Tim Maia Investigation Update

The Tim Maia investigation is proceeding with a few new leads, but nothing solid resulting yet. Hop over to Soul Detective to see the updates that Red and I have been posting there.

I've removed the version of "Gostava Tanto de Voce" that was here, as I didn't realize that it was Tim's 80s remake of the song. Ewww. Sorry about that. Here's another great song from Tim's 4th self-titled album from 1973


Download:Reu Confesso

To summarize, we deduced that the recording was made in or around November of 1962, because the legendary Brazilian drummer Milton Banana supposedly played on the record and he would have been in New York City for the historical Bossa Nova concert that year at Carnegie hall. Next, we identified the second song-writer, a one Roger Bruno, who was probably another member of the group, The Ideals. We're hoping to get a hold of Roger and see if he can shed any light on this situation.

One of the most interesting things that came out of this little excersize is that Tim Maia's only legitimate, blood son, Carmelo Maia contacted me to chime in. He didn't have much to say about the Ideals single, but he did mention two other interesting tidbits, which have yet to be confirmed by yours truly.

The first is a mythological meeting of Tim Maia and James Brown . . . well at least James Brown's band. Supposedly the President of Philips Brasil wanted to thank Tim for his impressive record sales by arranging a recording session for Tim with James Brown's band (also on Philips/Polygram). As the story goes, there was a recording session somewhere in the U.S., but no one seems to know when, where or what happened to the tapes . . . But not to worry, I'm on the case.


Download: Do Your Thing, Behave Yourself

The second bit of information is something that I had heard about, but now that I'm hearing about it from a second source, I'm feeling like it might actually be true. So, if you watched the little Tim Maia video on the Luaka Bop site you know about Tim's stint in an extraterrestrial cult. Well, he made two incredible albums during this phase and then supposedly destroyed everything associated with the cult once he left the cult. Evidently he made some more recordings that were not destroyed, which would have become Tim Maia Racional Volume Three. Carmelo claims to have seven or eight of these recordings that he plans to release at some point.

The two songs I have posted here are two more from Tim's excellent 1973 album that "New Love" came from. This was the last album before he joined the cult. Its my single favorite album of his, because it has such incredible songs and great arrangements that really bridge the gap between soul and samba in a way that had never been done yet. Gostava Tanto de Voce was a major hit and still brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. The other track, "Do Your Thing, Behave Yourself" is a groovy little tune that shows that Tim was keeping tabs on the sounds and the vocab of his north American soul brothers.