Surprise Tropicália Gal Costa release
17 March, 2025Out of the blue Universal Music have just dropped the EP “Gal Costa – Compacto de 72”, with three previously unreleased recordings from 1972 and inexplicably archived for more than five decades. The tracks are “A Morte”, by Gilberto Gil, “Vale Quanto Pesa” by Luiz Melodia, and a wigged-out seven-minute jam of “O Dengo que a Nega Tem” by Dorival Caymmi. The tracks were recorded at the height of Gal’s post-Tropicália phase and haven’t been heard by the public until now.
Apparently, the recordings took place in the wake of the success of the show Fa-Tal – Gal a Todo Vapor and its subsequent live album and reflect the counter-cultural sound that Gal was exploring at the time. The band includes Tropicália legend Lanny Gordin on guitar, Tutty Moreno on drums, Bruce Henry on bass and piano by Perna Froes. The EP was mixed in July 1972, but was shelved without explanation which makes us die-hard fans of this era of Brazilian music wonder what else is tucked away in the archives.
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