Daniella Thompson on Brazil

2011-10-22T14:52:00.001-07:00

Hear Chico Buarque’s latest CD

Chico, released in July 2011 by Biscoito Fino, is Chico Buarque’s first album with new compositions since Carioca (2006). Rádio Educadora FM of Bahia broadcast it four days ago on its Especial da Seis program. The good news is that the program is available for online listening on the station’s extensive audio archive.

To find out more about the CD Chico, read Kees Schoof’s review in Música Brasileira.

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2011-10-20T11:21:00.001-07:00

Acervo Digital Chiquinha Gonzaga

Hundreds of scores now available free online.

Brazilian copyright law releases intellectual property 70 years after the author’s death. Thus, the works of Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847–1935) fell into the public domain in 2005. This occurrence, however, did not automatically make the compositions accessible that year. Of the composer’s vast body of work, only about 12 scores were commercially available.

The young pianists and music researchers Alexandre Dias and Wandrei Braga, both residents of Brasília and specialists in Ernesto Nazareth and Chiquinha Gonzaga, respectively, undertook to remedy the situation.

Wandrei Braga (l) and Alexandre Dias

For more than three years, they hunted for sheet music in libraries and private collections. By 2010, with the help of Instituto Moreira Salles, they had managed to accumulate over 300 scores of Chiquinha Gonzaga compositions. These have just been published on the Chiquinha Gonzaga website under the name Acervo Digital Chiquinha Gonzaga.

The compositions range across a vast spectrum of genres, including valsas, tangos brasileiros, canções, polkas, fados, habaneras, romances, duets, baladas, marchas, religious tunes, serenatas, barcarolas, modinhas, gavotas, mazurkas, dobrados, and choros.

On the website, the tunes are arranged alphabetically by title and can also be searched by title, genre, or instrumentation. Each one is accompanied by background notes written by Edinha Diniz, author of Chiquinha Gonzaga: Uma História de Vida. Many include guitar tabs and lyrics.

This heroic effort is merely the first phase in the project to resurrect the composer’s complete body of work. Braga and Dias hope to follow it up by including Chiquinha Gonzaga’s hundreds of stage tunes.

Dias and Braga at the launch party in Rio, 18 Oct. 2011

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2011-10-09T12:47:00.001-07:00

Moacyr Luz at Barbès Brooklyn

Don’t miss the sambista’s first public performance in New York,
Sunday, 16 October 2011, at 7:00 pm (ignore the time in the poster).

For directions, click here.

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2011-09-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

No Compasso da História

Joyce Moreno’s new TV series

Joyce Moreno wrote a few days ago:

This is the invitation for the opening party of my new TV series ”No Compasso da História”—Brazilian history, told by Brazilian music. It’s an old project of mine that has finally come true, with the help of the mayoralty of the city of Rio. It’s a series of 15 documentaries, and we’ve spent the last 18 months working hard on it: 500 years of History and over 150 songs! It will be aired both on TV and in public schools.

I know you probably won’t be able to make it to the party (it’s a shame you will miss the mayor’s speech... :-)) but I wanted to let you know about it, anyway, as I’m so proud of the work we've done.

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2011-06-18T06:44:00.001-07:00

Retrato de João

Three audio documentaries from Cultura Brasil.

On 10 June 2011, João Gilberto celebrated his 80th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, Cultura Brasil has produced a series of audio documentaries titled Retrato de João. Each program is one-hour long. Two programs are already online, and a third is to follow.

The programs are based on interviews with the likes of Ruy Castro, Zuza Homem de Mello, Roberto Menescal, Miúcha, Moraes Moreira, Oscar Castro Neves, and João Donato. They also include reminiscences by his contemporaries Carlos Lyra, André Midani, Durval Ferreira, and Tito Madi. There are also testimonials by Bebel Gilberto, Gal Costa, and Paulinho Boca de Cantor and Luiz Galvão of Novos Baianos.

Interspersed among the reminiscences are many of João’s seminal recordings.

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2011-05-21T17:16:00.001-07:00

Update:

According to the Estado de S. Paulo, João Gilberto will commemorate his 80th birthday with concerts in five Brazilian cities. The concerts will take place between 29 August and 30 November in Rio, São Paulo, Salvador, Porto Alegre, and Brasília. The Rio concert is likely to take place on 10 September, and that in São Paulo, a week earlier.

João Gilberto to retire

A farewell performance in August.

O Globo columnist Ancelmo Gois announced it on 18 May:

A genius’s goodbye

In June, João Gilberto will complete 80 years of life.
The idea is to celebrate the date with a big show in August, anounced as the farewell of the genius of Brazilian music.

The legacy of João...

The show, in Rio, will be captured in 3D and transmitted to 200 movie theatres around the world. Eighty of them will be in Brazil. The program will range from Nelson Cavaquinho to Caetano Veloso.

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2011-04-30T15:03:00.001-07:00

What Artur had to say about Darius

A new twist to the Boeuf sur le Toit story.

Artur Rubinstein and Darius Milhaud, Rio de Janeiro, 1918 (Rubinstein: My Many Years)

As Darius Milhaud maintained in his autobiography, Notes sans Musique (1949), he intended Le Boeuf sur le Toit to be a musical accompaniment for one of Charlie Chaplin’s films. “Cocteau disapproved of my idea, and proposed that he should use it for a show, which he would undertake to put on. Cocteau had a genius for improvisation! Hardly had he conceived the idea of a project than he immediately carried it out.”

The pianist Artur Rubinstein, who had made Milhauds acquaintance during his first South American concert tour, presents a different scenario in his own autobiography, My Many Years (1980). Rubinstein’s account reveals that Milhaud and Cocteau first presented Le Boeuf to Serge Diaghilev in the hope that he would stage it.

The very amusing story is told in full in “Milhaud & Rubinstein in Rio and Paris.”

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2011-04-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Sobre o problema da Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira

por Paulo Sergio Santos

Foto: Silvana Marques

Muito foi falado nos blogs nacionais e internacionais, nos jornais, rádios e televisões, sobre a “tsunami” que invadiu o Rio de Janeiro. Existem exposições maravilhosas, com as quais eu concordo, outras igualmente bem escritas, que expressam opinião divergente. A minha versão é: está sendo dizimado um ícone que fez 70 anos de existência e tradição, de glórias e de momentos difíceis, todos superados com a dedicação dos seus integrantes incluindo, obviamente, seus dirigentes, ao longo de vários anos. Muitos obstáculos foram removidos com muita paciência, perspicácia e perseverança. Sempre em nome da instituição, muitas pessoas acreditaram que construíam uma fortaleza baseada não só no rendimento musical e artístico, mas no bom senso, espírito coletivo e inteligência.

A única coisa de que tenho certeza nesse imbróglio é que, se eu pertencesse à orquestra e tivesse me confrontado com uma “avaliação de desempenho” imposta verticalmente pela diretoria, certamente eu estaria agora do lado dos demitidos. E tomaria tal posição, por discordar veementemente dos motivos reais e tão claros que impulsionaram a implantação desse projeto, descabido e totalmente maléfico e não por medo de ser avaliado pois músicos de verdade e não só robôs são avaliados automaticamente nos seus ensaios e apresentações.

Dizer que a OSB ressurgirá das cinzas atuais com característas que podem explicitar um possível desempenho técnico e artístico compatível com o das maiores orquestras do mundo, equivale a previsões feitas com bolas de cristal. E ainda que isso acontecesse, não justificaria o método desumano aplicado. Os fins definitivamente não justificam os meios. O altíssimo preço da irresponsabilidade, da falta de sabedoria, da falta de humildade e da intransigência acabou sendo pago por muitos músicos, com a demissao de 50% da orquestra. Isso acarreta uma tragédia geradora de conflitos de conceitos, idéias e ideais que impedem que ela volte a ser íntegra como sempre foi.

Há muita gente que crê no “sucesso” a qualquer preço! Há muita gente que acredita em “excelência” absoluta, ou seja: que não leva em conta o contexto em que os fenômenos evolutivos acontecem com a rede de relações intrínsecas e às vezes sutis, entre as causas e os seus respectivos efeitos, sejam eles positivos ou nefastos e deploráveis.

O importante é “vencer”! Eu pergunto: vencer o quê? Não há adversário. Não há disputa. A humanidade precisa repensar esses conceitos básicos. A impressão que temos de estar “largados” no tempo e no espaço, nos “empurra” para a penumbra de uma realidade amorfa que nos faz oscilar cíclica e velozmente entre a onipotência e a falta de energia para sequer sonharmos com um futuro melhor, já que as nossas idéias, para serem transmitidas para as massas, precisam furar o bloqueio dos meios de comunicação que, com seus “filtros” acabam sendo influenciados por esta rede de interesses.

Hoje, aos 53 anos, percebo com clareza os malefícios causados por este estado de espírito insano que incita a uma obsessiva busca pela perfeição e excelência, desenfreada, desregulada e desconectada do bem, pois seu alto poder de destruição faz sucumbir os ideais mais nobres que dão sustentabilidade ao ser humano como um todo, com suas virtudes e defeitos. A vaidade exacerbada é o combustível para a indecência, a falta de compostura, a falta de caráter e sobretudo a falta de verdadeiros amor e paixão.

Em nome de Deus, crimes hediondos foram cometidos contra a humanidade, mas em nome dos homens atrocidades maiores ainda, “pipocaram” na história, imbuídas de um objetivo tosco: o tal do “desenvolvimento” cruel, avassalador e capaz de estremecer as bases de conceitos que poderiam, de certa forma, justificar a nossa passagem por este mundo de forma mais positiva. A verdadeira evolução é como mágica. Envolve dedicação, tem seus truques, mas tem graça e acontece de forma natural e gradativa. Ela sustenta a si própria. Ela se auto-avalia e através desses resultados se redireciona em busca da excelência, mas também do bem comum. Quando cada um cumpre o seu papel, ela “brota” naturalmente. Considero esse o único caminho.

Que a crença em Deus não seja usada apenas para livrar dirigentes e dirigidos da incompreensão intransponível dos mecanismos complexos que controlam a vida de uma coletividade, especialmente a musical e, da perplexidade que todos temos ao nos depararmos com a multiplicidade de alternativas e a maleabilidade e relatividade não só das “certezas” aparentes e superficiais mas também de parâmetros inquestionáveis, dignos e cruciais. Não é cabível acreditar que sejam de procedência divina a persistência em quaisquer objetivos, mesmo os duvidosos, pois, pode trazer e, nesse caso, trouxe resultados forjados a ferro e fogo, que não representam um senso comum e que são amparados no desprezo e na falta de consideração com as pessoas que constituíam as “células” do “tecido” desta coletividade, independentemente do que diz a lei. Este foi um péssimo exemplo para jovens músicos e artistas. Ao tentar obrigá-los a esquecerem quem são, de onde vieram e insinuando quem deveriam ser e para onde deveriam ir, paga-se um preço demasiadamente caro por um equívoco que pode esconder, na realidade, um crime que não pode ou talvez não deva ser perdoado facilmente. É pena que as leis, como ferramentas, são muito mais utilizadas para amparar artimanhas do que para proteger o que é lícito e saudável.

É preciso muita responsabilidade e humildade para sonhar, caso contrário, o sonho pode virar paranóia e, no desejo aflito e transtornado pela sua realização, todo o controle acaba se esvaindo e provocando a destruição em cadeia dos valores mais nobres e essenciais do ser humano. Quais os benefícios que uma fé monstruosa pode trazer, se além de remover não só montanhas, acabar removendo a autenticidade e a dignidade de um povo, ao ignorar os seus alicerces éticos, suas argumentações, suas aspirações, sua história, desordenando a hierarquia dos seus valores culturais e morais e ceifando de seus artistas o direito de gostar do que fazem sem a necessidade e ansiedade doentias de querer, a todo tempo e a qualquer custo, descobrir e disputar o lugar que ocupam no “ranking” mundial?

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2010-12-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

Noel Rosa’s centennial

Noel Rosa was born on 11 December 1910 and died a mere 27 years later, leaving behind hundreds of immortal songs. The Brazilian music world is celebrating his centennial with pomp and circumstance.

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2010-11-04T12:01:00.001-07:00

Berkeley Choro Ensemble at Avonova

Sunday, 7 November 2010
4 pm
Avonova
417 Avon Street
Oakland, CA 94618

Donation: $15

The Berkeley Choro Ensemble is a group of world-class East Bay musicians that made its debut in January 2010 at the Berkeley Public Library. The ensemble includes clarinetist/saxophone player Harvey Wainapel, flutist Jane Lenoir, guitarist Carlos Oliveira, and percussionist Brian Rice.

See additional information and reservations.

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2010-11-04T11:38:00.001-07:00

Marcos Sacramento x 4 at Centro Cultural Carioca

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2010-07-22T23:20:00.001-07:00

The sunny side of samba

Marcos Ozzellin releases his debut disc, O Samba Transcendental.

Marcos Ozzellin, Gabriel Aguiar (l) & Felipe Reznik (r)

The samba revival that has spawned so many music clubs in Lapa is also reaping a bountiful harvest of new albums by promising young artists. One of the latter is the talented singer Marcos Ozzellin, who brings his attractive baritone and natural swing to bear on samba, bossa nova, and MPB. A native of São Bernardo do Campo, in Greater São Paulo, he began his career in Sampa during the 1990s before moving to Rio de Janeiro by way of Portugal.

Born to sing, Ozzellin studied with the paulista vocalists Rosa Estevez, Ná Ozzetti, and Suzana Salles, also participating in several São Paulo chorales. In his early Rio days, Ozzellin made ends meet by working in a fabric store. It so happens that one of the store’s clients was Ithamara Koorax. She recognized his talent and became his mentor. Since then, Ozzellin has been taking part in Koorax’s shows, as well as developing a following of his own in Lapa clubs such as Centro Cultural Memórias do Rio, where the photo above was shot.

Among his influences, Ozzellin cites Dorival Caymmi, Noel Rosa, Ary Barroso, Candeia, and Vinicius de Moraes. It’s no wonder, then, that the work of these songwriters found its way into the singer’s debut disc, O Samba Transcendental de Marcos Ozzellin. The songs were selected by the album’s producer, Arnaldo DeSouteiro, who wanted to display samba’s lighthearted face, positive moods, beautiful melodies and harmonies.

The repertoire is redolent of interlocking associations. If the disc opens with Donato’s jazzy “Sambou... Sambou” (1962), it must close with “Saudações” (1974), which Donato’s fellow pre-Bossa Nova jazz pianist Johnny Alf was the first to record. Between the two, there are several 1930s and ’40s classic sambas, beginning with “Treze de Ouro” (1949), originally recorded by the male vocal group Anjos do Inferno and more recently performed by Donato’s and Alf’s 1950s pal, João Gilberto.

There follow two saucy songs made famous by Carmen Miranda—“O Dengo que a Nega Tem” (1940) and “Samba Rasgado” (1938)—and a pair of Baden & Vinicius songs, “Deixa” (1963) and the Afro-samba “Bocochê” (1966), the latter in a lovely duet with Ithamara Koorax that recalls the Sandroni-Sacramento rendition in Saravá, Baden Powell!.

The 1930s are represented by Noel Rosa with “Com Que Roupa?” (1930) and “O ‘X’ do Problema” (1936) and by Ary Barroso with “Quando Eu Penso na Bahia” (1937), the latter another Carmen Miranda vehicle.

From the 1970s emerges perhaps the most contemplative samba in this album: Candeia’s “Preciso Me Encontrar,” immortalized by Cartola in 1976, with the help of Dino Sete Cordas and bassoonist Aírton Barbosa. From the 1980s we get Padeirinho’s “Como Será o Ano 2000?” When Nara Leão recorded this samba in 1983, Brazil was bent under the yoke of military rule; the lyrics only obliquely express the hope for better days.

Como será daqui para o ano 2000?
Como será o nosso querido Brasil?
Como será o morro sem os barracôes?
Como será o Rio sem as tradições?

Será que no ano 2000 as escolas de samba irão desfilar?
Será que haverá carnaval? Será?
Daqui para o ano 2000 só Deus sabe como será
E o povo do Brasil verá

Como será?

Optimism gains momentum in Nelson Angelo’s “A Vida Leva” (1994), a manifesto for living life with joy, passion, and generosity, leaving utopias aside. It’s fitting that the penultimate track brings us “Edmundo,” Aloysio de Oliveira’s blithe version of “In the Mood” (1954), to round out the earlier Carmen Miranda trio.

The arrangements, pared down to the essentials—voice, guitar, and percussion—are satisfying. The liner notes contain all the essential information, including lyrics. Listen to several tracks here.

A side note: as in other recent recordings, I observed here the inscrutable hand of music publishers wreaking havoc with songwriter credits. Arnaldo DeSouteiro tells me that, for imponderable contractual reasons, Aloysio de Oliveira’s name couldn’t be mentioned in the Brazilian edition’s credits for “In the Mood.” Quite separately, I couldn’t help noticing that J. Pereira has ceded his place to Wilson Fernandes Falcão in the “Samba Rasgado” credits. Why? They may have been one and the same man, but only the publisher knows for sure. Who’s the publisher? Funny you should ask. Yes, it’s Mangione, yet again.

Marcos Ozzellin: O Samba Transcendental de Marcos Ozzellin
(Jazz Station Records JSR 6057; 2010) 49:12 min.

Produced & arranged by Arnaldo DeSouteiro

01. Sambou... Sambou (João Donato/João Mello)
02. Treze de Ouro (Herivelto Martins/Marino Pinto)
03. O Dengo que a Nega Tem (Dorival Caymmi)
04. Samba Rasgado (Portello Juno/Wilson Fernandes Falcão aka J. Pereira)
05. Deixa (Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes)
06. Bocochê (Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes) – w/ Ithamara Koorax
07. Com Que Roupa? (Noel Rosa)
08. Preciso Me Encontrar (Candeia)
09. Quando Eu Penso na Bahia (Ary Barroso)
10. O “X” do Problema (Noel Rosa)
11. Como Será o Ano 2000? (Oswaldo Vitalino de Oliveira “Padeirinho”)
12. A Vida Leva (Nelson Angelo)
13. Edmundo [In the Mood] (Joe Garland/Andy Razaf/Portuguese lyrics: Aloysio de Oliveira)
14. Saudações (Egberto Gismonti/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)

Musicians
Marcos Ozzellin (vocals)
Geraldo Martins, Rodrigo Lima, Gabriel Aguiar (guitar)
Wilson Chaplin, Felipe Reznik, Arnaldo DeSouteiro (percussion)
Guest: José Roberto Bertrami (keyboard on track 11)

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2010-07-09T19:10:00.001-07:00

Caymmi with love and jazz

Kenia salutes a giant.

Kenia and her musicians in the studio

How fortunate we are to be here and now. Fifteen years ago, there was only a handful of Dorival Caymmi CDs to be had. The songwriter’s own LPs were long out of circulation, and few tribute albums had been recorded.

In the intervening years, the omission has been redressed. In 2000, EMI reissued Caymmi’s albums in a handsome box set. Caymmi tribute CDs of the past dozen years include vocal interpretations (Jussara Silveira, Rosa Passos, Olívia Hime, Cláudio Nucci, Mateus Sartori, without mentioning those of Caymmi’s illustrious offspring, Nana, Dori, and Danilo) and instrumental ones (Tomás Improta, Grupo Zarabatana).

Caymmi’s body of work, from the maritime songs and the Bahian sambas to the urbane, Rio-based sambas and sambas-canções, is stamped with the composer’s individuality. It is the sambas and sambas-canções that singer Kenia Ashby chose to interpret in her new CD, Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi.

Beautifully arranged by pianist Fernando Merlino, the album exudes jazz flavors. Piano is the chief accompanying instrument, with bass, percussion, and an occasional guitar beefing up the rhythm section.

The disc opens on a swinging note with the samba “Eu Não Tenho Onde Morar” (1960). Caymmi’s own interpretation is lighthearted, belying the protagonist’s seemingly tragic condition of homelessness until the final line reveals that he’s a womanizer who’s been kicked out of the house (Maria mora com as outras/ Quem paga o quarto sou eu.) The refrain (Eu não tenho onde morar/ É por isso que moro na areia) is usually sung in call and response, the first line undertaken by the soloist and second by a chorus. Kenia sings the entire refrain on her own, and the quadruple repetition casts a hypnotic spell that is hard to shake off.

The second track is a traditional children’s song about a spinning top, “Roda Pião,” which Caymmi adapted in 1939 as a samba for Carmen Miranda (he participated in the recording) and subsequentley re-recorded in 1957. This song’s refrain also requires a response, and this time Kenia brings in four musicians’ children to serve as chorus.

In 1965, Caymmi spent several months in the U.S. and recorded the Warner LP Caymmi and The Girls From Bahia, with orchestral arrangements by Bill Hitchcock. In that album he sang “...das Rosas” for the first time, backed up by Quarteto em Cy, the latter singing the refrain of the English version written by Ray Gilbert. Kenia sings Gilbert’s “And Roses and Roses” with the Portuguese refrain. Her exquisite phrasing and Merino’s spare and lovely piano accompaniment rescue this song from the sentimentality into which it is so easily liable to fall.

Tracks 4 to 7 were all composed in the early 1940s for male vocal groups. “Samba da Minha Terra” (1940), a hit for Bando da Lua, is one of Caymmi’s towering compositions, containing what might be the songwriter’s most quotable lines: Quem não gosta de samba/ Bom sujeito não é:/ É ruim da cabeça/ Ou doente do pé. Kenia’s interpretation gains vital force from the intervention of Jay Ashby’s trombone. Equally swinging is the recipe-samba “Vatapá” (1942), first perfomed by Anjos do Inferno. Kenia’s singing here is controlled; with the exception stretching the rhythm on the word Vatapá in the refrain, the singer stays within the piano’s beat.

“Requebre Que Eu Dou um Doce” (1941) was another Anjos do Inferno vehicle. The group was known for its pistom nasal—nasal imitation of a muted trumpet’s tone. Jay Ashby, who arranged this samba for Kenia’s album, introduces a similarly delicious and danceable note of gafieira by way of his trombone. “Você Já Foi a Bahia?” (1941) was side A of “Requebre Que Eu Dou um Doce”—two monster hits on a single 78-rpm disc. Kenia lends her own voice to the choral backup of “Requebre” and permits herself more freedom in her inflections than she did in the preceding three sambas. The piano echoes her speechlike utterances with punctuated responses.

The samba-canção “Sábado em Copacabana” (1951) is one of Caymmi’s most evocative songs (his putative partner, Carlos Guinle, had nothing to do with it other than being Caymmi’s friend). It is forever identified with the velvety voice of Lúcio Alves, accompanied by Radamés Gnattali’ piano and string orchestra. Kenia’s rendition gives the song its due, from the tender longing expressed in voice and piano to the muted percussion that doesn’t quite turn it into a bolero.

“O Dengo Que a Nega Tem” (1940), a samba recorded by Carmen Miranda and chorus, receives here Kenia’s multiplied voice as backup. “Acontece Que Eu Sou Baiano” (1943), one of Caymmi’s most exuberant sambas in the voice of Anjos do Inferno (and more recently in that of João Gilberto), receives here a fairly straightforward reading. The humor missing from the vocals comes through in Leo Traversa’s bass. Would that there had been more of it.

“Nunca Mais” (1949) is another soulful samba-canção introduced by Lúcio Alves. Kenia shines here, conveying infinite yearning in a restrained interpretation. With “Doralice” (1945), we’re back to the syncopated samba of Anjos do Inferno (and João Gilberto). Merlino’s piano is the star in Kenia’s recording, launching into a joyful solo midway through the track.

The carefree samba “Maracangalha” (1956), a huge carnaval hit in 1957, earned Caymmi the title of Best Composer of the Year. As in “Acontece Que Eu Sou Baiano,” Kenia’s reading is more understated than the song warrants, but the percussion and the piano liven things up considerably. The same may be said for “A Vizinha do Lado” (1946), which is a lustful samba that deserves a corresponding intepretation.

Closer to the heart is the samba-canção “Marina” (1947), which Kenia delivers with great delicacy and feeling. It’s a fitting conclusion to this well-thought-out and deftly executed album.

Lyrics in Portuguese and in English translation are available on Kenia’s website.

Kenia Ashby: Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi
(Mooka Records M001030; 2010) 50 min.

Arrangements by Fernando Merlino & Jay Ashby (track 6)

01. Eu Não Tenho Onde Morar (Dorival Caymmi)
02. Roda Pião (Traditional/arr. Dorival Caymmi)
03. And Roses and Roses (Dorival Caymmi/Ray Gilbert)
04. Samba da Minha Terra (Dorival Caymmi)
05. Vatapá (Dorival Caymmi)
06. Requebre Que Eu Dou um Doce (Dorival Caymmi)
07. Você Já Foi a Bahia? (Dorival Caymmi)
08. Sábado em Copacabana (Dorival Caymmi/Carlos Guinle)
09. O Dengo Que a Nega Tem (Dorival Caymmi)
10. Acontece Que Eu Sou Baiano (Dorival Caymmi)
11. Nunca Mais (Dorival Caymmi)
12. Doralice (Dorival Caymmi/Antônio Almeida)
13. Maracangalha (Dorival Caymmi)
14. A Vizinha do Lado (Dorival Caymmi)i
15. Marina (Dorival Caymmi)

Musicians
Fernando Merlino, piano
Leo Traversa, bass
Jay Ashby, percussion & trombone
Airto Moreira & Lucas Ashby, percussion
Eric Susoeff & Marty Ashby, guitar

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2010-07-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

Uma delícia

Omar Jubran plays Sacramento’s lesser-known pearls on Olhar Brasileiro.

