I’ve been listening to Gal Costa’s 1973 album India. It’s fabulous. It’s taking me out of my normal bossa and samba-jazz zones, into what I guess is a mix of traditional Brazilian music and MPB.
And this track, Relance, is a great example of that. Written by famed artist/composer Caetano Veloso, it’s based around a very funky and folksy cyclic accordion pattern. Both very trad’, and weirdly modernist. Something a lot of MPB I’ve encountered does.
The nearest I’ve come to this previously is in Marcos Valle’s later – by which I mean post ‘pure bossa’ stuff – from the late’60s a d into the ‘70s. That is also all over the map. And I love it. I se se B-road new vistas opening before me.
It can be b-b-bewildering. There’s so much to explore! B-b-butt… returning to Gal Costa, it doesn’t half help, as a way into her music, that she’s an absolutely b-b-bewitching siren!