Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Musigossip
Guinga at Yoshi’s etc. e tal.
Ricardo Peixoto, Guinga & Harvey Wainapel at California Brazil Camp,
Cazadero, California, 23 August 2004 (photo: Reg Schwager)
Following a week of California Brazil Camp in Cazadero, several of the camp teachers descended on Yoshi’s last night for a single evening, with numerous camp students in the audience. On stage: Claudia Villela, Ricardo Peixoto, Harvey Wainapel, and Guinga. The repertoire: Guinga and Villela-Peixoto compositions. Ricardo shone on his various guitars; Guinga moved the audience with vocal renditions of “Chá de Panela” and “Senhorinha”; Claudia lent her vocal chops to fine versions of “Choro pro Zé,” “Par Constante,” “Pra Quem Quiser Me Visitar,” and, on the livelier side, “O Coco do Coco” and “Baião de Lacan.” Harvey was lovely as always.
Guinga, who signed up with a US representative, will be touring the States next spring, accompanied by Paulo Sérgio Santos, Lula Galvão, and Jorginho Trompete. Their Bay Area gig is scheduled for Yoshi’s in April.
Guinga and Fátima brought along his new disc with Gabriele Mirabassi, Graffiando Vento. The album is everything one would have wished it to be (watch for a review before too long). Guinga and the Italian clarinetist are set to record a second disc in the very near future. Also out is the An Evening With International Guitar Night CD, still unheard but seen in Brian Gore’s hands last night. Guinga plays “Choro Breve,” “Picotado,” and with Andrew York, “Senhorinha.”
Harvey Wainapel tells me that his beautiful CD with Paulo Bellinati, New Choros of Brazil (recently released on the German Acoustic Music label), will come out in November in an American edition. And Claudia announced that her improvised Dream Tales with pianist Kenny Werner (recorded in 1999) finally came out and is already esgotado (just for a while though).
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17:36
 
Friday, August 27, 2004
O Encontro au Bon Gourmet
The disc that no one reviewed.
The history-making show in August 1962
“What disc?” I can hear you asking in indignation.
True enough, there is no disc. Or rather, there is, but it’s never been released.
Released or not, it’s here, and since it is, and was recorded one August 42 years ago, and has long been touted as a major landmark of bossa nova, and since August 2004 cries out for a refreshing breeze, here comes the long overdue review.
Imagine yourself in the summer of 1962. You have never heard most of the songs on this album, for they are receiving here their world premières. Aloysio de Oliveira united on stage Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, whose songwriting partnership is already at its end (Vinicius has taken up with young Baden Powell de Aquino). This is Vinicius’ first time as a performer; until now it’s been considered unseemly for a diplomat to sing in a nightclub. Both Tom and Vinicius sit behind the piano, oversized whiskey glasses before them. This is a good start, but it needs professional voices.
The venue is the restaurant Au Bon Gourmet on Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana, in the bairro of the same name. The stage is tiny and unadorned, but Aloysio crams it full. He brings in the vocal quartet Os Cariocas, a link between the old sambas that his own conjunto, Bando da Lua, used to sing and the new sambas that Tom and Vinicius compose. Front and center sits João Gilberto, who makes a specialty of both the old samba and the new.
The elegant audience, whose ranks are filled from Rio’s chic society and artistic circles, dines on French cuisine and listens attentively, applauding and at times yelling encouragements.
Accompanied by Otávio Bailly on bass and Milton Banana on drums, the seven men on stage unroll a string of, yes, mostly unknown songs. Os Cariocas warm up the audience with a rousing rendition of the brand new “Só Danço Samba,” which Tom augments with his voice and piano:
Já dancei o twist até demais
Mas não sei
Me cansei
Do calipso
Ao chá-chá-chá
The message is clear: take away foreign rhythms—I’m going back to my samba roots.
Read the rest of the review (with a little audio surprise) here.
