Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Photo: André Vilaron
Click the image.
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17:11
 
Monday, October 27, 2003
The madonna of seduction
Ana Lee’s delicate touch
is fatally addictive.
 Her voice captivates from the first note. In the vast pantheon of Brazilian divas, only Gal Costa has had a similar effect on me. Ana Lee’s voice is clear and sweet, delicate and seductive, finely tuned and enveloping all at once.
As finely tuned as the voice are the singer’s instincts in selecting her repertoire. In her debut CD, she chose not to rehash the obvious or to pander to the easy listen. Instead, Ana Lee showcases new compositions by talented contemporary paulista songwriters whose work is laced with poetry or penetrating social commentary, and whose love songs are maturely contemplative.
Such a bittersweet love song is Walter Garcia’s (he wrote the book Bim-Bom—a contradição sem conflitos de João Gilberto) “Meu Amor por Você,” in which alliterations accompany the revelation that love is one’s own invention:
[...] Esse amor que inventei de sentir, sem fingir
Mata a máscara da dor
E remove montanhas, manhas
Manias e defeitos de feitor
Não há réu sem senhor,
Só meu desejo do amor que inventei [...]
“Meu Amor por Você” is richly arranged for flute, two guitars, viola, and cello, as if to embellish the fantasy of a love lived against one’s wishes. Also by Walter Garcia is “Jongo Tradição II,” whose simple rhythmic stanzas are accompanied by guitar, percussion, and clapping, and whose lyrics are equally uncomplicated:
[...] Na farmacia popular
Dna. Cida sabe contar
Que a avó do meu avô
Era negra amigada com Sinhô [...]
José Miguel Wisnik’s “Se Meu Mundo Cair” is a particularly fine vehicle for Ana Lee, whose delicately soaring soprano is set off against the ponderous resonance of Célio Barros’ acoustic bass and Swami Jr.’s lyrical 7-string guitar:
[...] Se meu mundo cair
Então caia devagar
Não que eu queira assistir
Sem saber evitar [...]
A biting note is struck with Garcia’s “’Tô Ligada, ’Tô Legal,” a rumination on the banality of disaster and the alienation of the well-informed, which the singer conveys in a suitably lazy, spoiled inflection:
[...] Vejo o esporte na fotografia
Leio a morte de milhares na Turquia
Ai, como é brutal, a sensação
De situação ideal [...]
Lincoln Antonio and Walter Garcia’s “Deserto Para Erik Satie” is a slow waltz that bears the marks of the French composer. In this art song, the voice carries an exquisite conversation with Miguel Briamonte’s piano, André Magalhães’ percussion, and Luis Antônio Ramoska’s bassoon. The same songwriters follow with the jazzy “O Todo Abismo,” poking gentle fun at the sacred cows of bossa nova:
[...] O tempo vai
Barquinho de papel
Navega o vento e vai
Navega o vento e vai
Rolando vida abaixo, sem corrimão
Caindo feito um gato [...]
The only standards on the album are “O Que Será [À Flor da Pele]” and “Modinha,” both of which receive fresh treatments worthy of their poetry. The former is an especially fine rendition, beginning with the singer’s angelic unaccompanied voice, later joined only by Célio Barros’ astounding bass.
Trance-inducing is the closing track, “Aplauso” (Chico César/Tata Fernandes), in which the singer weaves her spell with the assistance of Oswaldinho do Acordeon, André Magalhães on percussion, and Swami Jr. on 7-string guitar:
Uma valsa de palmas
Para a alma
De fala calma
Que abre alas
Para a alma
De aura alva
Que dança descalça
Ao som de uma salsa
Alma sem alfa
Que não sabe ser falsa
E nem fazer sala
Para alma mala sem alça
There’s no better way to describe Ana Lee’s art.
Ana Lee: Ana Lee
(Independent; 2002) 43:17 min.
