Brazil, Roots, Samba (vinyl/flac)

 My rip, a truly lovely album...

Nelson Sargento

"Real Rio samba sounds like this: fine small groups, seemingly a bunch of friends in a corner bar, mostly with the little cavaquinho guitar well to the fore, as well as (of course) the usual jubilant percussion. Some of the bands heard on Brazil -- Roots -- Samba sound professional, some semi-professional, but they're all pretty close to the street. Ten minutes of this stuff would be preferable to an hour of the trendies anytime." AMG Review by John Storm Roberts

Wilson Moreira

Whew, as useful as they are, sometimes AMG can stagger you with what they don't know or even bother to look up. The first sentence is fine, the last sentence is fine, but oh that middle one! Far from being semi-professional the tracks on this album come from some of the greatest samba masters the world has ever known!

Velha Guarda da Portela

Nelson Sargento, Wilson Moreira, and the group Velha Guarda da Portela are far from obscure street performers as you can see by clicking the links behind these names. In fact had Mr. Roberts even bothered to check the data base that he was contributing to he would have acquired a fairly good idea that he was, in fact, listening to an astonishing compilation of the founding fathers of Samba, all giants! What I find even more confusing is the lack of any other reviews of this glorious album except for the raves of every Amazon customer who had the good sense to buy it. This is a very appropriately named record, you get exactly what's advertized!