I’ve always had the greatest respect for Omar Jubran, the science teacher who single-handedly, through Herculean effort, digitized, restored, and produced Noel Pela Primeria Vez, a collection of 14 double CDs containing 229 recordings of Noel Rosa’s songs. Jubran spent ten long years on this work, and several more doing for Ary Barroso what he’d done for Noel Rosa. Unfortunately, no funding has been found for releasing Jubran’s proposed 20-CD Ary collection.

Since early 2006, Jubran has been producing and presenting the music program Olhar Brasileiro on Rádio USP FM in São Paulo. As can be expected from a perfectionist like Jubran, the program is extraordinarily well research and produced, and the content is of the highest quality and good taste.

On the 4th of July, Jubran cast a retrospective look at the career of Marcos Sacramento, and once again he’s shown that Olhar Brasileiro stands head and shoulders above most radio programs. The musical selections—none of them obvious—consist of Sacramento’s lesser-known recordings made over the past 24 years.

There are memorable participations, such as “Promessa” and “Valsa do Meu Subúrbio” (Custódio Mesquita/Evaldo Ruy) from Custódio Mesquita—Prazer em Conhecê-lo (1986), “E o Juiz Apitou” (Wilson Batista/Antônio Almeida) from Estácio & Flamengo—100 Anos de Samba e Amor (1995), and “Véspera de Natal” (Adoniran Barbosa) from Natal Bem Brasileiro (2008).

There are recordings with Clara Sandroni, like Não Quero Saber Mais Dela (Sinhô) from Lira Carioca’s disc É Sim, Sinhô, “Paulista de Macaé” (Pedro de Sá Pereira) from Lira Carioca’s Notáveis Desconhecidos (2002), and “Bocoché” (Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes) from the duo CD Saravá, Baden Powell! (2002).

From Sacramento’s solo CDs, Jubran selected “Vela no Breu” (Paulinho da Viola/Sergio Natureza) and “Morena” (Mauricio Carrilho/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro), both from A Modernidade da Tradição (1994); “Pra Ver o Futebol” (Paulo Baiano/Marcos Sacramento) from Caracane (1998); “Um Brinde à Solidão” (Carlos Fuchs/Marcos Sacramento) from Fossa Nova (2005); “Dama do Cabaré” (Noel Rosa) and “Festa da Penha” (Cartola/Adalberto Alves de Souza “Asobert”) from Sacramentos (2006); “Na Cabeça” (Luiz Flavio Alcofra/Marcos Sacramento) and Último Desejo (Noel Rosa) from Na Cabeça (2009).

In short, Jubran regales us with a very fine parade of old and new Brazilian songs that few music lovers have had the opportunity to hear. All show off Sacramento’s range as interpreter and, on occasion, as lyricist. The narration, in Jubran’s old-fashioned paulista accent, provides only essential information. No extraneous chat and no bragaddocio here.

When you’ve listened to this program, browse in the Olhar Brasileiro archives. You’re bound to find a lot more of interest there.

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2010-07-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

How songs are made

New books reveal the work behind the scenes.

Suely Mesquita (photo: Caetano Vidal)

Ruy Godinho

On the face of it, Ruy Godinho and Suely Mesquita have little in common. She’s a carioca who lives in Niterói, he’s a paraense who settled in Brasília. She writes creative pop songs and sings them in her rich, practiced voice (listen to Suely’s second solo CD, Microswing, on her website). He produces videos and radio programs that focus on Brazil’s traditional musical heritage (listen to his Roda de Choro programs online).

Each in his or her own way has made and continues to make significant contributions to Brazilian culture. And each has a new book revolving around the making of songs.

Ruy Godinho just brought out the second of two volumes called Então, Foi Assim? The first volume, published in 2008 and now in its third printing, includes the background stories of 80 Brazilian songs, both new and old, accompanied by their lyrics. The second volume offers an additional 61 stories.

The idea for these volumes was born in 1997, when Godinho co-produced the music program Estação Brasil on Rádio Cultura FM in Brasília. The program included a segment called A Origem da Música, with information about the origin of songs obtained through interviews and research.

Here we find stories about tunes as old as “Iara” (Anacleto de Medeiros) and as contemporary as “Brasil” (Cazuza/Nilo Romero/George Israel); as regional as “Eu Só Quero um Xodó” (Dominguinhos/Anastácia) and as cosmopolitan as “Lígia” (Tom Jobim); as personal as “Drão” (Gilberto Gil) and as communal as “Madureira Chorou” (Carvalhinho/Júlio Monteiro).

These welcome additions to the Brazilian music lover’s library require knowledge of the Portuguese language. Suely Mesquita’s book, Sexo Puro: A Life In Brazilian Song, was written in English and published in the United States. Unlike the Godinho volumes, it focuses exclusively on Mesquita’s own compositions, written alone or in partnership.

The narrative, beginning with autobiographical reminiscences followed by a captioned pictorial section, emerged from interviews the songwriter gave to Bob Gaulke, an American school teacher and musician who admires her work to the extent of having initiated this project, also writing and publishing the book. The prosaic storytelling only occasionally reflects glimmers of its subject’s personality. What’s missing from the narrative is the creative spark so abundant in Suely Mesquita’s songs. Had Suely written her own story, it might have emerged funnier, deeper, more moving. As it is, the book Sexo Puro is not likely to engage the reader who isn’t already a Suely Mesquita fan.

Happily, the book comes with a compilation CD of 19 tracks, many of them either previously unreleased or difficult to obtain. Respresenting various phases of Suely’s career and featuring her singing as well as that of her partners, the disc is a rich potpourri of contemporary song and a delight to the ear.

Think of it not as a book with a companion CD but as a CD wrapped in a hefty package of liner notes. Whoever buys it will enjoy not only the music but the increasingly rare luxury of reading the printed lyrics in both the original and in English translation and finding out how each song was created.

Sexo Puro: A Life in Brazilian Song
Suely Mesquita Inerviewed by Bob Gaulke
(Lesma e Lula Press; 2010)

CD tracks:
01. Qualquer Lugar (Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
02. Minha Dalva de Oliveira (Celso Fonseca/Suely Mesquita)
      Celso Fonseca
03. Morrer de Bem (Rodrigo Campello/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
04. Porta Aberta (Arícia Mess/Aurélio Dias/Suely Mesquita)
      Arícia Mess
05. Porcelana (Kali C./Dudu Caribé/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
06. Batata (Luís Capucho/Suely Mesquita)
      Luís Capucho
07. Latim (Suely Mesquita)
      Lucinha Turnbull
08. Pisca ((Zeca Baleiro/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
09. Forças de Angola (Paulo Baiano/Suely Mesquita)
      Ryta de Cássia
10. TV Que Ninguém Vê (Glauco Lourenço/Suely Mesquita)
      Glauco Lourenço
11. Castelo de Areia (Marcela Biasi/Suely Mesquita)
      Marcela Biasi
12. Bruxelas (Paulo Baiano/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
13. Romena (Luís Capucho/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
14. Sem Capotta (Eugenio Dale/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita & Eugenio Dale
15. Bala de Rima (Bethi Albano/Suely Mesquita)
      Bethi Albano
16. Mais Música (Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
17. Moderno Amor (Mário Sève/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
18. Samba de Branco (Bethi Albano/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita
19. Que Qui Tu Tá; Interesse (Rodrigo Campello/Suely Mesquita)
      Suely Mesquita

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2010-06-29T22:11:00.001-07:00

The corporate lyricist

Mangione stands in for Vinicius de Moraes. Why?

Cinema Odeon, Rio de Janeiro

The other day, as I was reviewing Trio Esperança’s latest CD, I encountered a curious phenomenon. One of the album’s tracks was a sung version of Ernesto Nazareth’s famous tango brasileiro “Odeon,” and the liner notes identified the lyricist as Ubaldo Sciangula Mangione.

Nazareth composed “Odeon” in 1910 as a tribute to the Cinema Odeon, in whose lobby he was hired to play the piano for the diversion of patrons awaiting the next show. The cinema—at the time the most magnificent in Rio de Janeiro—had opened the previous year on the corner of Avenida Central (now Rio Branco) and Rua Sete de Setembro, in the commercial heart of the city.

The score was published in 1910 by Casa Mozart (E. Bevilacqua & Cia No. 6602). According to Nazareth scholar and collector Alexandre Dias, the composer himself underwrote the cost of publishing “Odeon,” which he dedicated to the distincta empreza Zambelli & Cia, owner and manager of the cinema.

Cinema Odeon was demolished in 1928, six years before the death of Ernesto Nazareth. In 1934, the year he died, the publishing rights to “Odeon” were transferred to E. S. Mangione by contract, along with the entire catalog of E. Bevilacqua & Cia. The new publisher was a recent arrival in the Brazilian market, the firm having been established in the late 1920s by the Sicilian immigrant Estevam Sciangula Mangione.

Dircinha Costa was the first singer to record “Odeon.”

Some years after Nazareth’s death—possibly in the 1940s—one Hubaldo Maurício, about whom nothing is known, wrote lyrics for “Odeon” that were recorded only once, by Dircinha Costa, in 1963 (Copacabana 6.555-A). Hubaldo’s lyrics describe the sensations of a young couple visiting Cinema Odeon in its glory days, beginning with the piano music in the lobby before the show, followed by a movie featuring a villain, and concluding in the lobby, where the agile pianist, unnamed but clearly Nazareth, played tangos, choros, and valsas.

Odeon
(Ernesto Nazareth/Hubaldo Maurício)

Ó que saudade das «Soireés» e «Matinês» lá do Odeon...
E lá o saguão, o pianista muito sério, o seu piano a dedilhar...
Os namorados, no intervalo, passeavam a se olhar!
Bilhetes mil, tinham asas, voavam era o jeito de amar.

E, mais tarde, na sala de projeção
O «mocinho» lutava contra o «vilão» era luta, luta dura
Soco, tapa, ponta-pé, bofetão...
A «mocinha» chorava e torcia, em vão...
A platéia gritava com emoção
Pega, bate, pisa, mata, mata, esse grande «vilão»!

E na saída, pra amenizar as emoções
No saguão põe-se a escutar
Ágil pianista tocando tangos,
Choros brejeiros, valsas lentas bem dolentes,
Encantados, embalados, num repente
O pianista vão cercando,
Se chegando, quase, quase a dança, ah!...

Cover of Nara Leão’s eponymous 1968 album

In 1968, only six years following Dircinha Costa’s recording, Nara Leão decided to record “Odeon.” Not content with Hubaldo Maurício’s lyrics, she asked Vinicius de Moraes to write new ones, and he complied. This time, the focus was not on the vanished cinema but on choro itself, which had become an endangered species.

Odeon
(Ernesto Nazareth/Vinicius de Moraes)

Ai, quem me dera
O meu chorinho
Tanto tempo abandonado
E a melancolia que eu sentia
Quando ouvia
Ele fazer tanto chorar
Ai, nem me lembro
Há tanto, tanto
Todo o encanto
De um passado
Que era lindo
Era triste, era bom
Igualzinho a um chorinho
Chamado Odeon

Terçando flauta e cavaquinho
Meu chorinho se desata
Tira da canção do violão
Esse bordão
Que me dá vida
Que me mata
É só carinho o meu chorinho
Quando pega e chega
Assim devagarzinho
Meia-luz, meia-voz, meio-tom
Meu chorinho chamado Odeon

Ah, vem depressa
Chorinho querido, vem
Mostra a graça
Que o choro sentido tem
Quanto tempo passou
Quanta coisa mudou
Já ninguém chora mais por ninguém

Ah, quem diria que um dia
Chorinho meu, você viria
Com a graça que o amor lhe deu
Pra dizer “não faz mal
Tanto faz, tanto fez
Eu voltei pra ficar com vocês”

Chora bastante meu chorinho
Teu chorinho de saudade
Diz ao bandolim pra não tocar
Tão lindo assim
Porque parece até maldade
Ai, meu chorinho
Eu só queria
Transformar em realidade
A poesia
Ai, que lindo, ai que triste, ai que bom
De um chorinho chamado Odeon

Chorinho antigo, chorinho amigo
Eu até hoje ainda percebo essa ilusão
Essa saudade que vai comigo
E até parece aquela prece
Que sai só do coração
Se eu pudesse recordar
E ser criança
Se eu pudesse renovar
Minha esperança
Se eu pudesse me lembrar
Como se dança
Esse chorinho
Que hoje em dia
Ninguém sabe mais

Subsequently, Vinicius’ version of “Odeon” received several notable recordings. The blind vocal group Os Titulares do Ritmo performed it on its 1976 LP Brasílico. In 1995, Eliete Negreiros included it in her CD 16 Canções de Tamanha Ingenuidade. Two years later, the Rainha do Choro, Ademilde Fonseca, sang it on the TV program Ensaio. This recording is included in the CD of that program, A Música Brasileira Deste Século por Seus Autores e Intérpretes—Ademilde Fonseca (SESC São Paulo JCB-0709-039, 2000). Also in 1997, Vânia Bastos sang the same version on her CD Diversões Não Eletrônicas (Velas). A delicately moving interpretation was created by vocalist Bel Dias and guitarist Almir Côrtes in Choro da Voz (Gravina Música, 2008).

Ademilde Fonseca mentioned Vinicus by name in her
introduction to “Odeon” on the TV program ‘Ensaio’ (1997).

By pure chance, all the artists listed above hail from São Paulo. Why that should be the case is a question left for another investigator. Here we’ll observe that with the exception of Ademilde Fonseca, who possesses an old-fashioned vozeirão, all the women singers are invariably endowed with small voices. Were they all inspired by Nara Leão’s recording? This is indubitably the case of the mineira Fernanda Takai, lead vocalist of Pato Fu, who dedicated an entire CD, Onde Brilhem os Olhos Seus (Deckdisc, 2007) to songs previously recorded by Nara. Fernanda’s “Odeon,” wrapped in pop garb, also appears on her live CD Luz Negra (Deckdisc, 2009).

Up to recent years, the lyricist credit of “Odeon” in vocal recordings was faithfully given to Vinicius de Moraes. The year 2004 marked seventy years since the death of Ernesto Nazareth. The following year, in accordance with Brazilian copyright law, his body of work fell in the public domain. This was a windfall to recording artists, and the number of Nazareth recordings has increased markedly. But for some inexplicable reason, the lyricist credits were thrown into confusion.

In Fernanda Takai’s CDs, the credit goes not only to Vinicius but also to Hubaldo. Mônica Passos, who sings a French version of “Odeon” penned by Georges Moustaki in her CD Lemniscate (Archie Ball, 2008), credits Ubaldo Sciangula Mangione. Alexandre Dias tells me that even some of the newer instrumental recordings of “Odeon” credit Ubaldo Sciangula Mangione. And indeed, Altamiro Carrilho’s rendition of “Odeon” in the CDs Concerto em Niterói— parte 2 and Da Lapa 2 (both from Biscoito Fino) identifies the authors as Ernesto Nazareth and Ubaldo Sciangula, and the publisher as Public Domain/Mangione.

What happened to Vinicius? Mangione isn’t telling. Two e-mails I sent the publisher a month ago went unanswered.

Questions also linger about the lyricist of Nazareth’s “Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho,” whose name is variously given as Báldoman or Hubaldo, and is currently represented as Ubaldo Sciangula Mangione.

Both “Odeon” and “Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho” (attributed to (Ernesto Nazareth/Hubaldo) are proudly displayed among Mangione’s most successful songs.

Read the rest of this article here.

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2010-06-15T21:21:00.001-07:00

Marcos Sacramento at Onda Jazz, Lisbon

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2010-06-14T12:29:00.001-07:00

Marcos Sacramento canta Carmen Miranda

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2010-06-02T15:17:00.001-07:00

Leny Andrade season

This is a busy summer for Leny Andrade. Californians will be able to see her perform with Romerto Lubambo at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival on Sunday, 6 June 2010.

By 18 June, Leny will have returned to Rio to launch her new CD, Alma Mia, at Canecão.

Produced and arranged by the pianist Fernando Merlino, Alma Mia is a collection of unforgettable boleros (opening with a tango and ending with a Latin jazz standard)—a look back to the five years or more she spent in Mexico.

If you’re lucky, you’ll catch Leny live in Healdsburg, where she’ll she sing her Brazilian repertoire but might also have the new disc for sale.

Leny Andrade: Alma Mia
(Fina Flor; 2010) 54:42 min

01. El Día Que Me Quieras (Carlos Gardel/Alfredo Le Pera)
02. Sabrá Dios (Álvaro Carrillo)
03. Alma Mía (María Grever)
04. Lluvia en la Tarde (Arturo Castro)
05. Un Poco Más (Álvaro Carrillo)
06. Vete de Mi (Virgílio Expósito/Homero Expósito)
07. Como Fué (Ernesto Duarte)
08. Mía (Armando Manzanero)
09. Te Me Olvidas (Vicente Garrido)
10. Entonces (Arturo Castro)
11. Eclipse (Margarita Lecuona)
12. Nosotros (Pedro Junco)
13. Llévatela (Armando Manzanero)
14. Una Mañana [Morning] (Clare Fischer)

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2010-06-01T15:53:00.001-07:00

The fabulous Corrêas

Trio Esperança is back with De Bach à Jobim.

Back in the prehistoric days of the mid-1990s, when you still had to visit a record store in order to acquire music, every significant discovery prompted intense excitement of the kind that has become so rare now, subjected as we are to a daily avalanche of digital media whether we want it or not.

In December 1996, while browsing at Rasputin Music in Berkeley, I came upon a CD with three young women on the cover, a mouth-watering repertoire, and a stellar guest list. It was Trio Esperança’s A Capela do Brasil (Philips 314 512 266-2), released in 1992.

At that time I was hunting down every available recording of “Aquarela do Brasil” for a discography I was planning to compile. As its title made clear, A Capela do Brasil contained what I was looking for.

I bought and was hooked. Here are excerpts from my fresh reactions, posted to a Brazilian music listserv two days after I bought the disc:

It’s fabulous. One of those all-too-rare albums where every single track is the cat’s meow. All 18 songs are simply wonderful, and Mariza, Eva, and Regina make them even better with their impeccable phrasing and perfect harmonizing.

Among the songs are two lovely nostalgic paens to growing up in the ’60s (“Casaco Marrom” and “Rua Ramalhete”). There are excellent and fresh covers of the ultimate chestnut, “O Pato,” and of the even more heavily trodden “Corcovado.” There’s a beautiful “Qualquer Coisa” with Caetano Veloso, where the trio out-caetanears the original. There’s a great “Aquele Um” with Djavan that demonstrates how good a songwriter he is. And a charming little Japanese ditty called “Watashi” (they do the accent just right) with a nice samba beat.

There’s also João Bosco’s “Coisa Feita” with his guitar and vocal. Again, the “girls” can scat just as well as he—in fact, they put his voice to shame. The “princesa do Dahomé” line in this song is so evocative, and those three quintessentially Brazilian female voices are the ideal vehicle for it. [...] I’ve been listening to this album non-stop, and it only gets better.

A Capela do Brasil was released in France, where the three Corrêa sisters—Eva, Regina, and Mariza—were living and enjoying great success. By the time I had discovered A Capela, their followup CD, Segundo (Philips 526577-2; 1995), had already been out for a year. Their third French album, Nosso Mundo (Universal 546 030-2; 1999) departed from the MPB mold, concentrating on standards from countries as far-flung as Senegal, Japan, Italy and Mexico.

Then the sisters stopped recording and returned to Brazil for half a dozen years. Luckily for us, they’re back in France, with a new album devoted to classics old and new, roaming from Bach to the Beatles.

While the concept isn’t startlingly original, the execution is unique enough to merit attention. The two Bach compositions (the Aria from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, and the Chorale from Cantata BWV 147) are among the most frequently adapted for pop interpretations, but here they are sung in Portuguese and given uncommon arrangements.

The Aria (the famous “Air on the G String”) has been transformed into “Caminho da Razão,” with lyrics by Eva Corrêa (unfortunately, the liner notes include no lyrics). In an arrangement by Gérard Gambus, the voices, first a cappella, then accompanied by guitar and strings, inject a pop note while the strings keep to a rigorous classical basis.

The Chorale (better known as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”) received lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, who turned it into “Rancho das Flores,” an ode to flowers, bearing an allusion to the old ranchos carnavalescos, which adopted floral names (e.g., Flor do Abacate, Recreio das Flores, Flor da Lira, Rosa de Ouro, Ameno Resedá, etc.) as vestiges of their African ancestors’ totemic traditions. Trio Esperança removed some of Vinicius’ lyrics and rearranged others, concentrating on a single flower. The voices—this time an accordion augments the guitar and strings—sing not only the well-known melody but also the organ refrain.

In a nod to Brazil’s “serious” composers, the trio performs Ernesto Nazareth’s best-known tango, “Odeon,” and a folk song quoted by Villa-Lobos as the third movement—Ária (Cantiga)—in Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4.

“Odeon” received several sets of lyrics after Nazareth’s death, and the nostalgic verses sung by the trio are the creation of Vinicius de Moraes, although the liner notes ascribe them to Ubaldo Sciangula Mangione, who happens to be the president of the music publishing firm Mangione, Filhos & Cia Ltda. (more on that in a separate article). Nazareth composed the tune for piano, but Vinicius’ lyrics describe the classic choro format of flauta, cavaquinho e violão, and the sisters’ voices execute the harmonies that the three instruments would produce in a traditional choro.

Another confusion as to authorship plagues the Cantiga. Brazil’s copyright law confers copyright protection on adaptations of public-domain themes. Thus a traditional nordestino folk song called “Ó mana, deixa eu ir” now bears the names of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Teca Calazans, and Milton Nascimento. Trio Esperança’s own adaptation is quite original, and one assumes that only the Corrêas’ modesty prevented them from registering yet another cumulative copyright upon this innocent folk song. The sisters’ interpretation is spare and heart rending, expressing all the longing implied in the lyrics.

Longing of a different sort can be found in the two Lennon/McCartney songs. “Penny Lane,” in an uncredited Portuguese version by Guttenberg Guarabyra, is a close kin of the trio’s 1991 recording of “Rua Ramalhete” in its ability to evoke nostalgic feelings for the neighborhood of one’s youth. The interesting arrangement for strings is original, referring only obliquely to George Martin’s work for the Beatles. “Blackbird,” sung a cappella in English, is a creatively fresh departure from the predictable cover and stands out as one of the better interpretations of this standard.

No Brazilian classics album would be complete without a tune by Tom Jobim, and here we have two: “Desafinado” and “Samba do Avião.” To the trio’s credit, there’s not a hint of warhorse in their delightful renditions, and that’s saying a lot.

Two distinguished songwriters of the post-Jobim generation, Edu Lobo and Chico Buarque, are represented with a song each. The percussive a cappella rendition of “Upa Neguinho” is one of the best I’ve heard. The same goes for their version of the mock-chanson “Joana Francesa,” which strikes the ideal balance between two cultures.

The penultimate song, “Uma Gota do Mar,” is a new afro-samba composed by the trio’s nephew, Beto Filho, in partnership with Carlos Colla.

The album ends with a double track: Renato Teixeira’s 1978 caipira song “Romaria,” included in so many Elis Regina compilations, receives as an unannounced bonus Luiz Carlos Sá’s “Zepelin,” which a previous formation of Trio Esperança recorded in 1974. In this new recording, the sisters reunite with their brother Mario, who sings the lead vocals.

Trio Esperança reminds us that there’s always new gold to be mined from familiar material. All one has to do is perfect one’s artistic skills over fifty years.

Trio Esperança: De Bach à Jobim
(Disques Dreyfus; 2010) 40:36 min.

Arrangements by Gérard Gambus

01. Caminho da Razão (Johann Sebastian Bach/Eva Corrêa)
02. Upa Neguinho (Edu Lobo/Gianfrancesco Guarnieri)
03. Desafinado (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Newton Mendonça)
04. A Rosa [Rancho das Flores] (Johann Sebastian Bach/Vinicius de Moraes)
05. Penny Lane (John Lennon/Paul McCartney/Portuguese vers. Guttenberg Guarabyra)
06. Blackbird (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
07. Samba do Avião (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
08. Cantiga [Caicó] (Traditional/adap. Villa-Lobos, Teca Calazans, Milton Nascimento)
09. Odeon (Ernesto Nazareth/Vinicius de Moraes)
10. Joana Francesa (Chico Buarque)
11. Uma Gota do Mar (Roberto Corrêa Filho/Carlos Colla)
12. Romaria (Renato Teixeira); Zepelin (Luiz Carlos Sá)

Musicians
Marcio Faraco, guitar
Silvano Michelino & Inor Sotolongo, percussions
Marc Barthoumieux, accordion
Gérard Gambus, piano
Budapest Symphonic Orchestra, strings

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2010-05-29T16:41:00.001-07:00

Haroldo Lobo & Bloco da Bicharada

Haroldo Lobo in a caricature by Claudio Sendin
(Veja, 21 June 1995)

22 July 2010 will mark the centennial of Haroldo Lobo’s birth. For three decades, the songwriter composed a steady stream of carnaval hits, but few people are aware of the way in which he market-tested his sambas and marchinhas before releasing them.