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13:25
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Fresh tradition
Johnson Machado’s vivacious choro
is the cat’s meow.
Johnson Machado
All the new musical talent that abounds in Brazil notwithstanding, it’s not everyday that one runs into a new choro album that delights and impresses as much as Johnson Machado’s Choramingando. As a composer, Machado is a melodic master. As a clarinetist and saxophonist, he executes with grace and ablomb the challenging flights of fancy of Machado the composer.
Appearances to the contrary, Johnson Machado was born not quite 37 years ago in Fortaleza, Ceará. He comes from a musical family. His father plays accordion, his uncle is a guitarist, and his grandfather played a small accordion with eight bass buttons. It was only natural that Johnson would enter a children’s band.
In 1987, at the age of 20, Machado enrolled in the Conservatório de Tatuí in São Paulo, studying under Nivaldo Donega. The following year he entered a clarinet course at the Universidade de Brasília, where he was the student of Luiz Gonzaga Carneiro.
The year 1993–94 found him in Rio de Janeiro, where he specialized at UFRJ under José Carlos de Castro. His studies took him to the United States, where he pursued a graduate course at the University of Miami under the classical clarinetist Margaret Donaghue. Another classical clarinetist, Steve Cohen, taught him at the Brevar Music Center in the summer of 1997.
Where does all this training lead? In Johnson’s case, it led not to a symphony orchestra seat but to composing and arranging. And not only to classical music but to choro. Building on his early years of playing MPB and on extra studies with José Botelho and Paulo Sérgio Santos, Johnson joined the conjunto regional H2O in Vitória, Espirito Santo. As he says now, “Tive que me debruçar com dezenas e dezenas de chorinhos! Tomei gosto.” (I had to deal with dozens and dozens of chorinhos! I acquired the taste.) He liked it enough to record a whole album of his own compositions, which sound as if they’d been written in the golden age of choro, but with no trace of fustiness.
As Elvis Costello once sagely observed, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture—it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.” What better way to experience the music than by listening to it? The only problem I had was in selecting the samples, because each track is as good as the next.
So here are selections from four Johnson Machado tunes.
“Choramingando,” a classic choro, is arranged for clarinet, soprano sax, 6- and 7-string guitars, cavaquinho, and percussion (see musician list below). A virtuoso counterpoint between the two reed instruments lends special vivacity to the recording. 
Perhaps it was Johnson Machado’s youth in Ceará that inspired the infectious “Cateretê.” Contributing nordestino flavor is Chiquinho Chagas’ accordion. The sax this time is a tenor.
“Choro Esquísito” is just that—an M.C. Escher house of cards. Always threatening to topple over, meandering from one key to another, wandering in and out of tune, but progressing confidently just the same.
In “Curió,” Machado is joined by flutist Andréa Ernest Dias (who also appears in “Boré”) and H2O (who also play on “Jaó”).
Another great favorite of mine is “Homenagem aos Chorões,” which benefits from the added presence of flutist Alexandre Caldi, pandeirista Jó Reis, and bassist Jorjão Carvalho. In “Chorinho pro Lucas,” composed for the author’s baby son, the clarinet successfully imitates an infant’s voice. There are also lyrical tunes, like the beautiful “Choro Lento,” where a solo clarinet is augmented by guitar and acoustic bass and later by muted accordion. “Nanquim” is an obstacle course for clarinet and Gabriel Improta’s guitar. Two frevos close the disc. “Raspando Tacho” is arranged for alto sax, accordion, guitar, acoustic bass, percussion and pandeiro. “Gagunça” (Machado’s first composition) features a brass quintet and caixa drum.
In Johnson Machado we can look forward to a long and fruitful career destined to give music lovers years of pleasure. Choramingando may be purchased on the artist’s official website.
Johnson Machado: Choramingando
(Independent; 2004) 39:34 min.
