Bossa Rio on Playboy After Dark

Nice clip, actually 1970, when their Blue Thumb album was released. As an aside, The Checkmates, Ltd. apparently were a favorite of Hef and made numerous appearances on this show.
 
Thanks a million for posting this classic video. What makes it so special is that it's the only live video performance on YouTube that I'm aware of from this fantastic group--Bossa RIo. Gracinha and the late great Pery Ribeiro were a perfect vocal duet. A true time capsule from 1970. It's like icing on the cake for me, as in 1970 I bought the "Alegria" album from which the three songs performed came from. What a pity the group disbanded.

For your listening pleasure is a beautiful Brazilian song "Juliana" from a Bossa RIo in concert in Japan.

 
I forgot to comment that this is truly a live performance by Bossa Rio. There is no lip sinc. The rhythm and vocal arrangements that you hear are entirely different than what you hear from their Alegria album that also used an orchestra. "With Your Love Now" was written by Marcos Valle and "Zazueira" was written by Jorge Ben. Man, can those Brazilians write music! I can't begin to tell you how happy I am from this new post on a most different Easter Sunday.
 
Manfredo Fest must be buried on the left, just to the left of the bassist. Looks as though someone may be sitting on the back of his keyboard.
 
TjbBmb: Thank you so much for posting that great Bossa Rio clip! I've never seen them 'in person' before. Gracinha looks to be 15 or 16 or so. It was fun to see the Playboy swingers (with several Karen Philipp lookalikes) groove to the smooth rhythms, and it was most unusual and refreshing to see an African-American gentleman dancing with a white girl. I don't think that racial harmony went over well on network TV in 1969.

And thank you, Ij, for posting "Juliana" (Tiberio Gaspar / Antonio Adolfo), one of my favorites on "Live in Japan".
I did a search to see what the lyrics translated as, and even through some typically awkward Google translation it is very sensual and erotic:

Num fim de tarde, meio de dezembro
Ainda me lembro e posso até contar
O sol caia dentro do horizonte
Juliana viu o amor chegar
A lua nova perto da ribeira
Trançava esteiras sobre os araças
Entrando em relva seu corpo moreno
Juliana viu o amor chegar
Botão de rosa perfumosa e linda
Tão menina ainda a desabrochar
Pelos canteiros do amor primeiro
Foi chegada a hora do seu despertar
E a poesia então fez moradia
Na roseira vida que se abria em par
Entre suspiros junto à ribeira
Juliana viu o amor chegar
E Juliana então se fez mulher
E Juliana viu o amor chegar
Botão de rosa perfumosa e linda
Tão menina ainda a desabrochar
Pelos canteiros do amor primeiro
Foi chegada a hora do seu despertar
E a poesia então fez moradia
Na roseira vida que se abria em par
Entre suspiros junto à ribeira
Juliana viu o amor chegar
E Juliana então se fez mulher
E Juliana viu o amor chegar
E Juliana então se fez mulher
E Juliana viu o amor chegar

On a late afternoon, mid-December
I still remember and I can even tell
The sun falls within the horizon
Juliana saw love coming
The new moon near the river
He wove mats over the macaws
His dark body entering the grass
Juliana saw love coming
Fragrant and beautiful rose bud
So girl still blooming
Through the beds of love first
The time has come for your awakening
And poetry then made housing
In the rose life that opened up
Between sighs by the riverside
Juliana saw love coming
And Juliana then became a woman
And Juliana saw love come
Fragrant and beautiful rose bud
So girl still blooming
Through the beds of love first
The time has come for your awakening
And poetry then made housing
In the rose life that opened up
Between sighs by the riverside
Juliana saw love coming
And Juliana then became a woman
And Juliana saw love come
And Juliana then became a woman
And Juliana saw love come
 
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TjbBmb: Thank you so much for posting that great Bossa Rio clip! I've never seen them 'in person' before. Gracinha looks to be 15 or 16 or so. It was fun to see the Playboy swingers (with several Karen Philipp lookalikes) groove to the smooth rhythms, and it was most unusual and refreshing to see an African-American gentleman dancing with a white girl. I don't think that racial harmony went over well on network TV in 1969.

