Brazilian Octopus — “Gamboa”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 27, 2024

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

1,093) Brazilian Octopus — “Gamboa”

Come to a fashion show in Rio accompanied by some absolutely fabulous lounge jazz from some of Brazil’s greatest musicians. “The opening melody shifts from a dreamlike intro to a swinging mid-tempo that recalls everything from Jacques Tati’s masterpiece Playtime to the background dances on some ‘60s variety show. In three and a half minutes, the group, following the tight lead of drummer Douglas de Oliveira, passes through rhythmic pop-art bliss.” (Pat Padua, https://spectrumculture.com/2017/04/02/brazilian-octopus-brazilian-octopus/)

Padua gets his tentacles into the Octopus:

Sao Paolo businessman Livio Rangan introduced synthetic fabrics into a Brazilian market that was proud of the natural fabric that poured out of its thriving textile industry. His fashion house Rhodia designed clothes that took traditional Brazilian patterns and threw them into the Swinging Sixties with bold saturated colors and geometric cuts. . . . It’s thanks to Rangan that we have Brazilian Octopus. . . . [T]he group’s sole album . . . is 30 minutes of sheer pleasure . . . . [I]n the early ‘60s [Rangan] had hired well-known musicians like Sérgio Mendes to accompany his early fashion shows. Brazilian Octopus was essentially willed into existence to provide music for runway models. Hired by Rangan, pianist-organist Cido Bianchi assembled the band, recruited from musicians he had already played with . . . . These included future Brazilian musical luminaries like composer Hermeto Pascoal on flute and Alexander “Lanny” Gordin on guitar. . . . Brazilian Octopus transformed traditional dance styles into a mod sound. After successful runway shows, Rangan proposed the group record an album of originals and covers, all of which emit an infectious light swing that has the effortless sound of musicians who had a familiar rapport. Instantly accessible, the music has the smoothness of easy listening and library music and the inventiveness (but not the kitsch factor) of space-age bachelor pad music, with melodic and rhythmic shifts make it more enduring. Tracks float like swinging fugues, multiple flutes mirroring an organ melody before each flies off on its own birdlike path. . . . Rangan knew what he was doing commissioning this band; listening to this music makes it easy to close your eyes and picture the bright colors and floral designs of a Rhodia line. . . . [T]he whole album . . . sounds exactly like what you’d imagine a Brazilian fashion show would circa 1968. The vividly named octet deserved more, and was asked to record a second album, but the musicians declined for the simple fact that they never got paid for the first one.

https://spectrumculture.com/2017/04/02/brazilian-octopus-brazilian-octopus/

And Dusty Groove Records tells us:

An incredible little record with a sound that’s unlike anything else we’ve ever heard before — a set that mixes jazzy inflections on vibes, organ, guitar, percussion, and flute — the last of which is played here by a young Hermeto Pascoal! The set was done after Pascoal’s work in Quarteto Novo but before some of his more complicated jazz albums of the 70s — and it’s got a style that mixes his own love of playful rhythms and complicated shadings with a lighter, freer approach to the music . . . . The drums get quite funky at times . . . an[d there is an] influence that’s . . . bossa-driven . . . . At times, there’s a lightly dancing beauty . . . .

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/100807/Brazilian-Octopus:Brazilian-Octopus

Pedro Pinhel adds (courtesy of Google Translate):

Picture a band that features musicians from schools so different as the multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, the post-tropicalist guitar hero Lanny Gordin, bossa nova pianist Cido Bianchi (former Milton Banana Trio), acoustic guitarist Olmir ‘Alemão’ Stocker and jazz bassist Nilson da Matta. The surprising meeting happened in 1968 and helped write a little known chapter in the history of instrumental music in Brazil called Brazilian Octopus, whose only release is hunted by record collectors. “This is undoubtedly the strangest Brazilian group ever”, writes Marcelo Dolabela in his dictionary ABZ do Rock . . . . At that time, we didn’t care about the money, we just wanted to play. It was a wonderful experience”, recalls Celso Bianchi, also a maestro and arranger.

https://www.popsike.com/BRAZILIAN-OCTOPUS-LP-BRAZIL-BOSSA-SOUL-FUNK-JAZZ-ROGERIO-DUPRAT-HERMETO-PASCOAL/290992123763.html

Live:

I have added a Facebook page for Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock! If you like what you read and hear and feel so inclined, please visit and “like” my Facebook page by clicking here

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.