Avenida Paulista, da Consolação ao Paraíso

The Avenida Paulista is the beating heart of São Paulo. Nowhere is the wide disparities in Brazilian society more apparent than the homeless encampment living directly in front of the huge brutalist Museum of Art at the avenue’s centre. This is a soundtrack to a play by Felipe Hirsch, who adapted David Bowie’s Lazarus a few years ago, and which attempts to interpret this multitudinous street. There’s a literal orchestra of top-tier modern MPB names who have contributed to this album, so I’ll mention but a few highlights from the 25 tracks: Thalin’s phenomenal rap on the Sufjan Stevens-sampling ‘São para Poucos’; DJ K introducing tuin and mandelão funk to the theatre-going masses on ‘Artigos de São Paulo!’; a minimalist samba by Arnaldo Antunes and the industrial blues of ‘De Reis’ with Juçara Marçal. To me, this fascinating collection is a continuum of the contemporary and challenging MPB that the Vanguarda Paulistana explored during the 1970s and 80s, and what is now known as canção torta.