Marcos Valle – Vento Sul (1972) with O Terço

“Vento Sul”
Marcos Valle
with O Terço

Released 1972 on Odeon SMOFB 3725
Reissued 2011 in the boxset Marcos valle Tudo

1 Revolução orgânica
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)
2 Malena
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)
3 Pista 02
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)
4 Vôo cego
(Cláudio Guimarães)
5 Bôdas de sangue
(Marcos Valle)
6 Democústico
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)
7 Vento Sul
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)
8 Rosto barbado
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)
9 Mi hermoza
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)
10 Paisagem de Mariana
(Frederyko)
11 Deixa o mundo e o sol entrar
(Paulo Sergio Valle, Marcos Valle)BONUS TRACK
12. O beato

Marcos Valle – vocals, piano
Ian Guest- orchestration and arrangements on `Bodas de sangue`
Hugo Bellard – orchestration and arrangements on `Deixa o mundo e o sol entrar`

O Terço:
Sérgio Hinds – electric guitar and coro
Vinícius Cantuária – drums, second vocal on ‘Revolução orgânica’, coro
César das Mercês – bass, and coro

Cláudio Guimarães – electric guitar
Fredera – electric guitar on ‘Pasagem de Mariana’
Robertinho Silva – drums, percussion
Paulo Guimarães – flute

Produced by Milton Miranda
Musical director – Lindolfo Gaya

———————-

“Vento Sul, from 1972, is an album very different from the earlier records – I experienced a lot in terms of rhythms, harmonies, melodies, arrangements and instrumentation. O Terço, one of the best bands of the era, accompanied me in all this and we recorded it all together. I also counted on the collaboration of Fredera, Robertinho Silva and the talented twins Cláudio and Paulo Guimarães (they were also part of the band in our shows). The bonus track here is a verion I did for Odeon of “O beato”, a song that was part of the soundtrack for the novela ‘Selva de Pedre.’

I consider this album a very experimental one: it was practically created in a modest fisherman’s house that we rented in Búzios, in a communitarian spirit. It marked my ‘hippie’ era…
– Marcos Valle, liner note / blurb

So here were are (finally) with the next installment as the Brothers Valle continue their trend of changing the approach to songwriting and recording and continued to make ingenious decisions regarding their musicians and production choices. This album features the band O Terço as part of the backing band, which unfortunately for Brazilians of a certain age will be associated with wanky overblown progressive rock from the mid-70s. But in their early days they were much more psychedelic, and I make no apologies for my own soft spot for early 70s prog. And on this album O Terço sounds more like the earliest O Terço than O Terço actually did by 1972 — the dreamy, acoustic haze from when Jorge Amiden was in the band (see the ‘Karma’ album also posted here). Also in the musician credits are stalwarts like Robertinho on the drums and Paulo Guimarães on flute

The marriage is a happy one. The album was recorded in Búzios, which was practically a hippie commune that received famous visitors like Joplin and Mick Jagger in the years leading up to this album, before it blew up into an overpriced tourist trap. It is the first album since 1963’s “Samba Demais” to feature songs that were not written by at least one of the Valle brothers. The collective creative process on this album is evident by how smoothly tunes like “Vôo cego” by Cláudio Guimarães and “Paisagem de Mariana” (Frederyko) fit in with the Valle’s tunes. In fact “Vôo cego” (or ‘Blind Flight’ in English) is one of my favorite songs on the album. It is followed by a beautiful instrumental tunes, ‘Bodas de sangue’, that was arranged by Ian Guest, someone I don’t know much about other than the fact that he also has album credits on Donato’s “Quem é quem” and on some Milton Banana Trio albums; and that, contrary to his very English-sounding name, he was in fact Brazilian and an important figure in jazz circles and taught quite a few students a music professor. The song is followed up by the quirky, somewhat experimental, somewhat silly ‘Democústico’, where you’ll hear an agogô played in an afoxê rhythm balanced against squiggly wah-wah guitar lines.

