In Harmony With Boca Livre : Brazilian quartet makes Los Angeles debut at Le Cafe. Group’s melodic flexibility helps create exhilarating, evocative music.

Listen to Boca Livre, and you’ll hear the Crosby, Stills and Nash of Brazilian popular music.

“That group was an inspiration for us, as were such Brazilian groups as the Tamba Trio, MPB IV and Os Carioca,” said Mauricio Maestro, 44, who does the vocal arrangements and sings bass in Boca Livre, a quartet founded in 1978 that makes its Los Angeles debut this week at Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks.

Indeed, the four lilting male voices of Boca Livre, with their tight, gleaming harmonies, melodic flexibility and accompanying strummed guitars, recall the American trio that emerged in the late ‘60s. The voices of Maestro, Ze Renato, Lourenco Baeta and Fernando Gama rise and fall together, creating colorful aural patchwork quilts that are exhilarating, evocative and substantial.

Singing in a quartet is a thrill unlike any other, said Renato, speaking in Portuguese through interpreter Lizzie Bravo from a hotel in San Francisco, where the group appeared earlier this week.

“It’s such a wonderful sensation, to sing, and hear three other people around you all sound as if you’re one,” said Renato, 37, who sings the lead parts on several of the quartet’s numbers.

Maestro hears the music differently, he said. “Since I sing the deepest part, I keep the song in my mind and hear the sound come through that I imagined in my mind when I was writing the arrangement,” he said.

Boca Livre--which means “Free Mouth” in Portuguese, implying their vocal abandon--works without a rhythm section. Everyone plays guitar except Maestro, and Gama also plays woodwinds. The ensemble tackles a lot of the standards of the Brazilian repertoire, by such notables as Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil and Dori Caymmi.

On the current tour, the quartet will perform Nascimento’s “Ponte de Areia,” a well-known work he’s recorded with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and “Anima,” which means “Soul” and which the singer wrote with Renato.

The lyrics to “Anima” are typical of the depth of the best Brazilian popular material:

“Soul, go beyond all that our world dares to perceive. A house full of courage, life. Clean the stain on my being. I want to see you, I want to be you, Soul.”

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Nascimento has shown his affection for the group by stating to reporters in Brazil that “Boca Livre is creative, and they sing in tune.”

The group has recorded six albums. The latest, “Dancando Pelas Sombras” (“Dancing in the Shadows”)--which is released only in Brazil but which will be available for sale in limited quantities at Le Cafe--features several selections by band members, among them Renato and Baeta’s “Danca do Ouro” (“Dance of Gold”), which concerns poverty, and “Todos do Santos” (“All the Saints”), by Maestro and singer Joyce.

“This song’s melody had a religious mantra quality to it as I wrote it,” Maestro said. “When Joyce wrote the lyrics, she was inspired by that, telling the story of how even when the saints don’t seem to listen to the Brazilian people, when their prayers are not answered, they still believe in the saints.”

Dale Jaffe, owner of Le Cafe and longtime fan and supporter of Brazilian music, said, “From the first minutes of hearing the new album, I knew this group would be perfect here. The vocals are just beautiful.”

The singers have individually appeared with Nascimento, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Toninho Horta and Gil, and perform with Boca Livre about 60 times a year. “That’s enough, since we all have other projects that we are involved in,” Maestro said. Still, the group would like travel to the United States more often.

“At our first concert in Miami last week, people were very enthusiastic,” Renato said. “I was a little worried, since we only sing in Portuguese. We know the Brazilian crowd will show up. They know about us. But we want to find some new listeners among the English-speaking, local crowd as well.”

Where and When What: Boca Livre plays at the Room Upstairs at Le Cafe, 14633 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Hours: 9 and 11 tonight and Saturday. Price: $10 cover, two-drink minimum. Call: (818) 986-2662.