Jorge Ben - MPB Especial TV Broadcast (1972)

Rio songwriter Jorge Ben was in peak form when this television performance went out in 1972, filmed for TV Globo's MPB Especial, a prime-time series piping Brazil's best curvefront pop music into homes nationwide. The transmission came just after Ben's pivot from samba songcraft into the caboose-loose funk that would define his 70s, and it finds him road-testing that blend in front of cameras rather than a concert crowd. Running through material including 'Fio Maravilha', 'Que Maravilha', 'Pais Tropical' and multiple passes of 'Mas Que Nada', the set plays fast and relaxed, backed by a tight electric band and delivered with the casual authority he'd settled into by that stage of his career.