Sivuca

Real Gone Music reissues the self-titled 1973 Vanguard Records album from Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Sivuca (1930-2006).  Born Severino Dias de Oliveira, Sivuca mastered accordion, guitar, and keyboards, not to mention honing a powerful voice that earned him attention from a wide variety of fellow artists.  He wrote and arranged for, and performed with, Miriam Makeba beginning in the early 1960s and toured with her and Harry Belafonte.  He caught the attention of Oscar Brown, Jr., going on to star with him and serve as musical director for Brown's off-Broadway musical Joy.  (The New York Times reported that the music "puts a Latin-American touch to Anglo-American rock - at first you wonder whether Carmen Miranda has actually met Janis Joplin!")  That versatility found him recording for labels around the world including Odeon, Barclay, and Reprise.  His 1973 Vanguard album had much of the flavor of the Airto Moreira sides in which he guested, but with an all-encompassing sensibility all Sivuca's.  The LP featured his own compositions alongside a powerful cover of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" and songs by fellow Brazilian writers including Edu Lobo and Ary Barroso.  For its first-ever LP reissue, Real Gone has pressed up 750 copies on purple vinyl.