All compositions by Johnson Machado
Arrangements by Roberto Stepheson & Johnson Machado
Produced by Roberto Stepheson
01. Choramingando
02. Boré
03. Cateretê
04. Choro Esquísito
05. Choro Lento
06. Nanquim
07. Jaó
08. Curió
09. Homenagem aos Chorões
10. Chorinho pro Lucas
11. Raspando Tacho
12. Gagunça
Johnson Machado: clarinet & alto sax
Roberto Stepheson: saxophones
Guga Mendonça: guitar
Nando Duarte: 7-string guitar
Manoela Marinho: cavaquinho
Carlos César Motta: percussion
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13:59
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Farewell, Ney Mesquita
We hardly knew you.
Photo: Christiane de Assis Pacheco, 2003
Three years ago I published an article about Dabliú Discos in Brazzil magazine. At the bottom of the article, I included capsule reviews of my favorite selections from the Dabliú catalog. This was one of them:
Ney Mesquita: Canções de Dorival e Dori Caymmi (DB 0049)
This fine album was released before the recent spate of Caymmi tributes, and it’s a mystery why it never emerged from obscurity, given the imaginative choice of material, the singer’s beautiful voice and interpretations, and the excellent arrangements by Eduardo Gudin, who also produced and plays guitar on some tracks. The repertoire is divided almost equally between the father’s and the son’s compositions.
Ney lived in São Paulo and sang regularly at the bar Ó do Borogodó in Vila Madalena. He was also an actor, appearing on stage in productions such as Ópera do Malandro and in films like Hector Babenco’s recent Estação Carandiru.
His most recent album was Quintal (Pôr do Som PDSNL2002; 2002), with voice-piano arrangements by Lincoln Antonio. The two recorded samba, waltz, choro, jongo, ballad, batuque.
The photo above was shot at the São Paulo celebration of the Agenda do Samba & Choro’s 7th anniversary last year.
Ney Mesquita died on 9 August 2004 of respiratory complications. He was 36.
Listen to audio samples from Canções de Dorival e Dori Caymmi and Quintal.
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18:05
Monday, August 09, 2004
Gabriele Mirabassi & Guinga: Graffiando Vento
(Egea SCA 107; 2004)
Recorded in Perugia between 29 September and 1 October, 2003.
01. Choro pro Zé (Guinga/Aldir Blanc)
02. Picotado (Guinga)
03. Valsa pra Leila (Guinga/Aldir Blanc)
04. Vô Alfredo (Guinga/Aldir Blanc)
05. Rasgando Seda (Guinga/Simone Guimarães)
06. Baião de Lacan (Guinga/Aldir Blanc)
07. Exasperada (Guinga/Aldir Blanc)
08. Por Trás de Brás de Pina (Guinga)
09. Cine Baronesa (Guinga/Aldir Blanc)
10. Canibaile (Guinga/Aldir Blanc)
11. Constance (Guinga)
12. Par Constante (Guinga)
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11:27
Friday, August 06, 2004
A tribute to grandpa
and his country roots
Cris Aflalo: from Ceará to São Paulo and back.
Photo: J. Mantovani
It’s been said more than once that Brazil is the Land of Lethe. But not always. Here’s a young woman of São Paulo, whose grandfather, Xerêm of Ceará, was a prolific composer, with almost 300 regional songs to his credit. Cris Aflalo spent more than six years researching Xerêm’s body of work and three years recording selections for her CD, Só Xerêm.
It’s a lovely album, enriched by the singer’s gentle voice and lyrical interpretations. But rather than go on about it, I direct you to Egídio Leitão’s informative review in musicabrasileira.org.
Then you can listen to an audio sample of “Obalalá” (Xerêm/Guará), courtesy of MPBNet.
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11:13
Monday, August 02, 2004
Chansonnier par excellence
Marcio Proença sings of and for adults.
