★Opiniao
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
On Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, the pianist and his group turn bossa nova and Brazilian songcraft into sleek, cross‑border pop. Their version of Jorge Ben’s “Mais Que Nada” became the first Portuguese‑language hit in the US, opening doors for Brazilian music worldwide and helping earn the album a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Gal Costa
A lot changed between Gal Costa's pleasantly straightforward 1967 debut Domingo and her eponymous follow-up two years later. Domingo, also a debut for young Brazilian songwriter Caetano Veloso, featured a set of airy, somewhat standard bossa nova tunes, sung ably by Costa. Mere months after the release of this relatively safe debut, however, Costa and Veloso found themselves alongside Os Mutantes, Tom Zé, and Gilberto Gil, recording contributions to Tropicália: Ou Panis et Circencis, the unoffic…