Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho

Paêbirú, from 1975, brings together two figures from the music of Brazil’s Northeast. Recife native Lula Côrtes (who died in 2011; sources differ on his birth year, giving 1949 or 1951), a singer, painter, and poet, was among the first to combine rhythms from the Northeast with rock; in 1973, he had released the album Satwa with Lailson, regarded as a pioneering work of independent production in the country. With Zé Ramalho, he recorded Paêbirú, nearly the entire pressing of which was lost in a flood, making the album exceptionally rare until reissues by Germany’s Shadoks in 2005 and England’s Mr. Bongo in 2008. Côrtes played in Alceu Valença’s band in 1976, appeared on Zé Ramalho’s solo debut in 1978, and later recorded with the band Má Companhia.