The Brazilian Sound

Gaby Amarantos, the Muse of Tecnobrega

2011-11-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

Gaby Amarantos, the muse of tecnobrega, has teamed with producer
DJ João Brasil (a carioca now in London) to create a startling version
of Antonio Carlos Jobim's classic "Aguas de Marco" that you will
probably either love or hate. Here's my Huffington Post about it:
The Muse of Tecnobrega Boosts Brazil's Latest Musical Export

Here is Gaby Amarantos singing "Aguas de Marco" on YouTube:

Here are Jobim and Elis Regina performing "Aguas de Marco" live:

Here is Gaby performing a full-on tecnobrega number,
"Príncipe Negro," on YouTube. Bob Fosse meets Lady
Gaga meets Bélem do Pará.

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The Brazilian Sound on Nook!

2011-10-24T15:29:00.001-07:00

Our musical guide "The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil" is now available as an ebook in the Nook format:

The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil (Nook ebook)

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And if you don't have a Nook reader, you can download the Nook application for free and read our book on your PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or cellphone with Android: Nook app download (free)

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Brazilian Sound Now in Italy and Spain!

2011-10-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

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Interview with Jovino Santos Neto

2011-10-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Some notable musicians are self-taught, but many have a mentor who was an important inspiration. Jovino Santos Neto is a Brazilian artist who was fortunate to have had the singular Hermeto Pascoal as his guide. Pascoal is one of the most important figures in Brazilian jazz and instrumental music. He is known for his great improvisational abilities; his complex, wholly original compositions mixing jazz with northeastern Brazilian idioms; and his ability to create music with whatever instruments or household objects are at hand. Jovino earned his musical credentials playing with Pascoal’s band, “O Grupo,” from 1977 to 1992. Santos Neto functioned as a pianist, flutist, composer, producer, and arranger for O Grupo. Looking back, Jovino recalled how Hermeto expanded his sonic universe. “Hermeto was my school for fifteen years, and I continue to learn from him by studying, practicing and analyzing his music.”

Santos Neto developed into an accomplished composer and musician in his own right and has fused jazz, Brazilian music, and classical music on albums such as Canto do Rio (2003) and Roda Carioca (2006), which garnered Latin Grammy nominations in the category of best Latin Jazz Album, and Live at Caramoor with Weber Iago (2009), which earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Album. And, just as Pascoal once tutored him, Santos Neto has been a mentor to young musicians for many years in North America; he teaches piano, composition, and jazz ensemble at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Jovino was born in Rio in 1954 and grew up in Realengo, a neighborhood in Rio’s western outskirts. At the age of twenty, he left Realengo to study biology at McGill University in Canada. He returned three years later and started playing with Pascoal. Santos Neto embarked on a solo career in 1992, and relocated to Seattle, Washington with his family in 1993. After his move to North America, he was a member of Airto Moreira and Flora Purim’s group Fourth World from 1994 to ’97. He contributed to Purim’s Speed of Light, and was part of Mike Marshall’s Brasil Duets, Ben Thomas’ The Madman’s Difference, and Jesse Stern’s Blues for the Bear, among other recordings. Jovino released his first solo album, Caboclo, in 1997. He has performed as a piano soloist and with symphony orchestras and chamber music groups. The NDR Big Band, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, St. Helens String Quartet, and Trio Vento have performed his compositions.

Jovino still works with Hermeto Pascoal, coordinating international performances of Pascoal’s big-band music. He is a caretaker for Pascoal’s vast body of work, most of which is still unrecorded. Jovino has collected all of Pascoal’s original manuscripts, annotating or transcribing more than a thousand compositions. He edited Tudo É Som (All is Sound), a collection of Pascoal compositions published by Universal Edition. Jovino and Mike Marshall released the album Serenata: The Music of Hermeto Pascoal in 2003.

Jovino & Hermeto at the Blue Note in 1991 (photo by Tim Geaney)

I interviewed Jovino in 2007. This interview is included in a book of my collected Brazilian music interviews that will be published later this year (check this blog for details).

Chris: How did you get involved with the Cornish College of the Arts?

Jovino: I came to Cornish as a student in 1993, and after two semesters I started teaching there, first as a sub, then as an adjunct and now as a full time professor of music there. It's a great place to connect with younger musicians and to keep the creative juices flowing.

Chris: You have been nominated for Latin Grammy awards in the Best Latin Jazz Album category, for Canto do Rio and Roda Carioca. I have been listening a lot to Canto do Rio lately, and I have to confess I find it very difficult to categorize it. I'm hearing jazz of course, along with choro, baião and other northeastern Brazilian rhythms, and classical-music elements.
Jovino: If you find it hard to fit the music into one category, then I have reached my goal of creating universal music based on my personal musical history. As I experience more colors and flavors from the music of the world, my personal style absorbs them and the result will hopefully still bear my musical DNA.

Chris: Could you talk about the musical ingredients that went into Canto do Rio, and perhaps give examples of different fusions of genres, rhythms, harmonies, and instruments in a couple of your songs?
Jovino: If you listen to the opening track, "Guanabara," it starts with a choro groove with pandeiro and clarinet, but the main theme has the hits and the melody of a maracatu for a bit, then it becomes a samba, and the improvisation section in 7/4 meter is something else. I personally don't keep track of these transitions. The process is more organic and fluid during the composition and arranging stages of the creation. "Pedra Branca" is another maracatu with two simple parts that get different harmonies and textures as the tune develops. "Primavera em Flor" is a baião for most of the time, but at one point there is an abrupt change into a xote, where the solos happen. "Sempre Sim" is a simple theme in 7/4 built over a pedal vamp, and the band just played it in a loose way, where everyone improvises at once.

Chris: Can you tell us about the album that followed it, Roda Carioca?
Jovino: With Roda Carioca the composition process was similar, but with different musicians. This is my first CD recorded in Brazil, and I had the good fortune to have players like Marcio Bahia, Rogério Botter Maio, Hamilton de Holanda, Gabriel Grossi, Marcos Amorim, Fabio Pascoal as well as Joyce and Hermeto Pascoal as guests on the recording.

Jovino at Instrumental SESC Brasil, performing Passareio / Amoreira

Chris: You have collaborated with Airto and Fourth World. What kind of music do they play, and what was the experience like?
Jovino: I learned a lot during my time with Airto, Flora and Fourth World. In that band I was mostly playing keyboards, and I developed a sense of textures and possibilities for using electronic instruments. Airto is a fantastic musician, and I always liked his playing, since I heard him playing the donkey jawbone in "Disparada" way back in the '60s [with Quarteto Novo, backing Geraldo Vandré]. He is a fantastic drummer and percussionist.

Chris: Are you still archiving Hermeto’s compositions? I understand you've filed over 1,000 of his compositions.
Jovino: I am always working on preparing Hermeto's music as a legacy to the musicians of this and the next generations. I have edited one book, Tudo É Som, which was published by Universal Edition, and that book has been important in helping musicians connect with Hermeto's work. This work of preparing and notating Hermeto's music will probably take many more years, since there is so much material, but I do it one day at a time. Eventually more music will be made available using more modern means, like the Internet.

Chris: Is your archival work for Hermeto helping musicians to perform and record his compositions?
Jovino: This is what I hope. I have received some great feedback and comments from musicians from all over the world. Of course, Hermeto is a legendary musician, but it is very hard to transcribe his music from recordings. It is also very difficult to tell what is written from what is improvised in his work, so I hope to help other musicians access his work.

Chris: What is the Hermeto Pascoal Big Band exactly?

Jovino: Hermeto has been writing big band charts since the early 1970s. In 1986, 1989 and 1992 he was commissioned by the Danish Radio Big Band to write some more music, which they performed. In 2000 and 2004 another big band was formed with top players in London to perform his compositions, under my direction and with Hermeto as a soloist. We also played in 2005 in France with the Big Band from the Toulouse Conservatory. Hermeto's jazz orchestra charts are challenging and beautiful, audiences really enjoy them. I directed a U.S. premiere of several of them with the Bobby Sanabria Big Band in New York's Merkin Hall in September 2006.

Chris: What has been the importance of Hermeto as a mentor for you? How did he help you develop as a musician?

Jovino: Hermeto was my school for 15 years, and I continue to learn from him by studying, practicing and analyzing his music. His importance as a mentor to several generations of Brazilian musicians is undeniable. As a teacher, he never "taught", but instead he knew exactly what kind of challenge to place in front of a musician. He knew what kind of language to employ with each one, and how to make musicians with widely different levels of expertise play together harmoniously.

Chris: What were the rehearsals like for O Grupo?

Jovino: Every day was different. We often would spend entire days working on one challenging passage, learning it individually and collectively. He often composed the music in front of us, so we also got to know how to compose, arrange, score and lead a group. At other times he would dismantle the rehearsal by starting some wacky improvised piece of music, and this could lead to new written music. There was never a dull day in the Grupo.

Chris: What were the live performances like for O Grupo?

Jovino: Our sets were never pre-determined, we would often change a piece in the middle into another one. Often there would be guest musicians sitting in with us, or new compositions would be premiered right there in front of the audience. We have played concerts as long as five hours, so this was certainly a stamina-building exercise...

Chris: Can you talk about Hermeto’s harmonic concepts? And how have they influenced you?

Jovino: His harmonic concepts are indeed a new way to look at music. The idea of one tonal center or key signature that we have been using in music for centuries has been replaced with a much deeper and multi-layered approach. His music can be folkloric, regional, popular, jazzy, atonal, but the concept remains as a guiding force. It's hard to explain without an instrument, but its basis is the juxtaposition of simple triads and the avoidance of linear forms such as scales or modes. You can employ it to play all existing music, but it can lead to creation at a much higher level.

Chris: Are there any important trends you see in Brazilian music today, both instrumental and otherwise?

Jovino: I just got back from Brazil, where I travelled through the Nordeste region, from Alagoas to Paraíba and Pernambuco, and I heard a lot of young musicians playing very creative music based on their traditional forms. I heard bands like Sertão Catingoso, O Quadro, Azabumba, and many others who are combining traditional Northeastern forms with contemporary concepts in music. Also in Rio, I heard young choro players like Eduardo Neves, Caio Marcio and Rogério Caetano injecting new life into a 150-year old style. It's certainly encouraging to hear this music and know that in spite of little attention given in the mainstream media, music in Brazil is alive and well.

Chris: Could you comment about the music of your fellow Grupo alumnus, Carlos Malta?

Jovino: Carlos Malta has always been a virtuoso flutist and saxophonist. Recently I saw him on TV playing with carpideiras, women who sing at funerals, and also with some traditional musicians from Goiás. I admire his talent and his creativity.

Chris: Are there any promising young musicians in Brazil that have caught your ear? Perhaps Yamandú Costa, Hamilton de Holanda? Anybody you'd like to talk about?

Jovino: Yes, both Hamilton and harmonica player Gabriel Grossi recorded with me in Roda Carioca. There are far too many young talented musicians to mention. Itiberê Zwarg, with his Orquestra Família, and the Pró-Arte, with their Flautistas Group, have done a lot to bring new players into the scene. Yamandú is an amazing guitarist, as are Marcus Tardelli, Daniel Santiago, Caio Márcio, and Rogério Caetano. There is a great new generation, and I am very pleased to hear them.

Chris: What are your current creative projects?

Jovino: I am always working on a few things at the same time. Right now, I am diving deeply into the music of the Nordeste for my upcoming CD, which will be recorded in August. I am working to bring the beautiful musical languages of the aboio, pífanos, maracatu, frevo and xote into a personal blend that will sound harmonically modern, but without losing its connection to the land. It will be called Alma do Nordeste and will be the result of a research trip I just took through the region, courtesy of a grant from Petrobrás. I am also recording a solo piano CD this week for Adventure Music, and I am writing a piece for twenty percussionists that will be premiered here in Seattle in July.

Chris: Brazilians are known for being eclectic musicians and you are one of the most diverse, ranging across Brazilian and American styles, jazz and classical music, and the avant-garde.