In 1939, Lobo founded the Bloco da Bicharada in his neighborhood bairro of Gávea. This bloco borrowed from the traditions of old ranchos and cordões, which used to parade behind a large animal made of papier-mâché.

Bloco da Bicharada fabricated and stored its animals in the basement of a handsome house on rua Jardim Botânico. Every year, its members came out on the Sunday before carnaval, parading inside gigantic animals amid colorful fireworks and singing a new song composed by Haroldo Lobo. Having gauged the crowd’s reaction to the song, the composer released it for the following year’s carnaval with the assurance that it would appeal to the multitudes.

Shortly after Lobo’s death in 1965, the carnaval chronicler Jota Efegê published an article about Bloco da Bicharada. His article is available on Musica Brasiliensis in Portuguese and in English translation.

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2010-05-28T20:46:00.001-07:00

Joyce on tour in North America

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2010-05-25T17:53:00.001-07:00

Mark Levine & The Latin Tinge Play Moacir Santos

Mark Levine & The Latin Tinge with special guest Claudia Villela sing and play the music of Moacir Santos.

Mark Levine, piano
Dan Feiszli, bass
Mary Fettig, flute and soprano
Michael Spiro, percussion
Paul van Wageningen, drums
with special guest Claudia Villela, vocals

Saturday, 5 June 2010, 8 pm
The Jazzschool
2087 Addison St., Berkeley CA 94704
Tickets $15
Buy tickets online or call (510) 845-5373.

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2010-05-14T11:37:00.001-07:00

Guinga’s 60th birthday

Guinga by Carlos Dala Stella

How time flies. On 10 June 2010, Carlos Althier de Souza Lemos Escobar, better known as Guinga, will turn 60.

The guitarist and composer has chosen to celebrate this milestone in the southern city of Curitiba, capital of Paraná.

Participating in the birthday concert, which will take place at Teatro Guaíra, will be four of Guinga’s favorite musical companions: clarinetists Gabriel Mirabassi and Paulo Sérgio Santos, and guitarists Lula Galvão and Marcus Tardelli.

The Curitiban artist Carlos Dala Stella designed the program and the sceneries. Visit his blog to see various illustrations of Guinga.

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2010-04-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Back from purgatory

João denies everything.

The O Globo columnist Ancelmo Góis appears to have closed the book on João Gilberto’s fake Facebook profile today.

In his blog, Góis wrote:

João on Facebook

João Gilberto hasn’t seen the Facebook page that bears his name and also hasn’t read the coverage about it. “I neither saw nor read,” he said yesterday, “and it’s not to belittle the boys who are running it. It’s that I have no interest in sending messages, gossiping, chatting, and offending people.”
More...
Friends told him that in Facebook he appears like an ill-humored fellow. The singer reacted with a laugh.
But when they said that on eof the comments attributed to him criticized Benedict XVI, João was upset and saddened. Whenever he sees the Pope on TV, the baiano interrupts what he’s doing in order to listens to him with attention and respect.
More yet...
“I have nothing to do with it, it’s not me,” said João. His desire, he emphazied is that “this story end at once.”
The controversy of João on Facebook was raised by the reporter Leonardo Lichote of O Globo.
And finally...
At the moment, João Gilberto, is preparing for shows he’ll present in June in New York, Boston, and Chicago.

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2010-04-25T14:41:00.001-07:00

The expulsion from paradise

Swift punishment for doubting Thompsons.

Masaccio, The Expulsion from Paradise, 1427

It all began on 13 April 2010, when Facebook informed me that a certain João Gilberto Prado Pereira wanted to become my friend.

Even before approving the request, I became inundated with questions from musical friends who wanted to know whether the profile was real. I answered all in private, saying that I doubted its authenticity. A similar “Joaõ” had appeared on Orkut a year or two ago and was quickly unmasked. We had it on the best authority that the real JG has nothing to do with computers or the Internet, although he’s kept apprised of cybernautical goings-on through those close to him.

There the matter rested for a few days, until a thread was launched in the João Gilberto community in Orkut by a longtime João fan whom I respect. He had been seduced into believing that the profile was real.

On 19 April, I decided to read the personal info posted on the João Gilberto Prado Pereira profile.

Here’s what I read there:

Current City: New York, NY

Really?

Hometown: Juàzeiro, Brazil

Note the peculiar spellings: Juàzeiro with à and Brazil with z.

Children: Bebel Gilberto, 78 years

JG has three children. Why single out Bebel? (I’ll ignore the child called “78 years,” attributing its inclusion to carelessness.)

Interests: música, violão, carlinhos lyra, stan getz, tom jobim, caetano veloso, menescal, wilson batista, geraldo pereira, noel rosa, caymmi, herbie mann, charlie byrd, claus ogerman, gilberto gil, cole porter

This was the part I found most suspect. Would the real João Gilberto include Carlinhos Lyra, Stan Getz, Roberto Menescal, Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd, and Claus Ogerman among his interests? Highly unlikely.

About Me: baiano de juazeiro apaixonado pela música e pelo violão

I refused to believe that this obvious drivel could have come from João himself.

Then there were the 48 pages that the profile marked as his favorites, among them Sarah Vaughan, Bossa Nova Jazz, MPB.com, Toquinho, New York City, PokerStars Brasil, Chet Baker, Woody Allen, Dori Caymmi, Charlie Parker, Ray Charles, Pat Metheny, Marcelo Bonfá, Nina Simone, Jair Oliveira, Wilson Simoninha, Biscoito Fino, EMI MUSIC BRASIL.

Also suspect was the profile’s constant clicking “Like” below every comment made by one of his fast-growing legions of “friends.” The latter include famous names like Danilo Caymmi, Jaques Morelenbaum, and Paulo Jobim, who appear to be quite certain of the profile’s identity.

It was, to say the least, bizarre. Would João Gilberto spend all his time on Facebook, enlarging his circle of friends, posting YouTube videos of himself and others, and making predictably characteristic comments? I was tempted to post on his wall, “Unpredictability is the true essence of joãogilbertianismo.” But I didn’t.

Instead, I posted my conclusion that the profile was a fake in Orkut and on my Facebook wall.

At the time (19 April), the profile had 1,455 Facebook friends. Since then, the number has climbed beyond 2,000, but I’m no longer in a position to count. After an absence of several days, I looked for the profile yesterday and found it gone—I had been banned.

Today, the JGPP profile was the subject of an article in O Globo. Danilo Caymmi, Jaques Morelenbaum, and Paulo Jobim were interviewed, with no conclusive results.

If you don’t know João Gilberto personally (and most of us obviously don’t), the only way to find out what’s what is by paying attention to what his personal friends are saying. Arnaldo DeSouteiro called the profile “a complete fake!” (exclamation point his). On the other hand, today I heard through the grapevine that Max De Tomassi had talked to João and was told that “his nephews do all the PC work, and João posts some messages himself. But it’s real.”

Reality is in the eyes of the beholder. Had João Gilberto’s nephews established a fan page in his name on Facebook, the page would have been legitimate even though run by others. However, an earlier João Gilberto fan page already exists (I’m one of the 6,342 Facebook members who say they like this page), and perhaps for that reason the nephews established a profile. Presumably, they harvested the fan page for “friends” when creating the JGPP profile.

That makes things rather tricky. Even if the JGPP profile is sanctioned by João, and even if he occasionally posts there in person (presumably to the elect few, like Jaques Morelenbaum), the vast bulk of the content is generated by others. That’s deceptive. I have no interest in being “friends” with João Gilberto’s nephews masquerading as their uncle.

If the number of the JGPP profile’s “friends” continues to increase at the current rate, it will soon become untenable and require another format, such as a fan page. Bill Gates abandoned his profile in favor of a fan page when things got out of hand.

It will be interesting to watch the evolution of the JGPP profile, but I won’t be the one to do so, having been expelled from paradise by João Gilberto’s nephews.

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2010-03-26T09:43:00.001-07:00

The Choro Ensemble & guests in a benefit concert

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2010-03-09T15:06:00.001-08:00

Dudu Maia teaches bandolim on Skype

Bandolim virtuoso Dudu Maia writes to say that he’s been giving lessons through Skype. “It works really well and results are great!” he declares.

All interested should contact him by e-mail or at dudu.maia in Skype.

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2010-03-08T12:42:00.001-08:00

Marcus Tardelli in San Francisco

Brava Theater, Saturday, 20 March 2010 at 8 pm

Marcus Tardelli & Guinga

Guitar ace Marcus Tardelli, formerly of Quarteto Maogani and internationally known for his all-Guinga album Unha & Carne, is one of the headliners in this year’s Omni Dynamite Guitars 2009–2010 series.

Also on the program are two of the Bay Area’s most prominent guitarists, Carlos Oliveira and Ricardo Peixoto, performing as a duo.

Carlos Oliveira & Ricardo Peixoto

The Concert will take place on Saturday, 20 March, at the Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94110. Tickets ($34) are available online and by phone at (415) 242-4500 or (650) 726-1203.

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2010-02-18T22:10:00.001-08:00

That sea song

How many tunes are the offspring of “O Mar”?

On 1 August 2008, at KPFA FM in Berkeley, Eddy Pay and I presented a program of Bahian sambas by Dorival Caymmi. In my preamble about the composer, I noted that his best-known song, “O Mar,” begins with the same two notes that open another internationally famous sea song: “La Mer” by Charles Trenet. “O Mar” was composed in 1938, recorded on 7 Nov. 1940, and released on two sides of a Columbia 78-rpm disc in December of that year. “La Mer” was published five years later.

This interesting coincidence was filed away to rest undisturbed until an e-mail arrived in late December 2009 from my friend Anthony Baldwin. Tony is a Languedoc-based Brit, a record producer with expertise in 78-rpm reissues and a musical taste to match. He’s also an accomplished jazz pianist and a velvet-voiced bilingual singer. His CD Un Seul Couvert... (2009), which Tony released in France under the nom de plume B.T. Lafayette, is a big favorite in my household. (Hear the title track in this video. Two other tracks are available on iTunes.) The CD may be purchased directly from the artist.

Anthony Baldwin

Seven years ago, I was fortunate to make Tony’s acquaintance thanks to his interest in Brazilian music of the 1920s–40s. Lately, his attention has turned to Dorival Caymmi. In the e-mail he sent last December, Tony wrote in his inimitable style:

In lieu of my post-déjeuner siesta yesterday, I decided to clean up the 1940 two-sided version of Caymmi’s “O Mar.” I was wrestling with a few obstinate clicks in Part 2 of the song (i.e., the samba section), when I kept being reminded of another number that I couldn’t quite place. Finally, I worked out what it was: the 1967 Glen Campbell smash “Gentle on My Mind,” penned by one John Hartford. The similarities are quite striking, though I can’t imagine how Mr. Hartford got to hear Dorival.

Read the complete story in Musica Brasiliensis.

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2010-02-09T16:27:00.001-08:00

Voice of the samba renaissance

Luiza Dionizio finally debuts in Devoção.

Although Devoção is her first album, Luiza Dionizio is hardly a beginner. Samba devotees, especially the regular patrons of Lapa’s music clubs, have been listening to her since the early 2000s. In 2003, Luiza began performing with the legendary sambista Wilson Moreira and the following year was said to be preparing a disc with his sambas. To everyone’s loss, that album never saw the light of day.

The singer is a native of the northern Rio suburb Vila da Penha, home of the famous church and site of the historic Festa da Penha. To this proud background, Luiza adds a devotion to the escola de samba Império Serrano, which brings to mind Dona Ivone Lara, with whom Luiza shared the stage a couple of years ago and whose voice vaguely resembles hers. Other titans with whom she performed include Elton Medeiros, Luiz Carlos da Vila, Moacyr Luz, and Fátima Guedes.

Well-versed in traditional samba from her days of attending rodas in Oswaldo Cruz and Cascadura during the 1980s, Luiza Dionizio sings the songs of established sambistas but also those of younger composers such as Luiz Carlos Máximo, Wanderley Monteiro, and Toninho Nascimento. And regardless of the age of their authors, Luiza chooses songs that haven’t been recorded to death by other vocalists. And she chooses wisely; the songs possess lyrical content in abundance, as well as melodic values. The resulting collection is fresh while exuding authenticity.

A word on the production. When the artistc direction of a debut CD is shared by the likes of Paulão 7 Cordas and Featima Guedes, even the most blasé listener should sit up and take notice. Paulão also acted as producer, musical director, and arranger, as well as participating in repertoire research.

The very attractively designed booklet provides song lyrics and complete technical information, including musician credits for each tracks. This is an album that couldn’t fail to please even the most discerning listener.

Hear Luiza Dionizio on her website.

Luiza Dionizio: Devoção
(Universal Music 60252711097; 2009) 46:42 min.

01. Pensando Bem (João de Aquino/Martinho da Vila)
02. Preceito (Toninho Geraes/Roque Ferreira)
03. Tempos Depois (Wanderley Monteiro/Nelson Rufino)
04. Velho Amigo (Paulo Cesar Pinheiro/Luiz Carlos Máximo)
05. Alma (Ratinho)
06. Vila do Meu Coração (Luiz Carlos Máximo/Luiz Carlos da Vila)
07. Ultimo Verso (Clóviz Beznos/Elton Medeiros)
08. Conceição da Praia (Luiz Carlos Máximo)
09. Mar da Jangada (Evandro Lima/Toninho Nascimento)
10. Braços de Lã (Luiz Carlos da Vila)
11. Antes Assim (Wilson Moreira)
12. Jardim das Oliveiras (Délcio Carvalho)
13. Oxum Ololá (Raimundo Santa Rosa)

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2010-01-01T11:35:00.001-08:00

Sururu na Roda sings Haroldo Lobo

Repertoire of the six weekly shows at Centro Cultural Carioca,
13 January–17 February 2010

Sururu na Roda (photo: Ana Luiza Sobreira)

See Haroldo Lobo’s centennial for more information.

Eu Quero É Rosetar—Cem Anos de Haroldo Lobo

01. Metralhadora (Haroldo Lobo/Donga/Luiz Menezes)
02. Vou Sambar em Madureira (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
03. Quebrei a Jura (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
04. Coitado do Edgard (Haroldo Lobo/Benedito Lacerda)
05. Passarinho do Relógio (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
06. Dança do Ganso (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
07. Tem Galinha no Bonde (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
08. Passo do Canguru (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
09. Odalisca (Haroldo Lobo/Geraldo Gomes)
10. Espanhola (Haroldo Lobo/Benedito Lacerda)
11. Eu Quero É Rosetar (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
12. Diabo Sem Rabo (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
13. A História da Maçã (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
14. Eva (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
15. Retrato do Velho (Haroldo Lobo/Marino Pinto)
16. Andorinha (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
17. Pescador (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
18. Índio Quer Apito (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
19. Allah-lá-ô (Haroldo Lobo/Antônio Nássara)
20. Quem Chorou Fui Eu (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
21. Saco de Papel (Haroldo Lobo/Risadinha)
22. Prá Seu Governo (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
23. Que Passo É Esse Adolfo? (Haroldo Lobo/Roberto Roberti)
24. Ruas do Japão (Haroldo Lobo/Cristóvão de Alencar)
25. Ninguém Ensaiou (Haroldo Lobo/Benedito Lacerda)
26. O Baile Começa às Nove (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
27. O Delegado Quer Prender o Antônio (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
28. Fale na Orelhinha de Cá (Haroldo Lobo/Milton de Oliveira)
29. O Sanfoneiro Só Tocava Isso (Haroldo Lobo/Geraldo de Medeiros)
30. Emília (Haroldo Lobo/Wilson Batista)
31. Sambei 24 Horas (Haroldo Lobo/Wilson Batista)
32. Rosalina (Haroldo Lobo/Wilson Batista)
33. Alô Padeiro (Haroldo Lobo/Wilson Batista)
34. Tristeza (Haroldo Lobo/Niltinho Tristeza)

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2009-12-31T17:16:00.000-08:00

The complete João Gilberto songbook

Ithamara Koorax & Juarez Moreira salute the master in Bim Bom.

Juarez Moreira, Ithamara Koorax & Arnaldo DeSouteiro

Who in this world owns the most complete collection of João Gilberto recordings? My money is on record producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro, who periodically displays in his blog rare items that most JG fans never knew existed.

On 9 November 2009, Arnaldo surprised his readers with the cover of the Japanese DVD João Gilberto Live in Tokyo. Now, every João head knows that the long-awaited DVD of the 2004 Tokyo concerts was never released, so this is a coveted bootleg edition. Only Arnaldo has ever shown it.

More astonishing still, on 15 October 2009, Arnaldo published an image of the cover of João Gilberto—Acesita 50 Anos, recorded live in concert in 1994, when the stainless-steel company (now known as ArcelorMittal Inox Brasil) celebrated its 50-year jubilee. Who knew?

À propos of that concert, Arnaldo also pointed me to the 11 Sept. 2008 issue of Gazeta Mercantil, in which Durval Guimarães relates that João Gilberto arrived three hours late to the 50th-anniversary concert. In order to pass the time until the tardy artist’s arrival, the firm’s president, Wilson Brumer, gave a lecture on metallurgy.

Oh yes. Arnaldo was co-producer with João of the CD reissue of João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira.

You get the idea.

So who better than Arnaldo to produce the definitive João Gilberto songbook? Definitive, because there have always been questions among the JG faithful about this or that song. “Mambinho,” to name one, has been attributed to João Gilberto and João Donato, but only Arnaldo was able to verify with the reclusive JG that he had no involvement in the composition of this song.

João Gilberto himself has never recorded his complete œuvre, confining himself to those tunes he composed without a partner. Other artists have occasionally committed to disc one Gilberto tune or another.

First out the door was João’s earliest known published song (he was 22), the samba-canção “Você Esteve com Meu Bem?” (1953). The crooner was João’s girlfriend, Marisa Gata Mansa, making her recording debut on a 78-rpm disc, and the orchestral accompaniment was conducted by the legendary Lindolpho Gaya. Forty-seven years later, João himself attempted to sing it at Teatro de Santa Izabel in Recife but quickly gave up, presumably because he couldn’t remember the lyrics.

In 1955, Luiz Bonfá and his conjunto, featuring João Donato on accordion, were the first to record “Minha Saudade,” still a wordless Donato tune at the time. After JG added lyrics, Alaíde Costa sang the song in the LP Gosto de Você (1959).

Also in 1959, after João’s recording of “Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá” had hit the charts, Norma Benguell gave a breathless rendition of it in the LP Ooooooh! Norma, pianist Waldir Calmon recorded it for Copacabana, and bandleader Luiz Arruda Paes with his orchestra and chorus executed it in the LP Brasil em Tempo de Dança. Sylvia Telles—another former JG girlfriend—introduced an English version on Amor em Hi-Fi (1960). The song would subsequently be recorded by artists as diverse as Mel Tormé and Sivuca.

In 1962, Stan Getz and Gary McFarland recorded “Bim Bom” in Big Band Bossa Nova. Cannonball Adderly and Tamba Trio rendered jazz interpretations of “Minha Saudade” in the albums Cannonball’s Bossa Nova and Tamba Trio, respectively. Two years later, the star-struck Jorge Ben sang a bombastic and weepy “Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá” in his second album, Ben É Samba Bom (1964).

Wanda Sá, who enjoyed a North American vogue in the mid-1960s, included the English version of “Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá” in her album Softly (1965). Bud Shank, João Donato, and Rosinha de Valença recorded “Um Abraço no Bonfá” and “Minha Saudade” in their album Bud Shank & His Brazilian Friends (1965). Walter Wanderley followed suit in Batucada (1967).

Astrud Gilberto sang “Bim Bom” with big orchestral accompaniment in Look to the Rainbow (1965), and Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66 included a bouncy English version of it in Equinox (1967).

In 1974, having spent time under the tutelage of the Zen-baiano himself, the fusion-rock group Novos Baianos recorded “Isabel” [Bebel] on their eponymous LP.

Caetano Veloso included a medley of “Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá” and “Bim Bom” in Totalmente Demais (1986) and bravely tackled “Você Esteve com Meu Bem?” in Fina Estampa ao Vivo (1995).

In 1990, Baden Powell sang “Minha Saudade” in his reedy voice on TV Cultura, and Hendrik Meurkens played the same on the vibes in Sambahia.

Several additional recordings came in the ’90s, including three versions of “Minha Saudade”: Lisa Ono’s in her all-Donato album Minha Saudade (1995); Gilson Peranzzetta Trio in Alegria de Viver (1997); and Gilberto Gil in Lumiar’s Songbook João Donato (1999). Also in Songbook João Donato, Luiz Melodia scontributed his interpretation of “Coisas Distantes.”

João Donato has, of course, recorded the songs he co-authored with João Gilberto repeatedly.

So here, at last, are the eleven songs that João Gilberto composed or co-authored, collected in one CD. The interpreters are Arnaldo DeSouteiro’s (former?) wife, Ithamara Koorax (why give this gem to another singer?) and the mineiro ace guitarist Juarez Moreira.

Koorax has been singing “Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá” since her first concert in 1990. Moreira, in his turn, regards João Gilberto’s music as a challenge: “Although some of the songs may seem very simple, it’s a false impression,” he says. “Gilberto’s songs are very demanding in harmonic terms of guitar playing. They demand a lot of technique. That’s the main ingredient of Gilberto’s magic; to make very difficult and intricate things seem so easy and sound so natural.”

In this “live in the studio” album, the two produce a yin-yang effect. While Ithamara lends the songs a bright, bell-like clarity and at times a girlish reverie, Juarez provides a pure and contemplative link that harks directly back to the composer.

Preview the album.

The model

Ithamara Koorax & Juarez Moreira: Bim Bom—The Complete João Gilberto Songbook
(Motéma Music; 2009) 41:22 min.

01. Bim Bom (João Gilberto)
02. Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá (João Gilberto)
03. Coisas Distantes [Forgotten Places] (João Gilberto/João
      Donato/Lysias Ênio)
04. Minha Saudade (João Donato/João Gilberto)
05. Você Esteve com Meu Bem? (João Gilberto/Antônio Cardoso
      Martins, aka “Russo do Pandeiro”)
06. Valsa [Bebel, Como São Lindos os Iogues] (João Gilberto)
07. Um Abraço no Bonfá (João Gilberto)
08. No Coreto [Glass Beads] (João Gilberto/João Donato)
09. João Marcelo (João Gilberto)
10. Undiú (João Gilberto)
11. Acapulco (João Gilberto)
      Bonus Track
12. Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá [English Lyrics] (João Gilberto/Aloysio de Oliveira)

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2009-12-28T14:31:00.001-08:00

Haroldo Lobo’s centennial

Haroldo Lobo, 1910–1965

It was through listening to Aracy de Almeida that I came to know and appreciate the magnitude of songwriter Haroldo Lobo’s body of work.

Lobo, who was born on 22 July 1910, was the undisputed king of carnaval composers. For 30 years, his steady stream of sambas and marchas—many of them hits—was part and parcel of the carnaval season. Between January 1934 and January 1964, 435 of his songs were released on disc. Altogether, his obra numbers more than 600 songs.

Sic transit gloria mundi. Although practically every Brazilian can sing “Tristeza” and “Alá-lá-ô,” their composer has sunk into oblivion.

But somebody is doing something about it. In September I received an e-mail from the famed Carlos Monte, who modestly introduced himself as “brazilian (carioca), mechanical engineer, director of Portela Samba School, father of 4 women, one of whom is singer Marisa Monte, whom maybe you know.”

It turns out that Mr. Monte shares my passion for Haroldo Lobo and was writing to inform me that steps were being taken to celebrate the composer’s upcoming centennial comme il faut.

The celebrations kick off on 13 January 2010, when the group Sururu na Roda will give the first of six weekly concerts dedicated to Haroldo Lobo’s music. The show, called “Eu Quero É Rosetar” after one of Lobo’s songs, includes 34 hit tunes from carnavals gone by.

The venue is Centro Cultural Carioca. Group members are Nilze Carvalho (cavaco, bandolim and vocal), Camila Costa (guitar and vocals), Fabiano Salek and Silvio Carvalho (percussion and vocals). They will be joined by Marcelo Caldi (keyboards and accordion), P.C. Castilho (reeds), Serginho da Glória (guitar), and Naife Simões (percussion).

See the show’s repertoire in Sururu na Roda sings Haroldo Lobo.

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2009-10-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

The complete works of Ernesto Nazareth online

When a composer’s work falls into the public domain, his or her compositions become accessible to a wider circle of performers. That’s the theory, at least. In the real world of music commerce, “accessible” doesn’t necessarily mean “available.”

