Natural Beauty: The Mendes Bros. and "Angola Beleza Natural"

Today's random tune is by the Mendes Bros. Born in Cape Verde but based in Brockton, Massachussetts, João and Ramiro Mendes have put out three albums and own the MB record label, which they use to promote music from their home country. The brothers emigrated to the US in 1978, and almost immediately formed their own band to play music from Cape Verde and Angola. They brought on Haitian keyboardist Nono in 1981, who took over the leadership of the band by serving as musical director and composer. During this time, Ramiro studied classical guitar and also studied at the Berklee School of Music to learn commercial arranging and film scoring, and he produced an album for the artist Sãozinha. The brothers released their debut album in 1991. This song, Angola Beleza Natural, can be found on their 1993 album Palonkon and can also be found on the various artists compilation Putumayo Presents: The Best of World Music - World Dance Party (1994).

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.