Jovino: I feel happy to be able to connect musically with the entire planet.

Since our interview took place, Jovino has released the albums Alma do Nordeste (2008) and Veja o Som (2010). The latter is a double CD of duets with musicians such as Bill Frisell, Paquito d'Rivera, João Donato, Airto Moreira, Joyce, Paula Morelenbaum, Monica Salmaso, Ricardo Silveira, and Gabriel Grossi.

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Jovino's Favorite Hermeto Pascoal Compositions

In 2010, I asked Jovino to send me a top ten of his favorite recorded Hermeto Pascoal compositions, with a sentence or two about each one. Here is his list:

ONE: "São Jorge" -- one of several horse songs Hermeto has composed, this one was also the very first track I recorded as a member of his group in 1978.

TWO: "Nem Um Talvez" -- also recorded by Miles Davis, this has to be one of the prettiest melodies ever written. Gorgeous tune...

THREE: "Dança da Selva na Cidade Grande" -- this one shows Hermeto’s mastery of wooden flutes and natural sounds and his collage of voices and percussion (including sand, corn, beans, chains and water in the studio). One of several ?Indian? songs by HP.

FOUR: "Missa dos Escravos (Slaves Mass)" -- a very mysterious piece, made famous by the use of pigs in the recording. There’s much more than that, though. The harmony (unusual tuning of the guitar), the flutes and the chants make this tune one of my favorites.

FIVE: "Montreux" -- I watched that one being written in a hotel room in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1979 on the back of a laundry list, just a few hours before we played it in front of a huge crowd. My wife Luzia is Swiss; we were there that day and still remember it fondly...

SIX: "Quebrando Tudo" -- this entirely improvised piece one shows Hermeto’s amazing performance on the clavinet. He created the whole thing on the spot.

SEVEN: "Intocável" -- a beautiful choro, modern and traditional at the same time. The great Raphael Rabello recorded it with us. I always remember his laughter when I hear that tune.

EIGHT: "Três Coisas" -- one of the many examples of the Sound of the Aura, a technique created by Hermeto to harmonize the sound of the human voice. I played all the sounds on this one, built around the voice of the great poet and actor Mario Lago.

NINE: "Série de Arco" -- Hermeto composed this one to accompany my sister Maria Luiza’s routine as a rhythmic gymnast in 1980, first as a solo piano piece, then he arranged it for the Grupo. Wonderful harmonic language, a technical challenge to play. The composition followed her movements as she rolled on the floor and jumped around.

TEN: "Suite Norte, Sul, Leste, Oeste" -- a wonderful collection of short vignettes inspired by the diversity of Brazilian music.

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Select Jovino Santos Neto Discography
(U.S. releases unless otherwise noted)

Jovino Santos Neto (solo or with his Quintet)
Caboclo. Liquid City Records, 1997.
Ao Vivo em Olympia: Live in Olympia. Liquid City Records, 2000.
Canto do Rio. Liquid City Records, 2003.
Roda Carioca. Adventure Music, 2006.
Alma do Nordeste. Adventure Music, 2008.
Veja o Som See the Sound. Adventure Music, 2010.

Jovino Santos Neto & Weber Iago
Live at Caramoor. Adventure Music, 2009.

Richard Boukas & Jovino Santos Neto
Balaio. Malandro Records, 2000.

Wolfgang "Humbucker" Frisch, Dr. Nachstrom, et al.
Rhythmic Fission: Digital Revisions of Classic Trax. RCA, 2004. (included Jovino Santos Neto & Tamara L. Weikel’s "Ritual Rhythm," based on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring).

Mike Marshall & Jovino Santos Neto
Serenata: The Music of Hermeto Pascoal. Adventure Music, 2003.

Hermeto Pascoal (with Jovino Santos Neto in O Grupo)
Zabumbê-Bum-Á. WEA (Brazil), 1979.
Ao Vivo em Montreux. WEA (Brazil), 1980.
Cérebro Magnético. WEA (Brazil), 1980.
Hermeto Pascoal e Grupo. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1982.
Lagoa da Canoa, Município de Arapiraca. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1984.
Brasil Universo. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1985.
Só Não Toca Quem Não Quer. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1987.
Festa Dos Deuses. PolyGram (Brazil), 1992.

Joyce Yarrow & Jovino Santos Neto.
Total Reflex. Independent, 2000.

Jovino Santos Neto Bibliography

Tudo é Som (ed.). Vienna: Universal Edition, 2001.
World Music Brazil: Play-Along Flute. Universal Edition, 2008.

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*Top Photo of Jovino Santos Neto by Lara Hoefs (Courtesy Jovino Santos Neto)

João do Vale: Poet of Maranhão

2011-08-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

"Bright moon, the sun has a red face
The sea is a large mirror
Where the two will look at themselves
Yellow rose loses its scent when it wilts"
--João do Vale and Luis Vieira, "Na Asa do Vento"

Not long ago, when Brazilians gathered to play guitars and sing at the beach or in someone's house, they often sang a beautiful, mysterious tune called "Na Asa do Vento" (On the Wing of the Wind), which was recorded by Caetano Veloso in 1975. Those who sang the song seldom knew who had written it, although they might have guessed that it was Veloso or maybe Dolores Duran, who recorded it in 1956. If you had mentioned João do Vale's name to them, it would usually have drawn a blank stare. Who? Yet it was João do Vale (1933-1996) who co-wrote that song and the classics "Caracará" (which helped launch Maria Bethânia to fame), "Sina do Caboclo" (recorded by Nara Leão), "Pisa na Fulô (sung by Ivon Curi and many others), "A Voz do Povo" (interpreted by Alaide Costa), "Coronel Antonio Bento" (which rocked in Tim Maia's recording), and "O Canto da Ema" (sung by both Jackson do Pandeiro and Gilberto Gil).

João do Vale and Chico Buarque perform "Carcará" in 1982

Although comparatively unknown, João was an important popularizer of northeastern song styles, along with Luiz Gonzaga and Jackson do Pandeiro, as well as a great lyricist. He told the story of his life and of the poor people of Maranhão in concise, poignant narratives filled with vivid images and the vernacular of the sertão (a dialect sometimes difficult for urban Brazilians to fathom). He could indulge in earthy good humor—as in the lascivious “Peba na Pimenta” (Armadillo in the Pepper), a playful tune full of lewd double entendres—or meditate lyrically about love and nature, as in “Na Asa do Vento.”

"Love is a bandit
It can even cost you money
It's a flower that has no scent
That all the world wants to smell"
--"Na Asa do Vento"

Caetano Veloso sings "Na Asa do Vento"

João Batista do Vale was born in Pedreiras, Maranhão in 1933. He was the fifth of eight brother in a poor family. Instead of going to school, he helped sell the sweets and breads that his mother made. When he was 13, his family moved to the state capital São Luis, where young João sold oranges in fairs. He also participated in a bumba-meu-boi folkloric group called Noite Linda. Not too long afterwards, the young teenager resolved to try his luck in the South, the traditional path for the young and out-of-work in the Northeast. João ran away from home, going first to Teresina, Piauí, where he got a job as a trucker's assistant. Then came Salvador, and Minas Gerais, where he worked in a mine. He was musically inclined and all the while he was writing songs, concentrating on the words since he couldn't play an instrument and didn't have a great voice.

In 1950, João made his way to Rio de Janeiro, where he found work as a bricklayer and also spent time hanging out at the Radio Nacional and Rádio Tupi stations. At the latter, he met songwriter Luis Vieira, who liked João's songs and helped him develop them. In 1953, the singer Marlene recorded their baião "Estrela Miúda" (Tiny Star*) and Zé Gonzaga (the bother of Luiz) recorded the stylized baião "Madalena," which he had co-written with João. During the '50s, João achieved more songwriting successes (including Dolores Duran's covering of "Na Asa do Vento." And he began to appear in films, such as Mão Sangrenta, in '54.

Jackson do Pandeiro and João perform "O Canto da Ema"

In the 1960s João stepped into the limelight for a few years. Early in that decade Zé Keti took him to a hip musician’s hangout—the restaurant Zicartola, run by the sambista Cartola and his wife, Zica. João began performing there and was invited to play a role in the musical theater piece Opinião, alongside Keti and Nara Leão. The play was a success, and one of its songs, João’s stirring anthem “Carcará,” launched Maria Bethânia (who replaced Leão) to fame the next year when she recorded it as a single. “Carcará” was about the carcará bird of prey that never goes hungry, even when millions of northeasterners are starving to death in the sertão during one of the region’s frequent droughts. João’s song “Sina de Caboclo” (Fate of the Mestizo) concisely summarizes the fate of many northeastern men.

"I am a poor mestizo, I earn my living with a hoe
What I harvest is divided with he who plants nothing
If it continues thus, I will leave my sertão
Even with eyes full of tears and with pain in the heart
I will go to Rio to carry mortar for the bricklayer"
--João do Vale and Jocastro Bezerra de Aquino, "Sina de Caboclo"

João released his first album, O Poeta do Povo (The People's Poet) on Philips in 1965. Yet he did not have a great voice and achieved recognition through his songwriting. By the late 1970s he had fallen out of the public eye, but his peers never forgot him. In 1981, several of his musical friends (Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque, Alceu Valença, Fagner, Amelinha, Clara Nunes, and Nara Leão among them) gathered with João to record João do Vale, a retrospective of his greatest hits. His home town of Pedreiras named a street and a school after him. And in 1995, Buarque organized another tribute album, João Batista do Vale, in which Buarque, Valença, Edu Lobo, Maria Bethânia, and others interpreted João’s classics.

--Chris McGowan

YouTube Links:

Caetano Veloso performing "Na Asa do Vento."

Maria Bethânia performing Caracará" in Opinião, 1965.

João do Vale and Chico Buarque performing "Carcará" in 1982.

*Further Notes:

I had the pleasure of playing a role in getting João's song "Estrela Miúda" onto David Bryne's Brazil Classics 3: Forró, Etc. (a 1991 compilation album of music from Brazil's Northeast), and in giving the album its name. I had interviewed Byrne in 1989 after he had released the MPB compilation Brazil Classics 1: Beleza Tropical, and while he was working on the second album in the series, O Samba, as well as Forró, Etc. I made two sampler cassette tapes for him, one full of samba (including two songs that appeared on O Samba) and one of northeastern music that I labeled "Forró, Etc." On the latter tape, I included a performance by João and Amelinha of "Estrela Miúda" from the 1981 CBS retrospective João do Vale, which was quite obscure for an American and certainly something Byrne would not have encountered on his own. Soon after, I received a call from Yale Evelev, who worked at Bryne's Luaka Bop label. They were having trouble finding a master tape of "Estrela Miúda" and wanted to know if I might have a CD of the album (I didn't). I received a handwritten letter of thanks from Byrne for sending him the tapes, but was never credited on the record. I was surprised that they used my offhanded "Forró, Etc." label for my sampler tape for their album title.

Leo Gandelman and Marcelo Caldi at the Festival

2011-07-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

In the Festival Vale do Café, many of the performances take place at the grand estates in the region that once were Brazil's most important coffee plantations. In these historic and often lavish settings, musicians play beneath large tents erected on sprawling lawns, large rooms in mansions turn into intimate clubs with 150-year-old decor, and stages arise in the most unusual places -- such as in the corral for milk cows where saxophonist Leo Gandelman performed on Saturday (July 23) at the Fazenda Cananéia, not far from Vassouras. Gandelman and keyboardist Maria Teresa Madeira offered spirited readings of standards by Pixinguinha, Villa-Lobos, Gnatalli, Nazaré, and other giants of the past. The show demonstrated Gandelman's great versatility, of which many fans of his "smooth jazz" side may be unaware.