It is therefore very good news to pianists everywhere that the complete works of Ernesto Nazareth, which have been in the public domain since 2004, are now published online and available for download free of charge.

On the Ernesto Nazareth website you’ll find 211 complete scores, along with several incomplete ones and alternate versions. The scores were revised and corrected by Alexandre Dias from historic editions. A printed edition will follow.

The Ernesto Nazareth project was spearheaded by harpsichordist Rosana Lanzelotte, who has just released the CD Nazareth (Biscoito Fino), with inventive arrangements in which she is accompanied by percussionist Caito Marcondes and guitarist Luis Leite.

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2009-10-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

Revivendo founder Leon Barg has died

Leon Barg

Revivendo Músicas, one of the best (if not the very best) music reissue labels in the world, has announced that its founder, Leon Barg, died on 12 October 2009.

Born in Pernambuco on 5 May 1930, Mr. Barg was a major collector of vintage music. His first musical memory was of hearing, on the neighbor’s Victrola, the frevos-canções “Ui, Que Medo Eu Tive!” and “Julia,” sung by O Rei da Voz, Francisco Alves. The young Barg met the singer in 1948, when Alves came to Recife on tour.

Almost forty years later, living in Curitiba, Paraná, Barg looked at his collection of over 120,000 78-rpm records and thought that it would be selfish to keep all that music for his own pleasure without sharing it with others. In September 1987, he established Revivendo. Since then, the label has produced 73 LPs and over 250 CDs, preserving the precious musical culture of decades past.

_________________________

2009-08-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

Life after mom and dad

In the wake of their parents’ deaths, Nana and Dori Caymmi
continue to do what they do best.

Dori, Nana & Danilo Caymmi performing “Só Louco” in a Som Brasil
TV special honoring their father, December 2008

Now in their 60s, the three children of Dorival and Stella Caymmi are all well-known musicians, each in his or her own domain. The eldest, Nana Caymmi, is Brazil’s foremost romantic vocalist. The middle sibling, Los Angeles-based Dori Caymmi, has carved out an international career as songwriter, arranger, and singer-guitarist. The caçula, Danilo Caymmi, plays flute, composes, and sings.

Two years ago, Nana released the album Quem Inventou o Amor, with a repertoire of romantic songs by her father. Dori, however, has not had a new record in several years. Now there are two almost simultaneous releases by these siblings. Hers issued in Brazil, his in the U.S., the CDs bear the unmistakable signatures of these mature artists. Both albums are dedicated to the memory of Dorival and Stella Caymmi, who died eleven days apart last year. Nana’s dedication is particularly moving: “Mom and Dad, I sang for you.”

Dori arranged and plays guitar on both albums, yet Nana’s album is quintessentially feminine, while Dori’s is very masculine (without exception, his guest vocalists are male, too). Therefore it’s particularly interesting to listen to the songs that appear in both records.

Nana’s title song, “Sem Poupar Coração,” was composed by Dori and his number-one lyricist, Paulo Cesar Pinheiro. The lyrics paint an all-or-nothing approach to love: “I don’t want to hear again those who say that love is only for happiness. Anguish or peace, pleasure or pain, what I want is to die of love. I want to love too much, without sparing the heart, because for me love that pleases is a crazy passion; love satisfies only when it goes beyond reason.”

Não quero mais
Ouvir quem diz
Que o amor é só
Pra ser feliz
Angústia ou paz
Prazer ou dor
Eu quero é mais
Morrer de amor

Eu quero amar demais
Sem poupar coração
Que pra mim o amor que apraz
É uma louca paixão
Um amor só satisfaz
Além da razão

Dori sings the same song with a very similar arrangement (piano, guitar, and rhythm, although Nana’s recording also includes sax and flutes) in his new album, Inner World. Retitled “Someone,” the song bears English lyrics by Tracy Mann, who puts a more prosaic spin on the narrative.

Someone who’s kind
Someone who knows
What makes me hurt
When to go slow

You know the words
Before I speak
You know the dreams
Haunting my sleep

And for the gift of years that you loved me so well
And for all of the times you were there when I fell
For the sweet and sour days
That I put you through [...]

The lyrical arrangement and Dori’s tender baritone interpretation pull the song through. In Nana’s case, of course, no pulling through is required. The song was tailor-made for her voice and sensibility, and will go down in history as one of her indelible creations.

Another song that appears in both albums—this time without translation—is “Fora de Hora,” with lyrics by Chico Buarque. Nana’s recording features an arrangement for the cream of Brazil’s instrumentalists: Itamar Assiere (piano), Sergio Barroso (bass), Jurim Moreira (drums), Dom Chacal (percussion), Gabriel Grossi (harmonica), and Ricardo Silveira (electric guitar). Dori’s is stripped down to voice and piano. As heart-rending as the harmonica behind Nana is, Dori’s sotto-voce, dusky interpretation conveys the mood more effectively than his sister’s higher-register singing.

A point scored by each.

The rest of Nana’s album is populated by the type of songs she does best. One of her specialties is interpreting boleros. Although the bolero is not a native Brazilian genre, Nana has made it her own. “Contradições,” “Bons Momentos,” “Dúvida,” and “Não Se Esqueça de Mim” are outstanding examples included here.

Sem Poupar Coração is a heartening reminder that women composers, often overlooked in Brazilian records, are superb song crafters. The album includes five songs by women: Simone Guimarães’ yearning “Confissão,” full of complex music and lyrics (Dori sings backup); Fátima Guedes’ gorgeous “Pra Quem Ama Demais”; the samba “Diamante Rubi” by Danilo’s daughter, Alice; Rosa Passos’ lovely “Esmeraldas”; and Sueli Costa’s classic (co-authored with the eternal PCP) “Violão.”

Also noteworthy is another PCP song (this time co-authored by Guinga). “Senhorinha” has received fine interpretations by the likes of Zezé Gonzaga, Mônica Salmaso, and the composer himself. Yet Nana Caymmi’s may be considered a definitive rendition.

All the songs in Dori’s Inner World are his own compositions. In addition to his guitar, the instrumental roster includes Bill Cantos (piano); Abraham Laboriel, Sizão Machado, and Jerry Watts (bass); Paulinho da Costa (percussion); Mike Shapiro (drums); Gary Meek (flute); Scott Mayo (soprano & alto sax); Ben Wendel (bassoon); and Ramon Stagnaro (guitar). The flavor is light jazz, and Dori’s understated yet rich baritone is well-suited to this style. I’ll confess to a prejudice against the English lyrics—not because Dori doesn’t sing them well (he does) but because they stand no chance next to the far more interesting and musical Portuguese verse. In any case, words receive only minor consideration in Inner World, judging by the absence of printed lyrics in the record sleeve. You’ll have to download them from the label’s website.

Standouts in Inner World (listen to samples) are the upbeat carnaval-themed “Chutando Lata” (a duet with Edu Lobo); the melodious sea song “Quebra-Mar” (a duet with Renato Braz), an homage to Dorival Caymmi; and the beautiful love song “É o Amor Outra Vez,” which places Dori Caymmi as the perfect counterpart to his sister in interpreting romantic ballads.

And what could be more natural?

Nana Caymmi: Sem Poupar Coração
(Som Livre 1408-2; 2009) 51:30 min.

01. Sem Poupar Coração (Dori Caymmi/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
02. Contradições (Cristovão Bastos/Aldir Blanc)
03. Caju em Flor (João Donato/Ronaldo Bastos)
04. Senhorinha (Guinga/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
05. Bons Momentos (Zé Luiz Lopes/Márcio Proença)
06. Visão (Danilo Caymmi/Manú Lafer)
07. Dúvida (Márcio Ramos)
08. Confissão (Antonio Carlos Bigonha/Simone Guimarães)
09. Fora de Hora (Dori Caymmi/Chico Buarque)
10. Pra Quem Ama Demais (Fátima Guedes)
11. Diamante Rubi (Alice Caymmi)
12. Esmeraldas (Rosa Passos/Fernando de Oliveira)
13. Violão (Sueli Costa/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
14. Não Se Esqueça de Mim (Roberto Carlos/Erasmo Carlos) – with Erasmo Carlos

Dori Caymmi: Inner World
(Music Taste 1001; 2009) 45:20 min.

01. Your Smile (Dori Caymmi/Ina Wolf) – with Scott Mayo & Bill Cantos
02. Spring (Dori Caymmi/Tracy Mann)
03. Obsession (Dori Caymmi/Gilson Peranzzetta/Tracy Mann) – with Scott Mayo & Bill Cantos
04. Dança do Tucano (Dori Caymmi/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
05. Colors of Joy (Dori Caymmi/Gilson Peranzzetta) – with Scott Mayo & Bill Cantos
06. Chutando Lata (Dori Caymmi/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro) – with Edu Lobo
07. Quebra-Mar (Dori Caymmi/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro) – with Renato Braz
08. Flauta, Sanfona e Viola (Dori Caymmi/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
09. É o Amor Outra Vez (Dori Caymmi/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
10. Someone (Dori Caymmi/Tracy Mann)
11. Fora de Hora (Dori Caymmi/Chico Buarque)
12. Rio Amazonas (Dori Caymmi/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)

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2009-06-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

Na Cabeça and other treats on KPFA-FM

Last night, Eddy Pay and I presented the first North American audition of Marcos Sacramento’s new CD, Na Cabeça, plus nine other diverse albums, in a two-hour program on KPFA 94.1 FM.

The program is archived until Tuesday, 30 June 2009. Listen here.

The tracks we played are listed below. Click the CD covers to visit the artists’ websites.

Marcos Sacramento: Na Cabeça
Na Cabeça (Luiz Flavio Alcofra/Marcos Sacramento)
Pavio (Luiz Flavio Alcofra/Sergio Natureza)
Calúnia (Luiz Flavio Alcofra)

Terno Carioca: Terno Carioca Interpreta Claudionor Cruz
Caprichos do Destino (Claudionor Cruz/Pedro Caetano)
Chico Flores (Claudionor Cruz/Pedro Caetano) — Zélia Duncan
Potiguar (Claudionor Cruz/José de Freitas)
Dia do Preto Velho (Claudionor Cruz)
Cuidado Naná (Claudionor Cruz)

Marcos Sacramento: Na Cabeça
Prisionero del Mar (Luiz Arcaraz/Don Marcotte/E. Cortazar/Portuguese: Galvez Morales)
Um Samba (Carlos Fuchs/Marcos Sacramento)
Minha Palhoça (J. Cascata)
Dia Santo Também (Paulo Padilha)
Canto de Quero Mais (Zé Paulo Becker/Moyséis Marques)
A Rosa (Chico Buarque)

Rogério Caetano: Rogério Caetano
Intuitiva (Rogério Caetano)
Pelé (Rogério Caetano)
Brasíl Mestiço (Rogério Caetano)
Meu Mundo (Rogério Caetano)

Felipe Radicetti: Sagrado Profano
Canto de Roda da Pedra do Sal (Felipe Radicetti) — Felipe Radicetti
Dom Pixote (Felipe Radicetti/Marcelo Biar) — Clarisse Grova
Cadafalso (Felipe Radicetti/Cristina Saraiva) — Chico Adnet & Felipe Radicetti

Michiel Buursen: Dualogy—Michiel Buursen Plays Jobim
Gabriela (Antonio Carlos Jobim) 7:27

Jam da Silva: Dia Santo
Agô (Jam da Silva)

Celso Adolfo: Estrada Real de Villa Rica
Caminho Velho (Juarez Moreira/Celso Adolfo)
Serrano (Celso Adolfo)

Carlos Careqa: Tudo Que Respira Quer Comer
28 [Vinte e Oito] (Carlos Careqa) — Carlos Careqa & Mônica Salmaso
Vacamor (Carlos Careqa/Adriano Sátiro) — Zé Rodrix

Vocal Brasileirão: Invisível Cordão—Brasileirão Canta Chico & Edu
Biscate (Chico Buarque)

Orquestra à Base de Sopro: Mestre Waltel
Anjos e Vampiros (Waltel Branco)

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2009-05-19T11:41:00.001-07:00

“Stars of Brazil” at Healdsburg Jazz Festival

This year’s Healdsburg Jazz Festival is going all out on the Brazilian front.

On Sunday afternoon, 31 May 2009, three top acts will appear on the green at Healdsburg Recreation Park in the same program—a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim:

Guitarist Toninho Horta, accompanied by Airto Moreira (percussion), Santi Debriano (bass), and Billy Hart (drums).

Trio da Paz, consisting of Romero Lubambo (guitar), Nilson Matta (bass), and Duduka da Fonseca (drums).

Vocalist Leny Andrade, with the Stephanie Ozer Ensemble featuring Stephanie Ozer (piano), Mary Fettig (flute/saxes), Scott Thompson (bass), and Celso Alberti (drums).

The pronunciation-challenged Chuy Varela will MC. Luckily, there’s no one on the program by the name of João, but be prepared for a mention of Milton “Nacimiento” in connection with Toninho.

Doors open at noon.
Tickets: general $25; students & seniors (65+) $15

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2009-05-13T17:07:00.001-07:00

Bellinati at Stanford Jazz

Tickets are now on sale for the Stanford Jazz Workshop concert of guitar maestro Paulo Bellinati with special guests Carlos Oliveira (7-string guitar) and Harvey Wainapel (reeds).

The concert will take place on Friday, 17 July 2009, 8 pm, at the Campbell Recital Hall on the Stanford campus.

At 7 pm in the same venue, Harvey Wainapel will speak about the History & Development of Brazilian Choro. Admission to this lecture is free with a concert ticket.

Tickets: $28 general; $14 students.

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2009-03-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight at 8 on KPFA 94.1 FM

Marcos Sacramento & Luiz Flavio Alcofra at Sala Cecília Meireles

Tonight, from 8 to 10 pm, Eddy Pay and I will present a live, unreleased recording of singer Marcos Sacramento and guitarist Luiz Flavio Alcofra in their concert Valserestas Brasileiras, which was performed on 11 April 2008 at Sala Cecília Meireles in Rio de Janeiro.

The repertoire consists of valsas and serestas (hence the title), most of which were originally recorded by Orlando Silva in the late 1930s and early ’40s. Along with Sacramento’s interpretations, we’ll play historic recordings of the same songs by Orlando Silva and Aracy de Almeida.

People outside northern California can listen online. The show will be archived online for the next two weeks.

Marcos Sacramento & Luiz Flavio Alcofra: Valserestas Brasileiras

01. A Última Estrofe (Cândido das Neves)
02. Horas Iguais (José Maria Abreu/Francisco Matoso)
03. Rosa (Pixinguinha)
04. Po Ti (Leonel Azevedo/Sá Roris)
05. Mentirosa (Custódio Mesquita/Mário Lago)
06. Por Causa Dessa Cabocla (Ary Barroso/Luiz Peixoto)
07. Sertaneja (René Bittencourt)
08. Página de Dor (Pixinguinha/Cândido das Neves)
09. Súplica (Otávio Gabus Mendes/José Marcílio/Déo)
10. Último Desejo (Noel Rosa)
11. Número Um (Benedito Lacerda/Mário Lago)
12. Lábios Que Beijei (J. Cascata/Leonel Azevedo)
13. Deusa do Cassino (Newton Teixeira/Torres Homem)
14. Quero Dizer-te Adeus (Ary Barroso)
15. Caprichos do Destino (Pedro Caetano/Claudionor Cruz)
Sacramentos (Luiz Flavio Alcofra)

We’ll conclude the program with tracks from Paulo Bellinati’s latest release, A Felicidade (GSP).

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2009-03-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Jobim, from Holland with love

Michiel Buursen and friends surprise and delight in Dualogy.

Michiel Buursen

Michiel Buursen is a formally trained Dutch jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. “Insansatez,” which he first heard at the age of 12 on Tom Jobim’s The Composer of “Desafinado” Plays, was his gateway to to Brazilian music. Later he graduated to Ivan Lin’s “Começar de Novo” and Baden Powell’s “Berimbau.”

“About ten years ago, a friend intoduced me to Leny Andrade and Cesar Camargo Mariano and a live radio broadcast of a concert in the Netherlands of Leila Pinheiro with Leandro Braga on the piano, and from that moment on I was hooked on that music,” says Buursen. “All my favorite music—Classical, jazz, African and Brasilian nordestino—comes together in the Brazilian way of making music.”

Buursen visited Rio for the first time in 2003 and has been returning ever since. Now he’s released a CD dedicated to Jobim, and it’s refreshing to find that his disc is far removed from the run-of-the-mill albums flooding the market during Bossa Nova’s semi-centennial year.

Dualogy puts the spotlight on lyricism and melodiousness rather than on slavish rhythm, signaling a mature attitude toward the material that Jobim would have approved. Piano solos open and close the album, serving as the bookends to eight duo tracks, each featuring a different guest musician (hence the Dualogy of the title).

The homage begins, appropriately enough, with the tune that awakened Buursen’s interest. In his hands, “Insansatez” is a ruminative piano solo treated as a platform for improvisation. Then soprano saxophonist Thijs van Otterloo joins Buursen in “Gabriela,” playing the bounciness of samba against the piano’s meditativeness.

In the first of two vocal tracks, singer/flutist Inke Krudde interprets “Por Causa de Você” in Portuguese. Gentle and honestly expressed, Inke’s singing interweaves itself with Buursen’s piano rather than being merely accompanied by it.

“Falando de Amor” is a beautiful, low-key dialog with Erik Robaard on fretless bass. It is followed by an extended spare journey along “Estrada do Sol,” in which Buursen is joined by drummer Wim Kegel.

In one of the album’s highlights and the longest of its tracks—the gorgeous “Caminhos Cruzados”—Remmert Tromp’s alto saxophone and Buursen’s piano proceed leisurely, at times playing in unison, at others in counterpoint, all the while building momentum and volume from a hesitant beginning to a forceful conclusion.

Jasper Somsen’s sonorous contrabass carries the melody in “Luiza,” while the piano provides the harmony before taking off on an independent flight, ending with the melody part. Katelijne van Otterloo sings the English lyrics of “Dindi” in a small, intimate voice. I’ve never been a fan of “Dindi,” but the interaction between singer and pianist is attractive.

The penultimate track, an interesting pairing of “Chora Coração” and “Piano na Mangueira,” with percussion by George Pelupessy , traverses the emotional and rhythmic range, beginning in a quiet morning and climbing to a batucada peak before descending to the sotto-voce finale that suggests the dawn after a wild night. From here it’s a natural transition to the closing track, a free-form treatment for “Tema para Ana.”

There’s a lot to like in Dualogy, none of it obvious or pat. Listen to excerpts.

Michiel Buursen: Dualogy
(Independent; 2008) 66 min.

01. Insensatez (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes)
02. Gabriela (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
03. Por Causa de Você (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Dolores Duran)
04. Falando de Amor (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
05. Estrada do Sol (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Dolores Duran)
06. Caminhos Cruzados (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Newton Mendonça)
07. Luiza (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
08. Dindi (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Aloyisio de Oliveira/Ray Gilbert)
09. Chora Coração (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes;
Piano na Mangueira (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Chico Buarque)
10. Tema para Ana (Antonio Carlos Jobim)

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2009-03-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

“Águas de Março” on a roll

Last month it was a fake Trader Joe’s commercial. Now we get the Sealab 2021 commercial. What next? The tip came from Paula Morelenbaum.

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2009-02-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

Musical legends on DVD

Three new discs from Tropical Music

Claus Schreiner of Tropical Music in Germany just released the DVD series Legends of..., with material never before available on video. Each DVD is 2.5-hours long and comes with a 56-page booklet packed with original artwork and texts.

The excerpts above were extracted from DVD 1, which includes Gypsy flamenco, Argentine folkloric music, and MPB.

The Brazilian part consists of 45 minutes shot in Germany during the festival Cançoes Macumba, Samba e Bossa Nova do Brasil 1966. Among the artists are Edu Lobo, Sylvia Telles, Rosinha de Valença, Dom Salvador, Sérgio Barroso, Chico Batera, J.T. Meireles, and the percussionists Marly Tavares, Rubens Bassini, and Jorge Arena.

Tracks:
01. Macumba Rhythms – Jorginho & Rubens
02. Macumba Rhythms – Marly Tavares
03. O Barquinho – Meirelles Trio
04. Reza – Edu Lobo
05. Upa Neguinho – Edu Lobo
06. Não Tenho Lágrimas – Meirelles Trio
07. O Orvalho Vem Caindo – Meirelles Trio & percussion
08. Acalanto – Rosinha de Valença
09. Consolação – Rosinha de Valença
10. Samba Torto – Sylvia Telles
11. Samba de Uma Nota Só – Sylvia Telles
12. Finale – Marly, Jorge, Chico & Rosinha
13. Tristeza – Meireilles with band & soloists

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2009-02-13T14:22:00.001-08:00

Cantáteis

Chico César & Lica Cecato at CCBB São Paulo

“Cantáteis: Cantos elegíacos de amozade” (1993) by Chico César is a poem consisting of 144 strophes and dedicated to Tata Fernandes, for whom Chico harbored this hybrid emotion between amor and amizade.

So says the text on Chico César’s official website. Chico gave a reading performance of “Cantáteis” on 17 September 2008 at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in São Paulo. Accompanying him was singer and songwriter Lica Cecato, who didn’t sing. Instead, she played the theremin.

Theremin? Visions of Clara Rockmore come to mind. Except that Lica played the ultra-modern Etherwave® Pro Limited Edition Moog Theremin.

[See a little demo of the Etherwave® Pro at NAMM, beginning with a snippet of “Garota de Ipanema.”]

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2009-02-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

The forced departure of Fábio Zanon

Ten days ago, guitarist Fábio Zanon sent an e-mail to announce that his Rádio Cultura FM de São Paulo series, O Violão Brasileiro, had its last broadcast on 28 January. It was the 148th weekly program in the series, which began airing in April 2006.

In his message, Zanon wrote:

According to plans, the series O Violão Brasileiro would have ended at the 150-program mark, and we would have begun a new series with another theme. However, the administration of Rádio Cultura decided to shut down the program.

I am greatly saddened to see the guitar lose this radio space. We have here the bizarre situation of a classical music, public radio station in Brazil that won’t consider giving the most played instrument in the land even a weekly hour.

If you want to air your opinion, please write to violao@culturafm.com.br with a copy to falecom@culturafm.com.br.

Happily, the full series is available for download at vcfz.blogspot.com.

Read Dean Frey’s commentary on this unfortunate turn of events in the Villa-Lobos Magazine.

An interview with Zanon (in Portuguese) was published yesterday in VivaMúsica.

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2009-02-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

The best English lyrics yet for “Águas de Março”

Carl Willat, founder of Carl’s Fine Films in San Francisco, made this groovy unauthorized commercial for Trader Joe’s.

Watch it in high quality on his website.

Thanks for the tip, Thalia!

The TJ’s Song
(Antonio Carlos Jobim/Carl Willat)

It’s milk, it’s bread,
It’s the stuff on your list
It’s the strange little snacks
You end up buying instead

It’s booze, it’s nuts, it’s pills, it’s peas
It’s the peanut butter made of sunflower seeds
It’s a box of soup, it’s the bell from a boat
It’s yogurt made from the milk of a goat

A bottle of juice with a crazy name
Ten kinds of soy milk that all taste the same
A two-dollar wine that tastes like four
All your favorite stuff they don’t have anymore

It’s the cashews flavored with chili and lime
It’s the bunch of bananas you buy one at a time
It’s the stuff that’s organic and the stuff that’s not
It’s the cars that won’t fit in the parking lot
It’s the bottled water they keep by the door
It’s the ginger soy dressing they don’t have anymore

A snort, a sniff, a gourd, a snack
It’s the apple juice that’s addictive as crack
It’s cilantro pizza, it’s organic lox
Four fuji apples in a plastic box
It’s all the new products that come and go
The exact same sample five days in a row
It’s mint-flavored dog food, it’s an ear from a pig
It’s your morning coffee in a cup this big

A handle that rips on a paper sack
That checker you liked who’ll never be back
It’s the plastic grapes hanging over the wine
It’s the guy with twelve items in the ten-item line

The electronic field that stops your cart
The blackboards covered with employee art
It’s a ball of ice cream that’s covered with flour
It’s the shelves that are empty by the dinner hour
It’s the beautiful moms in their yoga clothes
It’s our favorite place, it’s that store, Trader Joe’s

It’s the cage-free eggs that aren’t free range
It’s the canned corn label that they never change
It’s the cereal shaped like a little man
It’s those great tomatoes for just a dollar a can

It’s five different flavors of lemonade
It’s dried bull penises done up in a braid
It’s the organic sugar that just won’t pour
It’s the aged gouda cheese they don’t have any more

It’s cylindrical salmon, it’s pills that fizz
It’s aloe chunk juice, whatever that is
It’s the information that nobody reads
It’s a small watermelon without any seeds

It’s the oldies music they always play
It’s that guy who says, “put that camera away”
It’s the workers who smoke in the back of the store
It’s that guy Trader Joe who’s not there anymore
It’s the manager who asks you to go
It’s our favorite place, it’s that store, Trader Joe’s

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2009-02-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

Darius Milhaud’s Brazilian Connection at Mills

Paul Claudel, Darius Milhaud & Henri Hoppenot in Brazil
(from Paul Collaer: “Darius Milhaud”)

Mills College is reopening and renaming its restored and renovated historic concert hall with a music festival that will run from 21 February to 5 April. The fascinating program, most of it sold out, includes a gala event at which Mills faculty, alumnae, students, and guest artists will perform music by Darius Milhaud, conducted by Nicole Paiement and featuring piano soloists Robert Schwartz and Julie Steinberg, and percussion virtuoso William Winant.

