While Bossa Nova’s popularity was growing worldwide after the release of 1963’s Getz Gilberto, it’s influence in Brazil was declining. Bossa’s apolitical lyrics of women, love & nature were replaced by a new generation of artist performing Música popular brasileira, speaking to working class struggles in a changing political landscape after 1964’s military coup d’état.

Emerging from the Tropicália movement in the late 1960s, Gilberto Gil & Caetano Veloso found both fame and the unwanted attention of the military’s censers, due to their anti-nationalist and satirical cultural positions. In February 1969 Gil & Veloso were arrested and placed in prison for a short period followed by house arrest.

Both Gil & Veloso were asked to leave Brazil and were allowed to perform final concerts to raise funds for flights. The concerts were performed in Salvador at the Teatro Castro Alves during July 1969.

Travelling to Lisbon & Paris before…