Produced by André Magalhães
01. Meu Amor por Você (Walter Garcia)
02. Virtual (José Miguel Wisnik/Alice Ruiz)
03. O Que Será [À Flor da Pele] (Chico Buarque de Hollanda)
04. Jongo Tradição II (Walter Garcia)
05. Se Meu Mundo Cair (José Miguel Wisnik)
06. Concerto em Paris (Alessandro Ayudarte/Sérgio Varkala)
07. ‘Tô Ligada, ‘Tô Legal (Walter Garcia)
08. Meu Desejo (Walter Garcia)
09. Deserto Para Erik Satie (Lincoln Antonio/Walter Garcia)
10. O Todo Abismo (Lincoln Antonio/Walter Garcia)
11. Modinha (Jayme Ovalle/Manuel Bandeira)
12. Aplauso (Chico César/Tata Fernandes)
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16:44
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Paulo, Kim, Johnny & Alaíde
Beautiful Brazilian jazz by way of Germany.
Paulo Morello and Kim Barth
Cornelius Schmidkunz is a German guitarist who teaches jazz guitar at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg-Augsburg, where he also leads a Brazilian Jazz Ensemble. Both Brazilian music and jazz are staples in his repertoire, picked up when he studied guitar with Jim Hall, Jack Wilkins, Richard Boukas, and Richie Beirach at the New School in New York. “It was Boukas who infected me with the Brazilian virus,” says Cornelius.
Over the past three years, Cornelius (or Neli, as he’s known to his friends) and the Danish flutist/saxophonist Kim Barth have been spending a great deal of time in Rio de Janeiro, playing gigs and jamming with various sambistas. The sambistas had trouble with Neli’s name. “My actual name didn’t work at all for the Brazilians, so I used my second name, Paul. That’s why I’ve got that ‘ungerman’ name Paulo Morello,” says the guitarist.
Morello and Barth have just released a delightful and handsomely produced Brazilian jazz disc they recorded with none other than the legendary Johnny Alf and Alaíde Costa, accompanied by the rhythm section of Leny Andrade’s band. With the headliners plus Lúcio Nascimento on bass, Adriano de Oliveira on drums, and Cidinho Teixeira on piano, they are beginning a European tour that will take them to Switzerland, Germany, Spain, England, and Austria.
Alaíde Costa and Johnny Alf
Fim de Semana em Eldorado (named for the famous Johnny Alf song) offers nine instrumental tunes composed by Morello & Barth, one by Kiko Continentino, plus four songs (two by Johnny Alf, one by Tom Jobim, and one by Oscar Castro Neves & Luvercy Fiorini). The latter are interpreted by Johnny Alf and Alaíde Costa. The new compositions easily mesh with the Brazilian standards, Although there’s been no attempt at imitation. The cohesiveness of the album is due in great part to Morello and Barth’s unifying arrangements. It goes without saying that the musicianship is of a very high order throughout.
Listen to 700 kb audio samples and download a video with Johnny Alf and Alaíde Costa (also available on the CD).
The CD is available through the label In+Out Records or from Musicline.de.
Paulo Morello & Kim Barth: Fim de Semana em Eldorado
(In+Out Records IOR 07588; 2003) 58:58 min.
01. Samba 1 (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
02. Eu Vou Voltar (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
03. O Que É Amar (Johnny Alf)—w/ Johnny Alf & Alaíde Costa
04. Luciana (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
05. Eu Te Ví (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
06. Fim de Semana em Eldorado (Johnny Alf)—w/ Johnny Alf
07. Pé Quebrado (Kiko Continentino)—w/ Kiko Continentino
08. Balada pra J. (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
09. Outra Vez (Antonio Carlos Jobim)—w/ Alaíde Costa
10. Samba Horizontal (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
11. Botafogo Bounce (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)—w/ Kiko Continentino
12. Chora Tua Tristeza (Oscar Castro Neves/Luvercy Fiorini)—w/ Johnny Alf & Alaíde Costa
13. Songuito (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
14. Piu-Piu (Paulo Morello/Kim Barth)
Musicians
Johnny Alf: vocals, piano
Alaíde Costa: vocals
Kim Barth: alto sax, flute
Paulo Morello: guitar
João Carlos Coutinho: piano, Rhodes
Kiko Continentino: Hammond B3, electric piano (7, 11)
Jermaine Landsberger: piano (8)
Lúcio Nascimento: bass
Alberto Continentino: bass (7, 11)
Wolfgang Stadler: bass (11)
Jorge Continentino: pífano (7)
Adriano de Oliveira: drums (1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 14)
Fernando Pereira: drums (2, 4, 6, 9, 12)
Cacá Colon: drums (7, 11)
Reginaldo Vargas: percussion
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13:42
Monday, October 20, 2003
The new face of copyright
Gilberto Gil leads the way.