Leo Gandelman, "A Rã"

The next day (July 24), Marcelo Caldi and his quartet played at the Fazenda São João da Barra near Morro Azul. Caldi, a singer and sanfonista (button accordion player), is in the center of this photo, wearing a black hat. Her performed a tribute to Dominguinhos, the great northeastern composter and sanfonista, now in his 70th year. Caldi's group displayed great proficiency and verve as they interpreted standards such as "Eu Só Quero um Xodó" and "Lamento Sertanejo." It was a great pleasure to hear the forró-style music (xotes, arrasta-pés, etc.) and northeastern-tinged choro played with the instrumentation of two accordions and a mandolin by such competent players.

Marcelo Caldi, Edu Krieger and Rodrigo Maranhão, "Desafio"

Caldi, born in 1980, has already released ten albums and played on stage with the likes of Zeca Pagodinho, Zélia Duncan, Yamandú Costa, Hamilton de Holanda, Simone, and Gandelman. His music is not easy to find on Amazon, but here is one title that is intermittently available:

Marcelo Caldi and Fabio Luna, Forró e Choro, Vol. 1 (Delira Música).

Leo Gandelman's albums are easier to find: Leo Gandelman on Amazon.

The music festival runs through July 31. Other performers participating include Mart'nália, Ivan Lins, Tira Poeira, Ulissses Rocha, Yamandú Costa, Turíbio Santos, and Cristina Braga.

More info (in Portuguese): Festival Vale do Café.

Photos: Leo Gandelman and Maria Teresa Madeira at Fazenda Cananéia (top), and Marcelo Caldi and group at the Fazenda São João da Barra. Photos © Chris McGowan.

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Digital Editions of "The Brazilian Sound" Coming Soon

2011-07-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

Digital editions of our Brazilian music book "The Brazilian Sound," in .pdf and kindle, will arrive on September 1st.

They contain the entire third edition of our book, published in print by Temple University Press, with a few additions in the text and some new photos.

The digital editions will be available through Amazon.com and other online shops (and from us). Please contact us for more information at thebraziliansound at hotmail, or visit The Brazilian Sound book.

Festival Vale do Café Begins

2011-07-21T14:59:00.001-07:00

The ninth edition of the Festival Vale do Café (Coffee Valley Festival) begins tomorrow, running July 22-31 in Vassouras and the small towns and country estates of the "Coffee Valley" historic region just north of Rio de Janeiro.

Ivan Lins, Yamandú Costa, Mart'nália, Leo Gandelman, Daniela Spielmann, Ulisses Rocha, Tira Poeira, and Carol Macdavit are among the performers, along with event organizers Turíbio Santos and Cristina Braga. The music is wide-ranging: classical music, choro, MPB, instrumental, and Brazilian folk traditions.

Info (in Portuguese):

Festival Vale do Café website

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Save a Life / Salvar uma Vida: Register As a Voluntary Bone Marrow Donor

2011-07-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

Did you know that bone marrow transplants are successful 70% of the time and if there were more donors tens of thousands more people with diseases like leukemia could be cured? Did you know that the U.S., Brazil, and Germany have the largest donor banks in the world? It's easy to register as a donor. Please read the blog below (click on links for English or Portuguese versions):

Save a Life: Register as a Bone-Marrow Donor

Salvar uma Vida: tornar-se um doador voluntário de medula óssea

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Vale do Café Festival coming in July

2011-06-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

The ninth edition of the Festival Vale do Café (Coffee Valley Festival) will take place July 22-31 at the fazendas and in the small towns of a historic region just north of Rio de Janeiro. Ivan Lins, Yamandú Costa, Daniela Spielmann, Ulisses Rocha, Tira Poeira and Carol Macdavit are among the performers, along with event organizers Turíbio Santos and Cristina Braga. I will post more information soon. Here is a Huffington Post blog I wrote about last year's festival:

Brazil's Hidden Magical Music Festival

O Globo Mentions "The Brazilian Sound"

2010-11-03T05:18:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, Nov. 1, Rio de Janeiro's daily newspaper "O Globo" interviewed Milton Nascimento about his new album for the cover story of the "Caderno B" arts section. In the article,
Leonardo Lichote describes how the musical map in our book "The Brazilian Sound" inspired Milton to create his new album, "...E a Gente Sonhando" (EMI, 2010), which has the participation of around thirty musicians and composers from his hometown, the small city of Três Pontas in the state of Minas Gerais.

"His idea of bringing, of incorporating the new music of Três Pontas (and surrounding region) with his own was born when the book "The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil," of Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha, arrived in his hands. The city was the only one that wasn't a [state] capital to be highlighted on a Brazilian map, as an important musical center," writes Lichote.

Here is the link to the article: "Milton Nascimento grava CD com jovens músicos de Três Pontas, cidade onde cresceu" by Leonardo Lichote (O Globo, Nov. 1, 2010).

We also talk about our musical map and Milton's new album in the previous blog.

Our Book Inspires a New Milton Nascimento Album

2010-09-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

My appreciation of the remarkable music of Milton Nascimento was a major reason that I started writing about Brazilian music and that I eventually wrote The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil with Ricardo Pessanha. So, it was with great happiness that I learned recently that a musical map in our book had inspired Milton to embark on his latest musical project: E a Gente Sonhando (And Us Dreaming), an album that focuses on the music of his hometown, Três Pontas.

In The Brazilian Sound, we have a chapter on Milton and his musical colleagues from Minas Gerais, and a musical map that includes cities like Rio, Recife, and Salvador. It also has Três Pontas, because of the musical importance of Milton and Wagner Tiso (who also grew up there). When Milton saw that Três Pontas was on the map, he felt a need to return to the town where he grew up and explore the current musical scene there. He felt a strong emotion and wanted to give something back to his hometown.

"I started to talk with Marco Elizeo, who co-produced the album with me, and said, 'It’s tough! What are we going to do to show this stuff from Três Pontas that these guys talk about?' " Milton told Miguel Sá in the August, 2010 issue of Backstage. Sá continued, "The answer was to have a dinner in a bar in Três Pontas for thirty people, who were a good part of the musical community of the city. Between food and drinks, Milton could see what was happening with the musicians from there. This was the first of various events for the composer to get to know the local musical talents. Nobody knew, but the project of recording an album with them was already ripening."

Milton Nascimento collaborated with thirty young singers and musicians from Três Pontas on the album, which includes both new compositions and re-recordings of the songs “Raras Maneiras” (written by Tunai and Márcio Borges, and originally recorded by Simone), “Advinha o Quê” (Lulu Santos), and “Estrela, Estrela” (Vitor Ramil). The title track was composed by Milton over forty years ago and recorded by the Tempo Trio on their 1965 Tempo Trio album.

E a Gente Sonhando is set for release later this month.

*Miguel Sá's cover story “Tres Pontas é do mundo, é” is in August, 2010 (edição 190) issue of Backstage: Backstage.com.br. In that particular article, the author and Milton refer to the U.K. edition of The Brazilian Sound, which was titled The Billboard Book of Brazilian Music.

**Milton also talks about The Brazilian Sound and the new album in the press release “Milton Nascimento retorna a Três Pontas em novo disco” in "Notícias" area of his website: MiltonNascimento.com.br.

The Brazilian Sound: From 1991 to Today

2010-09-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

Our book The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil has been the leading guide to Brazilian music in the English language since 1991, when it was first published by Billboard Books. The Brazilian Sound has now had three U.S. editions (the last two with Temple University Press), one U.K. edition (with the title The Billboard Book of Brazilian Music), and French, German, and Japanese translations. The current 2009 edition is available worldwide through Amazon. The U.S. edition can be found here: The Brazilian Sound at Amazon.com.

Images from top to bottom:

1. The Brazilian Sound (Temple University Press, 3rd ed., 2009).

2. The Brazilian Sound (Japan: Shinko Music Publishing, 1999).

3. Le Son du Brésil: Samba, Bossa Nova et Musiques Populares (France: Éditions Lusophone, 1999).

4. The Brazilian Sound (Temple University Press, 2nd ed., 1998).

5. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova und die Klange Brasiliens (Germany: Hannibal Verlag, 1991).

6. The Billboard Book of Brazilian Music: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Sounds of Brazil (England: Guinness Publishing, 1991).

7. The Brazilian Sound (Billboard Books, 1st ed., 1991).

Brazil's Hidden Music Festival

2010-08-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

One of the best music festivals in Brazil is one that not many people know about. The Festival Vale do Café (the Coffee Valley Festival) is a ten-day celebration set in a picturesque valley two hours by car from Rio de Janeiro. The event, which began July 23, offers everything from classical music and choro to regional Brazilian music/dance like jongo, calango, caxambú and folia de reis. Cristina Braga, the first harpist of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Teatro Municipal of Rio, created the festival eight years ago, and classical guitarist Turíbio Santos and Paulo Barroso are the artistic directors.

Free presentations take place in Vassouras and other towns in the historic region, once the coffee-growing center of colonial Brazil and situated in the Paraíba River valley in the state of Rio de Janeiro. In addition, small concerts requiring admission are staged at many old coffee plantations, in lavish period mansions or on the surrounding grounds. The settings are historic, beautiful, and unique.

Leo Gandelman, Victor Biglione, Carl McDavit, Zé Paulo Becker, Duo Gisbranco, Carlinhos de Jesus, and Marcelo Caldi were among the festival's featured performers, along with Cristina Braga and Turíbio Santos. I attended a performance by Cristina Braga at the Fazenda Cachoeira Grande in Vassouras. The innovative harpist played pieces by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Tom Jobim, and herself, and was accompanied by an accordion player and bass guitarist. She added a strong rhythmic drive to some compositions, and supplemented others with her soft, breathy voice. The pairing of guitarist Turíbio Santos and poet Affonso Romano de Sant'anna at the Fazenda Guaritá in Rio das Flores was another highlight. Santos's sublime guitar playing, excerpting Villa-Lobos, Albeniz, and Luiz Gonzaga, counterpointed Affonso's wise and clever poetry on a bright sunny day under a white tent on the sweeping green lawn of the estate.

The Cortejo de Tradições, a presentation of regional musical/cultural traditions, made for a stunning evening on July 24 in Vassouras. Bells rang out a little after 9pm in the square in front of the city's beautiful Igreja da Matriz, and colorful groups carrying banners appeared out of the darkness and converged on the 150-meter lawn that runs from the church downhill to the end of the plaza. There were folia de reis, jongo, caxambú, capoeira, calango, cana-verde, and maculelê groups, each from a different town in the valley. Each one took a different place on the grass and performed simultaneously with the others. You could wander from group to group, taking in a staggering array of venerable Afro-Brazilian traditions that were enough to make a cultural historian run a fever. The Vale do Café is one of the few places, perhaps the only one, in Brazil where so many traditions can be found in one region. And the festival seems to be playing a role in helping to perpetuate them.

The Festival do Vale do Café is a multi-faceted affair, and part of it is devoted to music instruction. The celebrated participants offer some 400 free music courses to local children. The firm Backstage produces the event, and Embratel, Petrobras, o Globo, and the state of Rio de Janeiro are among the sponsors. If you happen to be in Rio de Janeiro next year at this time, this is a music event not to be missed.

Further festival information (in Portuguese): Festival do Vale do Café website.

Also see: "Brazil's Hidden Magic Musical Festival" by Chris McGowan (Huffington Post)

Photos copyright Chris McGowan 2010. From top to bottom: (1) a capoeira group; (2) guitarist Turíbio Santos and poet Affonso Romano de Sant'anna; (3) a jongo group.

Brazilian Rock's Guiding Light, Ezequiel Neves, Passes Away

2010-07-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

Ezequiel Neves and Cazuza

Ezequiel Neves, an important and colorful figure in Brazilian rock history, died on Wednesday (July 7) at age 74, in Rio de Janeiro. The music producer and journalist—known to friends as Zeca—passed away on the twentieth anniversary of the death of the popular singer-songwriter Cazuza, for whom he was a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Neves co-produced Cazuza’s solo albums and those of his band Barão Vermelho, and corrected the Portuguese in his lyrics. The two co-wrote several songs together, including “Codinome Beija Flor,” “Exagerado,” “Burguesia,” and “Por Que a Gente é Assim?” Neves was instrumental in the career of Cazuza, one of the most popular and iconic musicians for Brazil’s middle class in the 1980s.

