Never before released on CD, this very rare recording from Tropicália arranger and producer Rogério Duprat gives us a wonderful look inside the movement’s most pop-oriented album – a collection of America Top 40 covers and Brazilian classics, with each receiving Tropicália’s grand treatment of musical re-invention, and lots of tongue in cheek kitsch to upset Brazilian traditions and the musical status quo!
You’ll hear the pop influence of the Beatles on several songs, along with elements of the psychedelia sunshine sound of the late 60’s. Duprat came to the Tropicália movement from the arts and classical music world, and his talents as an arranger for movie soundtracks and orchestras really captures the spotlight here, making this album’s sound comparable to many other pop albums of the day from the US or England.
Here the playlist mixes songs from Antonio Carlos Jobim with the Cowsills, Caetano Veloso with John Fred and His Playboy Band, Gilberto Gil with Bobby Goldsboro and Johnny Rivers and Chico Buarque with the Beatles to present perhaps the most eclectic collection of songs ever recorded on a single Brazilian album.
And that’s really what Tropicália was all about – shaking up the sensibilities of their nation by infusing the sounds of other cultures with their own. So Samba blends with rock, US top 40 with a São Paulo perspective and the cavaquinho with electric guitars to create something uniquely and undeniably Brazilian.