Today’s Wall Street Journal is carrying the story “Can Copyright Be Saved?” by Ethan Smith. Smith reports that Gilberto Gil’s upcoming CD, to be released this winter, will include three of his biggest hits from the 1970s. There’s nothing ground-breaking in releasing old material, but Gil is breaking ground on another field—in the notice that will accompany the CD:
Instead of the standard “all rights reserved,” the notice will explicitly allow users of the CD to work the music into their own material. “You are free... to make derivative works,” the notice will state in part. [...]
The copyright notice for Mr. Gil’s coming CD is being crafted by Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that seeks to redraw the copyright landscape. [...] Creative Commons seeks to make the system more flexible by spelling out which rights the copyright holder wishes to reserve and which are being waived without waiting for a request. Artists can mix and match from among four basic licensing agreements: They can decide whether they simply want attribution anytime their work is used by someone else; whether they want to deny others’ use of the work for profit without permission; whether they want to prevent others from altering the material; and whether they want to permit the use of material only if the new work is being offered to the public under the same terms. An underlying layer of digital code enforces the rights laid out by the owner, telling computers how the a given work can be used.
A Creative Commons licence isn’t for everyone. It might appeal to independent artists for whom free samples, distributed online, might represent an attractive marketing option, or for someone like Mr. Gil, who believes that making it easier to to share and reshape his music can be an important part of the creative process. But it’s unlikely to appeal to the big media companies, for which copyrighted material is what they sell.
We’ll let the latter worry about their own affairs.
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14:59
Friday, October 17, 2003
The Boeuf chronicles, Pt. 30
Milhaud, his diplomat librettists,
and the influence of Brazil.
Paul Claudel, Henri Hoppenot & Darius Milhaud in Rio
(photo courtesy of Antonio Campos)
Paul Claudel wasn’t Darius Milhaud’s only diplomat librettist. During WWI, Milhaud met Henri Hoppenot, who soon joined Claudel and Milhaud at the French legation in Rio.
The story of Milhaud’s friendship and collaborations with the two poet-diplomats, as well as that of his various Brazil-inspired compositions, is told here.
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21:35
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Blocked
Swift banishment for the wicked.
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
E-mail from an Italian reader:
Dear Daniella, it is 2 days that your site seems to be forbidden from my office (you have been blocked, this site is not accessible from here). Since we have only a porn-site or porn-argument restriction I don’t understand why http://daniv.blogspot.com/ is forbidden... What happened???
Carlos Drummond de Andrade didn’t want to publish O Amor Natural in his lifetime, fearing it would be construed as pornography.
How right he was.
Fábio Liberal sent me the proper response, from the pen of Drummond:
Em face dos últimos acontecimentos
Oh! sejamos pornográficos
(docemente pornográficos).
Por que seremos mais castos
que o nosso avô português?
Oh! sejamos navegantes,
bandeirantes e guerreiros
sejamos tudo que quiserem,
sobretudo pornográficos.
A tarde pode ser triste
e as mulheres podem doer
como dói um soco no olho
(pornográficos, pornográficos).
Teus amigos estão sorrindo
de tua última resolução.
Pensavam que o suicídio
fosse a última resolução.
Não compreendem, coitados,
que o melhor é ser pornográfico.
Propõe isso ao teu vizinho,
ao condutor do teu bonde,
a todas as criaturas
que são inúteis e existem,
propõe ao homem de óculos
e à mulher da trouxa de roupa.
Dize a todos: Meus irmãos,
não quereis ser pornográficos?
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10:53
Sunday, October 12, 2003
Elegant Delegado, erudite Neuma
Graceful mangueirenses honor Drummond.
 The Pacific Film Archive is currently screening a retrospective of Heddy Honigmann’s films. Among the offerings is the acclaimed documentary O Amor Natural (1996), in which the filmmaker approaches elderly cariocas and asks them to read aloud from the erotic poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, published posthumously in 1992. The readings inevitably lead to the seniors’ delightful reminiscences about their own sexual lives—some still active in their 70s and 80s.
