MARCO AURELIO DA SILVA, known as Mazola, sits hunched over the console in one of Rio’s top recording studios, waiting for a live horn section to overdub an arrangement on a salsa-influenced dance single. Almost all of Brazil’s top-selling artists have had their work produced by Mazola at least once, and mostly by their own choice. By North American standards, he might be described as a cross between Quincy Jones and Tommy LiPuma — but operating under the socio-economic restrictions of a Third World country. Continue reading “The Noise From Brazil”