1976, Rio de Janeiro. Revered Brazilian pop musician Jorge Ben Jor, known for his 'samba-rock' fusions and hits such as 'Pais Tropical' and 'Mas que Nada', picks up the electric guitar and records the album Africa Brasil. With grooves structured around guitar and horn riffs, funk drumming, samba percussion, and hypnotic vocal refrains, this album has become a favorite of connoisseurs of 1970s Brazilian vinyl. It was part of the growing cultural negritude of the time in Brazil, especially in Rio. American musicians such as James Brown were increasingly influential there; meanwhile,...

At the height of Tim Maia's soaring fame, he joined a radical, extraterrestrial-obsessed cult and created two plus albums of some of Brazil's-and the globe's-best funk and soul music. This book will explore the career of the man often hailed as the James Brown or Barry White of Brazil, and the time of his radical transformation from a musician notorious for hedonistic living to a devoted follower of Manoel Jacinto Coelho's Rational Culture. After suddenly joining Coelho's cult in 1974 (which started first as an offshoot of the mystical Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda), Maia gave up drugs...