Jorge Ben Jor

It doesn't get much better than A Tabua de Esmeralda, Jorge Ben's understated and ageless 1974 masterpiece. So much is surprising and almost indefinably right about this album -- Ben plays his guitar like a cavaquinho, staying in the upper range while his voice strains and aches and purrs around it, and the entire thing plays like the masterful marriage of Brazilian pop and American soul that it was. That the album is suffused with mysticism -- from alchemy to hermitism -- is no surprise, given the nearly mystical hold you may find this album exerts on you. Listen from start to finish.