Jaime & Nair

Arranger, composer and multi-instrumentalist Jaime Alem and his wife Nair de Cândia's 1979 touchstone ‘Passará’ remains perhaps one of the most exquisite and life-affirming pieces of acoustic Brazilian folk-rock ever recorded. All the more surprising, then, that the duo's studio output was so relatively scant, and that none of it has ever been reissued, until now. This self-titled debut from 1974 opens with latter-day DJ favourite, ‘Sob O Mar’, sweeping in on an impeccable cascade of strings and percussion. Even if it is an entirely different proposition to their more familiar, folkier oeuvre, Alem's arranging skills are obvious from the off, as are Cândia's tenacious soprano and the pair's to-die-for harmonising.

Stylistically, post-tropicálistas Novos Baianos are an obvious reference point, but influences as disparate as the US West Coast and Nashville sound, north-eastern forró and côco, Rio's choro heritage and the classically rooted psych-baroque of fellow Brazilian Carlos Walker make Jaime & Nair's music what it is, accompanied by legendary, long-gone flautist Copinha as well as the recently departed likes of Wilson Das Neves and Azymuth founder, José Roberto Bertrami. An unlikely mix to be sure and on the face of it maybe not to all tastes, yet Alem's superlative talent as an arranger makes it all work: dazzling, vertiginous tiers of vocal harmony frame up the likes of ‘Samuel Arcanjo Anjo’ and the climactic ‘Boi-Lê-Lê’, while the syncopated handclaps in ‘Zabumba do Nego’ presage the joyous body percussion in their masterpiece-to-come, ‘Passará’.