Neves influenced Brazilian rock starting in the 1970s with his music writing, as the producer of the glam-rock band Made in Brazil, and with his work with Rita Lee after she left the Mutantes (one of the songs they wrote together was “Vote Em Mim”). In the 1980s, he was something of a guru and sounding board for many important groups of that era, a breakthrough time for Brazilian rock. Cazuza and Barão Vermelho and bands like Titãs, Legião Urbana, and the Paralamas do Sucesso took the genre to new heights of critical and commercial success. Prior to the ‘80s, there had been brilliant individual rock talents like Raul Seixas and os Mutantes, but not an entire musical movement that spoke for a generation. In the ‘90s, Neves guided the careers of Angela Ro-Ro (making a comeback) and Cássia Eller (a powerful rock/pop vocalist who died prematurely, like Cazuza).

Born in 1935 in Belo Horizonte, Neves was an actor in the ‘60s and moved to São Paulo to pursue his career. A devoted fan of jazz and Brazilian musicians like Elizeth Cardoso and João Gilberto, Neves had a life-altering moment when he first heard Jim Morrison. “He was turned onto rock and roll by the Doors and then he became a music writer. That was the start of a new career for him,” recalls music journalist and film director José Emilio Rondeau.

While writing for newspapers in São Paulo, Neves was called to start a Brazilian Rolling Stone in 1972. "He was like a guiding light to everyone, instructive and informative. He always took sides. If he loved something, he would go to depths of hell to make sure people heard it with the excitement that he did. If he didn’t like it he hated it with a passion and would loudly proclaim it. As a writer, Zeca was unique, inimitable. He wrote with urgency, a sense of humor, irreverence, with the energy and passion of rock and roll itself.”

“He was an archetypical representative of a generation that either took up arms to fight the military dictatorship or turned to sex, drugs and rock and roll to survive the oppression,” recalls Ricardo Pessanha, co-author of The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil. “Zeca chose the latter and did it with grace. His column in the first Brazilian Rolling Stone magazine was trend setting. Everybody read it to know what was going on in music, behavior and the arts in general.”

That version of Rolling Stone in Brazil was a “pirate” version without official authorization and it lasted for a year. Neves also wrote for the Brazilian version of Playboy, Pop, Jornal da Tarde (a newspaper in São Paulo), and Jornal da Música. As an editor, he was a father figure to an entire generation of Brazilian rock journalists, including Ana Maria Bahiana and the aforementioned José Emilio Rondeau.

As the international editor for Jornal da Música, Neves gave a break to Rondeau, then an aspiring young rock journalist. “He gave me an assignment: a story on, of all people, Ted Nugent! But he warned there was no payment involved. And that was more than fine with me. I wanted to get started and money was my last priority. And that is how it all started - my career in rock writing.” Rondeau developed into a prominent critic and went on to direct several early music videos, produce Legião Urbana’s first album, and direct the film 1972 (a “rock and roll romance” that he co-wrote with Bahiana). In that movie, Rondeau and Bahiana based the colorful character of Guti, a rock-magazine editor, on Neves.

“Zeca was a mixture of father, mother, older brother, godfather, mentor, cheerleader and inspiration to the whole world tied to Brazilian rock from the 1970s on. He lit the way for multitudes of readers and musicians, opened doors, gave advice. I learned with him not to take everything so seriously. He wrote things that were really funny and he made you laugh. I learned it was okay in a rock review to make the reader laugh, to take it with a pinch or a pound of salt.”

Neves also stretched the boundaries of music journalism. “He considered himself a fiction writer, and wrote a lot of stuff that never happened,” says Rondeau. “I remember once he wrote about a Keith Richards solo album called I’m Not Silly, I’m Just Crazy and he reviewed it. And the album never existed. He invented it!” Neves also wrote under the pseudonym of Angela Dust, a character who told wild tongue-in-cheek stories, such as one fictional account of attending a party with Mick Jagger and sleeping with him.

As a person, by most accounts, Neves was loud, intelligent, intense, often obnoxious, always fascinating, and reliably flamboyant. Rondeau recalls an occasion when Charlie Watts was visiting Brazil and music mogul André Midani hosted a dinner party for him. Neves was also invited. When the Stones drummer Charlie Watts took notice of the raucous and outrageous Zeca, he didn’t ask, “Who is he?” Rather, he asked, “What is he?”

Rondeau also recalls Neves visiting him at his house one morning. Rondeau was listening to a new Clash album and Neves insisted that they commemorate the event by drinking tequila – for breakfast –as they listened to the LP on headphones.

The intensity, honesty, and irreverence characteristic of Neves’s personality were hallmarks of Cazuza’s lyrics. Cazuza achieved fame with his group Barão Vermelho, then left them in 1985 to record solo albums. His albums Ideologia, Burguesia and O Tempo Não Pára earned him critical adulation and multi-platinum sales in the years before his untimely death of AIDS in 1990 (Cazuza was one of the first Brazilian celebrities to openly admit having the disease).

Rondeau comments, “To me, Cazuza would have been nothing without Ezequiel Neves. Cazuza became Cazuza because of him, because he really pushed him and he brought out the best in him as a writer. I think there’s more of him in Cazuza’s music than he’s credited for.” Their relationship is part of Sandra Werneck's 2004 biographical movie about Cazuza titled O Tempo Não Pára.

Rondeau adds, “He was always affectionate, always generous, always attentive, always ready to help, and always ready with a big laugh.” Rondeau asserts that Neves was vital to Brazilian rock in the 1970’s and ‘80s. “He wrote about it, championed it, and helped produce some great music.” Tributes to Neves appeared in Brazilian newspapers in the days following his death. An obituary in O Globo referred to him as “a fundamental character in Brazilian culture for the last four decades.”

A Carioca Goes Regional

2010-07-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Rodrigo Maranhão has been well known as a songwriter and guitarist for more than a decade, and as the leader of the group Bangalafumenga. Fernanda Abreu, Zélia Duncan, and Marianna Leporace have recorded his compositions, and Maria Rita brought his beautiful song "Caminhos das Águas" to a wide audience in 2006 (it sounds uncannily like something her mother Elis Regina would have recorded). His own interpretation of the song, on his 2007 debut album Bordado, features guitarwork that recalls Dori Caymmi's playing on the latter's 1988 solo album. On Bordado, Rodrigo's carioca sensibility gives us new takes on the Brazilian regional styles baião, xote, ciranda and coco (from the Northeast), and milonga gauchesca (from the South).

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Rodrigo Maranhão with Marcelo Caldi, "Milonga"

Rodrigo won the Prémio Tim award in 2008 for best new talent as well as best regional singer. Listen to "Caminhos das Águas" and more here: Rodrigo Maranhão on MySpace.

photo above: Rodrigo Maranhão & Roberta Sá

New Female Voices: Aline & Antonia

2010-07-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

The floodgates seem to have opened for new Brazilian female musical talent. Aline Calixto and Antonia Adnet are two rising young singer-songwriters who have both released debut albums this year. Calixto, who is from Minas Gerais, drew attention two years ago singing at the Carioca da Gema club, the most important samba nightspot in Rio de Janeiro. Her eponymous 2010 album covers samba and other Afro-Brazilian styles, as Aline interprets her own songs as well as compositions by Nelson Sargento, Monarco and Moacyr Luz. Could she become the next Clara Nunes? Listen to her here: Aline Calixto on MySpace.

Aline Calixto, "Tudo o que sou"

Aline Calixto, "Oxossi"

Antonia Adnet is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and arranger. She is the daughter of renowned musician Mario Adnet. Antonia gained recognition playing guitar in Roberta Sá's touring band in 2005 and 2007, and on the latter's second album. Her 2010 debut album Discreta melds bossa nova, MPB and samba, and features her own songs, as well as a nice instrumental rendition of Moacir Santos's "Vitrine." She has a sweet, clear, delicate voice. Listen to "Vitrine" and her tunes such as "Um Dia Quem Sabe" (One Day, Who Knows) here: Antonia Adnet on MySpace.

Antonia Adnet and Roberta Sá, "Discreta"

Find Brazilian music CDs and MP3s at Amazon.com

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Carnaval 2010 in Rio de Janeiro

2010-02-24T15:53:00.000-08:00

I published three blogs in the Huffington Post about the February, 2010 Carnaval ("Carnival") in Rio de Janeiro:

Feb. 12: Carnaval in Rio: How to Have Fun and Not Get Mugged

Feb. 15: Rio's Carnaval Kicks Off Amidst Heat, Optimism & Controversy

Feb. 18: Rio's Carnaval: A Long-Awaited Victory, Record Heat, and a Revived Street Scene

The AP (Associated Press) photos on this page are of: Unidos da Tijuca (1 & 2), Portela (3 & 4), and Beija-Flor (5 & 6)

The Late-Blooming Helena Meirelles

2009-12-15T13:44:00.000-08:00

Brazil has had many great "late blooming" musicians who didn't receive recognition until late in life. Helena Meirelles (1924–2005), one such example, only attained a small measure of fame after she was 69 years old. Helena was a singer, songwriter, and master of the viola caipira, a Brazilian folk guitar with steel strings (most often with ten); she also played the six-string guitar. She was from the hinterlands of Mato Grosso do Sul, deep in central Brazil, and played rural music on the viola with a brisk, exuberant flair that tugs at your emotions in a broken-hearted-at-the-boteco-or-cantina kind of way. Her songs favor rhythms like chamamé, rasqueado, and polka that are popular in the region. Listening to her, I wondered two things: what was she like on the viola at a spry 49 or 59, and what would a duet with Ry Cooder have sounded like?

Helena Meirelles, "Canta America"

Born on a farm in the Pantanal region of Mato Grosso do Sul, she learned to play at age eight, but had a hard life that kept her from gaining recognition as a musician until her later years. She married three times, had many children, worked as a washerwoman and midwife, and played her viola in bars, at ranch parties, and in bordellos. She began to gain a wee bit of national attention in the 1980s, when the singer Inezita Barroso presented her on a São Paulo radio station and on TV Cultural, an educational channel. Then, in 1992, Meirelles made a small breakthrough when she appeared on stage with Barroso and the renowned música caipira duo Pena Branca e Xavantinho, at the Sesc Theatre in São Paulo. It was probably the first time in her life that she had played on the stage of a theater.

An even bigger break came in 1993, when Guitar Player magazine in the United States featured Helena in its “Spotlight” section in the November issue.* The resulting international attention resulted in the release of her first album (Helena Meirelles) for Eldorado Records the following year when she was seventy years of age. And Meirelles finally gained long overdue recognition in Brazil.

She subsequently released solo albums such as Flor de Guavira (Eldorado, 1996), Raíz Pantaneira (Eldorado, 1997), and Helena Meirelles ao Vivo (Sapucay, 2002). She also appeared with Almir Sater, Haroldo do Monte, Roberto Corrêa and other viola masters on Os Bambas da Viola (Kuarup, 2004). Helena was the subject of two documentary films: Francisco de Paula's Helena Meirelles, a dama da viola, in 2004 and Dainara Toffoli's Dona Helena (2006).

Roberto Corrêa, a viola master and researcher, said this about Helena: "She represented that border region of Paraguay, northern Argentina and Mato Grosso do Sul that culturally is a region by itself, replete with styles like the polkas, the chamamés, the guarânias, and the rasqueados. She brought the sounds of the frontier, of the wilderness, of an unknown place. Her way of playing was simple, but her music was not."**

Here is a YouTube video from the 2006 documentary about her: Trailer from Dona Helena (in Portuguese).Her albums Flor da Guavira and Grande Dama da Viola: Helena Meirelles are currently available on Amazon.com. Kuarup's Os Bambas da Viola is also on sale, although it may not be for long; the Kuarup music company has closed its doors.

