The Ipanemas Samba Is Our Gift

Far Out Recordings kicks off its 30th anniversary celebrations with the long awaited first ever vinyl pressing of The Ipanemas’s Samba is Our Gift. Originally released in 2006, the album combined Afro-Brazilian-bossa grooves with classic vocal samba: a step back in time to 1960s Rio de Janeiro. The Ipanemas, aka drummer and vocalist Wilson Das Neves and guitarist Neco, were instrumental in breaking bossa nova in the 1950s. In the decades following, they recorded with practically every Brazilian great there is, including Elis Regina, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Wilson Simonal, Chico Buarque & Elza Soares to name a small few. Bringing together jet-set swinging bossa, with the roots samba and Candomble music of the religious black Brazilian working class, ‘Samba is our Gift’ united two sides of Brazilian culture that rarely met. Alongside Wilson Das Neves and Neco, the album featured Azymuth’s original drummer Ivan Conti who helped put the project together and shared drum and percussion duties with Das Neves.

Neco passed away in 2008, Wilson Das Neves in 2017 and Conti in 2023 but between the three of them, they left us with an enormous body of beautifully joyous music spanning over half a century. With a remaster and vinyl cut by Stuart Hawkes at Metropolis Music, Samba is our Gift will be released on vinyl LP for the first time ever for Record Store Day 2024 via Far Out Recordings. "Their sound remains extraordinarily fresh - exhilaratingly spacious and aerodynamic with a touch of African mystery.