense and true relationship.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: John Finbury and Bruna Black Team Up on Breezy and Expressive “Para Me Entender”

Andover, MA-based Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated drummer, composer and JOVM mainstay John Finbury collaborated with rising São Paulo-based singer/songwriter Bruna Black on his latest album Vã Revelação, which was released earlier this year.

Vã Revelação presents a broad array of subgenres under the large umbrella of Brazilian jazz. So there are the beloved and classic bossa nova and samba tunes. But there are also Baião, Partido, Alto, Forró and Afoxê among other styles.

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about three previously released singles:

  • “Chão De Nuvem,” a soulful year breezy tune featuring an arrangement of fluttering accordion, a supple bass line, shuffling percussion. The song gorgeously — and effortlessly — meshes elements of samba, jazz fusion and pop while being a perfect vehicle for Bruna Black’s languorous yet soulful delivery. 

  • “Será,” a song built around a gorgeous arrangement of shimmering acoustic guitar by Chico Pinheiro, a supple and sinuous bass line from John Pattiucci that’s roomy enough for Black’s expressive vocal. Fittingly released at the end of last year, the song is a meditation on the passing of time, the choices and plans we make that work out and the ones that fail — with the understanding that all of it influences who we are, and who we will become. 

  • Album title track “Vã Revelação,” a breathtakingly gorgeous yet bittersweet tune, anchored around the classic shuffle and sway of bossa nova featuring shimmering, strummed guitar, a supple bass line, twinkling and expressive bursts of piano serving as a lush bed for Black’s stunning vocal turn. Much like its predecessors, “Vã Revelação” is meditative yet breezy, a blast of summer — but full of the recognition of the passing of time, and of regrets, hopes dashed and hopes to be had again. 

Vã Revelação‘s fourth and latest single “Para Me Entender” is a much jazzier take on Bossa nova than its predecessor, anchored around a loose, swinging arrangement that displays each musician’s chops with a self-assured swagger. But the true star of the affair is Bruna Black, who reveals herself as a stylistic chameleon, whose voice can shift in colors, registers and expression within the turn of a phrase.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: dadá Joãozhino Shares Breezy and Yearning “Pai E Mãe”

Niterói, Brazil-born, São Paulo-based artist João Rocha co-founded the ROSABEGE artistic collective with a few hometown pals back in 2017. He and his bandmates relocated to São Paulo in 2020. But with the world paralyzed by the pandemic, Rocha looked inward, retreating into his alter ego dadá Joãzinho — dadá being a homage to a special creature and zinho meaning little. This provocative persona allowed Rocha to “be open to possibilities, other ways of singing, other sources of courage.”

Relocating to South America’s biggest city at 23 and during a period of intense, forced isolation and toxic politics, Rocha lost interest in the bossa nova influences that ROSABEGE channelled. He felt that his new work needed to feel much more intense in contrast to the lighter, more playful sounds from his previous work. The “Brazilian Utopia” of 70s Música Popular Brasilia “didn’t make sense anymore.” The project needed to reflect the darkness of the moment, while liberally borrowing from dub, hip-hop, punk and samba — and perhaps inventing a few future styles in the process.

Rocha’s solo debut as dadá Joãzinho, tds bem Global is slated for a September 1, 2023 release through Innovative Leisure. Translated as “all too Global,” the album chronicles its creator’s relocation to São Paulo during one of the weirder and more uncertain moments of human history. Actively attempting to resist the darkness surrounding him, Rocha yearned to feel alive, and for music that stimulated his body to “move differently,” as he says.

“Desire for freedom was the north star of this record,” Rocha says. He goes on to explain that needed to “feel free about artistic decisions – that I didn’t have to play the instruments in a certain way to sound good, I didn’t have to sing in a certain way to sound good, and I didn’t have to write in a certain way to make sense and reach people’s feelings.”

Playing nearly all the album’s instrumentation — including electric and acoustic guitar, organ, drum programming, electronic production and “other things,” tds bem Global is a solo album that’s inspired by and features contributions from a number of music friends and associates, putting the spotlight on Rocha and his artistic community. “I wanted to get people together around the music.” He goes on to say that the album is also meant to encourage others to continue making their art. “This is just for inspiration as I hear my friends are inspired by it, inspired to take their own paths and take risks on their music or art. This is what I wanted.”

tds bem Global‘s third and final single “Pai e Mãe” is a breezy and melodic samba with mischievously quirky and experimental flourishes — including fluttering organ arpeggios. Rocha’s plaintive delivery floats over the undeniably infectious rhythms.

