Search - Marcos Valle :: Samba 68

Oh, so nice!

artanis65 | Washington, DC | 08/14/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For a while in the 1960's, it must have looked as if Brazilian songwriters were preparing to carry on the tradition of writing great tunes which was ending rather abruptly in the United States around the time this album was made. (Ever wonder why you rarely hear people whistling these days? They're not worried about the economy or terrorism; there's no pop tunes on the radio you can whistle anymore.) Many people know about Jobim, but there were some younger songwriters who were also doing great work, including Marcos Valle.



Marcos Valle wrote a bunch of great songs which he performs with his wife on this album. There's a couple tunes I recognized here, which is why I bought it. "So Nice" was a bossa nova hit. Sergio Mendes did a wonderful version of "Batacuda" on one of his Brasil '66 albums. And Jack Jones covered the song, "The Face I Love." But there's not a weak song on this album, and there are several tunes I hadn't heard before which are genuinely great. I loved the propulsive "Crickets Sing for Anamaria" with its amusing lyrics. "She Told Me, She Told Me" is another great song. This album is a mother lode of strong melodies, most of which are probably unknown to the average classic pop music fan. If you don't speak Portugese, it doesn't matter; most of the songs have pretty good English language lyrics.



The arrangements by Eumir Deodato add a lot as well. I'm thinking Sinatra must have heard this album before he used Deodato to arrange the bossa nova tunes on the superior "Sinatra and Company" which came out a few years later. There are several tunes which would have sounded wonderful sung by Sinatra. But the singing by Valle and his wife is more than adequate, and they harmonize well.



If, like me, you're always on the hunt for songs you haven't heard before with good melodies, I recommend this wholeheartedly. It makes me want to seek our more stuff by Marcos Valle.



"

Gotta Have This!

E. Macomber | New Bern, NC United States | 01/22/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is like the best of Esquivel, or Walter Wanderly. Is it campy? Absolutely, and who's sorry? Jobim and company were exporting a smooth sound that was jazz and a beat packaged for the Brubeck lovers. Like Jobim's early Verve releases it's pure melodic Bossa Nova and you'll love it. By the way, no appologies for the English vocals, this WAS the 60's baby!"