The lysergic textures of this record can hypnotize the unwary, so do not listen to this while operating heavy machinery. The title song “Vento sul” has an open, meandering, incompleteness to it that is equally charming and beguiling. Reflective lyrics dealing with the identity politics of alternative lifestyles in the tune ‘Rosto barbado’ give way to playfully schizoid moodshifts in ‘Mi hermoza’, which alternates between open acoustic strumming and big aural spaces to a chugging midsection that is about as hard-rocking as the Valles are likely to get. Sounds as much or more like an O Terço song than the tunes here actually written by O Terço members, in fact. It is followed by “Paisagem de Mariana”, a song that fits flows nicely in its surroundings and which bears a pretty heavy stylistic similarity to any number of Milton Nascimento/Ronaldo Bastos/Fernando Brandt compositions between 1970 – 72. “Deixa o mundo e o sol entrar” is a another gorgeous tune anchored in acoustic guitars with careful piano, occasional drums, and a meandering melody line that is as warm as the song’s title. It is a perfect finale for this masterpiece-in-miniature. For this reissue, I actually wish they had included a minute of blank audio / silence at the end in which to collect our wits. Not that “O beato” doesn’t fit with the rest of this — oddly enough, for a telenovela track, it is as equally hazy and tripped out as anything else on this disc. But the original album has a kind of poetic closure to it with “Deixa o mundo” that gets a bit lost when followed immediately by another song.

Since it is sandwiched in Valle’s discography between two giant albums, ‘Garra’ and ‘Previsão do Tempo’, it seems like `Vento Sul` may have gotten overlooked to some degree. At least one of my Brazilian friends who is old enough to have been alive when this album was released (unlike myself), and who is also more of an O Terço fan that I am, was completely unaware of it until I passed along this reissue to him. And as much as I personally love this album, it lacks any obvious hit singles or even anything that jumps out as particularly “catchy”, which could turn off listeners who are particularly enamored with the Valle Brothers’ pop sensibilities. Even though it has ‘big names’ attached to it, this album FEELS obscure, with repeated listenings never quite diminishing the sense that we are privy to some aural hidden treasure and secret between friends. These are qualities that should put it high up on the list of favorites for anyone into ‘cult’ favorite psychedelic Brazilian music from the late 60s and 70s. Marcos, in his blurb (too short to be called liner notes, really) seems to insinuate that this album is kind of an exception or even diversion in his discography, an experimental side-trip. It may be that, but it is also an exploration and perhaps a deepening of some of the aural territory he had already been traversing in the previous two albums. The next album, `Previsão do Tempo’, marks a return to more structured compositions, soul and funk influences, and songs that are easier to sing along to when you play them loudly. But don’t shrug off this album – it deserves a careful listen, with or without additional chemical enhancement.

Back cover liner notes, free translation (as in loose, as well as the fact that I don’t charge for this…)

I’m in the middle of the album. Five songs are already recorded. I’m certain that they are going to be some of the best things I’ve ever done. As good or better than “Samba Demais” (my first album) or “Viola Enluarda.”

The songs on this album were made with much care and tranquility, and I sincerely think that it’s been a long, long time since I’ve done anything that pleases me so much. I’ll say the same for the lyrics by Paulo Sérgio. We’re giving you the full picture of what we’ve recently been sketching out in our music. Nothing rushed, no worries about commercialism.

Paulo Sérgio came up with the idea to form a group. We formed one. It was a wonderful idea.

Sérgio, VInicius, Cézar, Frederico, Paulo e Cláudio (twins), Robertinho e Maurício Maestro. Musicians and people of the highest caliber.

We are working like eight arrangers. Every day we get together to hang out and talk and the ideas for each song keep coming. And the result couldn’t be better, I think; we all think so.

The album cover is from Juarez Macho, logically. Renato is responsible for the production and I can say that he also is part of the group, because he’s collaborating like a motherfucker with us on this album.

