This week, Allen Thayer, author of Tim Maia’s Tim Maia Racional Vols. 1 & 2 shares some of the best outtakes, chapters, and anecdotes that didn’t make the cut into the finished book.
He continues with a story from musician Alexandre Kassin, who spent a spontaneous, memorable night with Tim Maia following a show in Rio de Janeiro.
This anecdote from contemporary musician and producer Alexandre Kassin is just the kind of story that’s too good not to share. Kassin was the only person from the Racional Vol. 3 project (explored in great detail in Chapter 11) that hadn’t played professionally with Tim before he passed away. With Kassin’s permission, here’s his close encounter with the Brazilian soul legend, Tim Maia…
“I met Tim only one time. I always went to his shows. I loved his music, every time he had a show, I went. And one time Gary, the guy from Whatmusic, and his friend, he had a friend and we all went to watch Tim Maia live . . . Andrew. And Andrew was this very strange character, he always dressed in like only one color, you know like a big English guy like six and a half feet tall, blond and like all dressed in mustard – mustard pants and mustard shoes and pants and socks and everything. We were leaving the show at Circo Voador [iconic Rio de Janeiro venue] and back then, the back door of Circo where people exited was right next to the dressing room. So, when we were leaving we saw Tim Maia as we passed by his dressing room and we said, ‘Thanks for the show, we loved it!’ And he saw Andrew, he saw these English guys and he looked at me and said [in Portuguese], ‘Who are these guys?’ I was like, ‘These are my English friends, they loved the concert, thanks for the music,” and he was like, ‘Come in!’
And then we entered the dressing room. There was a key. He locked the door and put the key in his pocket and it was like three in the morning. And I was like, ‘Woooah what is going to happen?’ And then he had this big bag of cocaine and he was like, ‘Do you want some . . . do you mind if I have some?’ He did some lines and then [switching to English], ‘So, where are you from?’ He really wanted to talk . . . He finished the concert and nobody was there and he had this bag of cocaine and these guys, they look fun! We were there for three hours! We left at six A.M. He had an acoustic guitar and he started playing only horrible songs, like Rick Astley from the nineties. He was playing this song and thought it was really good and I was like, ‘I think the second part is a D-minor . . .’ and he was like, ‘Do you play this thing?’ ‘Yeah, I can play guitar.’ ‘Then, play it!’ Then I was playing and he was singing. ‘Hey, you play alright, boy, I like you!’ Then we stayed having a big old party and then he finally said, ‘You look tired, I should let you go.’ When we left it was already morning.”
Tim Maia’s Tim Maia Racional Vols. 1 & 2 is out now! Get your copy here. And make sure to check out the rest of our 33 1/3 Brazil series!
