So much Brazilian music from the 1960s and ’70s casts a seductive spell, elevating your spirits with a nonchalant sensuousness. Listening to it is like having your head caressed by feathers. A lot of the pleasure has to do with the innate musicality of the Portuguese language and the oft-soothing vocal timbres of Brazil’s musicians—a kind of world-weary yet romantic sigh. Some of the most dulcet, ebullient, and melancholy rock ever recorded has arisen from that large South American nation.
Most clued-in North Americans know about the brief but influential Tropicália movement that merged innovative music with rabble-rousing, leftist political views that sometimes drew the ire of Brazil’s military government. Artists such as Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso, Os Mutantes, Gal Costa, and Gilberto Gil proved that this genre could not only translate to other people worldwide, but excite the hell out of them decades after its halcyon era passed.
Sessa, a bushy-haired singer/songwriter/guitarist from São Paulo, is poised to be the next biggest thing from Brazil since Seu Jorge.