Program

Cantate pour l’Inauguration du Musée de l’Homme, Op. 164 (1937)
Patrice Maginnis, soprano
Wendy Hillhouse, mezzo
Brian Staufenbiel, tenor
Robert Stafford, baritone
Chorus directed by Elizabeth Eshleman and Kristin Pankonin

Cinq Études, Op. 63 (1920)
Robert Schwartz, piano
Concerto pour percussion, Op. 109 (1929–30)
William Winant, percussion

Intermission

Carnaval d’Aix, Op. 83b (1926)
Julie Steinberg, piano

Le Boeuf sur le Toit, Op. 58 (1919)

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2009-02-07T10:53:00.001-08:00

O Que É Que a Baiana Tem

Doni Sacramento posted this historic clip, the only remnant from the Sonofilmes production Banana da Terra, in which Carmen Miranda appeared for the first time in baiana costume.

This was also the first time that Carmen recorded a Dorival Caymmi song. In fact, it was the 24-year-old songwriter’s first composition to be recorded and also the first time his own voice was heard on record.

Directed by João de Barrro (Braguinha), the film went into production in 1938. Carmen had just recorded Ary Barroso’s “Na Baixa do Sapateiro,” and this instantly popular samba-jongo was to be included in the movie. The set had already been built and Carmen’s baiana costume was ready, but the composer refused to cooperate, demanding an astronomical fee for the right to use this song in the film.

A substitute had to be found, and in a hurry. Carmen’s friend Henrique Foréis Domingues—better known as Almirante, a former bandmate of Braguinha’s from their Bando de Tangarás days—had heard the young Caymmi on the radio and believed his baiana song would do the trick.

But first he had to record a demo with Dorival for Carmen to hear. The neophite was ready to perform one of his sea songs, but Almirante insisted on the baiana. Carmen approved the samba on first audition, and the rest is history.

Dorival was so green at that point that he didn’t even discuss his fee. The payment he received was far, far lower than the one Ary had demanded. The solo male voice you hear in the clip is his.

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2009-02-05T15:21:00.001-08:00

Carmen Miranda 100 Anos

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2009-01-26T11:06:00.001-08:00

Kuarup Discos closes its doors

Last Tuesday, as the world was celebrating Barack Obama’s inauguration, a short e-mail arrived from Kuarup Discos, announcing that the record label was shutting down.

I would like everyone to know why Kuarup went out of business, so here’s a translation of the announcement:

After 31 years dedicated to the best of Brazilian music, the independent carioca label Kuarup Discos decided to close down its operations at the beginning of this year.

During the last years, sales of physical products [i.e., CDs] suffered a vertiginous fall, which was far from compensated for by sales of Internet downloads. We understand that the crisis of the CD is irreversible and has turned unviable our business model, which was entirely based on the production and sales of quality music.

To those familiar with Kuarup’s products, this is a heavy loss. The label’s catalog is rich in choro, samba, instrumental music, Brazilian classical music, and the best regional music.

It’s no secret, however, that Brazilian Internet music piracy is probably the most visibly active in the world. No sooner is a CD released than blogs offer it for free download. For every blog that is shut down for piracy, two new ones pop up. Don’t ask me for the names of these blogs—I refuse to publicize them.

If Biscoito Fino is still in business, it’s because of the deep pockets of its backers. But what of other independent labels? Between the global economic crisis and persistent piracy, their chances of survival are very slim indeed.

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2009-01-13T18:53:00.001-08:00

Guinga gets a sock in the face

Many people consider Guinga a god. Not so the cops at Madrid airport. Alan Romero, who often keeps me abreast of Guinga's doings, sent a link to a horrendous story, reported by Guinga’s daughter, Constance Escobar.

It appears that Guinga was returning to Rio de Janeiro after a 20-day Italian work trip, and since he flew on Iberia Airlines, he had to change planes in Madrid, where a labor dispute involving Iberia, as well as a shortage of air traffic controllers, has been causing many flight cancellations and delays.

As Guinga told O Dia, his Madrid connection turned into a three-day ordeal. On Friday, 9 January, Iberia announced that the scheduled flight for Rio was delayed owing to snow. The passengers waited a whole day at the terminal, until Iberia put them up at a hotel.

On Saturday, Guinga was awakened pre-dawn with the announcement that the bus would leave for the airport at 5 am. While passing through security, He placed his coat, shoes, and carry-ons on the x-ray machine’s rolling belt. His coat, containing 400 euros and 200 reais, passport, boarding pass, house key, and wallet with all his documents, was stolen as he was putting on his shoes after the inspection. Another flight missed.

Guinga complained to the airport police and was told it wasn’t their problem. They suggested that he contact the Brazilian embassy. Adding injury to insult, one of the cops punched Guinga in the face after the musician made accusations about the theft of his coat. The former dentist lost two teeth and a great deal of his dignity.

Accounts in the Brazilian press vary as to what happened next. According to this report quoting his wife Fátima, a policewoman who saw Guinga injured and crying in the terminal tried to help him. She was taking him to a restricted area in the terminal when he espied his coat discarded in a trash container. Only the money was missing. The same policewoman then helped him to change his flight from Iberia to TAP Portugal and accompanied him to the gate.

Other than the broken teeth, the only proof of the ordeal that Guinga retains is a document the Spanish police forced him to sign, attesting that it was they who found the coat.

As they say in Brazil: sem palavras.

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2008-12-25T12:55:00.001-08:00

Ulisses Rocha on João Gilberto

One ace guitarist evaluates another.

The text below was posted by Marlon Moraes de Eça Santos to the João Gilberto cummunity in Orkut.

Entrevista de Ulisses Rocha para Revista Jazz+ (novembro de 2008) — Editora Dexter por Mario Mele.

João Gilberto
TIM TIM POR TIM TIM
Do álbum Live at the 19th Montreaux Jazz Festival
João Gilberto (voz e violão)

Talvez eu seja o maior fã do João Gilberto que você já conheceu. Ele é uma das maravilhas da arte-brasileira, mas não dá para entender onde exatamente está a beleza de sua música. Falam que ele criou a batida da bossa nova, mas pra mim ele sempre tocou samba, só que do jeito dele. As pessoas sentem uma necessidade muito grande de “dar nomes aos bois”, mas até hoje eu não sei onde está a diferença entre o samba e a bossa nova. Todo mundo passou a copiar essa batida, falam até que ele consegue fazer uns adiantamentos rítmicos. Não acho nada disso. Sua mágica não está na harmonia, mas na facilidade de colocar acordes comuns numa situação capaz de criar uma sensação auditiva muito refinada. Outra coisa: ele se coloca numa posição na qual “eu não sou ninguém, a música é”. Não importa quantos discos ele fez ou deixou de fazer, porque ele registrou uma obra divina, eterna. João Gilberto enaltece a música, sabe mostrar como cada composição interpretada por ele pode ficar mais bonita. Suas canções chegam até nós de uma forma muito cristalina, como a de poucos. João é complexo e sutil. Aprendi muita harmonia ouvindo os trabalhos dele.

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2008-12-23T09:51:00.001-08:00

Season’s Greetings

Feliz Ano Novo

Photo: Daniella Thompson

Reeling from a horrific year, we can all use some cheering up. The dolls waving us on to a brighter future were made by my mother, Ralya Yaniv, who will be 89 on 29 January 2009.

I’m very proud of Mom’s imagination and creativity and never tire of looking at her dolls. If you’d like to see more of her charming work, visit her website, Ralya Yaniv, Dollmaker Extraordinaire.

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2008-12-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

Músicos do Brasil: Uma Enciclopédia

A new encyclopedia of Brazilian instrumentalists is born.

Interested in instrumental music? Then Músicos do Brasil: Uma Enciclopédia is a site you should visit. The brainchild of Maria Luiza Kfouri of Discos do Brasil fame, Músicos do Brasil is a new encyclopedia providing information on hundreds of Brazilian musicians (and the list keeps growing every day).

If you read Portuguese, you might enjoy the Essays section, where you can find such articles as O Cavaquinho by Henrique Cazes; Os Vários Jacobs by Sérgio Prata; O Canto Dentro da Música by Mônica Salmaso; Piano Brasileiro by Benjamim Taubkin; O Violão 7 Cordas by Mauricio Carrilho; Toninho Horta by Juarez Moreira; A Percussão no Brasil by Djalma Corrêa; Flauta Brasileira by Toninho Carrasqueira; A Sanfona de 8 Baixos e a Música Instrumental by Leo Rugero; Influências na Obra Pianística de Ernesto Nazareth by Alexandre Dias; and many more illuminating essays, including a modest contribution by yours truly, Como o boi subiu no telhado: A música brasileira em “Le Boeuf sur le Toit” de Darius Milhaud.

There’s also a section dedicated to academic Dissertations and Theses about musical groups, instruments, styles, and important discs. Some particularly interesting topics here are Luiz Otávio Braga’s doctoral dissertation, A Invenção da Música Popular Brasileira: de 1930 ao final do Estado Novo, and Paulo Aragão’s Pixinguinha e a Gênese do Arranjo Instrumental Brasileiro (1929–1935) . In addition, eleven timeline panels cover cultural, social, and economic context in each of the decades of the 20th century.

Even if you can’t read Portuguese, you’ll enjoy the radio that features an ever changing selection of instrumental tracks by musicians you may never have heard of, as well as by their better-known colleagues—all worthy of hearing. The server suddenly crashed while I was browsing the site (it’s still in beta mode), but it was soon up again, so don’t give up if the site doesn’t load. Try again. It’s well worth the visit.

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2008-12-02T20:28:00.001-08:00

A year-end bouquet from Dois no Choro

The flute-guitar duo releases Asa Branca.

Julie Koidin & Paulinho Garcia

I go a long way back with Dois no Choro. A review of their second CD, Juntos, was the very first article I published in this magazine almost seven years ago. Seventeen months earlier, in September 2000, I reviewed their debut album, Carinhoso, in Saudades do Brasil.

Having established as their common turf a repertoire of choro, vocal MPB, and hispanic songs, flutist Julie Koidin and guitarist/vocalist Paulinho Garcia continue in the same vein in their latest release, Asa Branca. In this, their third album, the duo is joined by three musician friends whose mandolin, accordion, and percussion lend richer textures to the arrangements.

The musical genres may be disparate, but they follow each other in cohesive succession thanks to the chamber treatment they are given.

The choros include classics by Jacob do Bandolim, Pixinguinha, Abel Ferreira, Mário Alves da Conceição, and Zequinha de Abreu. Among the Brazilian vocal tunes are the baião “Asa Branca”; Hermeto Pascoal’s “Chorinho pra Ele”; Sivuca and Chico Buarque’s lovely French-influenced waltz “João e Maria”; and the 1928 canção “Você,” which Fagner was famously accused of plagiarizing from Hekel Tavares and Nair Mesquita and renaming “Penas do Tiê.”

Paulinho sings three tunes in Spanish: “Soneto a Mama” by the contemporary Catalan singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat, the haunting Argentine song “Chiquilin de Bachin,” and the tango warhorse “Caminito.”

A sure-footed album from a seasoned pair of musicians, Asa Branca is bound to please. Listen to audio samples.

Dois no Choro: Asa Branca
(Laughing Buddha Music LBP99-2015; 2008) 59:20 min.

01. Asa Branca (Luiz Gonzaga/Humberto Teixeira)
02. Chorinho pra Ele (Hermeto Pascoal)
03. Santa Morena (Jacob Pick Bittencourt)
04. Soneto a Mama (Joan Manuel Serrat)
05. Cochichando (Pixinguinha/João de Barro/Alberto Ribero)
06. João e Maria (Sivuca/Chico Buarque)
07. Noites Cariocas (Jacob Pick Bittencourt)
08. Chorando Baixinho (Abel Ferreira)
09. Teu Beijo (Mário Alves da Conceição)
10. Chiquilin de Bachin (Astor Piazzolla/Horacio Ferrer)
11. Você [Penas do Tiê] (Hekel Tavares/Nair Mesquita)
12. Vou Vivendo (Pixinguinha/Benedito Lacerda)
13. Caminito (Juan de Dios Filiberto/Gabino Coria Peñaloza)
14. Tico Tico no Fubá (Zequinha de Abreu)

Musicians
Paulinho Garcia, voice & guitar
Juie Koidin, flute & alto flute
Heitor Garcia, percussion
Julien Labro, accordion, accordina & bandoneon
Linda Binder, mandolin

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2008-11-30T09:59:00.000-08:00

Red Hot + Rio 2: The Next Generation of Samba Soul

CéU

4 & 5 December at 8 pm
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Avenue Brooklyn, NY
Running time: 120 min., no intermission
Tickets: $25, $45, $65

Produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Producers: Béco Dranoff, Paul Heck, Yale Evelev

Featured artists: CéU, Curumin, Bebel Gilberto, José González, Otto, João Parahyba (from Trio Mocotó)
Backing band: Kassin +2, Moreno, Domenico, Money Mark, Janja Gomes, Jorge Continentino, Carlos Darci, Zé Luis
Music Directors: Kassin & Mario Caldato, Jr.
Video Design: Multiplicidade

An all-star benefit tribute to the music and culture of Brazil, Red Hot + Rio 2 salutes Samba Soul, the post-tropicália movement of the 70s that merged elements of North American soul music with Brazilian rhythms. Mixing samba with R&B, soul with baião, pioneering artists like Jorge Ben Jor and Tim Maia signaled a cultural awakening that changed the direction of Brazilian music forever. The concerts at BAM bring together the newest generation of Brazilian and international artists who represent the legacy of this influential musical style.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit BrazilFoundation's AIDS-related projects.

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2008-11-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

A centennial tribute to Cartola

Angenor de Oliveira (1908–1980), better known as the divino Cartola, was born a hundred years ago on 11 October. Few cognoscenti would dispute that he composed some of the most beautiful sambas to come out of Brazil (and that’s saying a lot).

Eddy Pay and I paid Cartola a centennial tribute on KPFA 94.1 FM. The program aired on Friday, 21 November 2008 and is archived here.

Playlist:

Gal Costa: As Rosas Não Falam (Cartola) in Cartola—Bate Outra Vez (1988)
Cartola: Alvorada (Cartola/Carlos Cachaça/Hermínio Bello de Carvalho) in Cartola (1974)
Cartola: Acontece (Cartola) in Cartola (1974)
Cartola: Quem Me Vê Sorrir (Cartola/Carlos Cachaça) in Native Brazilian Music (1940)
Elizeth Cardoso: Vem (Cartola/Arthur Oliveira) in Elizethíssima (1981)
Cartola: Tive Sim (Cartola) in Cartola (1974)
Cartola: O Mundo É um Moinho (Cartola) in Cartola (1976)
Paulinho da Viola & Elton Medeiros: Amor Proibido (Cartola) in Cartola—Bate Outra Vez (1988)
Cartola: O Sol Nascerá (Cartola/Elton Medeiros) in Cartola (1974)
Cartola: Peito Vazio (Cartola/Elton Medeiros) in Cartola (1976)
Cartola: Ensaboa Mulata (Cartola) in Cartola (1976)
Cartola: Corra e Olhe o Céu (Cartola/Dalmo Castelo) in Cartola (1974)
Cartola: Verde Que Te Quero Rosa (Cartola/Dalmo Castelo) in Verde Que Te Quero Rosa (1977)
Cartola: Disfarça e Chora (Cartola/Dalmo Castelo) in Cartola (1974)
Cartola: Sim (Cartola/Oswaldo Martins) in Cartola (1974)
Nelson Sargento & Galo Preto: Fiz Por Você o Que Pude (Cartola) in Só Cartola (1999)
Nelson Sargento, Elton Medeiros & Galo Preto: Os Tempos Idos (Cartola/Carlos Cachaça) in Só Cartola (1999)

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2008-10-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Ases do Samba reverenciam Mario Reis & Francisco Alves

The singer Carlos Navas conceived this project, which features four artists paying tribute to the great Brazilian male singers who, for a period, teamed up as a duo. In this show, each one of the four artists will sing four solos, aside from joining in duets and quartets.

In 2007, Navas released the CD Quando o Samba Acabou the only contemporary album entirely dedicated to Mario Reis. In the show, Navas will sing some of Mario’s early hits, like “Dorinha, Meu Amor” (José Francisco de Freitas) and “Sabiá” (Sinhô). He’ll form a duo with Zé Luiz Mazziotti in “Quando o Samba Acabou” (Noel Rosa). Mazziotti will sing “Amar a uma Só Mulher” (Sinhô) and “A Voz do Violão” (Francisco Alves).

Eduardo Dussek, who a decade ago gave us a Carmen Miranda scorebook and CD, will sing “Jura” (Sinhô), “Voltei a Cantar,” and “Serra da Boa Esperança” (Lamartine Babo), the last one in duet with Navas. Marcos Sacramento will sing Sinhô’s “Cansei” and “Gosto que me Enrosco” (the latter in duet with Dussek), “Mulato Bamba” (Noel Rosa), and “Caminhemos” (Herivelto Martins).

Quartets will include the marchinha “Linda Morena” (Lamartine Babo) and Chico Buarque’s “A Banda,” which was one of Mario Reis’s final recordings.

Accompanying are Hanilton Messias, music director and pianist, along with Douglas Alonso (percussion), Evandro Gracelli (guitar), and Beto Sporleder (reeds).

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2008-10-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

Fake Bahians at work

Grupo Falso Baiano releases an accomplished choro album.

Jesse Appelman, Zack Pitt-Smith, Ami Molinelli & Brian Moran

The first time I caught up with the charmingly named choro ensemble Falso Baiano, exactly two years ago today, they were a trio (see “Este falso baiano não fica parado”) consisting of Brian Moran (7-string guitar), Zack Pitt-Smith (flute, clarinet & soprano sax), and Ami Molinelli (percussion). The fourth member, mandolinist Jesse Appelman, was already in evidence as a guest artist whose presence contributed handsomely to the group’s sound.

Now they return as a quartet with a well-selected, executed, and produced album of choro tunes. As the title Viajando implies, this is a journey through many decades of Brazilian instrumental music, the oldest tune having been composed by Bonfiglio de Oliveira (1891–1940) and the newest by Hamilton de Holanda (born 1976).

The group appears to be in tune with the sensibilities of choro apostles and Acari Records founders Mauricio Carrilho and Luciana Rabello, for the very first tune on Viajando is Luciana’s “De Bem com a Vida,” a lively choro dedicated to the bandolinista Pedro Amorim and reflecting his infectious joie de vivre. Falso Baiano interprets it with verve, and their cohesive ensemble work reflects the vivacity that imbues the tune.

Unlike “De Bem com a Vida,” which we never hear often enough, “Carioquinha” is a standard of the choro repertoire and one of Waldir Azevedo’s best-known compositions. Falso Baiano gives this bouncy tune a delicious arrangement replete with little solo surprises and unexected sound effects, slowing down toward the end before picking up the furious pace. More leisurely (up to a point) is Paulinho da Viola’s bluesy “Beliscando.”

The theme from Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. game is a popular platform for musicians around the world, and in Falso Baiano’s hands, it becomes a perfectly credible choro—at least until halfway through the track. Then all hell breaks loose in a baião-samba explosion, set off by Jovino Santos Neto on melodica, Michael Spiro on surdo and tamborim, Brian Rice on tamborim, and Ami—overdubbed—on cuica, pandeiro, and tamborim.

Paulo Sérgio Santos, who thinks enough of the group to have written a glowing dedication for the liner notes, is represented with “Samba da Lua,” a lively vehicle for the clarinet. Jacob’s maxixe “Biruta” is one of his less-recorded tunes and, at least Stateside, lesser known (David Grisman’s Mandolin Master of Brazil compilation lists “Biruta” but provides “Gostosinho” instead). The title, whose literal translation is ‘windsock,’ is a jargon for ‘deranged,’ and the tune does it justice, looping around delightfuly.

In contrast, “De Coração a Coração,” by the same composer, is a stately and heart-tugging valsa. Mike Marshall, who recorded it with Kaila Flexer on Brazil Duets, does the honors here in a masterly way.

It’s hard to believe that Hamilton de Holanda was 24 or younger when he composed “Aquarela na Quixaba”—so intricate and polished does it sound. Falso Baiano gives it a big gafieira sound, with extra percussion from Jorge Alabê. The track that follows—the previously mentioned oldest tune on this disc, “Alzira” by Bonfiglio de Oliveira—receives a similar treatment. This rarely recorded tune (Mauricio Carrilho resurrected it in the Choro Carioca box set) is a particularly happy addition to a gringo album.

The tune that gave the album its title comes from Hermeto Pascoal’s “Viajando pelo Brasil” (see the Bruxo, cigarette in mouth, with his group, including Jovino Santos Neto, giving it a long jazz spin). Falso Baiano’s 6-minute version actually sounds more Brazilian than Hermeto’s. It receives the imprimatur of Jovino, who plays accordion on this spirited track.

“Conversa de Baiana” is one of Dilermando Reis’ most popular choros. Falso Baiano performs it in a fittingly leisurely fashion, following immediately after with another Bahian-themed tune, “Canto de Ossanha,” which Spiro signs off with bird calls. The disc closes on Waldir Azevedo’s “Arrasta-Pé,” a rousing nordestino dance that brings Jovino back on accordion.

Viajando: Choro e Jazz is an auspicious debut release for Grupo Falso Baiano. There’s no better way to sum up the ensemble’s accomplishment than to quote Paulo Sérgio Santos:

These Americans navigate through various Brazilian idioms [...] and at times let their own roots emerge in their interpretations—a process that contributes naturally to the enrichment of each genre. I like the result very much, because it isn’t radically tethered to tradition. In addition to virtuosity and expressiveness, daring is another key ingredient in this mixture of the Brazilian people’s art and culture, itself the product of multiple external influences.

Listen to tracks from the album.

Grupo Falso Baiano: Viajando: Choro e Jazz
(Massaroca Records MR CD 20081; 2008) 56 min.

01. De Bem com a Vida (Luciana Rabello)
02. Carioquinha (Waldir Azevedo)
03. Beliscando (Paulinho da Viola)
04. Irmãos Super Mario (Koji Kondo)
05. Samba da Lua (Paulo Sérgio Santos)
06. Biruta (Jacob Pick Bittencourt)
07. De Coração a Coração (Jacob Pick Bittencourt)
08. Aquarela na Quixaba (Hamilton de Holanda)
09. Alzira (Bonfiglio de Oliveira)
10. Viajando pelo Brasil (Hermeto Pascoal)
11. Conversa de Baiana (Dilermando Reis)
12. Canto de Ossanha (Baden Powell)
13. Arrasta-Pé (Waldir Azevedo)

Musicians
Zack Pitt-Smith: reeds
Brian Moran: 7-string guitar
Jesse Appelman: bandolim
Ami Molinelli: percussion

Guest musicians: Jovino Santos Neto (accordion, melodica), Mike Marshall (mandolin) Eva Scow (mandolin), Jorge Alabê (percussion), Michael Spiro (congas, percussion, birdcalls), Brian Rice (tamborim)

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2008-09-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Swinging both ways

Simply Kenia roams in two rich musical fields.

Kenia, Cesar Camargo Mariano & Romero Lubambo in the studio

The Brazilian singer Kenia Ashby has a caressing voice and an engaging ability to swing two ways, combining jazz chops with samba savvy to produce a cool-warm sound all her own. A U.S. resident since 1980, Kenia offers an unusual mix of MPB and MPA (to borrow a coin from south of the border) in her latest CD, Simply Kenia.

Released on Kenia’s own label, the album was arranged by the venerable Cesar Camargo Mariano, who also plays keyboards. Other top-tier musicians participating in this project include the ubiquitous guitarist Romero Lubambo, drummer Teo Lima, and percussionist Armando Marçal.

The wide-ranging repertoire extends from a choro by Pixinguinha to a country ballad by Willie Nelson, passing through sambas by composers young and old, MPB rendered into English, and a handful of American songs. Cesar Camargo Mariano’s peppy arrangements help unify this pot-pourri, marked by its avoidance of the obvious.

The young singer-songwriter Jair de Oliveira (son of Jair Rodrigues) contributes two tunes. “Par, Impar,” which Pedro Mariano recorded with his father as a soulful ballad, is rendered here as a samba. “Catupiry,” introduced by Lisa Ono in 1989 (Teo Lima drummed on that one, too), is given a bouncy treatment that accords well with the harried protagonist’s longing for a week’s vacation.

Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” a Patsy Cline hit in 1961, is relieved here of its country accent and gains sophistication as a late-night lounge song. (There are also two bonus tracks in which the song receives Portuguese and Spanish versions.) “Anjo da Velha Guarda” salutes all traditional sambistas. One can’t help but think of the recently departed Dorival Caymmi when listening to Aldir Blanc’s lyrics:

O terno branco parece prata
E a fita em meu peito diz que eu sou
Daqueles que vão pra Maracangalha
Rever Anália
Eu vou
No vento que leva o chapéu de palha
Também sou de fibra e pau-brasil
O samba é tudo que eu sei
E Momo é o único rei que amei
Sou a sétima corda e passo devagarinho
Com Rodouro no coração
Meu nome em letras de ouro
É parte do tesouro de qualquer agremiação
De cuíca eu manjo
Também vou de banjo
Fiz das avenidas meu salão...
Fidalguia esbanjo
E danço com meu anjo
Eu sou da velha guarda, meu irmão!

Djavan’s jazzy “Avião” (from the 1989 album Oceano) is a song perfectly suited to Kenia’s style and vocal abilities. She chose to sing it in Lorraine Feather’s English lyrics, and the result is more successful than most Portuguese-to-English transplants. “Your Face,” a pop bossa nova apparently born with insipid English lyrics, is the blandest selection on this otherwise mature album. Far more interesting is Jair de Oliveira’s “Olha Aí,” with its acerbic tone and use of alliterative street language (faço bico, bato pé e abro um berreiro).

Pixinguinha’s choro “Lamentos,” recorded by the master in 1941 and, separately, by Canhoto and Jacob do Bandolim in the early 1950s, later received lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, who recorded it as “Lamento” in 1966. I’m not convinced that either Cesar’s piano embellishments or Kenia’s vocalizing give this tune its due, but being hampered as they are by Vinicius’ trite verse (will I be struck dead for maligning the deity?), perhaps no more can be expected.

Luckily, the samba that follows, Gonzaguinha’s “Deixa Dilson, Vamos Nelson” is a sheer delight. The spoken interventions are provided by percussionist Jorjão da Silva, who injects the proper streetwise flavor. Another sambista, the late Portela composer Alvaiade, would be rolling in his grave if he knew that one of his best-known creations, “O Que Vier Eu Traço,” is here attributed to the singer Blecaute (Black-Out). Misattribution aside, Kenia delivers this tongue-twisting samba with aplomb.

For a change of pace, there’s the lovely ballad “Angel Eyes,” followed by one of the glories of MPB—the samba “Nação,” immortalized by Clara Nunes. (Here, too, Aldir Blanc invokes Dorival Caymmi.)

The album concludes with the contemplative “Open Invitation,” authored by two members of New York Voices.

The CD insert is minimal. No lyrics are provided (a serious omission), and the treatment of author credits is sloppy, with several typographic and factual errors. The singer’s website would be the obvious place to remedy such omissions. Strangely, no one has thought of including lyrics or even a track list and composers’ credits there.

Listen to audio samples.

Simply Kenia
(Mooka Records MOO 1020; 2008) 60 min.

01. Par, Impar (Cesar Camargo Mariano/Jair de Oliveira)
02. Catupiry (Angela Suarez/Roger Belbenoit/arr. Gilson Peranzzetta)
03. Crazy (Willie Nelson)
04. Anjo da Velha Guarda (Moacyr Luz/Aldir Blanc)
05. Being Cool [Avião] (Djavan/English vers.: Lorraine Feather)
06. Your Face (Cesar Camargo Mariano/Luisa Camargo Mariano)
07. Olha Aí (Jair de Oliveira)
08. Lamentos (Pixinguinha/Vinicius de Moraes)
09. Deixa Dilson, Vamos Nelson (Luiz Gonzaga, Jr.)
10. O Que Vier Eu Traço (Alvaiade/Zé Maria)
11. Angel Eyes (Matt Dennis/Earl Brent)
12. Nação (João Bosco/Aldir Blanc/Paulo Emílio)
13. Open Invitation (Darmon Meader/Lauren Kinhan)
Bonus tracks
14. Louca (Willie Nelson/Portuguese vers.: Kenia)
15. Loca (Willie Nelson/Spanish vers.: Roberto Livi)

Musicians
Kenia Ashby: vocals
Cesar Camargo Mariano: piano, keyboards, electronic percussion
Romero Lubambo: guitars, cavaquinho
Teo Lima: drums
Leo Traversa: bass
Armando Marçal, Lucas Ashby, Jorjao da Silva, Jay Ashby: percussion

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2008-09-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Airheads

Thank heaven for illiterates who don’t know what they have.

Once in a great while, when I can find a free minute from multiple work projects, I get a kick out of visiting my Web hosting control panel to check on the latest visitors to my flagship website, Musica Brasiliensis.

My reason for dropping in is grounded primarily in morbid curiosity to know who’s trying to steal my bandwidth by hotlinking to images and audio files published on my domain. I say “trying to steal” rather than “stealing,” because my site is hotlink-protected. This protection enabled me to guffaw rather than gnash my teeth just now, when I came upon this bandwidth thief.

He (I’m sure it’s he and not she) is a vinyl collector and subscriber to the Waxidermy Message Board. He goes by the handle cracker (finger listener), and two days ago, he posted the following message:

found this at a garage sale:

i came across a crazy blog article about it. this looks like your typical budget LP, but the article makes it seem like it’s the rarest record on the planet. presumably they are historians and not record collectors, i can’t imagine the Samba collecting world being shattered at the discovery of a 50s budget LP in 2003.

http://daniellathompson.com/Texts/Ary_Barroso/Fantasia_Carioca.htm

Within a mere 19 minutes, another seasoned expert, this one going by the handle humano (SHUGA RARE), chimed in with these pearls of wisdom:

The Barroso story authors apparently have a limited understanding of liscensing and what ‘album’ really meant in the 50s. Unless those tracks were unissued or were particularly difficult to find on 78 (not often as repackages are almost always of name artists even if the genre was somewhat niche) it is not going to be especially desirable. Audio Fidelity tends to sound like crap anyway they should have stuck to train sounds.

There are always exceptions though like the Rose Murphy 10“” on Royale which has her backed by the Selah Jubilee Quartet (pre-Larks). The tracks were almost ten years old at the time of issue.

Not that either of these sages bothered to read the article (which would have given them all the facts) or to note that it’s part of a large website about a major composer (which would have told them even more). It’s so much more fun to shoot off your mouth than to learn something new.

Brazilian music lovers on the lookout for rarities need fear no competition from this bunch.

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2008-08-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Dorival Caymmi (1914–2008)

Late last night I returned from vacation to learn that Dorival Caymmi, the last living giant of Brazilian song’s Golden Age, passed away on Saturday, 16 August 2008.

Only last month, Eddy Pay and I recorded the first part of a two-hour program dedicated to Caymmi. This first hour aired on 1 August and focused on the composer’s sambas.

The second part, to be recorded next month, will cover Caymmi’s maritime and love songs. We’ll try to create a suitable tribute.

While I’m too taken aback to write an appreciation of Caymmi on such short notice, a far more eloquent one has already been supplied by Caetano Veloso in his blog, Obra em Progresso.

Caetano calls it Bahia, as is only fitting. Among his observations:

It’s impossible to find a more perfect tourism jingle than “Você já foi à Bahia?.”

Caymmi is the only one I know who was at the same time a Gershwin and a Bing Crosby (or an Al Jolson), a prefiguration of the author-singers of the 1960s and later: Gilberto Gil, Bob Dylan, João Bosco… There’s the case of the bluesmen, like Robert Johnson, or of the French troubadours, like George Brassens. But without entering into the artistic quality intrinsic to any of them, Caymmi was something they weren’t: an author like Cole Porter or Ary Barroso, overarching, many-hued. And he was what neither Barroso nor Porter could be: the best interpreter of his own songs, above all when alone with his guitar.

Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose Minister of Culture was once intimately connected to Caymmi’s daughter Nana, released this statement:

Dorival Caymmi is one of the founders of música popular brasileira, patriarch of a lineage of telented musicians. His maritime songs and his sambas-canção are a patrimony of the national culture. He was a brilliant and innovative composer, musician, and singer.

His music is a complete translation of Bahia. [...] His body of work will always remain alive in the Brazilian memory, illuminating all of us with the grace and joy of his songs.

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2008-08-10T12:39:00.001-07:00

Chico Pinheiro & group at the de Young Museum

Friday, 15 August 2008, 6:30–8:30 pm at Wilsey Court

Guitarist and composer Chico Pinheiro, here for the California Brazil Camp in Cazadero, will appear with his quintet at the de Young Museum’s Hot Brazilian Nights series.

The performance will take place at the Wilsey Court on Friday, 15 August 2008, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

Appearing with Chico are vocalist Luciana Alves, former lead singer of Eduardo Gudin & Notícias dum Brasil; drummer Edu Ribeiro; keyboardist Marcos Silva; and bassist Scott Thompson.

Admission is free. Not to be missed.

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2008-07-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

“Only a lady who still sings” sings no more

Zezé Gonzaga died at age 81.

Zezé Gonzaga

Zezé Gonzaga was a national treasure, but one that most living Brazilians rarely, if ever, heard.

Born Maria José Gonzaga on 3 September 1926 in Manhuassu, Minas Gerais, the singer died on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, 24 July 2008. Her funeral service was conducted yesterday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro’s City Hall, prior to burial at São João Batista cemetery.

She was born to a musical family. Her mother was a flutist and her father a luthier (he made a bandolim for Luperce Miranda). As a child, Zezé studied classical singing. She made her stage debut at the age of 12, singing the waltz “Neusa.”

In 1942, the teenager distinguished herself on Ary Barroso’s radio talent program, receiving the highest mark possible from the fussy composer for her interpretation of “Sempre no Meu Coração.”

Zezé moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1945, after winning first place in the talent program Pescando Estrelas (Fishing for Stars) on Rádio Clube do Brasil, the prize being a three-year contract with the station. When that contract expired, she signed a far more lucrative one with Rádio Nacional of Rio—the foremost and most powerful station in Brazil. While singing on radio, she was also a member of various vocal groups such as the Três Marias, As Moreninhas, Cantores do Céu, and Vocalistas Modernos.

In 1949, Zezé recorded her first two 78-rpm discs on the Star label. Moving on to Sinter, she recorded 20 sides between 1951 and 1954. Then she switched to Columbia, recording 26 sides in two years. Although she didn’t have the liberty to choose her material, the Columbia years yielded some fine recordings, including “Linda Flor [Ai Ioiô]”, (Henrique Vogeler/Luiz Peixoto), “Saia do Caminho” (Custódio Mesquita/Evaldo Rui), and “Óculos Escuros” (Valzinho/Orestes Barbosa).

Also at Columbia, Zezé recorded her acclaimed debut album, Zezé Gonzaga (1956), followed the next year with her second LP, Vivo a Cantar. This prompted Sinter to release in 1958 the LP Música e Romance na Voz Sentimental de Zezé Gonzaga, comprising 8 reissue tracks (see the singer’s discography). Still at Columbia, Zezé recorded in 1959 two Jobim/de Moraes tunes: “A Felicidade” and “Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar.”

In 1961, Zezé began recording 78s for Continental, and three years later her album Nossa Namorada Musical was released by this label. Her next LP, Canção do Amor Distante, made for Philips’ Fontana label, languished on the shelf for two years before finally being released in 1967. By then, the artist had had enough. No longer under contract to a radio station, and reduced to recording jingles in the mid-’60s she decided to retire, opening a kindergarten in Curitiba.

It was Hermínio Bello de Carvalho who pulled her out of retirement in the late 1970s to record Valzinho—Um Doce Veneno (MIS/Copacabana, 1979), a tribute to the overlooked composer Valzinho (Norival Carlos Teixeira, 1914–1980). Zezé was a natural choice for this album. Not only was she an impeccable singer, but she had already recorded Valzinho’s “Óculos Escuros” in the 1950s. The composer put in an appearance in the final track of the LP, in which Zezé was accompanied by none other than Radamés Gnattali and his quintet.

Thus began Zezé Gonzaga’s second career.

Younger listeners will have heard her gently mournful voice accompanied by guitarist Mauricio Carrilho in “Solidão” on Lumiar’s Songbook Antonio Carlos Jobim Vol. 5 and in “Valsinha” on Songbook Chico Buarque Vol. 3.

Some MPB fans may have picked up Great Voices From Brazil (ANS Records 12220-2), a Stateside reissue of As Eternas Cantoras do Rádio, in which Zezé teams up with several other veteran divas. In 1999 she released the duo CD Clássicas (another Hermínio production) with Jane Duboc. Three years later, Zezé and the eternal Hermínio regaled us with Sou Apenas uma Senhora que Ainda Canta (Biscoito Fino). This was her first solo CD. The singer was 76 at the time. And the music was sublime.

Hermínio and Biscoito Fino planned a new CD for Zezé’s 80th birthday, but the singer was now too frail to record a full album. The disc released last year, Entre Cordas, consists of material recorded in live shows between 1983 and 2002, augmented with two new tracks and two vignettes recorded in 2007.

Even in those final recordings, made at the ripe age of 80, Zezé Gonzaga was a singer’s singer, capable of quietly breaking your heart.

A great artist has passed on. Her music will live on.

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2008-07-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

It’s oh so sweet to be able to say “I told you so.”

A Modernidade da Tradição is released for the third time,
and now they’re finally listening.

On 9 November 1997, I had a life-changing experience at Rasputin Music in Berkeley. It was there that a CD by an unknown singer called Marcos Sacramento caught my eye. What piqued my interest was the title: A Modernidade da Tradição. Flipping to the back cover, I was equally intrigued by the song selection, which offered unusual pairings of classic sambas with contemporary MPB. And although I had never heard of the vocalist, the musicians involved—Mauricio Carrilho on musical direction, arrangements & guitar and Marcos Suzano on percussion—put a stamp of quality on the enterprise.

I bought the CD along with four others. It wasn’t the first one I listened to that day, but it’s certainly the one that I played most often in the days, months, and years to come. Even before listening to the music, I reported to my favorite listserv at the time, Saudades do Brasil: “As yet unheard. The title was irresistible to me. Contains songs by Noel Rosa, Assis Valente, Nelson Cavaquinho, Ataulfo Alves, Paulinho, Chico, Caetano, and other immortals. Arranged by Mauricio Carrilho (Buda Musique).”

When I finally put the disc in the CD player, the promise of the cover was not only fulfilled. It was transformative. No singer since João Gilberto had affected me as much as this obscure Sacramento. I fired off another e-mail to Saudades do Brasil, touting a great discovery and recommending immediate purchase. Bostonian musician David Rumpler, an experienced Brazil hand, responded positively. He mentioned his attempts to track Sacramento down in Rio, and told me about the original edition of A Modernidade da Tradição, released by the defunct Saci in 1994, and about Sacramento’s participation in the album Estácio e Flamengo. (See the Marcos Sacramento Discography.)

Shortly after this auspicious beginning, I departed on a long winter trip spanning several continents and culminating with several weeks in Brazil. Before leaving home, I had been able to secure another copy of the Buda release and proudly presented it to my Brazilian host. In fact, as soon as I set foot in the host’s apartment, I insisted on playing the CD. Little was I prepared for what was to come. The host pronounced dismissively that Sacramento “sings like Chico Buarque.” Why? Because the first track includes Chico’s “A Volta do Malandro” in a medley with the classic samba “Largo da Lapa” (Wilson Batista/Marino Pinto).

That was the beginning of the end for that friendship. A few years later, when I offered to buy that rare copy back from my host, he refused. I’ll always suspect that the refusal emerged out of sheer meanness.

The year 1998 was devoted to scouring the earth for every scrap of music ever recorded by Marcos Sacramento. When Rodney Mello, editor of Brazzil, invited me to write for the magazine, I tracked down Sacramento through mutual connections. The result was the article “Magic Marcos”. Later came a website, more articles, disc reviews, and radio programs.

Years passed, A Modernidade da Tradição kept its permanent place on my desert-island list, but few others knew about it or about its singer.

Eventually, Sacramento started releasing discs on Biscoito Fino, and the Brazilian press finally discovered him in 2004. Four years later, his reputation secured by Memorável Samba and Sacramentos, the time was finally right to reissue his earlier pearl, which had long ago gone out of print both in Brazil and in Europe.

This time around, there’s far more splash. Take as an example Julio Daio Borges’ review in Digestivo Cultural published two days ago:

What can you say about the best other than that it is simply “the best”? Perhaps, to vary it, we can say that Marcos Sacramento was already “perfect” when he started, in 1994, with A Modernidade da Tradição, reissued now by Biscoito Fino. In the wave of Chico Buarque covers (even the composer can’t stand it anymore), Sacramento unseats all others with probably the definitive interpretation of “A Volta do Malandro,” which he aptly attaches to “Largo da Lapa” by Wilson Batista. [...] A Modernidade da Tradição lends itself to repeated (and varied) listening sessions, at a time when hardly any release can stand up to a few turns on the Victrola.

In comments under the review, two Johnny-come-latelys vie for the honor of being called Sacramento’s No. 1 fan.

And so it goes.

Here’s a review written by Aquiles Rique Reis, of the famed vocal group MPB4. It will appear in various Brazilian newspapers this weekend:

A voice, a guitar, and a thousand percussions

A Modernidade da Tradição, a CD of Marcos Sacramento made in partnership with the guitar of Mauricio Carrilho and the percussion of Marcos Suzano, is in reality the reissue of the work recorded by the trio in September 1994, musically produced by Carrilho and Maurício Tapajós less than a year before the latter’s death.

For Tapajós I open a parenthesis: in the middle of his indefatigable battle for music and musicians, Maurício died—great composer (“Mudando de Conversa” with Hermínio Bello de Carvalho; “Tô Voltando” and “Pesadelo” with Paulo Cesar Pinheiro); director of shows (Elis Regina’s Transversal do Tempo); militant and leader distinguished in the struggles for the rights of authors and workers (director of the Sindicato dos Músicos do Rio de Janeiro and president of AMAR—Associação de Músicos, Arranjadores e Regentes), and producer of talents that the industry was not hearing. Full of saudade, I close the parenthesis.

Reissued by Biscoito Fino, A Modernidade da Tradição is a singer, a guitarist, a percussionist and their sonorities.

Marcos Sacramento is an interpreter apart. His fine tuning has swing; his breathing is one with the rhythmic divisions, always of very good taste; his vibrato, used with parsimony and knowhow, accentuates the emotion that is always present in every phrase he sings. A Singer!

Marcos Suzano is the most perfect translation of the modern instrumentalist. He relies on traditional percussions to create instigating modernities and intense batuques. His pandeiro is transformed into a bateria. In his hands, the moringa echoes like a drum. From his snare drum comes a loud call that gathers everyone. The triangle transforms into a thousand sounds geometrically opposed to all that is square. From the berimbau comes the toque that, along with the tantã, gives a Brazilian flavor to the black soul of the rhythm.

Mauricio Carrilho continues as the album’s musical director and the arranger whose harmonies possess what the CD carries in its title, tradition and modernity, and who makes use of his vast guitar to enrich what Sacramento sings. Each of his six strings unites under the support of the instrumentalist’s fingers to create chords that could have been originally created by the composers as they can have been inverted and remade by him to the flavor of his creativity.

The repertoire is the CD’s forte. It has the mark of someone who knows Brazilian music and is intimate with it. The choice of little-known sambas by Noel Rosa (“Pela Décima Vez”), Paulinho da Viola & Sergio Natureza (“Vela no Breu”), Wilson Batista & Marino Pinto (“Largo da Lapa”), and Nelson Cavaquinho & Guilherme Brito (“Mulher Sem Alma”); of songs that still haven’t received the attention they merit, “A Volta do Malandro” (Chico Buarque) and “Genipapo Absoluto” (Caetano Veloso); or of the classics “Meu Moreno Fez Bobagem” (Assis Valente), “Canto das Três Raças” (Mauro Duarte & Paulo Cesar Pinheiro), and “Lábios Que Beijei” (J. Cascata & Leonel Azevedo) confirms it.

Impressive how Sacramento sings “Canto das Três Raças,” immortalized by Clara Nunes. Carrilho’s arrangement is simple and brilliant. Suzano’s percussion enters, with only pandeiro and moringa. The guitar intones the song created by Paulo Pinheiro. Sacramento approaches this first song. The guitar vibrates as if it were praying for exaltation. The snare drum calls out the thousand hands of Suzano beating delicately and emotionally on everything that makes sound and that is within his reach. The voice doubled in the low register carries the song to the end. Emotion!

Another thing: the voice and guitar alone are more than sufficient to pull forth some silly tears from anyone who hears Sacramento sing the dolorous verses that Guilherme Brito created for the sad melody of Nelson Cavaquinho. And yet another: the guitar marks. The pandeiro beats. The voice intones the brilliance of “Vela no Breu.”

A singer whose personality demonstrates that everything he sings comes to light with meaning and soul, Marcos Sacramento is what Caetano says when concluding “Genipapo Absoluto”:

Pois minha mãe é minha voz
Como será que isso era
Este som/ Que hoje sim
Gera sóis dói em dós.

Aquiles Rique Reis, musician and vocalist of MPB4

A Modernidade da Tradição
(Biscoito Fino BF 841; reissue of the 1994 CD) 2008

Listen to this album on radio

01. A Volta do Malandro (Chico Buarque)
      Largo da Lapa (Wilson Batista/Marino Pinto)
02. Pela Décima Vez (Noel Rosa)
      Fez Bobagem (Assis Valente)
03. Mulher Sem Alma (Nelson Cavaquinho/Guilherme de Brito)
04. Morena (Mauricio Carrilho/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
05. Olhar Brasileiro (Eduardo Dusek/Luís Carlos Góes)
06. Canto das Três Raças (Mauro Duarte/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
07. Lábios que Beijei (J. Cascata/Leonel Azevedo)
08. Vela no Breu (Paulinho da Viola/Sergio Natureza)
09. Dos Prazeres das Canções (Pericles Cavalcanti)
      Genipapo Absoluto (Caetano Veloso)
10. Infidelidade (Ataulfo Alves)
11. Apoteose do Samba (Mano Décio da Viola/Silas de Oliveira)

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2008-06-23T13:07:00.001-07:00

Caymmi archive to be made available online

Caymmi and Nipper

Today’s Estado de S. Paulo announces that Paulo Jobim is organizing Dorival Caymmi’s private archive, which contains 10,000 documents, including photos, handwritten music scores, the composer’s diaries from 1965 to 1997, newspaper clippings, and home videos.

The project is being underwritten by Natura Musical and is destined to be offered online free of charge. Work is progressing slowly (so far only 2,000 documents have been catalogued and 500 scanned), but the goal is to have everything ready by August 2009.

Nine people are directly involved in the project, including Caymmi’s grandchildren Gabriel and Juliana, whose father, Danilo Caymmi, came up with the idea for organizing the archive.

The team is still looking for all the pictures Caymmi painted throughout his life.

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2008-06-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

bossa-filmes

Thiago Mello, who edits the classy (if infrequently published) Bossa Brasileira blog, has branched out into video. His latest venture is bossa-filmes, where he posts vintage music films, saving you the trouble of searching for them on YouTube.

In the video above, a Snader Telescriptions production, Bando da Lua (known in the U.S. as Bando da Lua Boys), performs Ary Barroso’s “Aquarela do Brasil” in Portuguese, assisted by an unidentified American vocalist who sings S.K. Russell’s English lyrics. The recording was made in the early 1950s.

Bando da Lua also recorded “Na Baixa do Sapateiro” as “Baía” for Snader.

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2008-06-18T14:24:00.001-07:00

The Fettig factor

Mary Fettig releases Brazilian Footprints with a concert at Yoshi’s Oakland.

Mary Fettig and her band (photo: Wayne Fettig)

A Bay Area jazz stalwart, flutist-saxophonist Mary Fettig is a veteran whose résumé is studded with names such as Stan Kenton, Marian McPartland, Tito Puente, Flora Purim and Airto, Toninho Horta, and Joe Henderson. In addition to touring and recording, Fettig teaches jazz history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Habitués of the Berkeley Jazzschool already know that Fettig is deeply immersed in the Brazilian music scene. In July 2007, she was seen onstage at the school in a concert that featured the young paulista guitarist-songwriter Chico Pinheiro and pianist-composer Marcos Silva (who teaches at the Jazzschool).

Fettig’s new CD, Brazilian Footprints, was recorded with Pinheiro and Silva utilizing four ccompositions by the latter and one by the former.

The opening tune, “Take the RR Train,” is a fast-rolling showcase for flute and piano, followed by “Nova,” which Chico Pinheiro recorded last year with Anthony Wilson. A yearning—at times soaring—ballad, it is aptly arranged here for Fettig’s alto sax.

The Jequibau is a 5/4 samba rhythm introduced in 1965 by the pianist Mário Albanese and his partner, the conductor Ciro Pereira. “No Balanço do Jequibáu” is one of their better-known tunes, and it receives here a welcome dose of jazz, complete with an elaborate piano solo from Silva.

Silva composed “Baixixe,” a playful crossbreed of baião and maxixe that injects a rural flavor into the urban jazz idiom. Hard on its heels is the evocative “Jequié” by Moacir Santos, which is treated to a punctuated, yet lyrical, interpretation.

