Quarteto 1111: Cantamos Pessoas Vivas (1975)

If you’re American, the name José Cid might not mean much. If you’re from Portugal, you know him as one of the biggest names of Portuguese pop. But there was a short time in the 1970s where he was exploring progressive rock, relying heavily on the Mellotron and synthesizers, and that was from 1975 to 1978. I have already reviewed his own solo effort, 10.000 Anos Depois Entre Vénus E Marte (1978) here, that album certainly was José Cid at his finest during his prog rock phase (a phase in his career he didn’t pursue any further, since prog rock by this time had pretty much reached a dead-end just about everywhere), and since there wasn’t much competition in Portugal for this kind of music (Tantra was one of the other few prog acts from that country), it’s little wonder why this is considered the finest prog rock from Portugal. So regardless, Cid was basically the granddaddy of Portuguese pop and progressive rock, since he was there from the start in the 1950s (when he was in his teens), playing covers of ’50s American rock and roll (ie. Chuck Berry, Little Richard) with Os Baby’s, and then playing jazz in a band called Jazz Orfeon while attending University at Coimbra, before Quarteto 1111 was launched. Neither Os Baby’s nor Jazz Orfeon released any albums.

Anyways, Quarteto 1111 was formed in the late ’60s, and included some of the earliest recorded output from José Cid. Their music didn’t exactly endear themselves to the dictatorships of the time (Salazar, Caetano), so a lot of their music was banned. By 1974, the Caetano regime was over and the following year Quarteto 1111 released their final album, Cantamos Pessoas Vivas (actually it’s Onde, Quando, Como, Porquê Cantamos Pessoas Vivas) on the Decca label. If you’re a fan of Cid’s 10.000 Anos, you’re going to need this album, it’s basically the start of Cid’s exploration of progressive rock. Certainly it don’t have the spacy cosmic overtones of 10.000 Anos, but then this isn’t a sci-fi concept album. It does appear to be a concept album, but not knowing Portuguese, I can’t tell (at least the lyric booklet to 10.000 Anos had English translations to the songs). Cantamos Pessoas Vivas tends to more emphasize on symphonic progressive ballads (not unlike the Moody Blues), with tons of Mellotron. And it’s the Mellotron very much noteworthy on the album, as Cid absolutely plasters the entire album with it (more so than 10.000 Anos), tons of tron strings and flute but the tron choir so dominate on 10.000 Anos is not present here. The album is basically one cut that takes up both sides and it goes through several changes, from romantic balladry, to more acoustic passages, and some more rocking passages.

It’s too bad this album never got reissued on CD, and LPs don’t exactly grow on trees, but this album contains some excellent music worthy of your attention.