MUSIC

Rodrigo Amarante/Alice Caymmi

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2022
6:00 PM

Brasil Summerfest
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan

$31; $75 festival pass
TICKETS + INFORMATION

Brasil Summerfest kicks off with a concert that raises the musical question, why is their mainstream pop so much better than ours? My guess is that it’s cuz they let intellectuals into the mainstream and we mainly don’t (but I have a horse in that race). Rodrigo Amarante will show you what I mean (he’s based in LA now, I think — but his chart appeal is all in BR): his pop songs have musical twists aren’t allowed in big hits here. Alice Caymmi just pops (and it doesn’t hurt that she’s the granddaughter of one of the greatest Brazilian songwriters of all time).

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Grill is still good. So maybe its sibling Carbone, which does for Red Sauce what The Grill does for Old American, still is, too (although I can’t help but notice that the Scotch Langoustines and occasional Carabineros in the Scampi have been replaced by “jumbo shrimp”).