The New Case of the Brazilian Funk Trunk

I have a feeling this will be one of my biggest crowd pleasers ever...

This week we devote a full two hours to Brazilian funk. As I've said many times on my show, the music scene in Brazil is more diverse than any other country I cover... second only, perhaps, to the incredible spectrum of musical styles available in the US market. They can counter virtually any genre in our market with either a direct match (they have jazz, folk, metal, rockabilly, emo, house, soul, etc etc) or with a corollate (Brazilian forro stands in for US country).

Like so many countries I cover, Brazil followed the musical styles coming from the US. In the late 60s they had a soul scene that was producing sounds verging on funk. But the funk movement in both countries really came of age in the 70s as it became an expression of black pride (along with afros). Brazilian funk has since followed the same path as its American counterpart:  first morphing into boogie and disco before being rekindled via hip-hop samples in the 90s. 

Today we start with some late 60s sounds, but it will not be long before we are rockin some steady 70s funk flavors. The second hour today will feature a small tribute to Jorge Ben, then we'll wrap up with a big anthem from my favorite among current Brazilian singers, Seu Jorge (of Team Zissou fame).