Marcio Proença
When it comes to composing song tunes, Marcio Proença is a veteran. His musical résumé stretches back to MAU (Movimento Artístico Universitário), the student movement of the early 1970s whose most visible founding members were Gonzaguinha, Aldir Blanc, and Ivan Lins, but which eventually attracted the participation of numerous artists who would become the pillars of MPB.
A gifted melodist, Proença crafts not just songs but chansons. What’s the difference? Chansons are songs for adults. You may have heard his boleros in the voice of Nana Caymmi: “Castelos no Ar”; “Outra Tarde”; “Marca da Paixão”; “Vício de Amor.” Or “Retrato Cantado” (download the recording courtesy of MPBNet) in Aldir Blanc’s 50 Anos. Or “Cabrocha da Mangueira,” either with Beth Carvalho or with Leny Andrade and Romero Lubambo. Or “Pare de Me Arranhar” with Zé Luiz Mazziotti, or with Pery Ribeiro and Luiz Eça, or with Simone. And so it goes. His lyricists have always been the heavy hitters: Paulo Cesar Pinheiro, Aldir Blanc, Paulo Emílio, Ivor Lancellotti, Marco Aurélio, Wanderléa.
During the 1980s, Proença released the LPs Marcio Proença (1981) and Eterno Diálogo (1984). Now he comes back with the delectable CD Facho de Luz, with lyrics by José Luiz Lopes. The songs are leisurely (several are boleros), allowing the listener to savor the bitter-sweet verses that meditate on an intensely experienced life, redolent of love and disappointment, good and bad moments. The sophisticated arrangements by Cristovão Bastos are a fitting complement to Proença’s caressing baritone, joined by several illustrious friends who lend extra oomph to the production.
“Delírio” opens the album with a breezy bossanovista arrangement of flute (Marcelo Bernardes), piano (Bastos), guitar (Mauricio Carrilho), contrabass (Jorge Helder), and percussion (Ovídio Brito and Don Chacal), while the singer confesses accumulated manias:
[...] Sou bem prolixo e até convexo
Bem pouca chance pra mudar [...]
E assim
Vou levando, e tenho a sensação
Que a correr dos anos
Vão me revelar outros complexos [...]
É que o medo de amar
Me faz um néscio
Só de te ver meu corpo mexe
E eu não consigo nem falar [...]
“Que Bom Seria” is a regretful rumination on a love that has gone bad, interpreted in turns by Leila Pinheiro and Proença, with accompaniment by Bastos, Nicolas Krassik (violin) and cello (Fábio Presgrave):
[...] Juro que daria uma vida toda
Pra tirar de vez o triste desse amor
E ficar com a parte boa que me toca
Como os dois brincando sob o cobertor. [...]
Bongos and clave (Chacal) and soprano sax (Bernardes) lend an apt setting to the heartache of “Gosto de Batom”:
[...] Ando às tontas pelo corredor
sem saber, o que faço aonde vou
Seu cheiro por todo lugar>
Uma obsessão [...]
“Um Pouco Mais Canção” draws on the contrasting tastes and demeanors of two lovers. The theme is reminiscent of “Catavento e Girassol,” although the treatment is much gentler, less confrontational:
[...] Quisera
Que você fosse outra
Um pouco menos rock
Um pouco mais canção [...]
Guinga arranged the song for voice and guitar. He does the playing and takes turns singing with Proença, in a reedy tenor that rounds out the latter’s deeper voice.
“Bons Momentos” is a bolero that seems to have been tailor-made for Nana Caymmi:
[...] Velar o que já sepultou
Não tem cabimento
Te apraz lembrar o que passou
Apontar os erros
Eu já sei não vais me perdoar
Vai doer, se eu te telefonar
A mágoa é um veneno
Afasta do teu coração
Interpreting it here, Simone Guimarães reveals herself to be a perfect torch singer. Her on-the-verge-of-tears rendition is beautifully balanced by Proença’s smooth vocals, Bastos’ syncopated piano, and Leandro Almeida’s muted trumpet. Listen to an excerpt.