And thank you, Ij, for posting "Juliana" (Tiberio Gaspar / Antonio Adolfo), one of my favorites on "Live in Japan".
I did a search to see what the lyrics translated as, and even through some typically awkward Google translation it is very sensual and erotic:

Num fim de tarde, meio de dezembro
Ainda me lembro e posso até contar
O sol caia dentro do horizonte
Juliana viu o amor chegar
A lua nova perto da ribeira
Trançava esteiras sobre os araças
Entrando em relva seu corpo moreno
Juliana viu o amor chegar
Botão de rosa perfumosa e linda
Tão menina ainda a desabrochar
Pelos canteiros do amor primeiro
Foi chegada a hora do seu despertar
E a poesia então fez moradia
Na roseira vida que se abria em par
Entre suspiros junto à ribeira
Juliana viu o amor chegar
E Juliana então se fez mulher
E Juliana viu o amor chegar
Botão de rosa perfumosa e linda
Tão menina ainda a desabrochar
Pelos canteiros do amor primeiro
Foi chegada a hora do seu despertar
E a poesia então fez moradia
Na roseira vida que se abria em par
Entre suspiros junto à ribeira
Juliana viu o amor chegar
E Juliana então se fez mulher
E Juliana viu o amor chegar
E Juliana então se fez mulher
E Juliana viu o amor chegar

On a late afternoon, mid-December
I still remember and I can even tell
The sun falls within the horizon
Juliana saw love coming
The new moon near the river
He wove mats over the macaws
His dark body entering the grass
Juliana saw love coming
Fragrant and beautiful rose bud
So girl still blooming
Through the beds of love first
The time has come for your awakening
And poetry then made housing
In the rose life that opened up
Between sighs by the riverside
Juliana saw love coming
And Juliana then became a woman
And Juliana saw love come
Fragrant and beautiful rose bud
So girl still blooming
Through the beds of love first
The time has come for your awakening
And poetry then made housing
In the rose life that opened up
Between sighs by the riverside
Juliana saw love coming
And Juliana then became a woman
And Juliana saw love come
And Juliana then became a woman
And Juliana saw love come
Thanks for posting the lyrics and for noting the composers of this marvelous song. Here is another musical gem written by Dori Caymmi on Bossa Rio's Alegria album.
From the Playboy video you will see Octavio Bailly as the bassist. He was with the Sergio Mendes Sextet that performed at the legendary Bossa Nova Carnegie Hall 1962 concert and later joined Brasil 77.
I love the soft, lyrical sounds of Bossa RIo. In 1970-71, KBIG radio Catalina played all the tracks from the group's two albums. Sweet memories.

 
Thank you, Ij! I love "Open Your Arms". It's so much fun to go on a Bossa Rio ride. Very different from Brasil '66-'77.

Thought I would do as post/translation on another great number from both "Alegria" and "Live In Japan". Love the '"Oh, what the hell!" sentiment. I can't help but smile at Google Translation of "Pois ela era uma rosa/As outras eram manjericão" as "Because she was a rose/The others were basil" (So? Make pesto! )

****************************************

"Que Pena" (Jorge Ben Jor)

Ela já não gosta mais de mim
Mas eu gosto dela mesmo assim
Que pena, que pena

Ela já não é a minha pequena
Que pena, que pena

Pois não é fácil recuperar
Um grande amor perdido
Pois ela era uma rosa
As outras eram manjericão
Ela era uma rosa
Que mandava no meu coração
Coração, coração

Ela já não gosta mais de mim
Mas eu gosto dela mesmo assim
Que pena, que pena

Ela já não é a minha pequena
Que pena, que pena

Mas eu não vou chorar
Eu vou é cantar
Pois a vida continua
E eu não ficar sozinho no meio da rua
Esperando que alguém me dê a mão
Me dê a mão
Eu não

********************************************

She doesn't like me anymore
But I like her anyway
Too bad, too bad

She is no longer my little one
Too bad, too bad

Because it's not easy to recover
A great lost love
Because she was a rose
The others were basil
She was a rose
Who ruled my heart
Heart, heart

She doesn't like me anymore
But I like her anyway
Too bad, too bad

She is no longer my little one
Too bad, too bad

But I won't cry
I'll is sing
For life goes on
And I don't be alone in the middle of the street
Waiting for someone to take my hand
Give me your hand
I do not
 
Thanks Tulita Pepsi for posting the words to "Que Pena" by Jorge Ben Jor. No other Brazilian composer could write songs that could make you feel so happy, get up, move around and dance. Yes, Bossa Rio was very different than Brasil 66 &77, as it had a more mellow sound.