Directed by João Rocha and Rodrigo de Freitas, the accompanying video for “Pai e Mãe” is shot in a gorgeous, cinematic black and white and features the Brazilian artist dancing to the song’s rhythms and preparing a dinner/picnic for himself and his parents.

“For this samba, that carries so much of our music’s tradition, and still sounds fresh, I wanted to strip things down and communicate through the rawness of the body language,” the Brazilian artist explains. “Had my parents join the studio session, that was an emotional moment. I wrote this song about an episode we lived together, so it was a closing cycle to have them. This minimalist work in video expands the meanings of the album for me, that sometimes sounds so massive. Put things in a new perspective.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Bruno Capinan is a Salvador, Brazil-born, Toronto-based queer, non-binary singer/songwriter and performer, who released their third album Tara Rara earlier this year through Lulaworld Records in Canada. Tara Rara, which translates to “rare desire” in English sees Capinan drawing from and highlighting their Brazilian roots with a strong focus on gender and racial justice, rooted in the Brazilian-born, Toronto-based artist’s experiences as a Black, non-binary person. The album features an orchestra of seven string musicians, 90% of whom are BIPOC and LGQBTIA+, including some of different generations and different cultural backgrounds.

Tara Rara‘s latest single, the breathtaking and effortlessly beautiful “Meu Preto” is arguably the most quintessential and classic samba song on the album. Featuring strummed acoustic guitar, shuffling Latin rhythms, a gorgeous and cinematic string section paired with Capinan’s expressive vocal delivery, full of aching and desperate longing.

Translated into English as “A Song About Two Black Lovers,” the song’s narrator laments the distance between them and their lover, while hoping for a reunion.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Laufey Shares Cinematic and Dream-like Visual for “Fragile”

22 year-old Laufey Lin is a rapidly rising Reykjavik-born, Los Angeles-based, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as Laufey. Born to a Chinese-born violinist mother and a Icelandic-born, jazz-loving father, Lin grew up immersed in both classical music and jazz — and unsurprisingly both genres are major influences on the rising artist and her work.

By the time Lin turned 15, she performed with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. But despite her deep and abiding love of the music that has served as her musical foundation, she yearned to express herself by creating music that seamlessly blended her classical and jazz background with much more modern and contemporary influences.

\While attending Berklee College of Music, Lin began collaborating with some of her peers and recorded her debut single “Street By Street,” a blend of jazz melodies with slow-burning R&B grooves. Making the best of the unexpected downtime as a result of the pandemic, Lin decided to release “Street By Street” through social media. The song, along with a collection of covers and originals quickly went viral. Eventually, “Street By Street” hit #1 on the Icelandic charts — and she began to amass a massive following that includes Billie Eilish, Willow Smith, dodie, and others.

Since then, the Icelandic-born, Los Angeles-based artist has been busy: Last year saw the release of her debut EP Typical of Me, which features the aforementioned “Street by Street,” “Best Friend” and “Like the Movies,” which she performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this year.

Lin’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Everything I Know About Love is slated for an August 26, 2022 release through AWAL Recordings. The 12-song album will reportedly see Laufey effortlessly blending contemporary song structures and sensibilities with the classic and jazz stylings she learned as a violinist, pianist and guitarist. The end result is an album’s worth of material that translates the intimate feelings, thoughts and observations of a young, modern woman into grand, cinematic moments, seemingly inspired by both the jazz age and Hollywood’s golden age.

Everything I Know About Love‘s latest single “Fragile” features samba-inspired arrangement featuring strummed acoustic guitar and rhythms, twinkling piano paired with Lin’s gorgeous and expressive vocals. But much like Lin’s critically applauded work to date, “Fragile” manages to be deceptively old-timey: while indebted to jazz, the song’s swooningly heartsick narrator talks of falling for someone much older, and not knowing what to do or how to act — with the tacit fear of making a complete fool of yourself.

Directed by Erlendur Sveinsson, the accompanying cinematic video for “Fragile” was shot in some stunningly gorgeous and entrancingly dream-like locations including Iceland’s foggy, rocky shore and an ornate seaside home.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: São Paulo-born, Paris-based Gabriella Lima Releases a Quirky Visual for Breezy “Samba de l’amour”

São Paulo-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter Gabriella Lima relocated to Paris back in 2014. And since locating to The City of Light, Lima has been busy crafting material that pushes genre and cultural boundaries.

