Beach Samba

Beach Samba came out on Verve in 1967 with Creed Taylor producing. It was recorded in New York in May and June 1967, and the photography is credited to Jerry Schatzberg. Don Sebesky and Eumir Deodato share the arranging and conducting, and Deodato also wrote two of the tracks, Canoeiro and Não Bate O Coração.

The credited band was large and busy. Ron Carter played double bass, Grady Tate drums, and Marcos Valle, Barry Galbraith and Toots Thielemans guitar, with Thielemans also on harmonica and whistling. Warren Bernhardt and Benny Aronov played piano and harpsichord, Hubert Laws is among the woodwind players, and the credits add trumpets, trombones, horns, harp and a string section. Valle also co-wrote The Face I Love, with Norman Gimbel and Carlos Pingarilho.

The program mixes Brazilian material with American pop. Luiz Bonfá's Oba, Oba and Chico Buarque's A Banda (Parade) sit beside Tim Hardin's Misty Roses, Gayle Caldwell's Stay, Steve Boone and John Sebastian's You Didn't Have to Be So Nice and the standards I Had the Craziest Dream and My Foolish Heart. The title song, Bossa Na Praia (Beach Samba), was written by Geraldo Cunha and Pery Ribeiro. Canoeiro and Não Bate O Coração are the two shortest tracks.

The critic Richie Unterberger gave the album three stars and said it was one of her less impressive 1960s Verve outings, mainly because of the pop-oriented choice of songs. He singled out Misty Roses as gorgeous and said Não Bate O Coração had her cutting loose with confident, sassy scats, as she rarely did before or since. The record is one of the albums in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.