I got to thinking that both Bossa Rio and the Carnival had similar trajectories. They both were around for the same years, that is, 1969-70. They both were hoping to ride the tide of popularity that Brasil 66 had earlier created, and they both met their demise after their female vocalists--Gracinha Leporace and Janis Hansen-- left their respective group. But it was fun during that period on MOR radio playlists to hear the music of Brasil 66, Bossa Rio and the Carnival. I just wish it would have lasted a bit longer.
 
TjbBmb: Thank you so much for posting that great Bossa Rio clip! I've never seen them 'in person' before. Gracinha looks to be 15 or 16 or so. It was fun to see the Playboy swingers (with several Karen Philipp lookalikes) groove to the smooth rhythms, and it was most unusual and refreshing to see an African-American gentleman dancing with a white girl. I don't think that racial harmony went over well on network TV in 1969.

Depends on the viewer and to some extent, the region. But that sort of self-corrected in the case of "Playboy After Dark". Very few ignorant racists would watch as sophisticated a show as that---and very few stations in conservative areas (the deep South and Midwest) would carry the show.

In L.A., we were fine with it. But this was only a year after the first interracial kiss on TV (Star Trek)---and the rednecks lost their minds over that one.

By the way, the dancers at the party were---dancers. As in professionals. If you watch a few episodes (a chunk of them are on YouTube, including some compilations of just the musical performances) you see the same faces over and over. Same with the non-celebrity "guests"---they're extras---and by the way they recur, I'm guessing they were actors with SAG cards and not your typical crowd extra.

In reality, "Playboy After Dark" was a hybrid of "The Hollywood Palace"(musical acts and comics), "The Tonight Show" (musical acts, comics and interviews with non-performing celebrities) and "American Bandstand" (people dancing to the music)---all supposedly from the Playboy Penthouse (but shot at CBS' Television City in Hollywood). There were 26 episodes a season for two seasons (not counting an early version of the show---"Playboy's Penthouse"--- ten years before that managed a total of 44 episodes).

My wife, a small-town Baptist girl who went on to earn a PhD, was stunned when I put on episode one of the 1959 show. In her mind, Playboy was a skin magazine, pure and simple and one of ill-repute where and when she grew up. Who would want to be associated with such a thing? Especially on television? And then Hef brought on Lenny Bruce, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. If you haven't watched, it's worth the time. And if you watched the most recent season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"---yes, this is where that scene came from:

 
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Glad I watched the clip---"Zazueira" leads into the credits, where I see Tony Hendra among the writers for "Playboy After Dark". Tony's next stop would be the National Lampoon---both the magazine and the "Vacation" movies. He's perhaps best known for "This Is Spinal Tap".
 
"This Is Spinal Tap" is one of the greatest films ever made. They don't write lyrics like this anymore.

Workin' on a sex farm
Tryin' to raise some hard love
Gettin' out my pitch fork
Pokin' yo' hay.
Scratching in yo' henhouse
Sniffin' at yo' feedbag
Slippin' out your back door
Leavin' my spray!

Sex farm woman
I'm gonna mow you down!
Sex farm woman
I'll rake and hoe you down!
Sex farm woman
Dontja see my silo risin' high?!
 
Here is another beautiful song--Quem Diz Que Sabe-- written by the great Joao Donato from Bossa Rio's Japan concert. Donato accompanies the group on the piano. I am deeply impressed with how beautifully Gracinha and Pery sing in unison. If they had chosen, they could have had a great long term singing partnership a la Steve & Eydie.

 
Respect must be paid to Bossa Rio member Manfredo Fest, who provided the group with its wonderful arrangements.

As a keyboardist, Fest joined an illustrious list of other legally blind keyboard players in the history of pop and jazz music, such as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Art Tatum and George Shearing.
 
Weirdly, it actually looks like it's Manfredo on *bass* to me. I also wonder if the organ is what the girl on the far left of the frame might be sitting on. And who is that on grand? It almost looks like George Duke to me, but I just can't get a good enough look. It's not Joao Donato, I'm almost positive.
 
I also wonder if the organ is what the girl on the far left of the frame might be sitting on.
That's what I'm thinking. I can hear him playing, and this isn't lip-synced as far as I can tell (and they are not the studio versions). Odd they wouldn't give him some air time, although they didn't give much to the bass player either.
 
Here's another terrific song performed by Bossa Rio, written by Milton Nascimento. After listening to and rediscovering both of Bossa Rio's albums I have on vinyl, I believe they are better than Brasil 66 "Crystal Illusions" and "Ye Me Le" albums. Certainly not as great as the Brasil 66 classic first four albums, but better than the two aforementioned Brasil 66 albums released in 1969.