Released last year, Lima’s full-length debut, the nine-song Bálsamo finds the Brazilian-born, French-based artist drawing from soul, pop, samba, chanson and several other styles. Bálsamo‘s latest single, album closing track “Samba de l’amour” is breezy bit of samba centered around twinkling keys, fluttering synths, strummed acoustic guitar, gently swaying samba rhythms paired with Lima’s gorgeous vocals singing bittersweet lyrics in French and Brazilian Portuguese detailing love gained and quickly lost.

Directed by Marion Guadino, the accompanying video is a gorgeously shot, quirky fever dream that follows Lima through a half-awake dream in a field that includes an entire living space, complete with a serving of tea. I’ve watched the video a number of times before writing this — and I’ll tell you, I can’t help but fall in love with Lima’s smile, which seems simultaneously coquettish and mischievous.

World Music by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Paris’ MiM Teams Up with Selma and Jaw on a SLick and Modern Take on Samba

Emilien Bernaux, a.k.a. MiM is a Paris-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer and founder of Lafayette Street Studio. Berneaux can trace the origins of his music career back to his childhood: at a young age, he had classical training in guitar and piano. The Parisian multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer and producer’s first foray into electronic music was he joined drum ‘n’ bass collective UNC Audio.

Back in 2011, Bernaux made his national debut on Canal+ when he sang several songs including the credits for the TV series Bref. That same year, he co-foundend Pour Ma Paire De Jordans (PMPDJ) alongside Entek and Gress. And continuing on a productive period, Bernaux started ongoing collaborations with a diverse array of artists including Disiz, Tito Prince, Set&Match, Fils du calvaire’s and DOP’s Jaw and Laetitia Dana among others. Additionally, he has collaborated with his PMPDJ bandmate Entek in the side project MiM & Entek, which released their debut EP through Château Brouillard.

In 2013, the Parisian multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer founded Lafayette Street Studio, his creative home base. The year after founding the studio, he cofounded the Première Fois party, an event which mixed comedy and music — and this was done while taking on production duties for Mister V’s 2018 platinum selling album Double V.

Further cementing his growing reputation for being incredibly prolific, Bernaux released his solo debut EP 2015’s Saṃsāra while production Anna Kova’s EP diptych Pigments and Pixels. And by 2017, he had started composing movie for motion pictures, beginning with Benoit Forgead’s Yves, which earned the Directors’ Fortnight selection at Cannes Film Festival. Since then, he has continued to work in film, TV and commercials working on the scores for several Valentin Petit films, including Anthophobia, Portrait of Rafael Delande, Forests of symbols and The noise of light, as well for ad campaigns and TV shows.

Last year, he collaborated with Disiz la Peste, Fianso, Tito Prince, Youssoupha, Alina Pash, Kader Diaby 4REAL and Charles-Baptiste. Interestingly, throughout his career, Bernaux has developed a reputation for being both eclectic and versatile, with his work drawing from hip-hop, dubstep, grime, trap and trip-hop.

Earlier this year, MiM began working on his latest effort Cycle, which features collaborations with Nathan Daisy, José Reis Fontāo and actor Alice David. The effort’s latest single “Samba Do Gringo” is a breezy and modern take on Bossa nova and samba.. Centered around looped shimmering guitar samples and trap-like beats, the track features JAW’s mournful, mostly English versus focusing on a cold-blooded woman, who has done him and his heart incredibly dirty paired with Selma’s ethereal and plaintive vocals effortlessly switching between Portuguese and English. And under the slick production is an age-old tale of a meet-cute that has turned embittering and heartbreaking — with an infectious hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Monica da Silva is an Los Angeles, CA-based, Brazilian-American singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentliast who has released a critically applauded solo album Brasilissima; however, she may arguably be best known as the frontwoman of the Bossa Nova influenced, indie pop act Complicated Animals with her longtime collaborator Chad Alger. And whether as a solo artist or as a member of Complicated Animals, da Silva has seen her music featured during the 2014 World Cup, TED, Ibiza Beats and Putumayo World Music’s Brazilian Beat compilation.

