Evaldo Montenovo And His Group - Tristeza (1977)

There's not much I can say about Evaldo Montenovo. He released two albums on the german Telefunken label, Tristeza in 1977 and Cataratas in 1979. That's where my internet detective work ends. (My guess is that Evaldo and his group were touring in the small venues of Europe and caught the ear of swiss producer Otto B. Hartmann, who had already produced some funk and jazz albums prior to this release.) No biographical info on Montenovo could be found. What he's been up to since the late 70s is a mystery. Please contribute if you have more info about him. It would be nice to know about the rest of the band aswell, as they're not listed on the LP cover.

Like the album page at discogs.com sums the genres up, it's something in the samba / bossa nova / mpb / latin jazz vein. Nothing revolutionary, but Montenovo and his band band avoid the many sins of late 70s latin jazz. There are no gimmicks, no cheesy synths or heavy overdubbing - just a groovy brazilian band playing on tape somewhere in Munich. Montenovo is definately on the front as the slightly unusual line-up suggests. He handles all soloing, and not only he's a skillful acoustic guitar player, but also a capable composer and singer. 

This is one of those fortunate findings. I got it from a flea market for 1 euro. I wasn't that much into brazilian music back then and the cuddly album cover suggested I'd better leave the LP to someone else's hands. I think it was the track title 'Funky Experience' that won me over, and I'm glad it did. I had a similar experience  few years earlier with the Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo album, which I knew nothing about and almost reluctantly bought from a flea market for 20 cents. It's been one of my absolute favourites ever since. Ironically the least interesting track on the Montenovo album is the title track - a cover of an Edu Lobo song. It's easy to see why this catchy frevo was included. It must've been a small hit among german schlager-loving audiences.

OBH (Otto B. Hartmann's label) released Tristeza on CD as 'Samba & Bossa Nova, vol 1' in 2005. (While making this blog entry, I found out that the album is on sale as mp3 files on various netsites.) They also released Montenovo's Cararatas album as 'Samba & Bossa Nova, vol 2'.