With its amazing mix of Portuguese, African, and Indian musical genres, dances, and instruments, Brazil's pop scene is unique because so much of it is acoustic. This disc is a pleasing potpourri of mostly non-electronic tunes sung by some famous and not-so-famous artists. Of course, the samba--the country's most dominant genre--and its offshoots are well represented here. The disc includes some well-known, previously released selections, including the Bahian, Tropicalismo pioneer Caetano Veloso's existentially poetic "Cajuina," guitarist Marcio Faraco's festive, Nordeste-nuanced "Ciranda," with the superstar vocalist Chico Buarque, and the perky, Maranhao-born Rita Ribeiro's samba-reggae number "Tem Quem Queira." Some lesser-known artists include the Arab-Brazilian vocalist Glaucia Nasser, Lula Queiroga, and Monica Salmaso, whose "Moro Na Roca" is a powerful, Angola-derived lundu/jongo homage to the legendary Clementina de Jesus. This disc adds credence to the phrase, "keep it real." --Eugene Holley, Jr.