If “Bons Momentos” is a Nana Caymmi vehicle, “Já Foi, Mas Volta” would fit perfectly into Pery Ribeiro’s repertoire. João Lyra’s fine guitar joins the piano, bass, and ganzá arrangement. In contrast with the final closure of “Bons Momentos,” “Já Foi, Mas Volta” leaves open an avenue of hope:
[...] Como um cometa vazou
Sem dar tempo de me aproximar
Fica a certeza você
Já foi mas volta
“Marcas do Passado” is a two-in-one track: the first round is sung by Proença with Guinga on guitar, the second by Ivor Lancellotti with Marquinho Roberto on guitar. The vocal renditions are different in character, and so are the accompaniments: the first slow and contemplative, the second more agitated.
“Um Mal de Amor” is a song of short phrases, a dialog between voice and piano. The subject is evident from the title, but the lyrics go deeper than the expected dor de cotovelo:
[...] Pode alguém revelar seus segredos,
se habitam outros lá
Pode alguém navegar mar aberto,
sem prever o mar [...]
“Avassalador” is an occasion for the lyricist José Luis Lopes to sing. It’s impressive how many of Brazil’s lyricists—very few of whom are trained vocalists—acquit themselves well while delivering a song. This phenomeon is on display both in “Avassalador” and in “É Bom, Mas É Ruim,” where Paulo Cesar Pinheiro takes wistful turns with Proença to the strains of Bastos’ equally wistful solo piano. Listen to an excerpt.
Eu queria essa música com letra do Aldir
Eu queria essa música com jeito do Jobim
Eu queria cantar como canta o Cauby
É o modo dela, meio donzela, me faz sentir assim
Eu queria o Paulinho Pinheiro por aqui
Eu queria essa música com um pouco do Ary
E o Guinga tocando um bolero só pra mim
Sorri pra ela
Sofrer por ela
É bom, mas é ruim [...]
“Cilada Fatal” contains the phrase that gave title to the disc and distills the emotions given repeated expression in it:
Sob um facho de luz
Salpicado de azul
Me ungiu com o olhar
De uma cigana que lê
Parecendo um ser imortal
Me aliciando falou
Com a certeza de quem vence o mal
Mensageira da dor
Traiçoeira, armou
A cilada fatal
Pra conquistar meu amor
Destilou seu veneno letal
Fez implodir meu castelo de sonhos
Num lance final
Já não me importa mais
Sua opinião
É bem melhor ouvir, a voz da razão
Não adianta mais, chorar e nem pedir perdão
Agora a tarde cai
Fica a sensação
Que já não manda mais, no meu coração
Hoje eu já sou capaz, de perceber sua intenção
But there’s no need to despair, for the album ends on a triumphant note with the rousing samba “Atitude,” to which Beth Carvalho lends her unmistakable touch. Following a deceptively calm beginning featuring Proença’s voice with piano and bass, a cuíca heralds a change in mood and tempo. Beth takes over with an exuberant conjunto de samba, letting us know in no uncertain terms that there’s more to life than quiet resignation:
[...] Quem sabe, guarda em silêncio quem sangrou
Doa o tapete a quem puxou
Canta que o canto espanta a dor. [...]
Listening to Marcio Proença, you’ll want to join in the singing.
Marcio Proença: Facho de Luz
(Niterói Discos ND CD 106; 2004) 52:31 min.
All songs by Marcio Proença & José Luiz Lopes
Arrangements by Cristovão Bastos
Produced by João Carlos Carino
01. Delírio
02. Que Bom Seria
03. Gosto de Batom
04. Um Pouco Mais Canção
05. Bons Momentos
06. Já Foi, Mas Volta
07. Marcas do Passado
08. Um Mal de Amor
09. Avassalador
10. É Bom, Mas É Ruim
11. Cilada Fatal
12. Atitude
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19:06
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