Review: Jorge Ben Jor at the Powerstation

Birthday boy Jorge Ben Jor had the Powerstation pumping for hipswaying floor-fillers. Photo / Supplied

As the doorman said: "Jeez, it was pumping in there." And why not? It was the great man's 68th birthday and what looked like Auckland's entire Brazilian population had turned out to fire up the candles.

Yellow and blue Brazilian football shirts were being waved from the moment he took the stage in his uniform white and John Lennon glasses, and they never let up.

So, if at times it felt like we were crashing someone else's party, you couldn't help but be swept along by their joy at getting a legendary slice of home on the other side of the world.

By the end of the night the white-clad birthday boy was high-kicking with a swarm of babes he'd mostly handpicked to join him on stage as his seven-piece backing band segued from one groove to the next.

If Ben Jor is known here it's mostly as composer of Mas Que Nada, an irresistible Bosa popularised internationally by Sergio Mendes. But if you'd turned up expecting a set of trad replicas you'd have been disappointed. After Mas Que Nada, Ben Jor became a leading light of the 60s Tropicalia movement; a literate multi-media scene that merged Brazilian elements with Afro-funk, rock and hippy pop. This was a night built around hipswaying floor-fillers, sung entirely in Portuguese, but with the full-throated accompaniment of his local fans.

And it was truly the Ben Jor show. He conducted his band in for each track, then strummed and sang till it was done. I don't recall anything remotely resembling a solo all night apart from the moments his deadpan percussionist stepped forward for a wry boogie that momentarily stole the limelight.

It'd be churlish to express regrets over the absence of Take It Easy My Brother Charlie when we got tracks like Ponta De Lanca Africano and the infectious Taj Mahal whose chorus Rod Stewart, erm, borrowed for Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?

So, hearty congratulations to Bobby Brazuka, Auckland's Brazilian music ambassador, for taking the punt on bringing him out. Let's hope it's just the beginning.