Tropical is a singer/songwriter album by Jorge Duilio Lima Menezes aka Jorge Ben (born 1942). Released on Phillips Records in 1976 and spanning nine unique tracks, it is part of a notable movement of records which absorbed the Latin traditions and whose artists reworked them with the Disco craze, Funk floods and other comparably radical genres. By the look of things it is already clear right from the start that Jorge Ben’s Tropical is neither a vintage Exotica record, nor an echopraxia thereof, but firmly situated in that kind of melting pot known as Fusion. Brazilian composers and artists have always been at the frontmost spot, right in the epicenter of Exotica. From the early 1920’s till the 70’s, a lot of vivacious, flamboyant and exciting music is spawned in and around Brazil.