--Chris McGowan

*It has been reported in Wikipedia and other websites that Guitar Player named her as one of the top 100 guitar players in the world (or "100 best instrumentalists") in 2004, but I have been unable to verify this and it seems to be an erroneous claim. In an attempt to find out more, I corresponded with two editors from the magazine. One of them, Joe Gore, wrote back, "Unfortunately, I don't have access to a library of back issues, so I can't verify your question with 100% accuracy. But I have no recollection of running anything along the lines of a "100 Best Instrumentalists" story, so I'm a bit skeptical of the claim. (We probably only would have written about guitar players, not "instrumentalists," and a "100 Best" story is one I would have battled NOT to run during my tenure)." What the Guitar Player editors did confirm was that magazine in featured Helena in the “Spotlight” section in its November, 1993 issue.

If anyone has a Guitar Player back issue that in fact places Meirelles in a "100 Best" list, please let me know, either with a comment here at blogspot or a message via twitter (Brazilian Sound at Twitter) or myspace (Brazilian Sound at MySpace).

**from Jornal do Brasil, as quoted in Dicionário Houaiss Illustrado: Música Popular Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro: Paracatu Editora, 2006).

Bratuques & Delira Música

2009-10-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to the sublime MPB legend João Bosco (a singer-songwriter-guitarist) and standout guitarist Luiz Brasil perform in the “Bratuques” series at the Sala Baden Powell in Copacabana. Conceived and coordinated by Delira Música’s Luciana Pegorer, the series features five outstanding instrumental musicians as the “hosts” for each show (always on Tuesday nights) and two well-known “guests.”

Bosco and Brazil were “invited” the night I attended; others slated to visit in October and November include Toninho Horta, Jorge Vercillo, Torcuato Mariano, Gabriel Grossi, Margareth Menezes, Moraes Moreira, Armandinho, Rita Ribeiro, Arthur Maia, Carlos Malta, and Chico César. Milton Nascimento will appear by himself on Oct. 13, but it looks to be a private show not open to the public.

Marco Lobo, "Bratuques"

The hosts are led by percussionist Marco Lobo, who does the introductions. Lobo is a master of the berimbau (a musical bow with a steel string and gourd), is adept with various drums (including the alfaia, used in maracatu), and wields an impressive assortment of percussion instruments, many of them quite unusual. He has toured with Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, and Billy Cobham; Delira recently released his Aláfia album.

Pianist-keyboardist Kiko Continentino, bassist Gastão Villeroy, drummer Erivelton Silva, and saxophonist-flutist Widor Santiago are the rest of the Bratuques crew. The night I was there, the hosts stretched out on several of their own numbers, often in a jazz-fusion vein, and backed Bosco and Brazil on their compositions.

Lobo and Continentino have released albums with the Delira label, which was founded in 2003 by Pegorer, formerly an executive with Warner Music Brazil. Delira’s releases of quality instrumental works are a bright spot in a struggling Brazilian music industry. Continentino, Gabriel Grossi, Maurício Einhorn, Gisbranco, Guilherme Dias Gomes, Turíbio Santos, Caraivana, Torcuato Mariano, Gilson Peranzzetta, Carlos Malta, and Marcos Souza are others with albums on Delira. If you like Brazilian jazz and instrumental music, I recommend visiting the label’s website and checking out the audio samples from its catalog. Better yet, if you’re in Rio, check out the Bratuques shows.

Bratuques concert series

Delira Musica (in English)

The Brazilian Sound Listening Room

2009-09-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

Would you like to sample some contemporary Brazilian music? Here are a few select Brazilian musicians who are not well known outside of Brazil, with links to their pages on MySpace. Take a musical journey!

Luisa Maita, "Lero-Lero"

A New Generation of Female Vocalists

Luisa Maita

Roberta Sá

Veronica Ferriani

Maria Gadú Glaucia Nasser
Daniela Procopio
Mariana Aydar
Thalma de Freitas
Luciana Alves

Bossa and Instrumental
Mario Adnet

Choro and Instrumental
Yamandú Costa
Hamilton de Holanda

Samba
Mart’nália
Marcos Sacramento
Nilze Carvalho

Samba and Other Styles
Sururu na Roda

Nordeste (Maracatu, Frevo, Forró, etc.)
Siba e a Fuloresta

Nordeste and MPB
Adryana BB

Brazilian Rap
MV Bill

Brazilian Rap/Samba/MPB
Marcelo D2

Brazilian Rock and Pop
Vanguart

Singer Mariana Aydar

Same Brazilian Music Videos Here:
Select YouTube Videos of Brazilian Music at the Brazilian Sound

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Entrevista com Cravo Carbono: Rock, Guitarrada, Tecnobrega e Os Novos Sons de Belém

2009-07-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

An interview in Portuguese with the group Cravo Carbono.

The music of the northern Brazilian state of Pará is being blended in intriguing new ways by the group Cravo Carbono, formed in Belém (the state’s largest city) in 1997. The band consists of vocalist Lázaro Magalhães, guitarist Pio Lobato, bassist Bruno Rabelo, and drummer Vovô. Their music on albums like Córtex (Trama Records, 2006) is wildly eclectic, based in rock and the regional style guitarrada (the instrumental form of lambada). I interviewed the group in 2008 in Portuguese (English translation coming soon). We talked about their music and the contemporary popular music of their region. --Chris McGowan

Chris: Pra começar, gostaria de fazer algumas perguntas sobre música paraense em geral, e seus estilos como carimbó, guitarrada, techobrega (surgindo agora), e a quase falecida lambada. Vocês concordam que a guitarrada foi criada por Mestre Vieira, e que são solos da guitarra em cima de carimbó, cúmbia, e merengue, com influência de choro?

Pio Lobato: A guitarrada é basicamente influenciada por três escolas distintas: os bailes do interior do Pará, onde os ritmos do carimbó e da cúmbia e do merengue eram muito fortes; têm influência fundamental também o choro, de onde Vieira absorveu o aspecto instrumental e melódico típico do gênero; e da Jovem Guarda, como era chamada a geração brasileira que a partir dos anos 60 que passou a gravar rock com influência dos Beatles. As bandas de bailes de Belém absorveram entre outras coisas essa formação instrumental (guitarra, baixo, bateria, voz). Daí popularização da guitarra entre as bandas de Belém.

Bruno Rabelo: Sim. Mestre Vieira é o inventor da guitarrada. É uma criação que tem como marco inicial o primeiro disco solo do Vieira, lançado em 1978, chamado de Lambada das Quebradas. É um estilo no qual a guitarra fica em primeiro plano, atuando como solista.

Lázaro Magalhães: Realmente o detalhe que merece muito destaque é que as guitarradas ficaram assim: um formato marcado por instrumentos de rock, mas que se fixou tradicionalmente pela forte influência do choro na técnica de execução da guitarra elétrica e por traduzir (no melhor sentido antropofágico) dessa maneira para o gosto local os ritmos que chegavam de fora, seja pelas rádios ou pelo cinema (o rock, cumbia, merengue). Um dos resultados disso é que no Brasil existem hoje duas grandes “escolas” de técnicas originais (muito peculiares, de modo que podemos chamar de “sotaques”) de execução da guitarra elétrica: a da guitarradas, no Pará, e a da guitarra baiana de Dodô e Osmar. Ambas são marcadas por grande inventividade.

Chris: A guitarrada de Mestre Vieira parece mais ligada ao carimbó. O que vocês acham?

Pio: Vieira não teve referências anteriores de outros guitarristas. Sua técnica é sobretudo uma adaptação da forma como ele tocava o bandolim, instrumento comum nas rodas de choro. Assim ele criou uma forma muito pessoal de tocar guitarra que certamente tem muito mais conexão com o que ele ouviu na infância em Barcarena, sua terra natal. Há muito tempo o carimbó está presente na cultura musical paraense...

Bruno: O carimbó é um ritmo paraense muito comum em muitas cidades litorâneas e ribeirinhas paraenses. E Viera nasceu em Barcarena que é uma cidade ribeirinha. Inclusive, temos a primeira canção do álbum Lambadas das Quebradas, um carimbó-guitarrada, onde o vocalista conta a história de uma baleia que teria aportado na cidade de Barcarena tempos atrás. As “frases” de guitarra de Vieira trazem muita influência tanto da parte percussiva quanto dos sopros do carimbó. Influências importantíssimas, mas não preponderantes. O choro, do mesmo modo, é uma referência forte para Vieira, que é fã de Waldir Azevedo e Bola Sete. Inclusive, na adolescência, ele chegou a formar um "regional" (nomenclatura que designava os grupos de choro até a década de '60). Curiosamente, o choro também é influência dos instrumentistas de sopro do carimbó.

Lázaro: Como o ritmo do carimbó sempre foi muito popular, não acho difícil que Vieira tenha incorporado naturalmente o ritmo ao seu repertório - e assim feito experiências com sua maneira peculiar de tocar. Isso parece natural se imaginarmos que esse interesse aconteceria de qualquer forma. No mínimo, haveria uma aproximação por ser ele um artista popular, também preocupado com o sucesso de seu repertório de carreira de baile.

Chris: Algumas pessoas fala que a guitarrada é “lambada instrumental”. No site Trama se fala que a guitarrada foi “popularizado nos anos 80 sob o rótulo de lambada.” Qual é a diferença entre guitarrada e lambada? Ou são a mesma coisa?

Pio: A Lambada nasceu instrumental pelas mãos de Mestre Vieira, com o registro de 1977, no LP Lambada das Quebradas. Adquiriu o nome guitarrada só mais tarde, através do comerciante Carlos Santos, que criou a série de discos Guitarradas sob o pseudônimo Carlos Marajó. Vários guitarristas anônimos gravaram sob essa alcunha. Os discos, que eram totalmente instrumentais, popularizaram mais tarde a criação de Vieira. Foi muito mais interessante para indústria em determinado momento comercializar canções do que músicas instrumentais. A lambada não fugiu à regra: ao toque instrumental foi adaptada a letra, que alavancou a divulgação e o crescimento em vendas. Com a expansão das vendas, depois ficou mais fácil vender as músicas instrumentais. Entretanto tudo era vendido como o rótulo “lambada”.

Bruno: A lambada surgiu no Pará na década de 70. E Vieira, desde o ínicio de sua carreira, se dizia um compositor de lambada. Mas só no meio dos anos 80 é que essa lambada instrumental, tocada pelo Vieira e por outros guitarristas paraenses influenciados pelo modo de tocar do Mestre, passou a ser denominada de "guitarrada". Este termo foi retirado de um disco homônimo, lançado no ano de 1985 pelo guitarrista Carlos Marajó, e que fez muito sucesso local.

Lázaro: E não devemos esquecer que no início da década de 90, o termo “lambada” foi popularizado no Brasil – num surto que ganhou grandes gravadoras e os meios de comunicação de massa - e chegou até a alcançar o exterior, com nomes como o paraense Beto Barbosa, que preferia se declarar publicamente como baiano, por motivos artísticos, e também o grupo Kaoma.

Chris: A “lambada” está desaparecendo como label?

Lázaro: Sim. Com o ressurgimento do ritmo no Pará, resultado do flerte de novos artistas com o gênero tradicional, a partir da segunda metade dos anos 90, o termo guitarrada passou a ser o mais utilizado para representar esse novo momento – que resultou em nova atenção de crítica especializada e estudiosos em música.

Bruno: Mesmo não estando em evidência na imprensa, nunca se deixou de tocar e fazer lambada no Pará. Atualmente, a lambada tem tido algum destaque nacional, e sem nenhum auxílio das grandes gravadoras. A responsável por isso é a paraense Calypso, banda independente mais bem sucedida do Brasil de todos os tempos.

Chris: Como se pode definir tecnobrega? Vocês acham que a independência dos artistas de “technobrega” (das gravadoras, dos rádios) está criando um modelo (um paradigm shift) que vai mudar musica brasileira muito?