 
Here's another terrific song performed by Bossa Rio, written by Milton Nascimento. After listening to and rediscovering both of Bossa Rio's albums I have on vinyl, I believe they are better than Brasil 66 "Crystal Illusions" and "Ye Me Le" albums. Certainly not as great as the Brasil 66 classic first four albums, but better than the two aforementioned Brasil 66 albums released in 1969.



Yeah, I'd go along with that. At the time, I loved CRYSTAL ILLUSIONS, but I was 13 and now, apart from "Pretty World", "Viola" and "Dois Dias", it hasn't aged well....just my opinion (I've always thought that if "Pretty World" had come out in the summer of '68 instead of the spring of '69, it would have been a bigger record---possibly even Top 20).

And a few months later, when YE-ME-LE came out, I knew they were struggling. Didn't stop me from buying STILLNESS, but it was clear.
 
I wonder if Sergio's thought process was to attempt more "American" music with his main group Brasil '66 and try the more Brazilian stuff with the Bossa Rio group. I've been listening to a bit more Bossa Rio of late since this thread surfaced.

For some reason, the song "Girl Talk" from ALEGRIA! and LIVE IN JAPAN seems to have entered my head and won't go away. The lyrics are clearly sexist by today's sensibilities.

Girl Talk by Bobby Troup

They like to chat about the dresses they will wear tonight,
they chew the fat about their tresses and the neighbor's fight.
Inconsequential things that men don't really care to know
become essential things that women find so "appropos".
But that's a dame, they're all the same.
It's just a game, they call it girl talk, girl talk.

They all meow about the ups and downs of all their friends,
the "who", the "how", the "why", they dish the dirt, it never ends.
The weaker sex, the speaker sex we mortal males behold
but tho' we joke we wouldn't trade them for a ton of gold.
So baby, stay and gab a way
but hear me say that after girl talk talk to me.
 
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I have the opposite impression of Bossa Rio and Brasil '66--other than the orchestrations that weighted down the music, I felt his group went more Brazilian in its second iteration (Rubens Bassini, Tiao Neto, etc.) and Bossa Rio kind of takes over for where the original Brasil '66 lineup left off, as it's more pop/jazz-based Brazilian than it is the type of tunes like "Casa Forte" and "Lapinha" that he would do from Fool onward (where it's more percussion based vs. centering the rhythm section around a drum kit as the original Brasil '66 did). Or to put it another way, I feel as though the second Brasil '66 lineup is leaning towards the MPB (Música Popular Brasileira)
movement vs. Bossa Rio kind of hanging back with the lingering style of Bossa Nova for many of their tracks.

To Bossa Rio's credit, the group had Pery Ribeiro as a solid male lead vocalist, in addition to Gracinha.
 
I wonder if Sergio's thought process was to attempt more "American" music with his main group Brasil '66 and try the more Brazilian stuff with the Bossa Rio group. I've been listening to a bit more Bossa Rio of late since this thread surfaced.

For some reason, the song "Girl Talk" from ALEGRIA! and LIVE IN JAPAN seems to have entered my head and won't go away. The lyrics are clearly sexist by today's sensibilities.

Girl Talk by Bobby Troup

They like to chat about the dresses they will wear tonight,
they chew the fat about their tresses and the neighbor's fight.
Inconsequential things that men don't really care to know
become essential things that women find so "appropos".
But that's a dame, they're all the same.
It's just a game, they call it girl talk, girl talk.

They all meow about the ups and downs of all their friends,
the "who", the "how", the "why", they dish the dirt, it never ends.
The weaker sex, the speaker sex we mortal males behold
but tho' we joke we wouldn't trade them for a ton of gold.
So baby, stay and gab a way
but hear me say that after girl talk talk to me.

Bobby Troup wrote the lyrics and Neal Hefti wrote the music to this song from the motion picture Harlow from 1965. Neal Hefti was an incredibly talented composer and arranger who came out of the legendary Woody Herman big band. Hefti also wrote the theme and music from the movie The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park from the 1960s. So much incredible talent came out "Herman's Thundering Herd's" such as Stan Getz, Shorty Rogers, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Ralph Burns, Terry Gibbs etc.

 
And here is Bobby Troup singing Girl Talk with some real pretty ladies from the Swinging 60s. He was married to Julie London who was famous for singing "Cry Me a River" and appeared with Troup in the TV series Emergency.

 
Bobby Troup's greatest renown is for having written the lyrics and music to the Great American Standard "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" immortalized by the Nat King Cole Trio in 1946.

 
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