Brazilian avant-jazz vanguardistsGrupo Umcelebrate their 50th anniversary, sharing a second previously lost 1970s album from the vaults.Nineteen Seventy Seven(titled after the year it was recorded) is another rip-roaring instrumental fusion treasure from the band which spawned from withinHermeto Pascoal‘s famed mid-1970s So Paulo collective. Like their debut albumStarting Point, Grupo Um’sNineteen Seventy Sevenwas recorded when Brazil’s military dictatorship was at its most repressive. Just like Hermeto Pascoal’sViajando Com O Som(1977) and Grupo Um’s previous albumStarting Point(1975), both of which remained unreleased until the 21st century,Z Eduardoasserts that the 1977 album was flatly “without any chance to be released at that time.” Recorded atRogrio Duprat‘s Vice-Versa Studios in So Paulo, the group were under both time and space restraints. Expanding from a trio to a quintet, original Grupo Um members Lelo Nazario (keys), Z Eduardo Nazario (drums), andZeca Assumpo(bass) were joined by saxophonistRoberto Sionand percussionistCarlinhos Gonalves. Carlinhos, Z and Zeca had already played together in the groupMandala, while brothers Lelo and Z had just finished a stint backing Hermeto Pascoal during his years in So Paulo. Lelo was deeply immersed in modular synthesizer experimentation during this period, working extensively with the ARP2600 and EMS Synthi AKS. These electroacoustic explorations formed the sonic foundation for “Mobile/Stabile,” one of his first compositions to merge modular synthesis with Brazilian music, a fusion that would ripple throughout the Brazilian jazz scene. The piece premiered at the first So Paulo International Jazz Festival in 1978, performed by Grupo Um with guest trumpeterMrcio Montarroyos. The version onNineteen Seventy Sevenis the first recording of the composition.Nineteen Seventy Sevencombines Afro-Brazilian rhythm, modular synthesis and a plethora of whistles, percussion and effects pedals. Grupo Um’s daring music represents a manifesto of resistance during the dictatorship years, but it’s one which remains just as relevant today.