Bruno Rabelo: O tecnobrega é um estilo paraense novo, criado recentemente, em 2002. E que está ainda se aperfeiçoando naturalmente. Digo isto por que, o samba, por exemplo, demorou trinta anos para ter uma forma definida. Mas em sua essência, o tecnobrega, hoje, é música eletrônica (bateria eletrônica e sons sintetizados com efeitos diversos) feita com elementos do brega paraense e fragmentos de música americana.

A criação do tecnobrega gerou sim um novo paradigma, não há dúvida. Em Belém, e em cidades paraenses próximas, o tecnobrega movimenta um mercado totalmente à margem da industria cultural dita "oficial". Aproveitando uma tecnologia barata disponível, onde PCs se transformam em estúdios caseiros, inúmeras gravações são feitas todo os dias e rapidamente são entregues nas mãos dos DJs nas festas das Aparelhagens (gigantescos sistemas de sons, como os da Jamaica, por exemplo) se transformando em hits instantâneos. Estas festas acontecem todo fim de semana, principalmente nas baixadas (como são chamadas as periferias no Norte do Brasil). Com o sucesso das músicas nas Aparelhagens, os "pirateiros" colocam estas mesmas músicas à venda em CDs de MP3 por apenas R$ 2 (1 dólar americano)! Desse modo, os autores dessas músicas, antes artistas anônimos, montam suas bandas, muitas vezes só com teclados, e vão tocar nas festas de Aparelhagens e em clubes. E assim se forma, e se fortalece, um mercado que não necessita de rádios, gravadoras ou TVs para divulgação do tecnobrega. Mudar a música brasileira? Não sei. Mas, com certeza, o estilo vai sobreviver independentemente do que acontecer no decadente mercado fonográfico brasileiro.

Lázaro: Sim. O tecnobrega fundou um paradigma novíssimo para a produção fonográfica brasileira - e que curiosamente acontece de forma paralela ao outro terremoto que já vinha sendo causando pela distribuição de música independente através de selos pequenos, festivais undergrounds e do uso da Internet para distribuição de arquivos. Esse paradigma do tecnobrega foi proporcionado também decisivamente pelos impactos da popularização da tecnologia digital, mas, de forma ainda mais peculiar, como se vê no Brasil, principalmente pelo formato diferenciado da distribuição, que mescla um forte mercado pirata e uso de “novas mídias”, não necessariamente digitais, como os circuitos de festas das aparelhagens. É um mercado independente muito bem sucedido, que dispensou grandes veículos de massa para obter sucesso. Vale lembrar que nos anos 80 e início dos anos 90 o brega era proibido nas maiores rádios paraenses. O ritmo era estigmatizado como “inferior”, “inculto” e relacionado a camadas pobres da população. Hoje, bandas como o Tecnoshow e [Banda] Calypso, que se valeram desses formatos de distribuição e produção independentes de gravadoras, cuidando dos próprios negócios, ganham espaço na mídia de massa nacional e somam lucros milionários com a venda de discos e shows.

Chris: Podem definir brega, na maneira que os músicos do Pará usam?

Bruno: O guitarrista Chimbinha (do grupo Calypso) redefiniu o brega paraense no meio dos anos 90. Ele fundiu guitarrada (uma de suas grandes influências) com o brega dos anos 80 e deixou o estilo mais dançante (swingado).

Lázaro: Originalmente, o ritmo está ligado à Jovem Guarda brasileira, que foi influenciada pelo rock inglês e norte-americano, nos anos 60. Nos anos 70, um grande rol de compositores românticos e populares se valeram desse formato guitarra, baixo, bateria e voz e criaram uma maneira peculiar de canção em todo o Brasil, muito popular e ligado às camadas mais pobres da população e também a cidades distantes dos grandes centros. De modo geral, esse gênero sempre foi por muitos anos tachado pela grande indústria fonográfica nacional e pela grande mídia como de menor valor – e por isso mesmo, por hábito identitário, foi sempre colocado entre os ritmos brasileiros que se listam no lado oposto ao dos produtos culturais que se dizem “eruditos”, “cultos” ou de “riqueza cultural” mais relevante. Especificamente no Pará, o termo “brega” é um rótulo que surge justamente de sua posição social. Vale lembrar que “bregas” também eram os nomes dados às casas de prostituição e casas de baile populares onde se tocavam muito esses ritmos românticos. No Brasil, tradicionalmente, o termo brega equivale ao kitsch. Portanto, também é usualmente ligado para identificar expressões e produtos culturais opostos aos das classes dominantes.

Curiosamente, no Pará o gênero inaugurado pela Jovem Guarda brasileira teve um desenvolvimento peculiar sob o ponto de vista da estrutura musical, o que o tornou um produto diferenciado. A apropriação das batidas 4 por 4 e a tradução desse formato para as necessidades peculiares locais – tanto sob o aspecto do discurso (letras) quanto da música teve vários resultados. Entre outras coisas, derivou em progressivas acelerações do compasso ao longo das décadas, em criações de técnicas de guitarra originais para o gênero (como fez o guitarrista Chimbinha, maior expressão do gênero) e também em outras mutações, a partir de fusões com outras células rítmicas, como o próprio carimbó e com a música eletrônica, mais recentemente. Disso derivaram vários subgêneros como o tecnobrega e o brega melody, por exemplo. Um fator também foi determinante para o fortalecimento desse “movimento”. A partir de determinado ponto dessa trajetória, estúdios locais passaram a dominar técnicas próprias de gravação para alcançar alguns resultados de timbragens e efeitos já consagrados pelo gosto popular local. A exemplo do que ocorreu na Bahia, com axé music, o brega passou a dominar uma fatia decisiva desse modo de produção, o que contribuiu muito para a independência e para o boom da distribuição de mercado de nicho que hoje vemos com o sucesso do tecnobrega.

Mais recentemente, porém, alguns artistas de renome oriundos dessa cena musical de Belém passaram a adotar o rótulo calipso para o gênero brega. O calipso é o nome dado à música brega feita pelos artistas radicados no Nordeste brasileiro, onde o movimento não é tão intenso quanto no Pará. No entanto, possivelmente, essa mudança estratégia na denominação do ritmo frente ao público nacional se dá por motivos mercadológicos, visto que o termo original está ainda ligado tradicionalmente a valores prejorativos e preconceituosos ancestrais fixados na mídia e na indústria fonográfica nacional.

Chris: Vocês acham que Belém vai virar um outro ponto muito importante da MPB, como Recife e Salvador?

Pio: Belém sempre foi um reduto de criatividade musical muito forte, entretanto as dificuldades com a articulação mercantil sempre foram um grande entrave no desenvolvimento do cenário cultural local. Acredito que esse quadro possa ser melhorado tudo depende muito do esforço em reverter os problemas com o baixo nível de instrução da região

Lázaro: Há décadas há produtos culturais musicais no Pará bons e de sobra para isso. No entanto, há um histórico arranjo conjuntural desfavorável ao Norte do Brasil, resultado das peculiaridades geográficas, da maneira como os meios de comunicação de massa se estruturaram no País – num modelo onde poucas metrópoles nacionais irradiam conteúdo para todo o território, e pouco do conteúdo local consegue realmente circular livremente pelo resto do país - e do peculiar contexto econômico, social e político de ocupação da Região Amazônica.

Apesar das alternativas encontradas pelas duas metrópoles do nordeste brasileiro para furar esse bloqueio estrutural, porém, ao contrário do que aconteceu em Recife e em Salvador, falta a Belém um franco desenvolvimento das diversas etapas da indústria tradicional da música. Ainda há no Pará uma escassez preocupante de mão-de-obra e infra-estrutura – de estúdios a técnicos de som e iluminação, de jornalistas a veículos especializados, de produtores e empresários a casas noturnas e a festivais -, o que ainda impõe barreiras e empurra os artistas locais para outros centros. Uma das poucas soluções apresentadas em Belém para esses problemas clássicos são justamente as formas de reordenamento de produção e mercado apresentadas pela cena independente do brega e do tecnobrega. Mas, ainda assim, poucas pontes de comunicação e difusão de experiências ainda são travadas entre os músicos locais de gêneros diferentes. Essa falta de coordenação, sem dúvida, é e continuará sendo definidora do futuro dos produtos culturais paraenses.

Chris: Que outros artistas do Pará e do Norte vocês acham muito importantes agora (além dos mestres velhos)?

Bruno: Temos vários. Tecnoshow, Trio Manari , Arraial do Apavulagem, La Pupunã, Fábio Cavalcante, Coletivo Rádio Cipó, Euterpia, Madame Sataan, Iva Rothe, Los Porongas, Mezatrio.

Lázaro: Ainda acho fundamentais Mestre Verequete (um dos maiores compositores de carimbó e o primeiro artista a fazer o registro do gênero tradicional em disco, nos anos 70); Pinduca (um dos principais responsáveis pela popularização do carimbó frente ao mercado nacional brasileiro, um dos grandes compositores do gênero e o responsável pelo formato moderno de banda do ritmo, com a introdução da guitarra elétrica e bateria); grupo Arraial do Pavulagem e Ronaldo Silva (grandes expressões do baião, xote e boi bumbá feitos no Norte), e Walter Freitas (um dos mais inventivos, originais e pouco conhecidos compositores paraenses, autor da obra-prima Tuyabae Cuaá, álbum do final da década de 80 que se destaca por incluir canções que mesclam o português a termos e gírias do sotaque local, fortemente marcado por expressões do dialeto indígena das populações originais da Amazônia.

Chris: Quero fazer algumas perguntas sobre as músicas de Cravo Carbono no seu primeiro disco, Córtex (2006). Pra começar, que é technoguitarrada? Guitarrada + rock (em particular, surf rock ou psychedelic rock)?

Pio: Tecnoguitarrada foi uma idéia que tive a respeito de dois gêneros que sempre caminharam paralelamente, o tecnobrega e a guitarrada. Recentemente resolvi juntar em um disco solo com esse mesmo nome. A dança é um dos elementos mais fortes na cultura daqui e a idéia foi juntar a batida eletrônica com a melodia, resultando numa música simples para dançar, com o acréscimo dos arranjos eletrônicos, o que abre um leque imenso de possibilidades sonoras. O curioso é que as mais fortes tradições da música brasileira se baseiam no binômio ritmo e melodia.

Particularmente não vejo o surf rock como influência marcante. A formação instrumental é semelhante à da guitarrada. Entretanto os sotaques são completamente diferentes. Vieira sequer ouviu surf music, e o que é mais interessante na criação dele é justamente essa distinção dentro do universo de um instrumento considerado símbolo do rock. Existem pessoas que alimentam essa idéia da surf music como origem da guitarrada. Considero é um equívoco, uma distorção dos fatos devido a pouca informação sobre a história do gênero. Existe em Belém uma nova geração que usa o elemento da surf music, uma nova vertente, mas a origem real é totalmente distinta.

Chris: Hermano Vianna definiu sua música “Café BR” como “technoguitarrada com vocal.” Também pareceu um pouco manguebeat (?). Que é aquela batida? The drum beat? É numa caixa (snare)? Veio de jovem guarda, talvez? Pareceu ‘60s surf rock para mim.

Pio: A guitarrada, assim como brega, recebeu muita influência do rock dos anos 60, mas o que chama a atenção é a mutação que o ritmo foi sofrendo com o passar dos anos, a convivência próxima do rock com os ritmos do Caribe aos poucos foi moldando uma forma mais suingada de rock, de onde nasceu o brega, que já era direcionado para a dança dos casais nos bailes.

Há alguns anos atrás, com o surgimento das tecnologias de produção musical doméstica, mais baratas, foi acrescentada a batida eletrônica ao ritmo. Porém, sempre mantendo a intenção da dança de salão. Uma boa referência para essa sonoridade é a música “The Models” do Kraftwerk, que até hoje é ouvida nos bailes em Belém.

A diferença básica nessa nova produção é o fato de não ter havido nessa região nenhuma tradição de música eletrônica anterior. A nova produção eletrônica é baseada principalmente nos timbres básicos do “Fruit Loops” a nas sonoridades cadenciadas dos anos ‘60 e ‘70, não só as importadas, ouvidas através do rádio, mas também a vasta produção de Belém que era gerada em estúdios locais na época para alimentar os bailes da cidade.