We are lucky to have the recording technicians are Zilmar and Nivaldo. Milton Miranda is the Director of Production, and is also one of the most sensational people I’ve ever known.

It’s all there.

– Marcos

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28 Comments

  1. password:
    vibes

    do not cut and paste. type it, you lazy bum.

  2. Thank you !!! Muito Bom

  3. i'll cut and paste all i want. dont tell me how to live my life!

    oh yeah, thanks 4 this!

  4. Thank you for feeding my current Marcos Valle habit at present!!

  5. Thanks for a good version of this! Personally, I love 'Democústico' … not sure of the 'silly' angle on it, perhaps because I speak no Portugese 🙂

  6. nah Simon, I meant silly in a good way. It's the vocal delivery and not the lyrics that kind of crack me up. Wasn't a slag against the tune 😉

  7. I had no idea about the background of this (hippy community etc) – fascinating!
    Deixa o mundo… must be among my favourite Valle tunes. A most welcome flac upgrade.

    The Sergio Mendes single with Marcos and Anamaria Valle we talked about is now up at my place:
    http://guitarandthewindagain.blogspot.com/2011/10/sergio-mendes-brasil-65-feat-marcos.html

  8. I'm not having an uncompressing problem. The .rar files to be downloaded have been 4 kb. I've tried both formats and each site. I've downloaded–wonderful! thanks!–albums from you many times before. I have no idea what's going on. Am I an idiot?

  9. hey their Brian, I won't call you an idiot. Because that would be rude. But so far a few hundred people have grabbed those links without any reported problems until now. A 4kb file is really strange.. particularly weird if you have tried multiple options via Multiupload. I don't know what to tell you 🙁

  10. A magnificent album. The art work alone is worth the price of admission. In so many ways this album reminds me a little of Stevie Wonder's early 70's stuff. I just happened to have been giving a couple of listens to the KARMA album before Flabber posted Vento Sul and by accident, and I got a good musical reference point for Vento Sul. Revolução Orgânicaon, whoa! If this first song doesn't bring you in and grab you, then you are brain dead. For a quick second there with the flautist Paulo Guimarães blowing his ass off. I thought it sounded like something out of Jethro Tull. This one song of the album with the entire ensemble kicking ass, sets the tone of this concept album. Malena, a beautiful song. Marcos Valle seems to on some of his albums always have a song to praise GOD. Pista 02 and Democústico. These 2 songs sounds so 'today'. If these songs were played on a contemporary jazz station people would call the station DJ and asked who it was so as to buy the CD, with the 'funny' lyrics and all. Vôo Cego, a so much a mellow song. As in the opposite of a 'bummer' or a bad trip. Bôdas de Sangue, another beautiful cool instrumental jam. Vento Sul, simply killer. These cats (and gatas) could write, play, and sing their faces off.

    I hear a lot of California influence in this album. For example, in Rosto Barbado I hear a lot of The 5th Dimension and The Friends of Distinction. Now I know these 2 groups are considered 'pop' but don't sleep on em. The 5th Dimension had at least 10 smash top hits. Think about it, they all were written by the Laura Nyro who also could write her ass off.

    Mi Hermosa, such a well crafted song, to dance your butt off to. Kind of like a Brasilian Emerson Lake and Palmer or maybe YES tune. Paisagem de Mariana, another sweetie pie of a song. Deixa o Mundo e o Sol Entrar, with that brilliant Brasilian country twang to it. Not a bad song on the album. I like the whole thing, cover to cover. I think this is the part where I say that I was alive and kicking when Mas Que Nada and Garota da Ipanema first hit the US airwaves in the 60's. So I DO have one hell of a reference point.

    It is such a rare talent when a musician(s) take other musicians styles, songs, licks (and their own), and weave them in such a way to make them completely sound like it is their own. This is one heck of a concept album.

    And Milton Miranda, again what can be said about this guy. The sonic palette he gives to the Brothers Valle, just to completely get out of the way and make it so they can do what they do without seemingly adding any of his own 'coloring' to the mix is astounding.

