Tuesday, March 30, 2004
A new home for Praça Onze
Praça Onze by Augusto Malta
Last year I published here a series of nine articles titled Praça Onze in Popular Song. It was a review of song lyrics spanning the entire 20th century, all mentioning or alluding to the famed (and defunct) square, universally acknowledged as the cradle of samba in Rio de Janeiro.
I have now begun to revise the series and published the new version in Musica Brasiliensis.
The revision is by no means complete, as I intend to expand the commentaries and add a long illustrated preamble on the history of the locale from the beginning of the 19th century. But this endeavor is necessarily labor-intensive and won?t be completed overnight.
For the time being, readers may take advantage of a century?s worth of song lyrics documenting Praça Onze?s historic and social significance, as well as the changing face of Rio over the decades.
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14:28
 
Monday, March 29, 2004
Renato Braz at Spoleto USA
 The angel-voiced Prêmio Visa winner Renato Braz will make his North American debut at Spoleto Festival USA 2004 in Charleston, South Carolina. Leading off the Wachovia jazz series, Renato performs on Friday, 28 May and Saturday, 29 May, both at 9 pm. The venue is The Cistern of the College of Charleston, 66 George Street (corner of St. Philip).
The singer-guitarist will be accompanied by a crack team including Gerson Oikawa (guitar), Teco Cardoso (sax and flutes), Sizão Machado (bass), and José Luis Bré (percussion).
Tickets may be purchased online.
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11:31
Friday, March 19, 2004
Invitation to the dance, Pt. 1
Paulo Moura’s gafieira romp.
The old dance hall isn’t dead. Anyone who has watched the Mexican film Danzón can attest to the spellbinding attraction of those old-fashioned spaces where entwined sweaty couples sway sinuously for hours.
Brazil’s dance hall, the gafieira, is closely allied to choro. The country’s greatest choro musicians, from Pixinguinha to Luiz Americano, regularly played in these venues, for couples to dance.
The great clarinetist (and at other times saxophonist) Paulo Moura continues this tradition in his latest disc, Estação Leopoldina. The CD’s title (much like Guinga’s Suíte Leopoldina) alludes to the Rio working-class suburbs, cradle of choro and pagode.
Moura, who in the 1980s grew dissatisfied with his jazz-oriented repertoire, moved from the southern bairro of Botafogo to the northern suburb of Ramos. His new house was just in front of the quadra of the samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense, and the famous carnaval bloco Cacique de Ramos was nearby. Beth Carvalho, with whom Moura worked at that time, introduced him to roots samba, as well as to the new pagode movement then being born in Ramos.
From Ramos, Moura borrowed the typical pagode percussion instruments, such as the tantan and the repique-de-mão. But pagode is a sung medium, and a wholly instrumental album needed a companion voice for the clarinet. Moura settled on the accordion, remembering the accordion-clarinet duets that Orlando Silveira and Luiz Americano used to played on the radio of his youth.
 Enter accordionist Chico Chagas, who adds rhythmic texture to most of the tracks and contributes his own composition on track nine.
Opening the disc with a flourish is Moura’s “Estação Leopoldina,” a traditional gafieira tune that urges any listener to jump up and dance (even if s/he doesn’t know how). “Fibra” introduces a measure of contemporary chutzpah to the proceedings. The choro classics are represented by three Jacob do Bandolim tunes and one by Radamés Gnattali. Baden Powell’s “Deve Ser Amor” is turned into a sensual Latin dance-hall number, while João Donato’s “Bananeira” receives an adventurous opening that blends Yiddish-like guitar trills with remote cuíca howls.
Among the more recent compositions, Rodrigo Lessa’s “Rala Coxa” carries a strong klezmer flavor, while Rodrigo Campello’s “Oritimbó” (buttocks) is evocative of Brazil’s northeast. Among these and other colorfully rhythmic tunes, Moura’s waltz “Linda” offers a lovely change of pace. And traditional samba isn’t left out: a medley of golden classics allows the dancers to take a break and sing along.
Also worth a listen:
Gafieira Dance Brasil with Paulo Moura and pianist Cliff Korman.
Paulo Moura: Estação Leopoldina
(Rádio MEC RM015/Rob Digital; 2003) 66:19 min.
01. Estação Leopoldina (Paulo Moura/Almazor Cavalcante)
02. Fibra (Eloir Moraes/Paulo Moura)
03. Simplicidade (Jacob Pick Bittencourt)
04. Nosso Romance (Jacob Pick Bittencourt)
05. Deve Ser Amor (Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes)
06. Bananeira (João Donato/Gilberto Gil)
07. Rala Coxa (Rodrigo Lessa)
08. Oritimbó (Rodrigo Campello)
09. Pro Paulo (Chico Chagas)
10. Maré Cheia (Paulo Moura/Jorge Degas)
11. Linda (Paulo Moura)
12. Remexendo (Radamés Gnattali)
13. Pot-Pourri:
Ai, que Saudade da Amélia (Ataulfo Alves/Mário Lago)
Trem das Onze (Adoniran Barbosa)
Prêmio de Consolação (Jayme “Meira” Florence/Augusto Mesquita)
Leva Meu Samba (Ataulfo Alves)
14. Receita de Samba (Jacob Pick Bittencourt)
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15:47
Friday, March 12, 2004
Marcos Sacramento’s website
At Last, Sacra goes official.
Photo: André Vilaron
For a person who abhors computers, it was a major step into the unknown, but he finally did it (or more accurately, it was done for him).
The growing tribe of Sacra’s fans has now gained an official Marcos Sacramento website.
The site is still under construction, but there’s information about the singer?s latest CD, Memorável Samba, as well as a plethora of rave reviews from the Brazilian press.
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13:55
Monday, March 01, 2004
A virtual marriage made in heaven
Ernesto Nazareth & Chiquinha Gonzaga unite.
 The pianist Alexandre Dias lives in Brasília. At the tender age of twenty, he’s the world’s foremost collector of recordings made of Ernesto Nazareth?s compositions. At last count, his collection had surpassed 1,300.
Wandrei Braga also lives in Brasília. He’s the webmaster of the Chiquinha Gonzaga website.
What happened when Alexandre Dias met Wandrei Braga?
The obvious. Wandrei designed an Ernesto Nazareth website for Alexandre.
Take a look there. The site is still in its infancy, but you can already listen to Radio Nazareth and check out the complete discography of pianist Maria Teresa Madeira, considered by Dias to be Nazareth’s supreme interpreter.
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16:43
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