Lázaro: Pode-se dizer que a letra de “Café BR” segue um gênero de humor irônico, crítico e sarcástico que é também uma entre várias marcas registradas do brega paraense. É mais ou menos assim: rir diante de uma situação ruim e fazer disso motivo de anedota, algo bem peculiar também entre os brasileiros. Um exemplo: havia em Belém uma música muito popular, chamada “Brega do Roupinol,” que nada mais era que contar a história de um cara que conhece uma menina num bar. Eles ficam juntos. Então, ele amanhece no dia seguinte em algum lugar, sem seus pertences – ele foi roubado: o golpe, que consiste em colocar um sonífero na bebida da vítima, é muito relatado nas páginas policiais dos jornais mais populares. E no “Brega do Roupinol” as pessoas cantam essa história dançando, rindo, se divertindo... Em “Café BR,” a letra irônicamente faz vários “rodeios” sobre o fato de faltar café na casa do suposto personagem, e nunca trata do assunto de fato. Sim, a letra fala do problema de distribuição de renda e da pobreza no Brasil, mas é mais ou menos assim: vai ridicularizando uma certa índole dos brasileiros, que consiste em não ver o problema além do que está à vista. Então, não é que falte café porque não tem açúcar, ou água – aliás, na casa do personagem da letra em questão não há mais realmente nada. Hoje não tem café porque não temos distribuição de renda, justiça social.

Chris: Em “Espaço Para Passear” tem frevo e technoquitarrada, e embolada nos vocais?

Pio: “Charanga” de jogo de futebol, timbres cortantes como Jimmy Page e camadas abstratas de delay, algo mais ou menos “espacial”. Música de festa no meio do temporal, ou no meio do espaço...

Lázaro: Esqueçamos os programas bélicos que movimentaram a corrida espacial durante a Guerra Fria (EUA x URSS). Nós queremos é subir lá e nos divertir com a gravidade zero, em intermináveis caminhadas e passeios espaciais, hahaha...

Chris: “Canção à Prova D’Água” começa quase bossa nova, e depois vira um rock ballad. Pode descrever um pouco?

Pio: Sim. A idéia partiu de uma bossa-nova e aos poucos foi ganhando substância em contrapontos como Robert Fripp. O bumbo é fundamental, pois imita as batidas de um coração. A voz é sussurada, como se dissesse um segredo, e depois forte, como uma revelação ao mundo. Ao final a tensão crescente até ser arremessada ao vazio da reverberação.

Lázaro: O título de “Canção à Prova D´água” é uma ironia. O elemento água representa a emotividade. A emoção sempre deságua, vasa, lágrimas. Geralmente não há como contê-la. Então é como fazer uma canção de amor à prova de emotividade. Obviamente, uma piada, já que a letra é exageradamente, digamos até para padrões de Almodóvar, emotiva.

Chris: Na “Marx Marex,” ouvi Karnak e André Abujambra. Rock, guitarrada, pouco de repente talvez? Pode descrever?

Pio: É um carimbó com riffs. A letra é fortemente marcada pelas sílabas tônicas , são palavras percussivas.

Lázaro: O personagem Marx Marex é o cidadão mais moderno que eu já vi... Essa letra foi feita para catadores de lata. No Brasil, esses profissionais informais, geralmente ligados à camada pobre da população, reciclam 90% dos alumínio jogado no lixo pelos que têm dinheiro. Ninguém dá valor a esses caras. E a letra quer dizer isso: eles é que são avançados. Eles são o futuro do planeta e da economia. Nós, os demais, somos os tempos das cavernas.

Chris: “Arraial” é um rock ballad, um pouco zouk?

Pio: Exato, a idéia começou assim, pode-se dizer uma zouk ballad?

Chris: Na “Vale Quanto Pesa,” estou ouvindo afoxé + rock + technoguitarrada?

Pio: A imagem monótona para um motoqueiro entregador de pizza, bêbado, pensando sobre si mesmo. Uma sonoridade quase minimalista. As guitarras sobrepostas lembram um pouco o King Crimson, ou um Can tocando no bloco afro Filhos de Gandi!

Lázaro: O cara é motoboy e decide pensar se valeria a pena fazer um seqüestro para mudar de vida. Daí ele fica lá, pensando e pensando falando com ele mesmo, perdido dentro de um labirinto mental: quanto se deve cobrar por uma vida? Quanto vale a minha vida?

Chris: Que é a mistura na música “Alto do Bode”?

Bruno: A maioria das músicas do Cravo Carbono não segue um padrão rítmico linear. Com “Alto do Bode” não é diferente. A música é uma junção de guitarrada com carimbó, maculelê e Reggae. Há também um leve acento caribenho (cadence/zouk) na percussão (agogôs).

Chris: Voces podem descrever o som do seu grupo? Tem uma certa “proposta musical”?

Pio: É um “acordo entre cavalheiros”.

Lázaro: É basicamente aplicar à música brasileira o que é a própria matriz do povo brasileiro: ser mestiço, misturado, atravessado pelas mais diversas influências culturais. É como diz Darcy Ribeiro: somos uma nação em formação. É como diz Caetano Veloso, somos uma nação, portanto, experimental. Historicamente isso está na raiz da formação mutiétnica do país, mas é algo que curiosamente se converteu numa índole permanente, de abertura a influências culturais diversas, e de resultados numa transformação para algo completamente novo e diferente, apropriado, reciclado, transformado. E o melhor é que, claro, apesar dos problemas sociais históricos que isso também acarretou, o Brasil de modo geral acha esse caos bom, e vê nisso uma grande vantagem para seu futuro. A música do Cravo Carbono, então, para ser genuínamente brasileira, deveria estar aberta a tudo e olhar em todas as direções, inclusive passado e futuro, sem preconceitos musicais ou concordância com separações entre bom e ruim, alta cultura e kitsch, estrangeiro, local ou nacional, e, principalmente, não hierarquizando nada em relação a nada – quando se propõe a mesclar gêneros. Eu descreveria como “música orgânica”, aquela que derivaria de algum modo da química do carbono, a química orgânica, hahaha. O carbono, nosso herói e vilão de toda a história, é o elemento mais apto a fazer ligações diversas com outros elementos e consigo mesmo, formando uma infinidade de compostos... Como diria o Pio, somos um tratado entre cavalheiros: muitas diferenças, muitos interesses, todos dirigidos para o propósito criativo do grupo.

Chris: Quais são suas influencias maiores?

Pio: Mestre Vieira de Barcarena, Naná Vasconcelos, Brian Eno.

Bruno: Carimbó, guitarrada, cantigas de capoeira, Pink Floyd, U2, Legião Urbana, MPB anos 70.

Lázaro: Tropicalismo (Gil, Caetano... ). Movimento modernista brasileiro. Bossa Nova, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Mário Quintana (poetas), Darcy Ribeiro, Alceu Valença (músico), Milton Nascimento e Clube da Esquina, Chico Buarque Rock Brasileiro dos Anos 80 (Legião Urbana, Titãs, etc.), Rock Internacional dos anos 80 (U2, The Smiths, etc, etc.) Almir Sater e música popular paraguaia e do Centro-Oeste do Brasil, Movimento Mangue Beat, compositores de carimbó paraense, Vieira de Barcarena, música popular paraense (Nilson Chaves, Walter Freitas, Arraial do Pavulagem), e pode continuar.

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Note: The new edition of my book The Brazilian Sound has further information about the music of Pará and the history of carimbó, guitarrada, lambada, and technobrega (a.k.a. technobrega). See: The Brazilian Sound: Reviews & Ordering Information.

Cravo Carbono interview: copyright Chris McGowan. All rights reserved.

Brazilian Popular Music: Major Label CD and DVD Bestsellers of 2008

2009-03-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

These days, the bestselling Brazilian music artists seem to have more in common with Nashville than they do with Rio de Janeiro. Música sertaneja (Brazil's own country music) and inspirational Christian music dominated the top ten CDs of 2008, and accounted for the top four positions, and seven of the top ten, according to O Globo newspaper. The Catholic priest Padre Fábio de Melo took the number-one spot with his Vida (Life) album, while Padre Marcelo Rossi disappointed slightly by taking the second and sixth positions with Paz sim, violência não 1 (Peace Yes, Violence No). Rossi was number one in both 2006 and 2007. Sertanejo duo Victor and Leo grabbed the third and fourth positions. Two other "country" artists -- the duo Zezé di Camargo & Luciano and solo singer Leonardo -- placed seventh and tenth, respectively.

Música sertaneja* is especially popular in Brazil’s South, Southeast, and Central regions, in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, and Paraná. It surged in national popularity and became the single biggest category in terms of Brazilian record sales in the ‘90s. Its popularity in Brazil can be compared to that of country music in the United States, often appealing to those who have, came from, or desire a rural lifestyle and its traditional values. Sertaneja is a pop-music version of música caipira, the rural folk music that includes idioms like toada, moda de viola, cana-verde, and catira. From the 1960s on, música sertaneja became more urbanized, as rural migrants moved to big cities. Sertaneja musicians started to incorporate musical influences from Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, and Nashville.

Axé-music queen Ivete Sangalo had the fifth bestselling CD, Multishow ao vivo no Maracaña; Roberto Carlos and Caetano Veloso took eighth place with their Jobim tribute E a música de Tom Jobim; and MPB vocalist Ana Carolina was in the ninth position with Multishow ao vivo -- Dois quartos. The Carlos-Veloso sales reflect the remarkable popularity of romantic crooner Roberto Carlos, who is by most accounts the bestselling Brazilian recording artist of all times, and whose career dates back to his Jovem Guarda days in the 1960s.

According to O Globo, Brazilian music sales grew 5% in 2008 compared with the previous year, which perhaps indicates some type of bottom has been reached in the steep slide of CD sales. The market is now approximately 30% of what it was at the end of the '90s, according to the article. Leonardo Lichote's article did not specify its source for the sales, but they undoubtedly came from the music trade organization ABPD (Associação Brasileira de Produtores de Disco). The ABPD's statistics come from the sales of its members, the major labels of Brazil such as Sony, Universal, Warner, EMI, Disney and Som Livre. It doesn't include the sales of Brazilian independent labels, and therefore excludes popular artists like Banda Calypso from its rankings.

In terms of DVD sales, the top ten titles were released by Padre Rossi, Ivete Sangalo, Ana Carolina, Marisa Monte, Victor and Leo, Claudia Leitte, Xuxa, Amy Winehouse, Roberto Carlos & Caetano Veloso, and Alexandres Pires. Interestingly, the two top-ten lists show a Brazilian market that is more nationalistic than ever before, with only one foreigner (Winehouse) making either list.

*música sertaneja description is from The Brazilian Sound, copyright McGowan-Pessanha, 2008.

Journalist-Director José Emilio Rondeau on Brazilian Rock'n'Roll: Past & Present

2009-03-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

Tropicalista band Os Mutantes

Brazilian rock and roll has a long and interesting history, and journalist-filmmaker José Emilio Rondeau was part of it during some of its most exciting times, from the '70s underground rock scene during the darkest days of Brazil's military dictatorship to the '80s breakthrough of now-legendary bands like Legião Urbana and the Paralamas do Sucesso. Rondeau has written about rock, cinema and culture over the last thirty years for publications such as O Globo, Jornal do Brasil, Folha de São Paulo, Rolling Stone, Veja, Bizz, and Set. In the 1980s, he also produced albums for Brazilian rock groups Legião Urbana and Picassos Falsos, and wrote and directed videoclips for those bands as well as Paralamas do Sucesso, Lobão, Kid Abelha, Plebe Rude, Paulo Ricardo e RPM. He lived in Los Angeles from 1987 to 2004, where he worked as an international correspondent and television producer for TV Globo. In 2006, he directed the feature film 1972, a rock’n’roll romantic comedy, which had a soundtrack full of period Brazilian rock, including obscure bands such as A Bolha. He is also the author, along with Nelio Rodrigues, of the book Sexo, Drogas e Rolling Stones (Sex, Drugs and the Rolling Stones, 2008). José Emilio writes a blog in Portuguese about international rock and pop called RONDEAUblog. For The Brazilian Sound, I asked Zé some broad questions about the history of his country’s rock’n’roll. –Chris McGowan

Chris: What did Tropicália mean for you? What was exciting about the songs for you?

