marcos valle & azymuth: fly cruzeiro
Francisco Espregueira
Straight from a box of memories, Fly Cruzeiro by the giant talent of Marcos Valle and the Azymuth trio is reissued worldwide, for the pleasure of millions of fans out there. Connecting 1972 to 2020, the album sounds completely fresh, as per usual in the music released by Valle and Azymuth, both with timeless discographies.
Raised on a staple diet of classical, Brazilian popular music and North American jazz. Marcos Valle grew up to be one of the most influential & innovating musicians of the Bossa nova period and is regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian artists of all time. One of Valle’s favorite bands to frequently collaborate with was no doubt Azymuth.
Azymuth (Bertrami-Malheiros-Conti) started their individual careers in the 1960s in the emergent Bossa nova and jazz scene of Rio, living in the same bohemian block in Copacabana. It was the early 1970s when Azymuth really began to cause a stir and Marcos Valle invited them to record on a soundtrack LP he was doing. The unique Azymuth sound was now born: a mix of electronic music, samba, funk and jazz that they defined as MPB-jazz.
Fly Cruzeiro is a fantastic early Valle/Azymuth collaboration. Released in 1972, this rare album was pressed and gifted to customers of the Cruzeiro airline company due to the connection between Cruzeiro Airlines and Valle (whom father was the manager and brother a co-pilot). Next to the Valle/Azymuth material present, other songs include some of the all-time best Brazilian standards originally written by renowned artists such as Jorge Ben & Antonio Carlos Jobim. Take a flight through this fantastic album and into some of the best jazz, funk & bossa nova the Brazilian musical landscape has to offer. Legendary stuff, available in vinyl via Tidal Waves, preserving music that can’t be lost.