  11. Thanks once again, Flabb, for another thoughtful review. This is certainly one of Marcos' more idiosyncratic albums, but it's a beautiful work — here was an artist truly riding a wave of creative growth. I agree that it's less commercial (although Malena is a pretty happening 2 minutes and 5 seconds that could have been a hit), but Marcos sure made up for it with his next album, Previsão do Tempo. I love the back-to-the-land vibe of many of the lyrics, a theme that would reach its high point two albums later with the anti-superhero anthem Meu Herói. Sadly, this album marks the end of the fabulous string of bonus material in this box set — it was a wonderful ride while it lasted.

  12. Ahhhh. Sorry folks. Not to say Emerson Lake and Palmer is not a good band , but I MEANT to write/say 'Kind of like a Brasilian Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young or maybe YES tune'. Too many chemical enhancements over the years.

  13. A bit more information: the Japanese remaster has musician credits for the individual songs (except A Beata, the bonus track, and Deixa o mundo e o sol entrar, which has only the arranger credit for Hugo Bellard). So we can see that that's Marcos on 12-string on Mi Hermoza, and on organ on Paisagem de Mariana, and that Frederico plays throughout the album, not just on his composition Paisagem.
    Anyone read the back cover notes?

  14. Hey Pawlyshyn, how goes it. Yeah I 'read' the back cover. The old fashioned way, with Google Translate, (as he says with a straight face), my Larousse Portuguese/English dictionary and my 501 Portuguese Verbs book. I'm still going over the translation but I will post that puppy soon. The conjugations constantly kick my be-hind, so it takes me little while to complete. One of the things I really like about FV's is I can learn and practice my Portuguese too.

  15. I'm in the middle of the album. Five songs are already recorded. I'm certain that they are going to be some of the best things I've ever done. As good or better than "Samba Demais" (my first album) or "Viola Enluarda."

    The songs on this album were made with much care and tranquility, and I sincerely think that it's been a long, long time since I've done anything that pleases me so much. I'll say the same for the lyrics by Paulo Sérgio. We're giving you the full picture of what we've recently been sketching out in our music. Nothing rushed, no worries about commercialism.

    Paulo Sérgio came up with the idea to form a group. We formed one. It was a wonderful idea.

    Sérgio, VInicius, Cézar, Frederico, Paulo e Cláudio (twins), Robertinho e Maurício Maestro. Musicians and people of the highest caliber.

    We are working like eight arrangers. Every day we get together to hang out and talk and the ideas for each song keep coming. And the result couldn't be better, I think; we all think so.

    The album cover is from Juarez Macho, logically. Renato is responsible for the production and I can say that he also is part of the group, because he's collaborating like a motherfucker with us on this album.

    We are lucky to have the recording technicians are Zilmar and Nivaldo. Milton Miranda is the Director of Production, and is also one of the most sensational people I've ever known.

    It's all there.

    – Marcos

  16. My favorite of his albums, so while I'm low on money to buy the box, I'll take this with the biggest smile you can ever imagine.

    HUGE THANKS, you're the greatest!

  17. Whew! Thanks for translating this. Now I know what the word 'Paca' means!

  18. Reading through the comments and the praise this album gets, it's difficult not to oblige 🙂

  19. The album cover is from Juarez Machado*

  20. A bit late gettin' this….but thanks so much…..listening now….GREAT STUFF !

  21. Hey! The links are dead.

    Thanks A BUNCH for all this great music you are sharing with the world.

  22. What is the password for the rar?

    • Whoops got it. Couldn’t see the comments until I made one

      • this is a bug from the Blogger->WordPress migration. I’d appreciate it you doing the same thing whenever you notice an old post with zero comments! Most of them at least got a couple.

  23. Any way to re-up this password? I love this record!

    • password is the same all over the site. Poke around and you will find it. Meanwhile this post seems to need more urgent care in the way of image links, flac…

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