The flute returns in the now delicate, now lively “Neguinha,” composed by the paulista bassist-guitarist Arismar do Espírito Santo. It gives Fettig a grand opportunity to show off her chops. “Waterfalls,” another tunes that meanders between the driven and the lyrical, features vocalese by Claudia Villela and emphatic piano by Silva, who also composed.

Enéias Xavier, a young mineiro bassist, contributed “Inspiração na Esquina,” a perpetual-motion machine that tips the hat to Clube da Esquina. The tempo slows down appreciably for Silva’s “Gliders,” an achingly beautiful rumination for alto sax, before the closing tune kicks in with wild flights on soprano sax and keyboard.

Mary Fettig and her band will launch Brazilian Footprints on Tuesday, 1 July 2008, at 8:00 pm. The venue is Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, Oakland.

Mary Fettig: Brazilian Footprints
(F Major Records FM 5808; 2008) 52 min.

01. Take the RR Train (Marcos Silva)
02. Nova (Chico Pinheiro)
03. No Balanço do Jequibáu (Mário Albanese/Ciro Pereira)
04. Baixixe (Marcos Silva)
05. Jequié (Moacir Santos)
06. Neguinha (Arismar do Espírito Santo)
07. Waterfalls (Marcos Silva)
08. Inspiração na Esquina (Enéias Xavier)
09. Gliders (Marcos Silva)
10. O Monstro e a Flor (Ricardo Silveira/Cláudio Roditi)

Mary Fettig: alto & soprano saxophones, flute
Marcos Silva: acoustic & electric pianos, synthesizer, percussion
Chico Pinheiro: acoustic & electric guitars
Scott Thompson: 6-string electric bass
Celso Alberti: drums, percussion
Alex Calatayud: pandeiro
Michael Spiro: percussion
Claudia Villela: vocalese

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2008-06-09T15:05:00.001-07:00

Marcos Sacramento no Rival

Relançamento de A Modernidade da Tradição

01. Dia Santo Também (Paulo Padilha)
02. Rapa da Lapa (Paulo Baiano/Marcos Sacramento)
03. Caricas (Antonio Saraiva/Sergio Natureza)
04. Baía (Luiz Flavio Alcofra/Marcos Sacramento)
05. Vela no Breu (Paulinho da Viola/Sergio Natureza)
06. Acaso (Luiz Flavio Alcofra/Marcos Sacramento)
07. Um Samba (Carlos Fuchs/Marcos Sacramento)
08. A Rosa (Chico Buarque/Djavan)
09. Súplica (Otávio Gabus Mendes/J. Marcilio/Déo)
10. Pavio (Luiz Flavio Alcofra/Sergio Natureza)
11. Calúnia (Luiz Flavio Alcofra)
12. Triste Cuíca (Noel Rosa/Hervê Cordovil)
13. Disse-Me-Disse (Buci Moreira)
14. Morena (Mauricio Carrilho/Paulo Cesar Pinheiro)
15. Barulho (Luiz Flavio Alcofra/Marcos Sacramento)

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2008-05-24T17:00:00.001-07:00

What I want for my birthday

João Gilberto: Private Session at Chico Pereira’s House in 1958

Um Abraço no Bonfá (João Gilberto) – 2:40
Solo de violão (João Gilberto?) – 2:28
Chega de Saudade (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes) – 1:54
Bim Bom (João Gilberto) – 1:22
Ho-Ba-Lá-Lá (João Gilberto) – 2:14
É Luxo Só (Ary Barroso/Luiz Peixoto) – 1:46
Desafinado (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Newton Mendonça) – 1:45
Saudade Fez um Samba (Carlos Lyra/Ronaldo Bôscoli) – 1:48
Valsa com vocalise [Every Day] (João Donato) – 1:48
Este Seu Olhar (Antonio Carlos Jobim) – 2:06
A Felicidade (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes) – 1:59
Preconceito (Wilson Batista/Marino Pinto) – 2:30
Caminhos Cruzados (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Newton Mendonça) – 1:51
Mágoa (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Marino Pinto) – 1:43
Lobo Bobo (Carlos Lyra/Ronaldo Bôscoli) – 3:25
Brigas Nunca Mais (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes) – 1:45
O Bem do Amor (Carlos Lyra) – 2:45
Louco (Wilson Batista/Henrique de Almeida) – 2:16
Trevo de Quatro Folhas (Harry Woods/Mort Dixon/versão: Nilo Sérgio) – 0:54
O Pato (Jayme Silva/Neuza Teixeira) – 1:31
Aos Pés da Cruz (José Gonçalves/Marino Pinto) – 1:17
Rosa Morena (Dorival Caymmi) – 1:30
João Valentão (Dorival Caymmi) – 2:06
Chão de Estrelas (Sílvio Caldas/Orestes Barbosa) – 2:15
Bate-papo about “Chão de Estrelas” – 1:06
Nos Braços de Isabel (Sílvio Caldas/José Júdice); Liberta Meu Coração (Geraldo Pereira/José Batista) – 1:15
Bate-papo – 0:49
Lá Vem a Baiana (Dorival Caymmi) – 2:14
Bate-papo – 0:18
Lá Vem a Baiana (reprise with correct lyrics) – 1:39
Bate-papo – 0:33
Doralice (Dorival Caymmi/Antônio Almeida) – 1:49
Bate-papo – 0:21
Doralice (alternate version) – 0:50
Bate-papo about the best Brazilian guitar player – 1:40
Você Não Sabe Amar (Dorival Caymmi/Carlos Guinle/Hugo Lima) – 2:22
Beija-Me (Roberto Martins/Mário Rossi) – 2:35
Bate-papo – 3:25

Present at the session: João Gilberto, Astrud Weinert (later Gilberto), Chico Pereira, Laura Pereira & Toninho Botelho.

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2008-05-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

Heloísa Fernandes at Spoleto USA

Paulistana pianist and composer Heloísa Fernandes began studying the piano at age five and has three musical degrees: piano performance from the Conservatory of Music and Arts of São Paulo, conducting from the Tom Jobim University Music Center, and composition from the University of São Paulo.

In 2001, she was one of five finalists for the 4th Prêmio Visa, Edição Instrumental (the winner was a tough competitor—Yamandú Costa).

Heloísa’s repertoire focuses on jazz and instrumental interpretations of popular Brazilian music. Her first album, Fruto (Maritaca, 2005) includes her own compositions as well as her arrangements of works by Pixinguinha and Caetano Veloso. Her next recording is in production and features bassist Zeca Assumpção and the harmonica of Gianluca Littera from performances recorded live at Teatro Alfa in São Paulo.

In her latest project, Heloísa plans to resurrect and extend the musicological work of Mário de Andrade. She will compose and record new instrumental arrangements for folk melodies that the poet and musicologist collected while traveling through Brazil in the 1930s. The genres include candomblé, maracatú, cateretê, samba, and toada.

Heloísa Fernandes will be making her international debut at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC, on 26, 27, and 28 May 2008.

Listen to tracks from Fruto here.

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2008-04-29T15:38:00.001-07:00

A Good Neighbor visit that was good

Walt & El Grupo evokes the magic and strife of a lost era.

The Walt Disney team arrives in Rio de Janeiro. Frank Thomas is on the
extreme right. (courtesy of Theodore Thomas Productions)

In August 1941, Walt Disney embarked on a ten-week Good Neighbor visit to South America. The trip was financed by the U.S. State Department and came at a time when the Disney studios were mired in debt, their European markets decimated by World War II, and a crippling five-week strike having raised tensions and lowered morale at the company.

Walt took along a group of artists, animators, writers, and musicians to gather material for a possible series of 12 Latin-themed shorts that would be underwritten by the U.S. government. The ultimate products that emerged were the full-length Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944), plus the segment “Blame It on the Samba” in Melody Time.

A detailed account of this trip with its antecedents and aftermaths is the subject of an upcoming book by Disney historian J.B. Kaufman. Kaufman also appears as commentator in the new feature-length documentary Walt & El Grupo, which is receiving its world première at the San Francisco International Film Festival this week.

Both the book and the film are coming out under the auspices of the Walt Disney Family Foundation, whose museum in San Francisco’s Presidio is due to open next year.

Walt & El Grupo’s director, Ted Thomas, is the son of legendary Disney animator Frank Thomas (1912–2004). The idea for the film emerged after Ted and his producer wife, Kuniko Okubo, found a box of photographs that had belonged to his father, documenting the South American trip.

The photographs, some of which are artfully animated, form the basis of the documentary along with unreleased 16-mm footage that Walt and his group shot during the trip, original documents (including letters sent home), sketches made by the group’s artists of local figures and scenes, animated characters, and live interviews with spouses and descendants of the protagonists and people met in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. The filmmakers also found rare survivors who had taken part in those long-ago events, still so fresh in their minds.

Ronaldo do Bandolim and composer Jim Stemple
(courtesy of Theodore Thomas Productions)

The group’s first and longest stop was in Rio de Janeiro, and everyone interested in Disney or in Brazilian music already knows that this visit was responsible for the emergence of “Aquarela do Brasil” as a worldwide hit and for the development of the papagaio character known as Zé Carioca. Naturally, music plays an important part in Walt & El Grupo. We hear Carmen Miranda singing “Disseram Que Voltei Americanizada” (Vicente Paiva/Luiz Peixoto, 1940) while the Gringo group picnics in Paquetá and “Aquarela do Brasil,” sung by Aloysio de Oliveira, over the gorgeously animated sequence from Saludos Amigos.

Most of the score, however, is the creation of composer Jim Stemple, who demonstrates an uncanny ability to synthesize (without electronics, natch) authentic-sounding music, be it period Big Band, samba, tango, or Andean melodies. He composed a choro for one Rio sequence and a jazz samba for another—the former featuring Ronaldo do Bandolim and Rogério Souza, the latter a vocalese by Luciana Souza (listen to clips). The closing titles are set to an earthy rendition of “Aquarela” by Mart’nália.

Mart’nália recording “Aquarela do Brasil”
(courtesy of Theodore Thomas Productions)

Lovers of Rio antigo will be rewarded with shots of the Hotel Glória and the Cassino da Urca in their glory days. While the Glória is still operating, the casino is a ruin awaiting restoration. It is an apt metaphor for the film’s central theme, a gentle reflection pitting the transitory aspects of life against the more enduring ones. The conclusions are not as obvious as one might expect.

Musicians (Rio de Janeiro)
Luiz Flavio Alcofra, 6-string guitar
Rogério Souza, 7-string guitar
Jayme Vignoli, cavaquinho
Ronaldo do Bandolim, bandolim
Sérgio Brandão, electric bass
Scott Feiner, percussion
Pretinho, percussion

Vocalists
Luciana Souza, track 4: “Watercolors”
Mart’nália, track 21: “Aquarela do Brasil”

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2008-04-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

How I didn’t win a Brazilian Press Award

Still, being categorized as an institution is a reward in itself.

This is the time of year in when my attention is focused solely on architectural history. That means that Brazilian music gets short shrift until after the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Spring House Tour and Preservation Awards.

Speaking of awards, I was recently nominated for a 2008 Brazilian International Press Award. This was communicated to me in early January by the nominator, a Brazilian composer living in the U.S.

Checking the list of nominees, I found myself in exalted company, the only individual in the Institution category:

20 - Instituição que apóia a Cultura Brasileira nos EUA

Berklee School of Music
Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Broward County Library
Broward County School Board
Cambridge Health Alliance
Columbia University
Daniella Thompson – http://daniellathompson.com
Florida International University
Harvard Medical School
UCLA
Universidade do Texas – Centro de Estudos do Brasil

Thanking my nominator, I wrote: “I’d say the chances are nil, given that the competition includes the Berklee College of Music and the University of Texas. Still, it’s fun to be listed as the only individual in a slate of institutions.”

He replied: “unless ... there is a posting announcing the nomination in the blog, plus a little email campaign. I’m sure that everyone who knows your blog would vote immediately. Still maybe the chances of you doing it are even ... niller — yet I hope it happens, I’d send a mail to my personal list!”

I responded: “You’re absolutely right. The chances are not only niller but nillest. :-)”

His answer: “i knew it ... and am overnilled.”

And that’s how I didn’t win a Brazilian International Press Award in the Institution category. The prize for Outstanding Institution support for Brazilian Culture in the U.S. goes to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, which the award announcement lists as Berklee School of Music (NJ). Let’s hope the invitation finds its way to the correct address before the awards ceremony.

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2008-03-12T17:19:00.001-07:00

And now he sings.

Brazil’s most unclassifiable musician expands his horizons.

Writing about the music of Antonio Saraiva is not easy. This multi-instrumentalist (guitar, piano, saxophones and more), composer, and arranger defies classification. In creating his music, Saraiva dips into disparate and far-flung sources, from música nordestina to Indonesian gamelan, from rock to minimalism à la Steve Reich. What he creates from this mélange is something else altogther.

Antonio Saraiva is a thoroughly modern musician.

I first met Saraiva in 1999, after he had produced Marcos Sacramento’s most modern album, Caracane (read my interview with him in “Magic Marcos”). At the time, he was composing ballet music for the Paula Nestorov dance company of Rio de Janeiro. Some of this music has been released on the CDs Chegança (1998) and Orquestra (2000).

In 1999, Saraiva released a duo CD with Marcos Cunha that most popular-music aficionados would characterize as experimental. So now it comes as somewhat of a surprise to find Saraiva on a new solo disc full of real songs, which he sings.

Saraiva wouldn’t be true to himself if he abandoned modernity, but in the eponymous album Antonio Saraiva, the musician demonstrates that it’s possible to be modern, accessible, evocative, and even emotional all at once, not to mention tongue-in-cheek.

frio

noite na boca
teu céu

o frio de pé no chão
lembra a guerra
cais e amor

lampejo no olhar
e o luar sem sertão

He also shows how a single person can do it all. All the songs (music and lyrics) are his compositions. He arranged them all and plays piano, acoustic and electric guitars (including a 12-string guitar), saxophones, flute, and drums. And he sings.

On Saraiva’s beautifully designed website you can watch various videos and listen to his music. Perhaps you might even be able to classify it. If you do, drop me a line.

Antonio Saraiva
(Independent AS05; 2007) 36:36 min.

All compositions by Antonio Saraiva

01. Prólogo/Sem História
02. Quimera
03. Graça
04. Só
05. Sem História
04. Lua de Londres 1:03
05. Frio
06. A Saudade
07. Luminoso
08. O Segredo
09. Trilhos
10. Ir
11. Conto
12. Pé
13. Epílogo/O Elefante

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2008-03-04T19:50:00.001-08:00

Jovino Santos Neto & Harvey Wainapel Duo

Friday, 11 April 2008
7:30 pm–9:30 pm
Chimes Chapel
4499 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611

Two of the top Brazilian music instrumentalists on the West Coast or anywhere team up for a lecture and concert entitled Brazilian Music from Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Pianist, flutist, and Hermeto Pascoal sidekick Jovino Santos Neto will join saxophonist-clarinetist Harvey Wainapel to play choro, Hermeto Pascoal, Guinga, and some of their own compositions.

If you’re interested in the history and development of music in Brazil, you wouldn’t want to miss Jovino and Harvey’s pre-concert lecture.

Tickets: $15 general; $10 seniors & students. On sale at the door starting at 6:30 pm. Cash only. Doors open at 7 pm. Info: (510) 228-3218.

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2008-02-02T12:38:00.001-08:00

Nelson Tangerini has a grievance

Battles alone to rescue father’s reputation from oblivion.

Nestor Tangerini (courtesy of Nelson Tangerini)

For the past two days I’ve been bombarded with none fewer than 21 different e-mails sent by Nelson Tangerini, son of the Brazilian writer Nestor Tangerini (1895–1966).

Mr. Tangerini is battling the entire Brazilian establishment, which he claims has conspired to make the scripts of his father’s theatrical works disappear from the National Archive and the archive of the Brazilian Society of Theatrical Authors (SBAT).

His father, who died when Nelson was 9 years old, was for a time artistic director of the Companhia Teatral Jardel Jércolis, which in 1936 and ’37 mounted five musical revues authored by him: No Tabuleiro da Baiana, Estupenda!, Magnífica!, Na Dura!, and Gol!.

Mr. Tangerini believes that the scripts’ disappearance was a ruse through which the work of his father could be attributed to others, such as the producer Jardel Jércolis or the lyricist Luiz Iglésias, who coauthored a number of songs with Ary Barroso, notably “Boneca de Pixe,” a 1938 hit for Carmen Miranda with Almirante.

For a number of years now, Mr. Tangerini has been contacting various entities on behalf of his cause, and the results of his efforts may be seen in the increased Web presence of his father’s name. The respected Dicionário Cravo Albin da MPB devotes substantial space to the work of Nestor Tangerini.

But this is not enough for Nelson Tangerini. He writes:

At the moment, I’m preoccupied with two books that came out recently in Brazil:
1. Oscarito: O Riso e o Siso by Flávio Marinho
2. Grande Otelo: Uma Biografia by Sérgio Cabral

Flávio forgot to mention the revue Gol!; Sérgio says that this revue was written by Luiz Iglésias. They couldn’t have erred, since I gave them my book [Nestor Tangerini’s biography in a Word document] before they wrote their books. I’m trying to correct them through the press. Our press is not interested in correcting anything. Flávio and Sérgio are “sacred cows” and can’t be disputed.

Being thousands of miles away from the major research resources, I can offer no opinion whatever on this subject. Let those who know something voice their own.

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2008-01-28T18:51:00.001-08:00

A killer version of “Na Baixa do Sapateiro”

If you’re an interpreter, how do you deal with a warhorse without falling prey to the ordinary?

One solution is to take a very leisurely approach. This has worked extremely well for Tom Jobim when recording two lengthy versions of Ary Barroso’s “Aquarela do Brasil” in Stone Flower (1970). The same feat was accomplished 15 years later by João Gilberto at the Montreux Jazz Festival, where his version lasted almost nine minutes.

Nothing comparable was ever done with Ary’s other blockbuster, “Na Baixa do Sapateiro.” At least not until Susan Pereira and Sabor Brasil tackled it in their album Tudo Azul.

An American vocalist married to a Brazilian drummer, Susan Pereira transformed this 70-year old samba-jongo into a yearning, 12-minute tropical jazz rumination that takes its rightful place among the more memorable Barroso interpretations.

Pereira, who also arranged and plays percussion, is accompanied by Dario Eskenazi (piano), Hendrik Meurkens (harmonica), Romero Lubambo (violão), Kip Reed (bass), and Vanderlei Pereira (drums).

Listen to “Na Baixa do Sapateiro” and all the other tracks of Tudo Azul at CD Baby, where liner notes and digital purchase are also available. Read a review by Egídio Leitão.

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2008-01-19T16:14:00.001-08:00

Full moon

Lua Music’s fistful of delectable new releases.

Traditional syncopated samba, new samba, and a bit of Jobim attired in romantic arrangements are some of the treats dished out by Lua Music in late 2007. The DVD and pair of CDs reviewed here are the work of two septuagenarians and a fresh-faced thirty-year-old, demonstrating that good music still comes from all sources imaginable.

Germano Mathias’ Ginga no Asfalto DVD

Sporting his eternal porkpie hat, owl glasses, and tropical shirts, the paulistano sambista Germano Mathias, born in 1934, gives not a hint of his youthful good looks. But don’t let that fool you into thinking he’s past his prime. He may not be able to rise to the amazing dancing feats of his twenties, but he can still hoof it with the best of them. And when it comes to singing syncopated samba, playing mouth cuíca or trombone, and drumming on a metal can lid, Germano can’t be beat.

His new DVD, Ginga no Asfalto (not to be confused with his 1962 LP of the same title, reissued several years ago in the CD series Odeon 100 Anos), offers a good dose of all the above. Germano sings 16 of his best-known songs, talks about his life in music, revisits his childhood street, shows old photos, and gives us a glimpse of the astonishing dancing prowess of his youth in clips from two 1950s movies.

The musical numbers were shot on stage (without an audience), where Germano is accompanied by the likes of Guilherme Vergueiro (piano & musical direction), Raul de Souza (trombone), Osvaldinho da Cuíca and his conjunto, Luizinho 7 cordas, Bocato, Alex Buck, and Quinteto em Branco e Preto.

There are no substitles, but the music, dancing, and humor more than make up for their absence.

Germano Mathias: Ginga no Asfalto DVD
(Lua Music LUA 224) 2007; 54 min.

01. Ironia da Pastora (Jorge Costa)
02. A Ingratidão (Eron Viana/Germano Mathias/Roberto Valentin)
03. A Situação do Escurinho (Aldacir Louro/Paderinho da Mangueira)
04. Falso Rebolado (Venâncio/Jorge Costa)
05. Guarde a Sandalia Dela (Sereno/Germano Mathias)
06. A História de um Valente (Nelson Cavaquinho/José Ribeiro)
07. Apague a Tua Vela (Jorge Costa/Gastão Miranda)
08. Samba da Periferia (Elzo Augusto)
09. Nega Dina (Zé Ketti)
10. São Paulo Mãe Madrinha (Elzo Augusto)
11. Acordei de Madrugada (Geraldo Medeiros/Sereno/Antoninho Lopes)
12. Chegou o Carnaval (Antonio de Almeida)
13. Doutor no Samba (Paderinho da Mangueira)
14. Zé da Pinga (Paderinho da Mangueira)
15. Que Baixo..! (Caco Velho/Lupicínio Rodriques)
16. A Palhaçada (Habib/José Henrique/Heitor Carillo)

Claudette Soares’ Foi a Noite—Canções de Tom Jobim CD

Claudette Soares is not quite as old as Germano Mathias, but she comes close, having been born in 1937. Having begun to sing in public at the age of ten, her career was already in full swing when Tom Jobim came upon the scene.

She took part in one of the defining concerts of the nascent bossa nova wave—the famous A Noite do Sorriso, do Amor e da Flor at the University Rio de Janeiro’s architecture school on 20 May 1960.

In 1993, Claudette starred in the show Claudette Soares Interpreta Vinicius, and her output since 2000 has included a number of bossa nova albums and shows. A tribute to Jobim is therefore a natural extension of what the singer has been doing for a long time.

She first met Tom in the ’50s, at a time when he was playing piano in Zona Sul nightclubs. “The piano was always a fixture in my work,” says the vocalist, “and when I met Tom, I immediately identified with the way he played and with his compositions.” Two of her early recordings, released on 78-rpm discs, were Jobim songs: “Foi a Noite” (Repertório 9.074-A) and “Só Saudade” (Mocambo 15.424-A, recorded in 1962).

The two songs, both in the samba-canção genre, are reprised on the new CD, along with lesser-known Jobim tunes such as “Sucedeu Assim” (1957), “Cala, Meu Amor” (1958), “Samba Torto” (1960), and “Andam Dizendo” (1962).

Under Giba Estebez’s musical direction, the songs are delivered in nightclub style, with intimate arrangement for piano (Giba Estebez), saxophones and flute (Ubaldo Versolato), and cello (Regina Vasconcellos).

Claudette Soares: Foi a Noite—Canções de Tom Jobim
(Lua Music LUA 221) 2007; 36:20 min.

01. Foi a Noite (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Newton Mendonça)
02. Cala, Meu Amor (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes)
03. Derradeira Primavera (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes)
04. Inútil Paisagem (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira)
      Estrada do Sol (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Dolores Duran)
05. Sucedeu Assim (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Marino Pinto)
06. Andam Dizendo (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes)
07. Homenagem a Sylvia Telles:
      Discussão (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Newton Mendonça)
      Samba Torto (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira)
      Eu Preciso de Você (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira)
08. Sabiá (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Chico Buarqye) with Alaíde Costa
09. Esquecendo Você (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes)
10. Retrato em Branco e Preto (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Chico Buarqye)
11. Só Saudade (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Newton Mendonça)
12. Solidão (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Alcides Fernandes) with Dick Farney

Juliana Amaral’s Juliana Samba CD

It’s always a special pleasure to encounter a younger artist doing something fresh and interesting with samba. For her second CD, vocalist Juliana Amaral and her producer, the acclaimed composer/sambista Moacyr Luz, selected a little-visited repertoire, to which the singer’s clear and gentle voice lends a personal and lyrical dimension.

In contrast with the voice, the arrangements by Paulão Sete Cordas are pure roda de samba, with the cream of carioca samba instrumentalists lending a hand: Mauro Diniz (cavaquinho), Rui Alvim (clarinet), Marcílio Marques (bandolim), Marcus Esguleba and Trambique (percussion).

Juliana Amaral: Juliana Samba
(Lua Music LUA 117) 2007; 41:06 min.

01. Meu Amor Já Foi Embora (Cartola/José Gonçalves “Zé com Fome”)
02. Resistência (Zé Luiz do Império/Nei Lopes)
03. Nos Embalos da Vida (Martinho da Vila)
04. Amargura (Padeirinho/Quincas do Cavaco)
05. Canta (Wilson Baptista)
06. Visa (Paulinho da Viola/Elton Medeiros)
07. Da Vida Tudo Se Leva (Moacyr Luz/Hermínio Bello de Carvalho)
08. São Mateus (Marcos Paiva/Rodrigo Campos)
09. Tudo Acabado (Heitor dos Prazeres)
10. Então, Leva (Bira da Vila/Luiz Carlos da Vila)
11. Vestida de Azul (Wanderley Monteiro/Luiz Carlos Máximo)
12. Samba a Dois (Marcelo Camelo)

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2008-01-14T12:22:00.001-08:00

Caymmi refined

Mateus Sartori reveals the lyrical Dorival in Dois de Fevereiro.

