In my last year of college, a friend gave me the album compiled by David Bryne entitled, Beleza Tropical. You may have had the experience yourself, sometimes a piece of music comes into your life and it changes your trajectory. This was the case with Beleza Tropical. I became deeply immersed in the artists that were producing music in a language that I seemed to understand without knowing what the words meant. After I graduated, I would go on to travel in Brazil, learn the language, get into Capoeira, and start a Tropicalia band drawing from Beleza Tropical and other artists associated with the Tropicalia movement. So let’s just say that when David Byrne’s record company, Luaka Bop released an album with the very long title, “World Psychedelic Classics 4: Nobody Can Live Forever – The Existential Soul,” I took notice.
Here is a little entertaining animation that muses upon the crazy life of Tim Maia:
If you want to go deeper than that, listen to some of the stories from the trumpet player in Tim Maia’s band, Don Pi. Oh and the music… “Ta Bom!”