Jorge Ben is a Brazilian musician and was one of the pioneers of samba rock, where rock, soul and funk were fused with samba. From 1989, Jorge Ben has been known as Jorge Ben Jor, reportedly due to some royalties mistakenly going to George Benson.

Jorge Ben’s switch to electric guitar in the ’70s helped him bring funk and Afrobeat influences into his music. His playing began to more resemble that of James Brown’s and Fela Kuti’s guitarists. (Jorge was a Fela fan, and contributed to a cover of ‘Shuffering and Shmiling’ in 2002.) Funk’s influence was most heavily felt on Jorge’s 1976 album, África Brasil and songs like ‘Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro’.

Jorge’s guitar strums, scratchy and tight with a fast right hand, are reminiscent of Jimmy Nolen’s as he laid the foundations of funk with Brown. Listen to ‘Take It Easy My Brother Charles’ from seven years before África Brasil. Jor’s more traditional samba style playing sounds almost sleepy when compared to the hustle of África.

‘Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro’ translates as ‘My Children, My Treasure’, and Jorge sings in the chorus, “My children / My treasure / My future”.

The song lasts 3 minutes 51 seconds, and the middle near-3 minutes is joyously energetic tension with no release. Even when Jorge and backing vocalists sing the summery “Aaah-aaah, aaah-aaah-aaah”, the music keeps hopping restlessly beneath them. It sounds like Jorge’s love and hopes for his children are so big that energy is bursting out of him.

Much of that jitterbug energy is provided by a cuíca, played by Neném. The cuíca is a Brazilian friction drum, named after a type of possum with a high-pitched cry. Its brief squeaks, in one-off notes and phrases of a few notes, and later from around 2:20 more extended runs, always arrive offbeat. It’s like Neném is seeing how many different ways he can escape the pulse.

Check out a demonstration of cuíca playing.

Jorge’s exclamations of “Meus filhos / Meu tesouro”, with the vowel sounds stretching on, contrast with the restless instrumentation. In fact, that goes to a lesser extent for his vocals throughout.

Further backing vocals add extra rhythm. The vocals for this album were arranged by producer Marco Mazzola, and here backing singers add a percussive contrast to Jorge’s floatier “Anabela Gorda / Jesus Correira / Artur Miró” during the coda.

The final 30 seconds, with guitar noodling and Jorge reluctant to sign off before the final strummed chord, is a rare quiet stretch during a restless and brilliantly fun album.