If you want to see or hear live music , look for suggestions in this guide, buy local papers with weekend listings headed Lazer, which should have a list of bars with music, concerts and dancetarias, or ask a tourist office for advice. Local radio is often worth listening to - you won't regret taking a transistor along and whirling the dial - and there are also local TV stations that often have MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) programmes; the TVE, Televisão Educativa network, funded by the Catholic Church and the Ministry of Culture, is worth checking - if you see the initials FUNARTE, it might well be a music programme. Finally, a word about buying recordings . The price varies according to how well known the recording artist is. Recordings even by leading artists are less expensive than in the USA or Europe, and those by more obscure artists and regional music are cheaper still. At the upper end of the scale, but dependably high quality, are the A Arte de, O Talento de or A Personalidade de series, often double albums, which are basically "Greatest Hits" compilations of the best-known singers and musicians. The best place to buy any music, no matter how regional, is São Paulo, then Rio, with cities like Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre a long way behind. Outside Rio and São Paulo there are good music shops, but they're few and far between: look in local papers to see if there are adverts for Loja de Disco (record shop), with MPB or discos nacionais mentioned in the advert.