Encontro is the sound of band caught between sounds: hard Brazilian jazz-funk veers to summery easy listening before taking a sharp turn to beaty '60s flower pop, often in the space of a single song. Luckily for us, the band in question is Azymuth in a protozoic stage (1970), and even when they stray a little too far into the mellow side of things the sounds are proper. Take "Arabian Things(1)," for example. So it's not "Jazz Carnival," but the typical Azymuth groove is right there, drum break, funky bass line and all. Acoustic piano takes the place of the usual electric that Bertrami (aka "Ze Roberto") would get into in the '70s, but he still whips it hard ("Surra 7(2)"). And did I say drum break? Ladies and Gents, start your samplers ("Chafariz(3)"). There are cool textures throughout that'll leave Akai and Ensoniq owners with itchy fingers ("Livia(4)," "Encontro(5)"). Rounding things out are a wild car-chase version of "Summertime(6)" and a nice Brasil pop classic ("Mustang Cor de Sangue(7)"). This WhatMusic reissue is, as with all their stuff, immaculately crisp in sound quality and slick in packaging, with new liner notes and a reproduction of the lovely original cover.

reviewed by monk