Marcos Valle

In the bossa nova revival of recent years, Marcos Valle has been one of the last bossa nova icons of the '60s to resurface. Valle became probably the second most important bossa nova composer after his mentor, Antonio Carlos Jobim, but eschewed much of Jobim's complexity of bittersweet and outright sorrowful moods for a sunnier kind of bossa pop - his "Summer Samba," covered by countless artists from muzak hacks to Bebel Gilberto, rivalled Jobim classics like "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Corcovado" in popularity. Valle abandoned the scene for some time, playing funk in the U.S. in the '80s before switching his focus to soundtracks. But for someone who was arguably a pioneer in the form nearly 40 years ago, Valle seems admirably appreciative of, and eager to learn from, the people largely responsible for bossa nova's resurgence - DJs and electronic music producers. Even 4Hero has remixed his music, and Valle's producer, Roc Hunter, lets the old master establish the languorous bossa grooves while subtly layering on the beats for a cool, romantic, club-friendly samba swing. As the DJs who started playing with bossa nova a few years ago know, bossa nova, perhaps more than any other genre, is both sophisticated adult pop and open to new beat treatments and rhythmic infusions, and Valle, to his infinite credit, is similarly open to putting the putting the nova back into bossa nova.