Interview: Marcos Valle

I'm a huge fan of Marcos Valle's music. Who isn't? If you love Samba de Verão—known in the U.S. as Summer Samba (So Nice)—then you know what I'm talking about. As soon as I heard Marcos was going to be making a rare New York appearance at Birdland May 27-31 with the legendary Roberto Menescal, I just had to chat with him for The Wall Street Journal. In today's paper, I interview Marcos on his beach-side apartment in Rio de Janeiro (go here).

As you might imagine, Marcos is very laid back and humble as well as sensitive and poetic. He loves the sea, the surf and the sand—he goes for long beach walks every other day. But he never takes his cell phone. The beach, he says, is for dreaming, not business. How true! But how does he capture melodies that come to mind? Here comes the poetry: “I can only remember one melody at a time. So I purposefully forget the others that come to mind and hold onto the first. When I return home, I go straight to my office-recording studio, where I have keyboards and guitars, and I capture the song before I forget it. Then I hope that the melodies I chased away on the beach will come back to visit another time." Indeed!

Marcos next album release in the States will be with singer Stacey Kent. It's available now abroad, but the price is about double what it will be when Sony releases it here toward the end of the year. Here's a track...



Here's Summer Samba from Samba '68, with Marcos and Anamaria, his wife at the time...



Here's Walter Wanderley and Astrud Gilberto...



Here's Eumir Deodato...



Here's Tony Mottola...



Here's Marcos recently with his band...