J. Emilio: It was as if the Beatles had finally pollinated Brazilian pop music – which I was always hoping would happen. It was sophisticated, thrilling, imaginative, surprising, sometimes breath-taking pop music – and it rocked, even if sometimes in a totally un-rock and roll way! It was adventurous Brazilian pop that I would not be ashamed of – as opposed to the TV and radio pop idols of the time and to the copy bands that were sprouting all over the place. It was the music of the younger generations, and so fresh that, at that point, Bossa Nova, initially considered a revolution, immediately became “careta” [square] in comparison, even though it was one inspiration for Tropicália.

Chris: Why do you think there was the 1990s global interest in the Mutantes?

J. Emilio: Again, I bring the Beatles into the discussion – sorry. Had the Mutantes happened in an English-speaking country, they would have been cherished worldwide since day one – even if they sometimes tried too hard to sound like the Beatles. When the rest of the world caught up with them, thirty something years after their peak, everybody was much more open to non-English singing bands, and it was an epiphany. Their music was way ahead of their time, but, also, a perfect representation of their time: bold, different from anything else, their own. That’s why their best music is eternal – just like the Beatles’.

Chris: Do you still consider Renato Russo (leader of Legião Urbana, photo on left) and Arnaldo Baptista (of the Mutantes) the two biggest talents in Brazilian rock history? If so, why?

J. Emilio: Absolutely. Both were trailblazers – Arnaldo, during the heady 60’s Tropicalist surge: Renato, at the forefront of Brazil’s punk rock explosion – and both were unique in that they expanded Brazil’s pop-rock frontiers, lyrically and musically, in ways that no one else ever achieved. To this day. The difference being that Renato became something else, something more in the “pop prophet” vein that, to me, overshadowed his musicmaking.

Chris: What was the significance of Raul Seixas for you?

J. Emilio: I was never into Raul Seixas – he sounded cheesy, contrived and plastic to me. He bought into his own pop prophet myth way too soon and way too much. But he helped bring rock, topicality and revolutionary ideas into the mainstream. He totally escaped me, though.

Chris: Do you think Cazuza has merit beyond being a popular lyricist?

J. Emilio: Not really, other than the fact that he combined rock and roll attitude with MPB. And in my opinion – although I may be wrong - much of Cazuza’s work has to credited to Ezequiel Neves’ guidance, influence and nurturing, as producer, friend (and father/mother/older brother figure) and editor.

Chris: What is your opinion of Cassia Eller?

J. Emilio: She had a rock and roll attitude – and the most unusual voice - that she used to interpret MPB, quite similar to what Cazuza did.

Chris: On MPB-FM, they play Cassia Eller, Cazuza and Renata Russo over and over and over. I believe they are the most played artists on that station, along with Lenine. Why such an intense continued interest in the works of those three deceased artists?

J. Emilio: They all died young, and at the top of their game – which always helps.

Chris: What do you think of the work of Lenine?

J. Emilio: He makes sophisticated, progressive, folk-tinged MPB with worldwide appeal – and hás one of the most distinctive voices. And he’s smart.

Chris: Is there any current Brazilian rock that interests you, and if so why?

J. Emilio: Not really. Like most everywhere else, everybody seems to want to sound like everybody else. There are exceptions, though: Pato Fu has a clear identity and has evolved into a strong, solid band. Same can be said about Mundo Livre S.A.. But neither should be considered a new band: they have a long career behind them. I have to think a little more about up and coming names, because nothing exceptional really pops up in my mind right now. Plus, I am way out of the loop, as far as new blood is considered.

Chris: What do you think of Brazilian music in this decade? Is it dead, boring, exciting, innovative? Do you see any trends?

J. Emilio: Hype, soap opera exposure and jabá [payola] still rule, with average talent like Ana Carolina, Seu Jorge, Jorge Vercilo and Los Hermanos – and their respective and numerous imitators - dominating the market and taking up most spaces. But even though the big Southeast market still sets the pace and trends, several regional artists and styles surface in different parts of the country and operate on a local, self-contained manner, completely independent of and oblivious to the Southeast.

Chris: You featured A Bolha in your movie 1972. What do you like about them? Why didn't they achieve a big career?

J. Emilio: I have a deep personal connection with this band: theirs was the very first all-out, real-deal, balls-to-the-walls, bona-fide rock show I ever saw. They normally played tons of covers – Stones, Humble Pie, Grand Funk – but plenty of original material, too – most of it very strong, and had this humongous stage gear, with piles of Marshall amps, and incredible stage presence. They were incredible, live – and they had bass player Arnaldo Brandão, a true rock star if there ever was one.

Chris: Why didn’t they take off and achieve a big career?

J. Emilio: Well, when they made the transition from bailes to shows/concerts, they remained in the underground – which was a cool thing to do, but a detah sentence, too. At the time, there was no infra-structure for a rock band to survive on its terms –minor label support, if you had the luck of having signed with anyone, no media support (other than the underground press, like Rolling Stone), basically no radio exposure, forget about TV (other than the odd festival – and A Bolha took the Melhor Interpretação prize in the 1972 Festival Internacional da Canção for a song penned by Geraldinho Carneiro and Eduardo Souto Neto, the progressive and heavy ”18.30.”

Only when the 80’s arrived did rock bands have a support system, so to speak – and by then bands like A Bolha – and Made in

Brazil

, and Soma, and Os Lobos, and countless others – had vanished or their members had split to form 80’s-sounding combos. For instance, Renato Ladeira, a founding Bolha member – with his older brother César – went on to form Herva Doce, a new wavish quartet whose big hit (and it was a big hit) was a ditty called "Amante Profissional."

Bahia's Blocos Afro & Afoxés: Changes in Salvador's Carnaval

2009-03-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

Gilberto Gil with the Filhos de Ghandi afoxé during Carnaval in 2009.

Every year, an estimated two million celebrants crowd Salvador’s narrow streets to dance, sing, and party to the music of the blocos afro, afoxés, and trios elétricos. For research for the revised, third edition of The Brazilian Sound, I asked two experts in the area for their opinions about the contemporary Carnaval scene in Bahia. Linda Yudin is a dance ethnologist, co-director of the Viver Brasil dance company in Los Angeles, and a teacher of Brazilian dance at Santa Monica College. I also interviewed her for the first edition of the book. Kirk Brundage is an L.A.-based percussionist and music teacher who has played with Olodum during Carnaval. He directs the Music of Brazil Ensemble in the department of ethnomusicology at UCLA.
--Chris McGowan

Chris: What is the current scene like in Bahia regarding participation in, and interest in, the blocos afro and afoxés?

Linda: There are only a handful of blocos afro and afoxé groups participating. Olodum, Ilê Aiyê, Muzenza, Malê de Balê, Filhos de Gandhi, Cortejo Afro. And although they are the remaining groups that have survived since the early 1980s, with the exception of Cortejo Afro which was founded in 1997, their participation is strong and [they] continue to have large community participation. The communities are greatly interested in their bloco afros and afoxés. I am not so sure that there is such a great interest from the general public and that is unfortunate. The challenge that each group faces is financial. These groups just don't get the financial backing from corporations and or from the municipal tourist organization, Emtursa, or the state run tourist organization, Bahiatursa, that they deserve. The trio elétricos continue to have strong financial support.

Olodum performing in Salvador's Pelourinho historic square.

Kirk: I would tend to agree with Linda. The number of major blocos has not changed in recent years. The 'flagship' organizations still have the same status. Additionally however, during Carnaval there are a number of lesser known organizations that do participate, in some cases, as neighborhood spin-offs of the major ones. There are also other organizations that serve kids, just like the mirim [children’s] groups of Ilê and Olodum. Finances are a serious issue. For this reason, this year Olodum cut its size in half (4,000 to 2,000 foliao [participants] and, 200 drummers to 100 - I was extremely fortunate to have made the cut!. Also, I heard a rumor that next year some groups might go down to 60 drummers equipped with wireless mics. The function of both the blocos and afoxés remains the same as before: to continually assert the cultural presence, relevance and vitality of the Afro-descendants (their local audience). While the afoxés are not political, the blocos are, due to their concerns with resistência cultural [cultural resistance] issues such racism, education, employment, etc. Yet at the same time, the blocos wish to reach an international audience that may or may not share, understand, or be interested in their fight. And it is this international consumer that the government is also interested in.

Chris: What has changed over the last ten years?

Kirk: I think the biggest change has been with size and the commercialization of Carnaval. 2005 saw Bahian Carnaval enter into the Guinness book as the largest street party in the world. The number of participating groups and tourists has increased greatly; more restoration work is being done in the historical district; more restaurants are opening; more hotels have internet. Bahiatursa is even considering adding a third location in Cidade Baixa to address the issue with space.

Chris: How has the music changed?

Kirk: Musically speaking the blocos themselves have evolved tremendously from the early days. Each has developed its own unique sound and style in terms of beats, breaks, instrumentation and influences. One can easily identify the major groups based on these characteristics. Many new beats have been created, or adapted, along with a dizzying number of 'drum breaks'. Experimentation, creativity and innovation are hallmarks of the genre. Players of all groups are always devising new beats and breaks and instruments. However on the other hand, the blocos have become like the new generation of quilombos or early terreiros in that they are today’s purveyors of (their) tradition. There is now a certain level of 'standardization'; Ilê still does not use electric instruments, nor have the other groups radically altered their overall orchestration/sound. There exists now, a huge vocabulary of rhythms and instruments that any self-respecting professional percussionist must know. Of late, the most movement has been in Axé Music, as it has absorbed the complete lexicon of the blocos, mixed it with Caribbean and North American influences and distilled it down into a sophisticated blend - minus the political component.

Chris: Has there been a permanent alteration in Salvador's culture because of the original rise of the blocos afro & return of the afoxés?

Linda: I think that the the blocos afro and afoxés permanently marked Salvador's culture with a contemporary music and dance form that has been recognized world wide and that honors its African roots, yet fluidly blends the influences of other music forms from around the world. Bahian musicians and dancers too have much more access and chances to interface with other styles of great music that have come to Bahia because of international summer music festivals, tourists coming to Bahia to study Afro-Brazilian culture (and they too bring their own cultural traditions to share), and of course the internet has allowed for complete access to the world.

Kirk: Yes, because what was once shunned, or even illegal, is now mainstream. Originally, [Filhos de] Gandhi members were afraid to parade those first years because of police repression, but today they are celebrated for their message. Before Ilê, no one presented African-oriented themes in the street, now it is commonplace. Their Beleza Negra [Black Beauty] festival celebrates this question of black aesthetics, and its value/contribution to society. The 'samba reggae' movement has therefore been much more than a mere beat. Its repercussions (pun intended) have impacted fashion, food, dance, language, and political consciousness locally and internationally.

Chris: Any other comments?

Linda: The blocos afro, the afoxés and [independent percussion] groups like Timbalada were responsible for putting contemporary Bahia on the cultural world map in my opinion. Axé!

This discussion took place in May, 2007. The revised, 3^rd edition of The Brazilian Sound is available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com worldwide.

The Brazilian Sound Blog

2008-07-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Brazilian Sound blog.

Here we will be posting essays, photos, and links that supplement the information in the upcoming 3rd edition of "The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil" (Temple University Press), which was published on December 28, 2008 (see right hand margin for the new cover)

The photo here is of the cover of the 2nd edition of the book, published by Temple University Press in 1998, and features a David Glat photo of a Timbalada drummer. The first edition was published by Billboard Books in 1991.

--Chris McGowan,
co-author of The Brazilian Sound