Decidedly the most physically elegant man in the film is Ézio Laurindo da Silva. Tall, slim, and youthful, clad in immaculate white pants and a colorful Mangueira t-shirt, he is seen executing some very fancy footwork in the escola’s vast quadra. One wonders what a young man might be doing in this film about the aged, until the camera zeros in on his gaunt face. It is Delegado—G.R.E.S.E.P. Mangueira’s legendary mestre-sala and now Diretor de Harmonia and a member of Velha Guarda da Mangueira. At the time the film was made, Delegado was 75 (he’s 82 now). Honigmann asks him if he knows Mangueira’s samba-enredo about Drummond (which garnered the escola a championship in the 1987 carnaval). The old passista doesn’t remember it, although he participated in the 1987 parade. In fact, Delegado qualifies for a Guinness Book of World Records entry on the strength of having paraded 33 times as Mangueira’s mestre-sala, always receiving the maximum mark of 10. To Heddy Honigmann he says that Neuma would know the samba for sure.
The next scene takes place on the front porch of Dona Neuma Gonçalves da Silva’s house. Dona Neuma, resplendent in a red dress with matching tunic, also can’t remember the lyrics. “I’m 74 years old and my memory is in menopause,” she says. She enlists the help of one her daughters, who appears from the house, dressed in tight bermuda-length jeans and a tight black top, plants herself in the doorway, and sings it (not very well) accompanied by Neuma, with Delegado providing percussion on a folding metal table advertising beer.
O Reino das Palavras—Carlos Drummond de Andrade
(Rody/Verinha/Bira do Porto)
Mangueira
De mãos dadas com a poesia
Traz para os braços povo
Este poeta genial (genial)
Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Suas obras são palavras
De um reino de verdade
Itabira
Em seus versos ele tanto exaltou (com amor) [bis]
Eis aí a verde e rosa
Cantando em verso e prosa
O que ao poeta inspirou
É Dom Quixote, ô
É Zé Pereira [bis]
É Charlie Chaplin
No embalo da Mangueira
Olha as carrancas
Do rio São Francisco
Rema, rema, remador
Primavera vem chegando
Inspirando amor
O Rio toma forma de sambista
Como o artista imaginou
Na ilusão de um sonho, achei
O elefante que eu imaginei [bis]
 Dona Neuma recalls that she visited Drummond at his Copacabana apartment and brought him flowers, at a time when he was already ailing and would soon depart this life (the poet, born in 1902, passed away on 17 August 1987). She willingly reads the poem below, stopping every now and then to interject commentaries or to ask Delegado if he knows the meaning of coito or orgasmo. Delegado doesn’t, and she provides the Brazilian-Portuguese vernacular. Neuma herself puzzles at clitóris, and when Honigmann calls it “the spot that gives a woman pleasure,” the first lady of Mangueira, very pleased, exclaims “Ah, he gave the grelo a nickname!”
More than once, Dona Neuma says, “Thank you, Drummond, for putting to words what we dare not.” The use of taboo language prompts her to reminisce that when she sent her 18 children (Neuma bore three daughters and raised 15 other children) to school, they didn’t want to study. She devised a method of teaching them proper grammar by conjugating verbs such as cagar and finding synonyms to dirty words.
Wistfully, Neuma harks back to the sex she used to have with her late husband, often in the back yard when the house was filled with children. She says, “We fucked morning, noon, and night. I probably killed him with all that fucking.”
Sadly, the erudite Dona Neuma is also gone now, leaving us all wistful.
Amor—pois que é palavra essencial
(Carlos Drummond de Andrade)
Amor—pois que é palavra essencial
comece esta canção e toda a envolva.
Amor guie o meu verso, e enquanto o guia,
reúna alma e desejo, membro e vulva.
Quem ousará dizer que ele é só alma?
Quem não sente no corpo a alma expandir-se
até desabrochar em puro grito
de orgasmo, num instante de infinito?
O corpo noutro corpo entrelaçado,
fundido, dissolvido, volta à origem
dos seres, que Platão viu completados:
é um, perfeito em dois; são dois em um.
Integração na cama ou já no cosmo?
Onde termina o quarto e chega aos astros?
Que força em nossos flancos nos transporta
a essa extrema região, etérea, eterna?
Ao delicioso toque do clitóris,
já tudo se transforma, num relâmpago.
Em pequenino ponto desse corpo,
a fonte, o fogo, o mel se concentraram.
