Os Mutantes

Rita Lee and the brothers Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias formed the group in São Paulo in 1966, bringing together her Teenage Singers and their Wooden Faces. The name was suggested by Ronnie Von, who was reading a science-fiction novel by Stefan Wul and hosted the trio on his TV Record program. Rogério Duprat brought them into the festival circuit, and in 1967 they accompanied Gilberto Gil on Domingo no Parque. The LP Os Mutantes followed in 1968 on Polydor, with arrangements by Duprat, the same year they also recorded the collective Tropicália album, a landmark of Brazil's late-1960s avant-garde popular-music movement. Rita left in 1972, and the group ceased activities in 1978. It returned in 2006 under Sérgio's direction.