The roots of this album goes back to B+ (aka Brian Cross) and his Keepintime project; the predecessor of Brasilintime. So it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if Brasilian beat junkie Madlib got out of his bunker and got together with Mamão (the driving force behind Azymuth for over 30 years, part time member of The Ipanemas and producer on numerous side projects), that they’d form a fantastic partnership.

The story is simple. Madlib does some covers of his favourite Azymuth tracks and B+ gives the CDr to Mamão in Brasil. Mamão loves it. Starts playing along to the tracks and calls out to Mrs Conti to come and to listen. You can imagine it, “Hey Love! comes and listen to this cazy shit these kids in LA are doing” (or similar). Anyway, Madlib also had some of his own “Brasilian” compositions, like his tribute to Azymuth ‘Segura Esta Onda’, and the album is born as a collection of old classics reworks and new compositions. The perfect collaboration that is, Jackson Conti.

Fans of Madlib will know that some of his productions are a little off kilter like Yesterday’s New Quintet or Quasimoto but his collaborations (notably Jaylib and Madvillan) are spot on. Sujinho is spot on with loads of big tunes here. ‘Berumba’ and ‘Berimbau’ sound fresh and your can’t ignore the longest track ‘Papaya’ (after the “crazy” intro), ‘Nao Tem Nada Nao’ and the 7” ‘Upa Neguinho (c/w ‘Casa Forte’) and ‘Waiting On The Corner’.

After today purchasing, Graded Music for Tuned Percussion (Book 1), ‘Xibaba’ and ‘Amazon Stroll’ have got to be my current favourites along with ‘Tijuca Man’. That said, these guys show they’ve got a gentle side with a track like ‘Sao Paulo Nights’ but the whole 18 track album is brilliant throughout (as you’d expect).

Not only that, Madlib and Azymuth are coming to Europe to tour along with the greatest DJ J-Rocc (who we find laughed at J Rawls for not using Serato ScratchLive; but J-Rocc’s back will be the better for it) and the photographer to the stars, B+ himself.

Talking of bad back, whilst that vinyl junkie Gilles Peterson has been lugging the double LP version of Sujinho about town and playing tracks on his Worldwide show, for us less Venus Beach types, the CD version is coming out on Monday; and there’s nothing lightweight about it.

Reviewed: Jackson Conti - Sujinho (Kindred Spirits) Cat. No. KS 024 LP Release date: April 2008 CD 19th May 2008
Tracklisting:
A1 Mamaoism (0:32)
A2 Berumba (3:47)
A3 Anna De Amsterdam Interlude (0:18)
A4 Praca Da Republica (4:02)
A5 Papaya (10:03)
B1 Brasilian Sugar (6:27)
B2 Sao Paulo Nights (4:21)
B3 Xibaba (4:51)
B4 Upa Neguinho (4:14)
C1 Casa Forte (3:51)
C2 Amazon Stroll (4:30)
C3 Berimbau (5:15)
C4 Anna De Amsterdam Reprise (0:27)
C5 Waiting On The Corner (5:01)
D1 Tijuca Man (2:38)
D2 Nao Tem Nada Nao (3:36)
D3 Sunset At Sujinho (1:55)
D4 Segura Esta Onda (7:01)

Links
www.stonesthrow.com/madlib
www.myspace.com/madlib
www.kindred-spirits.nl
www.serato.com
Graded Music for Tuned Percussion by Kevin Hathway & Ian Wright
Gilles Peterson :: 17th April 2008 :: Quantic soul Orchestra Maida Vale Session& Karen P’s Pre Mulatu Astatke ‘Broad Casting’ Mix
The Ipanemas - ‘Dorivà’ (Far Out)
Jackson Conte ft. Madlib - ‘Xibaba’ (Kindred Spirits)
Gilles Peterson :: 24th April 2008 :: IG Culture in Conversation
Jackson Conti - ‘Upa Neguino (Vocal)’ (Test)
Gilles Peterson :: 28 February 2008 :: Michael Reinboth Compost Records Catch Up
Mia Doi Todd - ‘Night of a Thousand Kisses’ (Kindred Sprits)
Jackson Conti - ‘Segura Esta Onda’ (Kindred Spirits)