The first 2026 release from Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s Jazz Is Dead label is a collaboration with legendary Brazilian singing/songwriting duo Antonio Carlos & Jocafi. The pair — both from Salvador, Bahia — have been working together since the late 1960s and have not only recorded their own hits but delivered them for dozens of other artists as well. This is the pair’s first new recording since the 1990s. Muhammad and Younge were in Brazil in 2022 when they were introduced to Antonio Carlos & Jocafi by Baiana System’s Beto Barreto. The men hit it off and made tentative plans to record together. In 2025 Antonio Carlos & Jocafi came to play the Jazz Is Dead club. Younge and Muhammad set them up in their studio with a hip band, and a backing…
Tag Archive: Adrian Younge
Carlos Dafe, born in Vila Isabel, Rio de Janeiro, grew up surrounded by music and poetry. His father, a chorinho player, and his mother, a poet, nurtured his talent from a young age. By four, he was correcting notes in his father’s rehearsals; by eleven, he was studying at the Conservatory of Music, and by fourteen, he was performing with ensembles and orchestras. In the 1970s, Dafé became a pillar of Brazil’s Black music movement, alongside Tim Maia, Cassiano, Wilson Simonal, and Banda Black Rio. Known as “The Prince of Soul,” a title bestowed by Nelson Motta, Dafé brought samba, soul, and funk into harmony, creating enduring hits like ‘A Beleza É Você Menina’.
Dafé’s career spans decades of collaborations, accolades, and cultural…
…Samantha e Adrian is more than just an album — it is the story of a profound artistic connection between Brazilian actress/singer Samantha Schmütz and American composer Adrian Younge.
This record is the intersection where Rio and Los Angeles merge into a lush, cinematic, and deeply personal experience created by two musical soulmates.
Produced and recorded at Younge’s Linear Labs, an all-analog studio, Samantha & Adrian is a grand, orchestral, and soulful record. It’s a bridge between Brazil’s MPB tradition and the elegance of 1970s LA soul. With sweeping string arrangements, rich harmonies, and undeniable grooves, the album conjures the feeling of a lost classic—music that takes the listener back to a ’70s…
Jazz Is Dead continues its journey of honoring musical legends with Dom Salvador JID024, an album that revisits and revitalizes the pioneering spirit of one of Brazil’s most influential musicians. Dom Salvador, the trailblazer who fused samba with jazz, funk, and soul in the late ’60s and early ’70s, is the cornerstone of a movement that shaped the sound of Black Brazilian music.
…Salvador’s influence on Brazilian music is immeasurable. As the architect behind the groundbreaking album Som, Sangue e Raça (1971) and the leader of the pioneering group Abolição, he carved out a space for Black consciousness in Brazil’s music scene, fusing American jazz and funk with Afro-Brazilian rhythms. His work set the stage for the emergence of bands…