Carlos Dafé JID025

Composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Carlos Dafé is something of a legend for his role in the Black Brazil movement of the 1970s, when he collaborated with the likes of Tim Maia, Wilson Simonal and the mighty Banda Black Rio. Now, he follows in the recent footsteps of other Brazilian alumni whose finest years could be said to be behind them – Hyldon, Dom Salvador, Azymuth – in recording an album for US label Jazz Is Dead, specifically working with Adrian Younge, the label’s co-founder. Younge’s trademark arrangements blend Arthur Verocai and Isaac Hayes with the sound of Willie Mitchell’s Hi studio. Carlos Dafé, however, is no Al Green. ‘O Baile Funk Vaì Rolar’ seems a genre quite unsuited to his voice, while the attempted samba-carnival euphoria of ‘Bloco da Harmonia’ sounds strained and weary. Only the final three of the nine tracks, with both ‘Como Entender O Amor’ and ‘Esse Som e Verdadeiro’ delivered as spoken-word, work unreservedly. By then you wonder, unkindly, whether sometimes it’s better to let sleeping legends lie.