Braziliance!

‘First came Gilberto, then Jobim, and now MARCOS VALLE BRAZILIANCE!’ runs the breathless blurb on the original sleeve of this mid-60s reissue, a year or two before the Samba '68 album broke Valle in the US. While the man's maverick talent arguably only really reached full tropadelic maturity in the 70s, Braziliance! sees a fresh-faced prodigy incubating his songwriting genius in tandem with brother Paulo Sérgio. The strings are – per the era – laid on pretty thick and syrupy in places, and there are only hints of arranger Eumir Deodato's Strauss-inspired-jazz-funk-thunder-to-come, but Valle dazzles with a handful of truly indestructible Brazilian standards. The original – and best – version of ‘Crickets Sing for Anamaria’ serves as the opener; two minutes of pure instrumental joy that is surprisingly heavy on the brass and percussion, with güiro rasping away in lieu of vocals. Even heavier on the percussion is ‘Batuque’, better known as samba-jazz staple ‘Batucada Surgiu’, and admired, covered and danced to for decades hence. ‘So Nice’, aka ‘Samba do Verão’, originally surfaced on O Compositor e o Cantor (1965), and would continue to appear across the globe as one of bossa nova's sacred texts, not least in its Astrud Gilberto-fronted vocal version. Gilberto would also sing English lyrics to another earlier instrumental, ‘The Face I Love’. Other highlights include ‘Surfin’ in Rio' with its Soul Limbo-esque percussion, and the slack-jawed scat of ‘Brasileiro’. Most tracks barely exceed two minutes; some will last for ever.