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Marcos Valle’s career spans over six decades and multiple musical revolutions. With his twenty-third studio album, “Túnel Acústico”, the legendary Brazilian composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist brings together a lifetime of musical exploration. Valle blends bossa nova, samba, soul, and AOR disco, while also revisiting unreleased material from his days in 1970s Los Angeles. “Túnel Acústico” stands as a testament to Valle’s boundless creativity and musical legacy. West Coast Soul caught up with Marcos Valle to talk about the new album, old friends, and the inspirations that continue to drive his art.

Marcos, “Túnel Acústico” brings together elements from different phases of your career. What was the concept behind uniting these distinct musical worlds on the new album?

When I was going to record this album, I had an idea that I shared with my co-producer, Daniel Maunick, who is the son of Jean-Paul Maunick (Incognito). Our goal was to create an album that captured the elements of my music that have been so important throughout my career. I’m talking about the grooves, the melodies, the harmonies, and the different tempos – along with influences from jazz, samba, funk, and black music. These have all been integral parts to my sound. So when I started writing the songs, I kept that in mind and tried to make each track feel natural and yet different from the others.

You unearthed two songs from your time in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, including the track “Feels So Good”, which you co-wrote with Leon Ware. The last time we talked about Leon, you described him as a good friend and an incredible person with a lot of soul and spiritual thoughts. What was it like to revisit those compositions decades later?

When we were selecting songs for the album, I reminded Daniel that I had some interesting material on different tapes. He had asked me if I had still anything, knowing that I had recorded with Leon Ware. Among the demos was one from 1979 called “Feels So Good” that Leon and I had recorded in a studio in Los Angeles. The song wasn’t completely finished at the time – we had the melody but not all the lyrics. Leon sang the first part with the finished lyrics, but for the second part he just followed the melody that I had written. He was just doing a sing-along with no lyrics, but the feeling was there.

The track was very good and when Daniel heard it, he fell in love with it and wanted to make it work, even though it was just a cassette recording. He used modern technology to keep Leon’s voice where we had lyrics and removed it in other sections where we had no lyrics. I then added my own voice to those parts and Daniel mixed the two voices together. He also used some special techniques to give the track the right sound. I was very happy with the way it turned out. It was so emotional for me to have another song where Leon and I sang together.

Leon was my friend and I told you before how good my time with him was when I lived in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1980. We spent a lot of time together. He was a special person, deeply spiritual when it came to music.

We ended up releasing “Feels So Good” as a single on vinyl, and now it’s part of the album. Leon’s widow, Carol, was so happy about the song. It’s an emotional song for her as well.

“Life Is What It Is” is a grandiose AOR disco track written around the same time with percussionist Laudir De Oliveira from the group Chicago. What memories do you associate with this song?

When I came to LA, I worked with Sarah Vaughan right away. Her producer had called me to sing with her “Something” by George Harrison for her album “Songs of the Beatles”. Shortly after that I met the group Chicago. Laudir De Oliveira was the percussionist of the band and Chicago asked him to introduce me to them.

Peter Cetera, the lead singer of Chicago at that time, asked me if I could write a song for the band, but I had to write it with a member of the group. That was the rule, so I teamed up with Laudir for “Life Is What It Is”.

We wanted to create a song that combined the signature Chicago sound with a Brazilian vibe. I brought a school of samba to the second part of the song along with the funk vocals of Peter Cetera. We were also happy with the lyrics, which Peter loved very much. Peter did incredible vocals. The song was released on “Chicago 13”. Phil Ramone was the producer.

There is a curiosity about the song. I was there when Peter did the vocals. He asked me to stay in the studio and I was in love with his vocals. But the next day he called me and said: Marcos, I want you to come back to the studio with me. I want to sing it again. I said: Peter, are you sure? And he said: I’m sure. So I went with Peter to the studio and he really did it even better. What an incredible man!

It was an great experience to record a song with Chicago at that time. Chicago has been one of my influences. To tell you the truth at the beginning when they did the first albums “Chicago Transit Authority”, I loved that Latin rock influence.

Your career has always moved between Brazil and the U.S. How have these two musical cultures influenced your sound, and what does each place represent for you musically?

When I started, my journey in the U.S. began with Sérgio Mendes in 1965 as part of his group. I spent about a year and three months with the group, and it was a great experience because we toured all over the United States, traveling to almost every state. I met incredible musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and George Shearing, among others. That was my first experience.

After that I went back to Brazil, but in 1967 I came back to the USA. I stayed there for two years, doing TV shows and recording albums. During that time I also met people like Henry Mancini. All those meetings were important because, even if we didn’t realize it at the time, we started to influence each other when we played together and talked about music.

However, I think the most important time for my music was when I returned to the U.S. in 1975 and started working with Leon Ware. This collaboration allowed for a rich exchange of influences – Leon brought his deep R&B and soul background, and I had my Brazilian feeling. We were able to blend those styles and influence each other when we wrote together, and it was very good for both of us. It was a very important moment in my music.

I’ve always loved American music. Even when I was young I was attracted to jazz, the orchestras and singers like Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and Burt Bacharach.

