The impact of the military regime in Brazil, especially in the latter half of the 1960s, was that of a dictatorship that sought to control every aspect of public life, including the arts and culture. Musicians and composers I have spoken to who were active during this time all speak of how their work was shaped to avoid being sent to prison because of the curtailment of civil rights and the arrest of intellectuals and artists across all fields of culture; and the clandestine nature of recording, which the authorities sought to curtail, or at the very least limit.

Human creativity does not cease because of the whims of authoritarianism, however, and ironically this repression resulted in a highly creative period in Brazilian culture, with the rise of Tropicala, Bossa Nova, jazz, Cinema Novo, and literature of subtle protest through allusion and double entendre. These two albums reflect the social and political context from which they emerged and are inseparable, a period of (deliberate) paucity of recording details, pseudo names, when an album’s very existence was protest in itself.

By their nature, Viagem and Todos Os Olhos were extremely rare until made available by Elemental on superb 180 gram pressings and re-mastering from the original tapes. From a jazz perspective, Milito’s Viagem comes close to agreeable middle of the road music, but from the perspective of reconstructing Brazilian jazz influenced bossa nova during the military repression and its relaxation in the 1970s (when many an artist’s work existed in the space of legend, rather than reality) they command interest.

Viagem reflects the international acclaim of pianist/arranger Sergio Medes, who emigrated from Brazil to Los Angles to form the hugely popular Brazil ’66, which transformed Sergio Mendes from a credible jazz pianist into international pop star with albums such as Brasil ’66, Equinox and Fool on the Hill, complete with voices and light piano improvisation over samba or bossa nova rhythms.

Gently persuasive, Viagem is in a similar strand, and claimed to be a bossa nova/jazz fusion classic, which is perhaps overstating its significance, based more on Milito’s reputation as a reliable and creative sidemen for the likes of Elis Regina, Gilberto Gil, Marcos Valle and Jorge Ben among others. Pleasant rather than musically memorable the hypnotic Brazilian feel does make you come back for more.

The Tom Zé album Todos Os Olhos comes weighed in legend: claimed to be a classic of prog rock, Brazilian avant garde (Zé was a confirmed dadaist), and a ‘playful’ classic from the bossa nova era, its reputation has been enhanced coming from the most repressive period of the Brazilian dictatorship that effectively resulted in Zé’s removal from radio and public performance because the lyrics (in Portuguese) were deemed ‘controversial’. Both minimalistic and with hints of dada-esque mischief, the album is indeed playful from a deadly serious period and closer to Brazil’s folkloric heritage in parts, while ‘Complexico de Epico’ that clocks in at some seven minutes using voices and nylon-strung guitar gives a better perspective in which to view this complex artist.