33. "Tribalistas" by Marisa Monte, Carlinhos Brown & Arnaldo Antunes (2003)

In 2000 and 2001 I made four trips to Brazil while working for a computer software company. It is a really lovely place and I met a lot of nice people and tried really hard to communicate by converting my Spanish knowledge to Portuguese, which is a little tricky but after a while I got to be where I was at least functional.

So I really got enamored with Brazilian music and acquired a few CDs. This is one I bought a couple of years later after I heard a couple of tracks on KUT (90.5), which is the public radio station in Austin. They have a show on Friday afternoons at 1:00 called Horizontes, which plays Brazilian and Latin American music for a couple of hours, which to me is a great way to spend a Friday afternoon if you're in the car or can listen at work. When I used to travel a lot it seemed like it was always on when I was in the car coming home from the Austin airport after being gone all week.

Anyway this album is a joint project by three very popular Brazilian artists, singer/producer Marisa Monte, percussionist Carlinhos Brown, and Arnaldo Antunes. Monte has a really lovely voice and I have another album of hers as well. From a straight-up musical perspective I think the album is a little lackluster--there are 3 or 4 pretty good songs and the rest sound a little like filler. Even not being really familiar with their work, the album still feels a little like this was a "lark" of a project that they threw together over a weekend, not something that they really planned and collaborated on.

Having said that, I really love the song "Passe em casa", which means, "come to my house".

Passam pássaros e aviões e no chão os caminhões
Passa o tempos as estações, passam andorinhas e verões

Passe em casa tô te esperando, tô te esperando (2x)

Estou esperando visita tão impaciente e aflita
Se você não passa no morro eu quase morro, eu quase morro
Estou implorando socorro, ou quase morro, ou quase morro
Vida sem graça se você não passa no morro

(Birds and planes go by and on the ground the trucks
Time passes and the seasons pretty and green

Pass by my house, I am waiting for you

I am waiting for a visit, so impatient and upset
If you don't come by the house to see me I almost die)

cds