American music was very important for Brazilian music. Even for Bossa Nova. Bossa Nova and jazz, they blended very well. So it was very natural for me to fuse ideas between Brazilian and American music.

On „Túnel Acústico“, you collaborate with renowned Brazilian artists like Joyce Moreno and Céu. How did these partnerships come together, and what did they bring to the project?

When I wrote the songs for the album, I had a clear vision of what I wanted to convey through the lyrics. That’s why I wrote a lot of the lyrics myself. However, for some songs I wanted to bring in different ideas, so I decided to collaborate with other lyricists.

With Joyce Moreno I wrote a lot of songs together in the past. She is my good friend and a fantastic lyricist as well as a talented musician. She had a way of writing the lyrics in a way that was nice to sing because she’s a singer as well. I knew when I sent her the melody of “Bora Meu Bem” that she would come up with beautiful lyrics, and she did.

I also worked with Céu, another close friend. We’ve performed together a lot, even recently. She had asked me to write a song for her album, which I did. And I said: OK, but you write me some lyrics too. So I sent her a melody and she delivered beautiful lyrics for it. The song “Não Sei” touches on her daughter’s journey as a teenager finding her own way, which was really interesting and fit perfectly with the melody.

Another collaborator was Moreno Veloso, who is a friend and partner in many of my shows. I knew that the song “Palavras Tão Genti” could be for him and that he would write great lyrics for the song, and he did. He brought a great sound to the lyrics because he’s also a singer, like Joyce and Céu.

Finally, as always, I asked my brother Paulo Sergio to write the lyrics for a song (Tem Que Ser Feliz). He has done this for me in the past, and for this album he wrote beautiful lyrics for a song in 6/8 tempo, which has been a signature style of mine in the past.

The album features members of Azymuth, including Alex Malheiros and Renato Massa. What was it like working with them, and how did their jazz-funk influence shape the record’s sound?

Renato Massa has been in my band for 20 years. It is so good to have him because Renato also has these different elements in his playing like jazz, funk and samba that fit perfectly with my music. As the album explores different musical directions, I knew that Renato would be the one to bring just the right feel to each track.

Alex Malheiros is a fantastic bass player and a long time friend. I love him. And Daniel Maunick loves him too. He’s been a key player on all the albums I’ve done with Far Out Recordings, which Daniel co-produced. Alex has an incredible sound. He and Renato brought the groove we needed to the album.

On some tracks we also had Paulinho Guitarra on guitar and my wife Patricia Alví also contributed vocals to the album.

Speaking of Azymuth: Last year we lost Ivan Conti, with whom you had a friendship and collaboration that spanned decades. How do you remember Ivan?

Ivan Conti has also been my very, very good friend from the very beginning. And you know how much Azymuth and I have been together since the beginning of my career. You know the story. And I remember when he wanted to record a song of mine at the beginning of my career, but the song, I can’t remember exactly which one it was, it was so complicated that Ivan was a little bit scared. But after that he became an incredible drummer. I had the pleasure of working with him on many different albums.

For a while Azymuth was my band on the road. So we were together all the time. We did a lot of shows outside of Brazil, like in Japan and Europe.

Ivan was a fantastic drummer with a different style and a lot of intensity. I always said to Mamão, what was his nickname: Mamão, it’s a pleasure and a challenge to play with you. Because sometimes he would do different things with the drums and you didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but he would come back a little ahead of the timing.

I know he loved me a lot. And I loved him too. He had a lot of charisma.

At his last shows I was so amazed that he could do that even when he wasn’t in the best of health. But he still came on stage with a lot of energy. He was a fantastic man.

One of the most touching moments on „Túnel Acústico“ is “Thank You Burt (For Bacharach),” your tribute to Burt Bacharach. What impact did he have on your work, and what inspired this heartfelt homage?

Burt Bacharach was also a very important influence on my music, especially in the way he crafted melodies, changed tempos, and created unexpected phrases in his arrangements. He was fantastic.

I had the chance to interview him when he came to Brazil. He was there for a show, and the newspaper O Globo asked me if I could do an interview with him, because they wanted an interview between two musicians.

We did it on the phone before he came to Brazil. It was very interesting to talk with him and it was a very natural conversation between two writers.

At that time, Diana Krall was recording an album that included one of his songs and one of mine, which he reminded me of during our conversation. When he came to Brazil, I went to his show and that was when I finally met him in person.

Because he was so important to me, I was really affected when he died. At that time I was working on songs for my new album and I had the idea to write a song as a homage to him. I tried to write the song with Burt in my mind. For the arrangement, I added Jesse Sadoc on trumpet to capture the signature trumpet sound that Burt often used in his music. It was very emotional and I think the song came out beautifully.

What excites you most about bringing this new album to audiences around the world?

It’s great to be on tour while the album is out because it allows me to perform the new songs live, which is fantastic. I had an idea for the song I did with Leon Ware. I talked to Daniel Maunick to see if he could do the recording of Leon’s voice along with a click track that we could follow so I could sing along with him during the shows. It worked out really well and it is an incredible experience to bring that to the stage.

Thank your very much, Marcos!

If you’re interested in a deeper look at Marcos Valles’ career, we highly recommend our 2019 interview with him.

Foto: Leo Aversa (Far Out Recordings))