Wax of the Week #27...Aline Mendonça Luz: Aline (1979)

Years ago I started getting into music from Brazil. Just a little at first. Mostly it was because I liked a lot of the ersatz bossa nova heard on many easy listening records from the ’60s, and eventually was slowly drawn to the siren call of the real stuff. Later I figured out I needed the positive vibes and joie de vivre (or alegria de viver) of Brazilian music to counter the natural negative tendencies of my personality. Luz (1946–2003) was an activist against the military regime running her country at the time. Apparently this jazzy LP (her debut after an aborted career at RCA) was one of the first independent albums from a Brazilian artist.