Married Musicians Change Tempo When Apart : Jazz: Airto Moreira and Flora Purim have performed together for 27 years, but separate bands fulfill their different interests. They can be heard as a pair in Irvine.

Percussionist Airto Moreira and singer Flora Purim have been a couple for 27 years, and have been married for 20. And while they often perform together--as they have since the early ‘60s in their native Brazil--the pair, like such other married musicians as Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, also lead separate musical lives.

“It’s very important that we do separate things, that we have our own bands, mainly because some of the kinds of music we play are different,” said Moreira, 50, in a phone interview from the couple’s home in Santa Barbara.

“Flora is more into jazz,” he said. “Me, I like to go into a studio with musicians, find the kind of groove we like to play and develop that feeling, and then write the songs together.”

Indeed, Purim’s latest album, “Queen of the Night,” features the 49-year-old singer rendering tunes by such Brazilian composers as Milton Nascimento and Djavan with a jazzy flair. Moreira’s new album, “The Other Side of This,” finds him with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and others playing a collection of drum-rooted tracks that the percussionist calls “healing sounds.”

Each also appears on the other’s latest album, and they often get together in their new band, Fourth World, which plays Saturday at “A Taste of Orange County” at the Irvine Spectrum.

Fourth World, which also features Gary Meek on saxes and keyboards and Jose Neto on guitar (equipped with bass booster), is described by Moreira as a band that plays original material that has a traditional Brazilian flavor. He thinks the new band recalls Quarteto Novo, the percussionist’s mid-’60s group that featured Hermeto Pascoal.

“It’s very unique in that it’s almost like classical music, except it’s improvised,” said Moreira, who prefers to be called by his first name only. “The music has a lot of rhythm, and even though we have electronics, it sounds acoustic. It gets a big sound.”

The percussionist, who drew international recognition via his performances with Miles Davis and Chick Corea in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, said his wife is the key element in Fourth World. “Without her, it would just be a band,” he said. “She adds the uniqueness. I don’t know any singer who could do what she does physically on stage. She becomes part of the band sound by making sounds, singing harmonies behind a soloist, interacting with a soloist while he solos, using her voice as an instrument.”

Purim--who along with her husband was a part of Corea’s Return to Forever, and later worked with Stan Getz, Cannonball Adderley and Dizzy Gillespie--is aided in her diverse approach by a rack of electronic effects that delay her voice, add echo or reverb.

On stage, Moreira keeps within arm’s length such hand-held percussion instruments as wood blocks, tambourine and cuica , the drum that makes so many sounds it’s known as a “talking drum.” That’s the instrument with which he mesmerized a crowd of 400,000 while playing with Davis at the famed Isle of Wight concert in 1970. To the left of the table holding these instruments are a set of trap drums, which, with a quick swivel of his chair, Moreira can enthusiastically attack.

The pair are heading to New York next week for an engagement with Fourth World at the Blue Note nightclub. In August, they’ll take the group to England, where they’ll record a live album for which Moreira currently is seeking U.S. distribution.

Though their relationship has sometimes been stormy, Moreira and Purim today remain a solid pair. What has held them together?

“First love,” the percussionist said, “then music, then respect and openness, which takes a long time. You’re supposed to improve while you’re going through life. Me and Flora, and I can speak for her, have learned a lot together. We have learned to suffer quietly, to hold on to each other during the down times, then we say, ‘Let’s do it again.’ It’s been a beautiful roller coaster.”

Fourth World, with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, appears Saturday at 7 p.m. on a bill with Poncho Sanchez and Pete Escovedo, at “A Taste of Orange County,” being held at the Irvine Spectrum, corner of Alton Parkway and Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. $6. (714) 753-3545. For preferred seating information, call (714) 665-6925.