{"id":11986,"date":"2024-02-19T21:22:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T21:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=11986"},"modified":"2024-02-19T21:22:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T21:22:27","slug":"music-arthur-verocai-blows-my-gaskets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=11986","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Arthur Verocai Blows My Gaskets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I need this 50th Anniversary Edition!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Listening to music in my car today. Itself an unusual thing these days. As I mostly prefer silence. After some Gal Costa, I went back to my recently acquired Mr Bongo Arthur Verocai<\/em> reissue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not so much the fancy vinyl I\u2019m after\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve know that I liked the album for some time. And since I got it on CD, fairly recently, that\u2019s turned from like to love. Today it all just went to 11 and beyond. I completely adore this recording. And listening to it today? It was an epiphany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 as it is these other goodies!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was in such a blissed out emotional overload, that I had to pull over and just stop and listen for a spell. Isn\u2019t it odd how sometimes music suddenly just hits the mainline? Connecting with the cortex, and electrifying everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verocai at work in the studio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everything about this recording is just, frankly, more or less perfect. In that amazing musical Goldilocks Zone. Neither too little nor too much, just the right amount<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I love the chords, the melodies, the harmonies. The timbre of the various instruments. The horn and string arrangements. The qualities of the vocals. And the magic of the instrumentals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur directs the strings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are so many things in the mix: it\u2019s unmistakably Brazilian, yet it\u2019s full of jazz, blues, pop, rock, funk and soul. Even fusion! And there are numerous moments where I\u2019m left thinking things like: but that\u2019s a Purdie shuffle vibe; or that\u2019s the rambunctious 6\/8 feel of The Life Divine\u2026 But this is Brazil, in \u201872!? It\u2019s before<\/em> those other things\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An alternate shot akin to the album cover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The music here is both heir to its forebears, very much of<\/em> its time, and yet also ahead<\/em> of the curve. It\u2019s an incredibly rich and heady blend. It\u2019s kind of astonishing to think that it sank without trace, more or less, at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set the controls for the heart of the soul.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s heartening to see that in time it\u2019s come to be appreciated for the masterpiece that it is. And that other folk find it as enchanting as I do really makes me very deeply happy. Maybe there\u2019s some hope for humanity after all? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What!? There\u2019s also a green<\/em> vinyl version!?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of freaky, and bizarre, how so much aligns for me, around and within this release. It\u2019s not just the music; it\u2019s the time, the place, the spirit of it all. It\u2019s how he looks. How the record looks. And even more so how it sounds. And then that Mr Bongo\u2019s re-release aesthetics should also chime so perfectly!? How? Why? Maybe zeitgeist, I suppose?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listening to music in my car today. Itself an unusual thing these days. As I mostly prefer silence. After some Gal Costa, I went back to my recently acquired Mr Bongo Arthur Verocai reissue. I\u2019ve know that I liked the album for some time. And since I got it on CD, fairly recently, that\u2019s turned … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Arthur Verocai Blows My Gaskets”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-37k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11986"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}