Vai a penetração rompendo nuvens
e devassando sóis tão fulgurantes
que nunca a vista humana os suportara,
mas, varado de luz, o coito segue.
E prossegue e se espraia de tal sorte
que, além de nós, além da prórpia vida,
como ativa abstração que se faz carne,
a idéia de gozar está gozando.
E num sofrer de gozo entre palavras,
menos que isto, sons, arquejos, ais,
um só espasmo em nós atinge o climax:
é quando o amor morre de amor, divino.
Quantas vezes morremos um no outro,
nu úmido subterrâneo da vagina,
nessa morte mais suave do que o sono:
a pausa dos sentidos, satisfeita.
Então a paz se instaura. A paz dos deuses,
estendidos na cama, qual estátuas
vestidas de suor, agradecendo
o que a um Deus acrescenta o amor terrestre.
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11:59
Saturday, October 4, 2003
Jovino duplo
Jovino Santos Neto
on his two new discs.
Jovino Santos Neto, always a busy musician, surpassed himself this year and released two discs almost simultaneously: Canto do Rio with his Quinteto and Serenata with mandolinist Mike Marshall. The former is an album of the pianist’s own compositions, while the latter is dedicated to the work of Jovino’s mestre, Hermeto Pascoal.
Both CDs offer an embarrassment of riches ranging in tone from the jazzy to the lyrical, and always suffused with deep brasilidade. Since there is no better critic than the artist himself, I invited Jovino to comment on each track. He fulfilled the task with admirable aplomb.
Read Jovino’s comments here.
Listen to audio samples of Canto do Rio and Serenata.
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13:49
Friday, October 3, 2003
Marcos Sacramento & Clara Sandroni
on tour in France
Marcos Sacramento and Clara Sandroni are touring France from 16 October until 1 December, accompanied by Luiz Flavio Alcofra (guitar), Jayme Vignoli (cavaquinho), Netinho & João Hermeto (percussion). They’re promoting their CDs Saravà, Baden Powell! and Memorável Samba, both on the Biscoito Fino label.
Thu, 16 Oct: Toulon
Forum Fnac Centre Mayol
Fri, 17 Oct: Marseille
Cubaila Café, 40 rue des Trois Rois 13 006
Tel: 04 91 48 97 48
Sat, 18 Oct: Toulon
CREP des Lices, 484 Avenue des Lices 83 OOO
Tel: O4 94 24 72
Fri, 24 Oct: Marseille
Cubaila Café, 40 rue des Trois Rois 13 006
Tel: 04 91 48 97 48
Sat, 1 Nov: Marseille
Fiesta des Suds, Dock des Suds, 12 rue Urban V
Tel: 08 25 833 833
Early Nov: Milan
Date to be confirmed
Wed, 5 Nov: Toulon
La Fiesta, 45 Rue Victor Clappier 83 000
Tel: 04 94 91 53 43
Thu, 13 Nov: Toulon
Le Bar à Thym, 2 Bl Cunéo 83 000
Tel: O4 94 41 90 10
Fri, 14 Nov: Salon
Portail Coucou, 160 Bl Lamartine 13 300
Tel: 04 90 56 27 99
Fri, 21 Nov: Marseille
Café Julien, 31 Cours Julien 13 006
Tel: 04 91 24 34 10
Tue, 25 Nov: Paris
Sunset, 60 rue des Lombards 75 001 (Métro Chatelet)
Tel: 01 40 26 21 25
Wed, 26 Nov: Paris
Sunset, 60 rue des Lombards 75 001 (Métro Chatelet)
Tel: 01 40 26 21 25
Thu, 27 Nov: Paris
Maison du Brésil, Cité Internationale Universitaire 75 006 (Métro Cité Universitaire)
Tel: 01 58 1O 23 OO
Fri, 28 Nov: Paris
Private concert by invitation
Wed, 3 Dec: Paris
L?Archipel, 17 Bl de Strasbourg 75 010 (Métro Strasbourg St Denis/Château d?Eau)
Voice/Piano recital: Marcos Sacramento & Yves Guenoun
Tel: 01 48 OO O4 35
2004
Fri, 4 Jun 2004: La Ciotat
Sur les Quais, Vieux Port 13 600
Tel: 04 42 08 14 14
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10:41
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