Tropicalia, Samba, and a Search for Home

Los Angeles, California, July 17, 2015 (Newswire.com) - ​After singing for Caetano Veloso in 2012, Los Angeles based Brazilian singer songwriter Carla Hassett added his song "A Little More Blue" to her repertoire. The song, which he wrote while in exile in 1971 about his longing for home, spoke deeply to Carla and launched the concept for her fourth album, +BLUE. 

In exploring themes of leaving and longing for home, immigration, and belonging, Carla turned to Carmen Miranda, the first and most successful Brazilian artist to come to the U.S. Carmen had an upbeat hit song in 1940 called "South American Way" and Carla used it, with two other vintage covers from the 1970's, to explore the musical elements of what will become +BLUE. "South American Way" was slowed down and put it in a minor key, resulting in a 180 degree shift in point of view of the happy-go-lucky original recording. Carla's version is a lamenting cry for home.

"A sizzling contemporary style with traces of jazz, samba, soul and pop."

Allegra Azzopardi, Music Critic, Music Connection Magazine

Carla then reharmonized Caetano's spectacular "A Little More Blue," which added a trace of jazz, and included a Beatles inspired psychedelic breakdown. "A Little More Blue" ultimately inspired the album title, +BLUE (More Blue, or Mais Blue in Portuguese).The third cover song, Ladeira Da Praça, a samba from Os Novos Baianos retains it's original 1970's Tropicália vibe, but with an American Motown groove. 

With a conceptual, musical, and production direction defined, Carla then wrote new material. Of the eight songs that made the cut are the samba-funk song “Pois É E Tal” (So It Is And Such), where the ambiguities of “where is home” are resolved at the ubiquitous crossroads and Exu is called upon to point the way. “Guerreira Vai” (roughly translated to "you go girl!") fuses baião and 70’s funk as a backdrop to a magical story starring Roberto Carlos, Gal Costa, and the singer's "patron saints” Carmen Miranda and Caetano Veloso. "We Belong Here," with the energy of a 70's samba from Jorge Ben or vintage Sergio Mendes, takes you on the back and forth of Carla's upbringing between São Paulo and Chicago...and where ever she is, that's where she belongs! The samba, "Quando Me Desamericanisar" (when I dis-americanize) is Carla's answer to Carmen Miranda's "Disseram Que Voltei Americanizada" (they say I returned Americanized) and pokes fun at Carla's expense of trying to re-acclimate to Brazil after a long absence. Reminiscent of Baden Powell & Vinicius de Moraes' Afro Sambas, "Sangue Da Terra" (Blood Of The Land) traces the immigrant story and the ever pulsing blood of the homeland.

Carla is a Los Angeles based artist who has worked with Caetano Veloso, Sergio Mendes, Mike Patton, Billy Idol, Airto and Flora Purim, Enrique Bunbury, Solomon Burke, and others. She teaches at Flea's Silverlake Conservatory of Music. This is Carla's first Kickstarter campaign.

Launch date: Friday, July 17, 2015​

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/moreblue

Website: http://carlamusic.com

Contact email: [email protected]

​Contact Brasil: 

TZM Entretenimento

Marione Tomazoni

[email protected]

(55 11) 99155-1298

Musicália

Paulo Bastos

[email protected]

(55 11) 98217