Rain Dance

Ever the wide-eared listener, it makes sense that by the 1980s, Vasconcelos was taken by the new rhythms he heard emerging from the New York City streets: hip-hop. During that time, he toured Europe with a new band of Brazilians (including future John Zorn collaborator Cyro Baptista) and a group of break dancers from the South Bronx. You can hear ritualistic Brazilian candomblé intermingling with street funk and the canned claps and stiff DX-7 beats of the new musical form on this hard-to-find late ’80s album.