Igreja da Matriz, Vassouras, Brazil
by Chris McGowan
(published August 6, 2010 in The Huffington Post)
One of the best music festivals in
Brazil, or the world for that matter, is one that few 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. This year’s event
ran from July 23 to August 1 and offered everything from classical music and
Brazilian popular music to the folkloric music-and-dance traditions of jongo,
calango, caxambú and folia de reis. Cristina Braga, the first harpist of the
Symphonic Orchestra of Rio’s Municipal Theater, created the festival eight
years ago, and recruited the renowned classical guitarist Turíbio Santos to
serve as its artistic director.
The festival’s intent is to present
great music in an idyllic setting, create a destination for cultural tourism,
and to help preserve the cultural heritage of a region that has been somewhat
forgotten.
Guitarist Turíbio Santos and poet Affonso
Romano de Sant’anna at the Fazenda Guaritá
The Vale do Café, situated in the Paraíba River valley in Rio de
Janeiro state, is an area of rolling green hills and a temperate climate,
situated at a higher elevation than the steamy metropolis of Rio to the South.
The weather is like that of Southern California, only milder and with bluer
skies. It was the coffee-growing center of 19th century Brazil; later, the
country’s coffee production shifted to the rich soils of the states of São
Paulo and Paraná. The valley and its small towns like Vassouras were left with
some impressive estates on old
coffee farms and a less than vibrant economy. Atlantic rain forest (mata
atlântica) has grown back atop many hills, adding to the beauty of the region,
but a lack of opportunity has kept it in a somewhat suspended state.
Jongo dancing at the Cortejo de Tradições
Braga and Santos have succeeded
admirably in their goals, so much so that tickets are scarce for the paying
events, which have small seating capacities. Their efforts may have helped lure
new luxury hotel-spas and gourmet restaurants to the Vale do Café, and the city
of Vassouras feels like an Ojai in the making - a charming small town with
world-class cultural events and high-end hotels and villas in the local
countryside. It also may be inevitable that some Rio de Janeiro residents will
tire of their city’s crime and traffic, and start looking for nearby areas that
offer a better quality of life.
Joao Bosco performing at the festival
The festival is a music lover’s
dream: superb musicians performing a wide variety of styles in intimate and
scenic settings. Events in the church and main square of Vassouras (the most
historically and culturally important town in the region) and other area cities
are free. And small concerts requiring admission are staged at fourteen
different coffee plantations, in lavish period mansions or on the surrounding
grounds.
Capoeira at the Cortejo de Tradições
I attended a performance by Cristina
Braga at the Fazenda Cachoeira Grande (Big Waterfall Ranch), a beautifully
restored estate in Vassouras. The innovative harpist played pieces by Heitor
Villa-Lobos, Antonio Carlos 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 stately
Fazenda Guaritá in Rio das Flores was another highlight. Santos is one of Brazil’s great classical guitarists and also adept with Brazilian popular
music. His sublime intepretations of 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.
Leo Gandelman, Victor Biglione, Carl
McDavit, Zé Paulo Becker, Duo Gisbranco, Carlinhos de Jesus, and Marcelo Caldi
were among the festival’s other featured performers this year. One could hear
Brazilian music ranging across choro, bossa nova, forró, MPB, and Brazilian
jazz and orchestral works. If you were a fan of the influential composers Jobim
and Villa-Lobos, you could hear their works interpreted by many fine musicians
in a variety of settings. It was a feast for musical gourmands, and this mood
of refinement extended to other events: several free cooking classes were part
of the festival’s programming.
Cortejo de Tradições
The Cortejo de Tradições, a
presentation of regional musical/cultural traditions, was especially striking
and unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Brazil. On the balmy evening of July 24th
in Vassouras, bells rang out a little after 9pm in the square in front of the
city’s beautiful Igreja da Matriz. 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 from towns 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. It is also doing its part to further develop Brazil’s already
formidable musical strengths; the celebrated participants offer some four
hundred free music courses to local children.
If you happen to be in Brazil next
year at this time, this is a music event not to be missed. There are many fine
hotels in Vassouras and the valley, ranging from simple and cheap to high-end
luxury. And Rio is just two hours away by bus.
Updated in July, 2018.
Posts
