Rare or Unreleased 3: Jorge Ben

Jorge Ben: Raro '67-79 [.zip]

You'd be hard pressed to find music that's more life affirming than that of Jorge Ben. Of course, it's hard to find many of Jorge Ben's recordings in the first place, which is the reason for this post.

Jorge Ben's music truly is a joy to behold—simple pleasure at its best. Unfortunately, a lot of his stuff has never been reissued, or else been discontinued. Ben made a remarkably long string of consistently good (sometimes breathtaking) albums from 1967 until 1976 (by which time other artists' music had long since deteriorated from excessive use of smack or coke), and it seems a bit random which of these are in print. Here I've collected some songs that, bafflingly, aren't currently commercially available.

This, my friends, is the shit!

If in doubt whether you can be bothered to download the comp, here's a little taste of Ben playing prime-period «Bebete vãobora», originally off of Jorge Ben (1969)—a song that, although I have no idea what the hell it's about, can't help but be celebratory:



Anyway, here's my tracklist:

1. Amor de carnaval
2. Si manda
3. Charles, anjo 45
4. Zula
5. Cigana
6. Maria Domingas
7. Moça
8. Domingo 23
9. Caramba! ... Galielu de Galiléa
10. Fio Maravilha
11. Errare humanum est
12. Menina mulher da pele preta
13. Cinco minutos
14. Para ouvrir no rádio (Luciana)
15. Ponta de lança africano (Umbabaraúma)
16. Xica da Silva
17. Georgia
18. Cantileñas de São Victor

(For the nerds:
1-2 from O Bidú—Silêncio no Brooklin (1967), backed by the Fevers
3 with Caetano Veloso, from Cinema Olympia—Caetano raro & inédito 67-74 (2006)
4-6 from Negro é lindo (1971)
7-10 from Ben (1972)
11-13 from A Tábua de Esmeralda (1974)
14 is from Solta o pavão (1975)
15-16 from África Brasil (1976)
17 from Tropical (1977)
18 from Salve simpatia (1979))

Incidentally, I highly recommend purchasing the same-period albums that haven't been discontinued:

Jorge Ben (1969)
Fôrça bruta
Jorge Ben—10 anos depois
Gil & Jorge—Ogum Xangô