Samba '68

Marcos Valle | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: February 9, 1999
• Release Date: February 9, 1999
• Label: Verve Records
• Copyright: (C) 1999 The Verve Music Group, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
• Record Company Required Metadata: Music file contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more.
• Total Length: 27:23
• Genres:
• ASIN: B000WGVM22
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,465 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You know the songs, but sadly not the great composer!, October 4, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (New Bern, N.C. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samba 68 (Audio CD)

In the opening scenes of the movie "Amadeus" a amateur musician/priest cannot tell Salieri who the composer of all those great tunes are. The same can be said for the music of Marcos Valle. He wrote the songs Sinatra, Warwick, Gilberto and Wanderly got raves for. The gorgeous "the Face I Love," or the lament "If You Went Away," and certainly Wanderley's signature tune "Summer Samba" is just the tip. If you are a lover of acid root 60's Bossa Nove, baby you gotta own this one!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hardly representative, but sweet nonetheless, December 8, 2000

By 

Greg C. (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samba 68 (Audio CD)

Kudos to Verve for reissuing this charming period piece. Marcos Valle's vast talents as a singer, songwriter and performer have been gaining renewed recognition in recent years, although this album may cause some to wonder what the fuss is all about. It was recorded in the wake of Walter Wanderley's hit rendition of "Summer Samba (So Nice)," (listen up, Bebel Gilberto fans!), which became one of the 60s' most-covered lounge standards. Valle was commissioned by Verve to record his Brazilian hits in English to capitalize on the then-huge Getz-Gilberto-Jobim-Mendes-Astrud market. Marcos' rapid and stunning artistic growth during this period was such that he had outgrown this album even by the time it came out. He returned to Brazil several months after its release and proceeded to record a series of groundbreaking albums for the EMI-Odeon label, on which his bossa nova background served as a springboard to a stunning new concept of funky, almost cinematic pop-rock-samba-soul, whose influence can be most clearly heard in Stereolab's work. This album, while actually quite enjoyable in its own light, frothy way, indicates very little of this, although fans of Sergio Mendes and Astrud Gilberto (who both recorded tons of Valle tunes) will enjoy it immensely. It's definitely one of the ultimate "loungy" records in existence.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh, so nice!, August 13, 2006

By 

artanis65 (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Samba 68 (Audio CD)

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.