Samba 4

With J Jazz volume 4, the BBE J Jazz Bullet Train continues its journey traversing the expansive landscape of modern Japanese jazz. Volume 4 is the latest in the universally praised compilation series exploring the best, rarest and most innovative jazz to emerge from the Far East. Please take your seats for a first-class ticket to J Jazz central.

Ataulfo Alves de Souza (Miraí, may 2, 1909 – 20 April 1969) was a composer and singer of Brazilian samba.

Helping to disseminate the best of Brazilian Music

This was veteran tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec's final recording as a leader. It was cut in October 1962 and produced by Alfred Lion a little more than three months before the saxophonist's death. Bossa Nova Soul Samba was recorded and released during the bossa nova craze, as Brazilian music was first brought to the attention of pop listeners via Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd's smash hit with Tom Jobim's "Desafinado," on their Jazz Samba record for Verve in February. After that, seemingly everyone was making a bossa nova record. Quebec's effort is a bit unusual in that none of the musicians (guitarist Kenny Burrell, bassist Wendell Marshall, drummer Willie Bobo, and percussionist Garvin Masseaux) was associated with Brazilian (as opposed to Afro-Cuban) jazz before this, and that there isn't a single tune written by Jobim on the set.

Ike Quebec released a string of albums for blue note (for whom he was an A&R man as well as friend to owner Alfred Lion) during the early sixties, all of which are fantastic showcases for the deepest tenor sound this side of Ben Webster. Keeping in mind the overall greatness of the entire series of these albums the question becomes, for the Quebec fan who is looking to pick through his discography or the uninitiated looking for a place to start, what setting would you prefer to hear him in? ~ Amazon

Despite a cover that promises a wild ride through Carnival in Brazil and performances by Gilberto Gil and Milton Nascimento , this is really a political documentary about the poverty-stricken lifestyle of black Brazilians and the ways their pure music, samba, has been corrupted and co-opted by the music establishment of Brazil.