UPBEAT: Dancer Adrienne Hall and lead vocalist/percussionist Peter Bertini.

Part live and part studio (and part mixed), the band's long-awaited self-released CD contains music recorded between 2003 and 2006, including several 2005 World Café Live performances.

That might sound like a lengthy era to compile onto one CD until you start tracing the band's evolution. And with 11 musicians plus several dancers at each live gig, Alô Brasil might seem like a huge band. This group has officially existed since 2002, but the roots go back some 20 years to the 50-or-so-member PhilaSamba, the city's original, legendary carnaval band.

For Alô Brasil, it's not all about making the crowd scream and dance. In concert sometimes the pagode (a newer form of samba) and other softer sounds seem like just a breather for the drummers, but this is where the generational melding takes place. The old heads could happily improv all night, while the young ones want some tunes the crowd can whistle on the way home. Abre a Janela means "Open the Window," and that's the idea — to let a fresh breeze into the usual samba school repertoire of drums-drums-drums.

They have plenty of pedigree for it. Among the band's longtime sambistas, "you have guys who have played behind Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Joe Bryant backed up the Motown tours at Uptown theater as member of the Sam Reed Orchestra. Ron Howerton worked with Ornette Coleman," says Jim Hamilton. In addition to producing Abre a Janela in his own Rittenhouse Recording studio, Hamilton plays pandeiro and repenique and a host of other instruments with Alô Brasil.

"I have the most diverse experience, from R&B to Zakir Hussein's residencies," says Hamilton. He's played with Gerald Alston and Boyz II Men ("My wife and I would toss their bikes in the back of the van and drive 'em home, back before they even had cars.") He's toured with Ursula Rucker through Japan and Europe. ("It was a chance for Tim Motzer and I to adapt [improv quartet] Global Illage to her stuff.")

Elizabeth Sayre, the sole woman drumming with Alô Brasil, has a reputation for Cuban percussion. She took over the production reins for one extraordinary track that blends Cuban and Brazilian African Diaspora drumming. "Deusa Do Ébano E Ouro" ("Goddess of Ebony and Gold") pays tribute to the Yoruba goddess known as Ochun in Cuba and Ochoa in Brazil, with prominent batá and samba reggae drumming patterns and vocals from former Alô Brasilians Sara Budet and Venissa Santí.

The younger members, like vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Alex Shaw, love the frenetic drumming, but they also have a strong taste for pagode and pop sounds. "Nosso Grito" is ready for smooth jazz airplay, complete with soft-pop synth.

Abre a Janela also has its shares of guest stars. The legendary Dom Um Romao makes an appearance in what was to be his last recording session. He added vocals and tambourim to Alô Brasil's version of his famed "Shake."

The song "Brasil," recorded live at NXNW, features singer Lazzo Matumbi and percussionist Giba Concelçao, who dropped by after playing a carnaval in the Northeast. Matumbi made this song popular during his days with Ilê Aiyé — Bahia's first Afro-Brazilian carnaval group. "This was one of the most memorable musical experiences in my life. Time stood still. The environment was transformed and so were we. I remember looking at Alex and him looking back at me. We were floating. It was surreal," says Hamilton. "Thank God Peter [Bertini] was running his minidisc recorder."

One individual helps to pull all of Alô Brasil's competing musical threads together, Eugene Rausa: the guy whose eyes twinkle as he pumps the cuica (friction drum). "The Rausa family has been behind this project with heart and soul since its inception," says Hamilton. "Eugene's wife Maria Lucia has done all of the costume design and their daughter Tamara graces the stage with some of the most beautiful samba dancing known to man or woman, along with his granddaughter, another dancer. That makes three generations of the Rausa family in Alô Brasil."

This kind of devotion to the cause has also made Rausa an arbiter. "When Eugene says 'left turn here,' we look at each other, and shrug, and say, 'If Eugene says left, left it is,'" says Hamilton.

Lately, lung cancer has kept Rausa on the sidelines. Awakened by a phone call for this article, with an oxygen machine by his side, he shows the twinkle hasn't left his eye when he quips: "I can think of better things to sleep with!"

Rausa says he'll try to make it to the CD launch party. But even if he's only there in spirit, he has the printed proof of the group's devotion in Abre a Janela's liner notes, which close with, "This CD is dedicated to Eugene 'da cuica' Rausa. Thank you. We love you."

(m_armstrong@citypaper.net)