TIM MAIA Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Brazilian musician, singer-songwriter and businessman Tim Maia was one of a rare sort among the MPB canon; his musical chops weren't the end of his talents, as he also ran the soul, funk, psych, jazz and samba record label Seroma. The imprint through which Maia would release most of his ingenuities, Seroma saw to releases by Maia and most of his contemporaries and affiliated projects, including J. Quest, Lulu Santos, Sampa Crew and Gilberto Wanderley. But of course, the foremost motif to be funnelled through the Seroma spout has to be Maia's penchant for self-titled records, the fifth of which (his seventh album overall) hears a reissue here. As ever, Tim Maia is an eleven-track balladic dream - it wasn't the first to top the charts in his native Rio de Janeiro either - and commands a veridically vintage sound; when not taking the time to romantically serenade the listener, Maia is heard coolly riffing against wah-funk, or professing head-on collisions of samba and baiao.

Review: From the early 1970s, Tim Maia released a string of superb albums that cemented his reputation as Brazilian music's most soulful artist - a guitarist and singer who created thrilling new musical hybrids that owed as much to U.S funk and soul as samba, bossa-nova and MPB. 1975's "Racional Volume 2", a hard-to-find set that's finally been reissued, is one of the best of Maia's key early albums. Rhythmically, the majority of the tracks feature typically shuffling South American rhythms, but the instrumentation and vocals above are far closer in tone to the sunnier, more horn-heavy end of the soul and funk spectrum (with some sweeping orchestration thrown in to add a touch of MPB class). It's a brilliant blend that guarantees good times from start to finish.

Review: Tim Maia's 1968 debut single, "What You Want To Be", has long been a favourite of dusty-fingered Latin music enthusiasts. Original copies, though, have long been out of the price range of most DJs and collectors. Happily, Mr Bongo has struck a deal to reissue it. The title track is something of a scorching dancefloor-treat - a boogaloo-era slab of Latin funk in which Maia and chums sing in English atop a bustling rhythm track and some seriously heavy horns. B-side "These Are The Songs" is a much more relaxed and laidback, samba-soaked affair, closer in tone to early 1960s U.S soul songs of the sort regularly covered by the Beatles early in the career.