The Importance Of Being Espetacular

The group is the brainchild of saxophonist Thiago França, best known as a founding member of Afro-punk explorers Metá-Metá, and one of São Paulo's most in-demand horn men, with credits on influential albums by Criolo, Elza Soares, Céu and Lucas Santtana. A Espetacular Charanga do França is, without question, his most personal and powerful project to date. It maps his life and career: his time listening to the charanga (horn and percussion band) of his local football team, Atletico Mineiro; his formative years playing classic sambas and marchinhas in São Paulo nightclubs; the fervour of hearing frevo and maracatu at Recife-Olinda carnival; the cumbias he discovered in Colombia; his love for 60s samba sax players like Paulo Moura, Zé Bodega and the Sax Sambistas ensemble.