1969 was a big year for Jorge Ben. While he was already an established veteran in Brazilian musical circles, while the cover of this album is psychedelic enough to be folded into the emergent tropicalista brand, the music tells a different story. True to his feelings, Ben kept the samba as the central tenet of this recording. It's true that he drew great inspiration from American soul music, but rather than attempt to create a style of music that was merely derivative of it, he went out of his way to write songs and collaborated with his two great arrangers, José Briamonteand the great Rogerio Duprat to inspire that samba and soul flowed seamlessly together. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.