Gal Costa Live

It may come as a surprise to many to know that the psychedelic rock and folk movement of the late 60s and early70s was not confined to the USA and Europe. In fact, the massive cultural upheavals of the 1960s had spread far and wide and by 1967-68, musicians, artists and writers across the world were exploring new ways to express themselves. This was no less the case in South America and it was during the late 60s and early 70s that an explosion of psych rock and folk produced amazing music that still inspires half a century later.

Marcos Valle was the Renaissance man of Brazilian pop, a singer/songwriter/producer who straddled the country's music world from the early days of the bossa nova craze well into the fusion-soaked sound of '80s MPB. Though his reputation in America never quite compared to contemporaries like Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, or even Tom Ze, Valle is one of the most important and popular performers in the history of Brazilian pop.

An impressive album presented here for the first time on CD, which combines great soloists with sophisticated arrangements by Manny Albam. As a bonus, we present another complete album, Guitar and the Wind, including many of the same musicians as our primary recording (Urbie Green, Eddie Costa, Osie Johnson and Barry Galbraith, who was the leader), and bearing a similar musical concept. This album was recorded exactly two years after the Manhattan Jazz Septette session and also includes brilliant saxophonist Bobby Jaspar and bassist Milt Hinton instead of Pettiford. 24 tracks total.