Time for week 4.

Please vote for your favorite in whatever format you desire. Anyone can vote! The deadline is January 1st. Everyone will indubitably be busy over the holidays, so you have two weeks to vote.

When there is a draw, only votes with comments will count to determine the winner, so it's not mandatory but recommended to leave a comment for the song of your choice.

All songs are available on youtube! Please let me know asap if you think one of the youtube videos is not the correct song.

Bracket 2.1.5
Caetano Veloso - Terra
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 - Mais Que Nada

Bracket 2.1.6
Tom Zé - Sofro De Juventude (No Youtube video available, you'll have to download)
Vinicius de Moraes con Maria Creuza y Toquinho - A felicidade

Bracket 2.1.7
Paulinho Da Viola - Coração leviano
Jorge Ben - Taj Mahal

Bracket 2.1.8
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Captain Bacardi
Marisa Monte - Negro Gato

Bracket 2.1.5
Caetano Veloso - Terra
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 - Mais Que Nada

Caetano Veloso is the great Brazilian poet, but Sergio Mendes is too swingin' to lose. Mais Que Nada is composed by Jorge Ben, so that might make me a little partial to it.

Bracket 2.1.6
Tom Zé - Sofro De Juventude (No Youtube video available, you'll have to download)
Vinicius de Moraes con Maria Creuza y Toquinho - A felicidade

Tom Zé is pretty good, but not as good as A Felicidade's awesome trio.

Bracket 2.1.7
Paulinho Da Viola - Coração leviano
Jorge Ben - Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal is one of the best songs on the fantastic Africa Brasil. Fun fact, Taj Mahal later made a song about Jorge Ben in return. Pretty solid tune by Paulinho as well, but he's no Jorge Ben Jor.

Bracket 2.1.8
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Captain Bacardi
Marisa Monte - Negro Gato

This week is actually very consisently good, perhaps not as good as last week's highs but overall incredibly strong. Very tough choice here, with Jobim just winning out.

Bracket 2.1.5
Caetano Veloso - Terra

Bracket 2.1.6
Vinicius de Moraes con Maria Creuza y Toquinho - A felicidade

Bracket 2.1.7
Paulinho Da Viola - Coração leviano

Bracket 2.1.8
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Captain Bacardi

Bracket 2.1.5
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 - Mais Que Nada

Bracket 2.1.6
Tom Zé - Sofro De Juventude

Bracket 2.1.8
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Captain Bacardi

Great songs this week! Maybe you could find useful this Spotify playlist, including the Tom Zé song and the original studio versions of "Terra" and "Coração leviano".


Bracket 2.1.5
Caetano Veloso - Terra
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 - Mais que nada
It's painful to choose between those two wonderful songs. I'm going to opt for the echological anthem that Veloso wrote while he was in jail (aproximate translation, I know very little of Portuguese: "While I was imprisoned in this jailhouse cell / I saw for the first time those pictures of you / you were not nude but covered with clouds / earth, earth"). The lyrics and melody could be enough to win my heart but there are also the guitars, the bizarre percussions and the sitar at the end. But the Sergio Mendes tune is gorgeous!


Bracket 2.1.6
Tom Zé - Sofro de Juventude
Vinicius de Moraes con Maria Creuza y Toquinho - A felicidade
I like a lot the Tom Zé song, but the Moraes one was my nomination and it's one of the best songs coming from the creative team of Vinícius de Moraes and Antônio Carlos Jobim, and that's saying a lot. And the message of this song has become a kind of philosophy of life to me: happiness is so brief and hard to keep that I always try to get all the portions I can find and fully enjoy it while I can. "Sadness has no end / happiness does".


Bracket 2.1.7
Paulinho Da Viola - Coração leviano
Jorge Ben - Taj Mahal
"Coraçao leviano" is delicious but the groove on "Taj Mahal" is something serious.


Bracket 2.1.8
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Captain Bacardi
Marisa Monte - Negro Gato
Marisa's voice is impressive but I'll go with the awesome Jobim easy-listening piece that closed the excellent "Wave" album. It makes me want to go running to a cocktail bar and ask for a caipirinha. A with a lot of (Captain) Bacardi on it, please...

Thanks for the Spotify playlist Honorio!

But caipirinha with bacardi? That's blasphemy!

Bracket 2.1.5
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 - Mais Que Nada

Bracket 2.1.6
Tom Zé - Sofro De Juventude

Bracket 2.1.7
Jorge Ben - Taj Mahal

Bracket 2.1.8
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Captain Bacardi

But caipirinha with bacardi? That's blasphemy![/quote]

You're right, blasphemy, that's why I put “(Captain)” before. I know they use cachaça and not rum.
Anyway about tropical cocktails I prefer Cuban mojito to Brazilian caipirinha. Oddly one of the best mojitos I ever drank was in Stockholm. Two years ago on our last night in Stockholm we went to see the Junior Boys playing live and then we went with Henrik and some friends to the penthouse of the Taxscrapper (a skycrapper where it was previously located the Tax Office). When I saw the barman preparing the mojitos using the mint and the sugar cane I knew that he knew how to do it properly. So we drank our mojitos with the splendid view of Stockholm at night and I told Henrik and the others the history of another favourite long drink, the Cuba Libre. During the Spanish-American war in Cuba in 1898 the North American troops that helped the Cubans used to mix Cuban rum wih Coca-Cola and “Cuba Libre” (Free Cuba!) was the battle cry of Cuban troops.
A fantastic summer night in Stockholm.

Bracket 2.1.5
Caetano Veloso - Terra
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 - Mais Que Nada
2 great songs. "Terra" is an excellznt meditation. I love Caetano (I almost picked one of his songs for this game), but "Mais que nada" is a golden classic, and very good in the morning. Invigorating.

Bracket 2.1.6
Tom Zé - Sofro De Juventude
Vinicius de Moraes con Maria Creuza y Toquinho - A felicidade
Very tight. The Tom Zé song has been growing on me this week.

Bracket 2.1.7
Paulinho Da Viola - Coração leviano
Jorge Ben - Taj Mahal
Why do my nomination always end up against the best classics ? . Bad draw I guess... anyway, I'll vote for that delicious "Coraçao leviano", even if I love "Taj Mahal" (shame on Rod Stewart for his "Da ya think I'm sexy"). BTW, there are 3 different versions of "Coraçao leviano", the one on Youtube (live on MTV Unplugged) is maybe the best one. The one on Spotify has no backing vocals, and the one I have is very Nicolas-esque (very folky).

Bracket 2.1.8
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Captain Bacardi
Marisa Monte - Negro Gato
The subtle lounge bossa jazz of Jobim wins here over the catwoman. The studio version of the Mariso song is better BTW