Now, it’s been some time since I’ve last written about da Silva or Complicated Animals, as the duo relocated to the Los Angeles area last year but in that time da Silva, Alger and Bruce Driscoll, da Silva’s brother, producer and other long-time collaborator, who’s best known as a member of Freedom Fry and Blondfire have spent their time working on da Silva’s latest solo foray, the haunting and cinematic “Soladado de Amor,” a simply arranged song that features da Silva’s gorgeous, old-timey, jazz-leaning vocals, Alger’s Latin guitar stylings, marching, polyrhythmic percussion and twinkling piano. And while evoking smoky, late night, jazz clubs and classic film noir, the song is largely inspired by the vintage marchinhas (marches) and popular samba songs of Brazilian Carnival.

Unsurprisingly, the song was recently placed on the BBC TV dramatic series The Replacement and will be included on da Silva’s forthcoming solo, sophomore album.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Adriana Giordano (vocals), Meese Agrawal Tonkin (flute), Rosalynn De Roos (clarinet), Jamie Maschler (accordion), Mike Withey (piano), Adam Kozie (drums) and Martin Strand, the Seattle, WA-based septet En Canto specialize in a sound that meshes several distinct genres of Brazilian music, including Forro, the dance music of Northeastern Brazil; samba, which is probably Brazil’s most popularly known and beloved genre; and choro within a repertoire that features both originals, as well as reworked and re-imagined covers of classic Brazilian hits. Interestingly, as the story goes the Seattle, WA-based septet can trace their origins to four years ago when the individual members were at a North American celebration of Brazilian music in the California Redwoods. What the-then future members of En Canto quickly noticed, every instrument and stage was dominated by men — the women in attendance were expected to sing, cheer or act demure. And what male maestros, audiences and fellow performers here and in Rio have quickly learned since En Canto’s formation is that the ladies in the band simply don’t do the demure thing. “We love this music because of its compositional brilliance, its original grooves, and its revolutionary nature. It has roots in post-colonialism, in cultural battles for class and racial equality,” accordionist Jamie Maschler explains in press notes “Why wouldn’t it also inspire gender equality?”

Primarily playing in North American venues, the Seattle-based septet have developed a reputation for being fiercely independent, challenging stereotypes within Brazilian music, while also helping audiences expand their comfort zones. As the band’s Adam Kozie explains in press notes “We make people dance. We routinely open our concerts to a room full of shy, awkward faces, and we close them to a sweat-drenched melee of bodies and smiles. We experience real joy when we play these songs, and people feel that, and they respond in kind, regardless of whether they understand the words or know the ‘right’ dance moves. It was the same for each us at one point when we first heard Luiz Gonzaga or Gilberto Gil—we were provoked and then captured by the music, and we feel honored to be able to offer our own interpretations of it.”

After spending a month in Brazil, the members of En Canto went into the studio to record their full-length debut Solto por Jeri, which translates from Brazilian Portuguese to English as Released to Jeri, a nickname for Jericocoara, Ceara, an old fishing village on the Brazil’s Atlantic coast, and a region of the country that adores Forro — the most popular genre of music and dance in Northeastern Brazil. Immersed in the culture that inspired the genre, the members of the band wound up in the middle of impromptu jam sessions, which then became writing sessions for the album.

“Elas,” which I have the unique pleasure of premiering here on this site begins with a slow-burning intro that has the band pairing Giordano’s gorgeous vocals with a breezy melody consisting of twisting and turning clarinet, accordion and flute notes punctuated with shuffling percussion that quickly turns into a salsa-like samba section consisting of gorgeous bop-era jazz-inspired piano, staccato percussion. The entire composition possesses a sleek, coquettish yet confident sensuality while subtly revealing the septet’s playfully and charmingly modern take on Brazilian music  and on genres that are largely unfamiliar to North American ears. Granted, as a native of Queens, NYC, one of the most diverse places on Earth, En Canto’s sound is familiar as it evokes the streets of parts of Astoria, Jackson Heights and Corona as well as my folks record collections — in particular my mom is a huge fan of Brazilian music, so I’ve heard a fair amount of it as a child. Bout my hope is that Seattle’s En Canto and contemporaries will introduce folks to  one of the world’s great dance music genres.

 

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Os Clavelitos at the LIC Bar 12/15/14

Os Clavelitos LIC Bar December 15, 2014 As many of you know, throughout the bulk of JOVM’s history, i was running the site while maintaining full-time positions at a company located in Times Square, and […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

With the World Cup in Brazil in a few months, it seems both fitting and prescient that there have been a number of albums from Brazilian artists or heavily-inspired by Brazilian music being released over […]