BETO VILLARES

I love giving gifts just maybe because I love getting as well.
Yesterday I got an extra copy of The Thief at the End of the World by Joe Jackson. Joe is 4 times Pulitzer nominated and currently my favorite writer and good friend. Now I can share The Thief with my friends. I got a bunch of tee shirts and Frisbees from some American friends from Hawaii etc…

I also got a small package with a collection of Beto Villares’ recent albums. I think he is my age and has already contributed a lot to Brazilian music and cinema.
I met him some 7 years ago and had the privilege of listening to his debut album before it was released. The pictures below may drive you into good CD shops or to his record company's website: www.ambulantediscos.com.br
What a legacy Piolho! Thanks indeed!
Below the pix some words by Marco Werman from the Wikepedia and the World









In Brazil, when musicians want a producer who is knowledgable, artistic, and can get the job done, they know who to turn to.

When Brazilian television and cinema want a composer to add edge and hipness to their productions, they know who to turn to.

His name is Beto Villares.
He's a music producer who has now stepped out with his own solo CD. Just from this track alone, "Rio da Bossa Nova", you can hear why Beto Villares is in demand.

It's a classic bossa nova. It thrives on lounge music nostalgia. But it speaks in the present tense.

And Beto Villares doesn't just have his finger on the pulse of Brazil today. Nor does he limit himself to the urban sophistication of Rio and Sao Paolo.

In his composition "Meio Dia Em MacapA", or my day in Macapa, Villares travels sonically to northeast Brazil. That's where the city of Macapa is located.

You could call Beto Villares Mr. Brazil. In the 1990s, he set out across his country for many of the same reasons that American Alan Lomax did. To listen to, and record, the full gamut of Brazilian roots music.

The purpose of Villares's travels was to research a documentary called "Musica do Brasil."

It was a user-friendly though scholarly survey of Brazil's music.

It helped Brazilians better understand that their country's sounds are more than Brazilian pop, bossa nova and samba.

It also didn't hurt that Beto Villares could interpret both eclectic and mainstream sounds. And now all those varied styles that Villares discovered on the road ten years ago are part of his production pallette.

One of the most seductive tracks on the album is "Lume." The vocalists have a whispery Swingle Singers sound. The music has both low-fi grit and hi-fi coolness.

It's Brazil today.

At least when the country's music is moulded by the hands of Beto Villares.