Dorival Caymmi is one of the giants of Brazilian song, both as a songwriter and as a performer. At his prime, Caymmy’s rich baritone infused his music with masculine vigor. Yet the songs possess a gentle lyrical quality that reveals new shades of meaning through a tenor’s voice.

The singer Mateus Sartori of São Paulo is such a tenor. He possesses the refined perception and the vocal skills required to draw out the embedded lyrical content in Caymmi’s songs.

In producing Dois de Fevereiro, an album dedicated to the songs of Caymmi, Sartori had the best of help. The producer and co-musical director is Rodolfo Stroeter, best known as an ace bassist (he’s played with Joyce for many years) and the founder of the Pau Brasil record label (alas, no longer with us).

The two fashioned a voice-and-guitar album in which the accompanist changes with each song. And the seven guitarists are no slouches—one couldn’t ask for better: Paulo Bellinati (“Dora,” “Quem Vem pra Beira do Mar”); Guinga (“Só Louco”); Chico Saraiva (“Beijos pela Noite,” “A Jangada Voltou Só”); Webster Santos (“Acaçá,” “O Samba da Minha Terra” & “Você Já Foi à Bahia?”); Jardel Caetano (“Promessa de Pescador,” “Valerá a Pena”); Edmilson Capelupi (“Doralice”); Diego Figueiredo (“Rosa Morena,” “Dois de Fevereiro”); and Mário Gil (“Sargaço Mar”).

Webster Santos’ accompaniment in “O Samba da Minha Terra”— bouncy and full of notes—is followed by Guinga’s minimalist execution in “Só Louco.” But Santos, too, is capable of the lesser-said approach, as in the ruminative “Acaçá.” Diego Figueiredo’s guitar turns the normally rollicking “Dois de Fevereiro” into a gentle fantasia.

With such diversity in the accompaniment, the album gains fresh perspectives and variety of execution while maintaining unification of theme and sound by way of the material and Sartori’s beautifully expressive voice.

In Brazil, Dois de Fevereiro was released in a special CD+DVD edition. The version available in the U.S. appears to include only the CD.

Listen to Dois de Fevereiro on Mateus Sartori’s website.

Mateus Sartori at MySpace.

Digital purchase at Audio Lunchbox.

Mateus Sartori: Dois de Fevereiro
(Mateus Sartori MSCC 022) 2007; 45:42 min.

Songs by Dorival Caymmi
Produced by Rodolfo Stroeter
Mixed and mastered by Mario Gil

01. Acaçá
02. Rosa Morena
03. Promessa de Pescador
04. Dora
05. Beijos pela Noite (Dorival Caymmi/Jorge Amado/Carlos Lacerda)
06. Doralice
07. Quem Vem pra Beira do Mar
08. A Jangada Voltou Só
09. Sargaço Mar
10. O Samba da Minha Terra
11. Só Louco
12. Dois de Fevereiro
13. Valerá a Pena
14. Você Já Foi à Bahia?

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2008-01-01T12:07:00.001-08:00

O Pinhal

A poetic song from the 1920s finally makes a complete appearance.

Courtesy of Dr. Francisco J. Bueno de Aguiar

A few days ago I received an e-mail from Dr. Francisco J. Bueno de Aguiar of São Paulo. He had found a mention of the composer Armando Percival (1886–1969) in Musica Brasiliensis (see Pessoal da Velha Guarda, program no. 6) and wrote to tell me that Percival, whose real name was Virgílio de Oliveira Castilho, was a relative of his.

“He was a cousin of my grandfather,” wrote Dr. Aguiar, “and I met him once when I was about 8. He gave me a partition of ‘O Pinhal,’ which includes the lyrics of the song. By the way, the lyrics were written by his friend, the Portuguese poetess Maria da Cunha.”

A lawyer by profession, Armando Percival did not publish many songs. “O Pinhal” is the best known of them. It was “an indispensable song in the saraus of that time,” according to the Collector’s site.

“O Pinhal” was recorded twice in the 1920s: first, circa 1923, by Vicente Celestino, then in 1929 by Oscar Gonçalves. Both recordings may be heard in streaming format on the Instituto Moreira Salles website (just type the song title into the search field).

Two more recordings were made in the late 1940s on Almirante’s popular radio program, O Pessoal da Velha Guarda: Moraes Neto sang it in 1947, followed by Paulo Tapajós in 1948. Both recordings are available from Collector’s. The Tapajós recording is also available on the LP Os Ídolos do Rádio—Paulo Tapajós, released in 1989 by Collector’s.

The three-minute limits of 78-rpm discs precluded inclusion of the complete lyrics in the 1920s recordings. Celestino and Gonçalves recorded only the first two verses and refrains out of a total of five. On the radio, Moraes Neto sang parts 1, 2, and 5. I have never heard the Tapajós recording, but in a crowded radio program, it’s doubtful that he would have been able to sing all five parts. Consequently, the full beauty of the song remained shrouded for decades.

But no more. Dr. Aguiar was kind enough to send me a scan of the score, which yielded these lovely lyrics, describing a pine woods from dawn to midnight. Parts 3 and 4, depicting the pine woods at midday and at dusk, make here their first appearance outside a score.

O Pinhal
(Armando Percival/Maria da Cunha)

I

Recendendo aroma e graça,
A aurora, sorrindo, passa,
Vem do banho matinal;
E, compondo os véos doirados,
Torce os cabelos molhados,
Nas clareiras do pinhal.

Toucam-se os ramos
De oiro e rubis;
O pinhal canta,
Moço, feliz.

II

Manhã clara: sol no oriente;
O lenhador diligente
Ouve-se ao longe a cantar...
E os pinheiros mais antigos
Curvam-se para os amigos
Num dolente ramalhar.

O pinhal geme,
Geme de dôr,
Ante o machado
Do lenhador.

III

Meio-dia rutilante:
O sol é como um brilhante
Na fronte de um deus pagão;
Hora vermelha da sésta:
No ramalhar da floresta
Há murmúrios de oração.

Verdes agulhas
Postas em cruz
O pinhal reza
Preces de luz...

IV

Nasce uma estrela: trindades:
São teorias de saudades
Que o sino desprende no ar...
Velam sombras oportunas,
O pinhal, depois, as dunas
E, além das dunas, o mar...

O pinhal chora...
Silencio... paz...
A tarde é cinza
Que se desfaz.

V

Mas dizem que, à meia noite,
Range a mata sob o açoite
De fantástico tropel
Que os mêdos e almas penadas
Vagueiam sob as ramadas
No seu fadário cruel...

O pinhal sonha
No encantamento:
Restea de lua...
Sópros do vento...

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2007-12-26T17:07:00.001-08:00

Cláudio Camunguelo

An irrepressible sambista and chorão is gone.

On 20 June 2001, while visiting Rio de Janeiro, I went to the newly established (and short-lived) Clube do Choro with friends from the Agenda do Samba & Choro. The club was located in an old sobrado in Rua Frei Caneca, and the occasion was a tribute to the great trombonist Raul de Barros.

The musician lineup that night was impressive (Raul de Barros himself performed), but the man who caught my attention was someone I had never seen or heard before: the most perfect personification of a malandro I had ever encountered. He was playing the flute in a singularly captivating way, and I asked Paulo Eduardo Neves for his name. “Camunguelo,” Paulo answered.

As it turned out, Camunguelo (real name: Claudio Lopes dos Santos) was more than a flutist. He also sang, danced, and composed choros and sambas. Having been an inside secret for years, Camunguelo exploded upon the scene in his mid-fifties.

Now comes the news that Camunguelo died of diabetes complications on New Year’s Eve. He was 61 and had just recorded a CD of sambas and choros, financed by his long-time friend and co-author, Zeca Pagodinho.

See and hear more of Camunguelo in these videos.

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2007-11-15T17:13:00.001-08:00

An Ary Barroso celebration

Two radio programs on KPFA 94.1 FM.

Ary Barroso & Elizeth Cardoso

My friend Eddy Pay, who programs and presents Early Morning Music every Friday on KPFA 94.1 FM, invited me to create a program dedicated to Ary Barroso. It wasn’t an onerous task, given that Ary is my favorite Brazilian songwriter. The only problem was how to select a finite number of songs from such a vast and rich body of work while striking a balance between historic and contemporary recordings.

It soon became clear that one program would not suffice, so we recorded two. I hope you’ll enjoy listening to the programs as much as I enjoyed working on them.

If you aren’t an early riser or live far away from the San Francisco Bay Area, not to worry. The programs will be archived on the KPFA website.

Program 1, Friday, 16 November 2007

Aquarela do Brasil (1939) – João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil in Brasil (1981) 6:36
Aquarela do Brasil (1939) – Francisco Alves with Radamés Gnattali & his Orchestra (1939) 5:56
Maria (Ary Barroso/Luiz Peixoto, 1932) – Sílvio Caldas (1932) 3:39
Faceira (1931) – Zezinho e Os Copacabana in Um Coquetel, uma Dança (1957) 3:29
Morena Boca de Ouro (1941) – Sílvio Caldas with Ary Barroso on piano (1941) 3:12
Quando Eu Penso na Bahia (1937) – Carmen Miranda & Sílvio Caldas (1937) 2:46
Os Quindins de Iaiá (1940) – Ciro Monteiro (1940) 3:28
No Tabuleiro da Bahiana (1936) – João Bosco & Daniela Mercury in Songbook Ary Barroso, Vol. 1 (1995) 3:55
Na Baixa do Sapateiro (1938) – Baden Powell with Carlos Monteiro de Souza and his orchestra in Apresentando Baden Powell e Seu Violão (1959) 3:17
Camisa Amarela (1939) – Nara Leão in Nara (1967) 2:46
No Rancho Fundo (Ary Barroso/Lamartine Babo, 1931) – Ney Matogrosso & Raphael Rabello in À Flor da Pele (1990) 4:03
Foi Ela (1934) – Rosa Passos & Lula Galvão in Letra & Música—Ary Barroso (1997) 3:28
Inquietação/Faceira/Aquarela do Brasil – Dominguinhos in A Maravilhosa Música Brasileira (1982) 4:55

Program 2, Friday, 30 November 2007

Inquietação (1935) – Elizeth Cardoso in Ary Amoroso (1991) 2:09
Caco Velho (1934) – Paulinho da Viola in Songbook Ary Barroso, Vol. 1 (1995) 4:37
Na Batucada da Vida (Ary Barroso/Luiz Peixoto, 1934) – Elis Regina in Elis (1974) 3:22
Rio de Janeiro [Isto É o Meu Brasil] (1944) – João Bosco in Dá Licença Meu Senhor (1996) 2:55
Boneca de Pixe (Ary Barroso/Luiz Iglésias, 1938) – Carmen Miranda & Almirante with Simon Bountman & Orchestra Odeon (1938) 3:20
Bebeco e Doca (Ary Barroso/Luiz Peixoto, 1958) – Elizeth Cardoso in Outra Vez Elizeth (1982) 2:41
Folha Morta (1952) – Maria Bethânia in A Tua Presença (1971) 2:48
Na Baixa do Sapateiro (1938) – João Gilberto instrumental in João Gilberto (1973) 4:44
É Luxo Só (Ary Barroso/Luiz Peixoto, 1957) – João Gilberto in Chega de Saudade (1959) 1:58
Isto Aqui o Que É (1942) – João Gilberto in Live at Umbria Jazz (1996) 3:17
Tenho Saudade (1931) – Carmina Juarez in Tenho Saudade: Homenagem a Elisinha Coelho (1999) 2:21
Cançao da Felicidade (Ary Barroso/Oduvaldo Viana, 1934) – Carmina Juarez in Tenho Saudade: Homenagem a Elisinha Coelho (1999) 3:23
Faixa de Cetim (1942) – Caetano Veloso in Songbook Ary Barroso, Vol. 3 (1995) 2:27
Pra Machucar Meu Coração (1943) – Nana Caymmi in Resposta ao Tempo (1998) 3:44
Na Baixa do Sapateiro (1938) – Marco Pereira & Hamilton de Holanda in Luz das Cordas (1999) 6:35

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2007-11-14T22:22:00.000-08:00

Song of the South revisited

Seven years ago, when Brazzil still had a print edition (newsprint, black & white), I wrote a very long article for the magazine about the music scene of Curitiba, Paraná. Covering seven artists or groups of artists, the article appeared in the December 2000 issue under the title “Song of the South.”

Some years later, Brazzil reorganized its website, moving all the articles to new locations with new urls. Surprisingly, Google hasn’t cottoned on to the change. That, and the lack of images on the Brazzil website, induced me to publish several of my long Brazzil articles in Musica Brasiliensis.

I began with my favorite, Stalking Stokowski (February 2000), around which I ended up building a series of seven additional articles.

After creating the Marcos Sacramento and Guinga discographies, I transferred the articles I’d written about them for Brazzil—Magic Marcos (1999) and Guinga Rising (2001)—into their respective sites in Musica Brasiliensis.

Then came Plain João: The Man Who Invented Bossa Nova, which was my debut article for Brazzil, published in May 1998 on the occasion of João Gilberto’s “40 Years of Bossa Nova” concert in San Francisco.

Today, while looking up a Curitiba-related topic, I came across Song of the South and found it still interesting enough to add to the collection.

So might you.

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2007-11-09T12:41:00.001-08:00

Samba & Amore on KPFA FM

Eddy Pay plays the recently reviewed new CD Samba & Amore, in which Elis Prodon presents Brazilian songs of the 1960s and ’70s in Italian versions. These covers are paired with original Brazilian recordings of the same songs.

Listen here.

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2007-10-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

Pixinguinha in NY

Streamed on Jazz at Lincoln Center radio.

Pixinguinha by Elifas Andreato

Romero Lubambo (guitar), Mauro Senise (flute & soprano saxophone), Paula Robison (flute), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Sergio Brandão (cavaquinho), Nilson Matta (bass), and Duduka da Fonseca (drums) give São Pixinguinha his dues in this one-hour program of lively choro on Jazz at Lincoln Center radio. RealPlayer required.

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2007-10-26T12:50:00.001-07:00

A tribute to César Faria (and his son)

As all samba and choro lovers know, César Faria, guitarist and co-founder of the legendary Conjunto Época de Ouro and Paulinho da Viola’s father, died at the age of 88 Last Saturday 20 October 2007.

It was because César played guitar in Paulinho’s band that the son usually played cavaquinho in concerts. While performing, César always maintained a deadpan expression. It is therefore a delighful discovery to see him laughing in the photo below.

Watch Época de Ouro accompany Armandinho Macedo in Jacob do Bandolim’s “Assanhado” and Marisa Monte in Paulinho’s “Dança da Solidão”.

This morning, Eddy Pay remembered the veteran guitarist in a one-hour program on KPFA 94.1 FM, featuring primarily sambas by Paulinho. Listen here.

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2007-10-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

De roupa italiana

Elisabetta Prodon revives forgotten Italian versions of Brazilian songs.

Elisabetta Prodon

The Bossa Nova avalanche that rolled over the globe in the 1960s struck a uniquely resonant chord in Italy. While the influence of Brazilian music in the United States was expressed by top jazz instrumentalists, its songbook suffered decidedly mediocre (and sometimes outright ridiculous) lyric adaptations by the likes of Ray Gilbert and Norman Gimbel.

The story was quite different in Italy, where leading lyricists—refined intellectuals who were in closer harmony with the Brazilian zeitgeist—crafted credible versions of famous Brazilian songs and actively collaborated with their original creators. They included hitmakers like Sergio Endrigo, Sergio Bardotti, Giorgio Calabrese, and Mario Panzeri.

The Italo-Brazilian ties became even closer after Brazilian artists were forced into exile by the military disctatorship. Sergio Bardotti (1939–2007) in particular was a virtual clearing house for Brazilian song in Italy during the 1970s. In addition to translating many songs by his friends Vinicius de Moraes and Chico Buarque, he produced in 1976 the album La Voglia, la Pazzia, l'Incoscienza, l'Allegria, which featured Ornella Vanoni with Vinicius and Toquinho, and the LP Passarinho Urbano for Joyce. Bardotti’s musical play for children, I Musicanti, was in turn adapted by Chico into the highly successful Os Saltimbancos, which spawned a record and a film.

Giorgio Calabrese wrote Italian lyrics for a number of Jobim/de Moraes songs, including “Chega de Saudade” and “Garota de Ipanema.” It’s unfortunate that the otherwise excellent website Clube do Tom omits his name entirely from the list of Tom’s co-authors.

Bardotti’s and Calabrese’s contributions to the Italo-Brazilian songbook are the focus of the new CD Samba & Amore, released by the Italian jazz label Philology. It is the work of seasoned jazz singer Elisabetta “Elis” Prodon and her husband, guitarist Flavio Brio, who include here a previously unrecorded Bardotti translation for Chico Buarque’s “Samba do Grande Amor.”

Joining the versions is an Italian song that demonstrates the influence of Bossa Nova on La Canzone Italiana. “Conversazione” (Bruno Canfora/Antonio Amurri) was the closing theme of Mina’s TV show Sabato Sera in the 1960s (watch a 1967 video).

This delightful album was recorded in Natal, Brazil and in Venice, Italy. It comes clad in a cover that evokes the Vinicius & Odette Lara release on the Elenco label. Missing from the liner notes are the song lyrics (only “Samba del Grande Amore” is included). This won’t disturb Italian listeners, since Elis Prodon’s enunciation is crystal clear. But for those to whom Italian is Greek, the omission is to be regretted.

Lyrics for all the songs are published here. Listen to tracks from Samba & Amore here.

I will give one copy of Samba & Amore to the first person who contacts me and answers this question correctly: Which Italian hit received an American version called “For the First Time”? If you are the winner, be prepared to send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the CD.

Elisabetta Prodon: Samba & Amore
(Philology W 296) 2007; 43:12 min.

Samba e Amore [Samba e Amor] (Chico Buarque/Sergio Bardotti)
Senza Paura [Sem Medo] (Toquinho/Vinicius de Moraes/Sergio Bardotti)
Ritratto in Bianco e Nero [Retrato em Branco e Preto] (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Chico Buarque/Giorgio Calabrese)
Stare Separati [Chega de Saudade] (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes/Giorgio Calabrese)
Chi Dice Non Dà [Canto de Ossanha] (Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes/Giorgio Calabrese)
Conversazione (Bruno Canfora/Antonio Amurri)
Ragazzo di Ipanema [Garota de Ipanema] (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes/Giorgio Calabrese)
Samba del Grande Amore [Samba do Grande Amor] (Chico Buarque/Sergio Bardotti)
Accendi una Luna nel Cielo [Acende uma Lua no Céu] (Toquinho/Sergio Bardotti)
Far Niente [Bom Tempo] (Chico Buarque/Sergio Bardotti)
Samba della Rosa [Samba da Rosa] (Toquinho/Sergio Bardotti)
La Canzone di Orfeo [Manhã de Carnaval] (Luiz Bonfá/Antônio Maria/Mario Panzeri)

Personnel
Elisabetta Prodon: vocals
Flavio Brio: guitar, percussion & vocals
Eduardo Taufic: piano, keyboard & percussion
Paulo Oliveira: bass
Carlinhos Moreno, Ricardo Menezes: guitars
Cirleide Andrade: vocals
Renato Greco: guitar, percussion & vocals

Arrangements
Tracks 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12: Eduardo Taufic
Tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10: Renato Greco

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2007-09-26T16:40:00.000-07:00

Marcos Sacramento in Paris

Saturday, 29 September at New Morning jazz club.

Concert begins at 9 pm (doors open at 8).
Admission €19.80. Resevations.
Information: 01 42 00 51 33.

Musicians:
Luiz Flavio Alcofra (guitar)
Jayme Vignoli (cavaquinho)
Eduardo Neves (sax & flute)
Rui Alvim (clarinet)
João Hermeto (percussion)
Nethino Albuquerque (percussion)

New Morning
7–9, rue des Petites Ecuries
75010 Paris, France
Tel: 01 45 23 51 41
Metro: Château d’Eau
Map

Description of the club.

Check the club’s program calendar for details.

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2007-09-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Clarinet Time, part 1

Wilfried Berk and Daniel Wolff bridge the gap
between erudite and popular.

Wilfried Berk

Daniel Wolff

Gaudencio Thiago de Mello

Wilfried Berk is a Brazilian classical clarinetist. One of the original members of Quinteto Villa-Lobos, Berk lives in Germany. Collaborating with Brazilian guitarist and arranger Daniel Wolff and Amazonian composer-percussionist Gaudencio Thiago de Mello on the recently released album Coisas da Vida, Berk adroitly steps beyond the bounds of his usual turf to explore the ground that straddles “serious” and “light” music.

The album includes new and old choro, contemporary popular tunes, and short erudite pieces. Two tunes by Gaudencio Thiago de Mello open the disc—both arranged by Wolff. The delightful “Samba Chorado” is, melodically speaking, more choro sambado; but the faint apito in the background introduces a hint of old-time samba school parades. “Cavaleiro sem Armadura” (Knight Withought Armor) is a meditative piece written for the composer’s brother, famed poet Amadeu Thiago de Mello, in tribute to his suffering as a political exile in Chile and Germany.

Celso Machado composed the string of six Músicas Populares Brasileiras for flute and guitar. Rearranged here for clarinet, they include two choros (“Paçoca” and “Quebra Queixo,”); two sambas (“Pé de Moleque” and “Algodão Doce”)—all named after candies; a bossa nova (“Sambossa”); and a choro maxixe, (“Piazza Vittorio,” named after the Roman square).

In 2002, Daniel Wolff was commissioned by the classical guitarist and lawyer Steven Dimmick to write a solo guitar piece to commemorate his tenth wedding anniversary. The resulting Offerenda Nuptialis comprises two movements. The leisurely, intimate “Sinus Firmus” is followed by the livelier waltz “Love Dance.” Both incorporate the melody from Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. “Love Dance” is divided into two themes, one representing the bridegroom, the other, the bride. It is probably not by happenstance that these nuptial compositions are positioned cheek-by-jowl next to Ernesto Nazareth’s waltz “Turbilhão de Beijos,” (1908), although one normally would expect the whirlwind of kisses to occur before the wedding.

Wolff’s Três Pequenos Estudos para Clarinete (2001), ranging in length between 45 seconds and 1:35 min., are moden pieces written for José Botelho, first clarinet of the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira. The first two are delivered in staccato fashion: one in choro rhythm, the other less regular and utilizing tremolos and repeating notes. The third, more legato, launches into what might be Gershwin before turning into a baião, quoting Luiz Gonzaga in a playful way.

Nestor de Hollanda Cavalcanti’s four songs are spare yet offer considerable variety. The first three, Três Cancões Populares, Quase Eruditas (1997), were originally written for voice and guitar and comprise “Simples Balada,” evocative of timeless folk songs; “Vida a Dois,” a modulated meditation for solo clarinet, fragmented and briefly punctuated by guitar interventions; and “Pensando Nela,”a bluesy melody hewing to a 2/4 bossa nova beat. The fourth piece, “Coisas da Vida,” which gave the album its name, is a joyful choro composed as one of the movements in Suíte Aberta em Forma de Coisas (1997) for flute and piano.

New gives way to old in Freire Júnior’s celebrated waltz “Revendo o Passado,” (Recordar é viver, diz um velho ditado; recordar é sofrer saudades do passado). First recorded in the mid-1920s by the Casa Edison Orchestra, it was consecrated as a seresta, first in Augusto Calheiros’ 1933 vocal rendition, then in Jacob do Bandolim’s 1956 recording. The version we hear in Coisas da Vida was transcribed by Augusto Duarte from a bandolim-and-guitar recording by Joel Nascimento and Luiz Otávio Braga.

Jayoleno dos Santos, co-founder and original first-clarinet of the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, is represented by “Prelúdios de Ensaio” (1943), a demanding choro for solo clarinet. The disc closes with “Internautas” (2005) by Wilfried Berk, a three-part composition whose first two parts are in choro style, while the third is a festive samba.

Listen to four of the tunes from Coisas da Vida and to several choros played by Berk.

Wilfried Berk, Daniel Wolff & Gaudencio Thiago de Mello:
Coisas da Vida
(Karmim KPCD050; 2006) 60 min.

01. Samba Chorado (Gaudencio Thiago de Mello)
02. Cavaleiro sem Armadura (Gaudencio Thiago de Mello)
Músicas Populares Brasileiras (Celso Machado)
03. Paçoca
04. Algodão Doce
05. Quebra Queixo
06. Sambossa
07. Piazza Vittorio
08. Pé de Moleque
Offerenda Nuptialis (Daniel Wolff)
09. Sinus Firmus
10. Love Dance
11. Turbilhão de Beijos (Ernesto Nazareth)
Três Pequenos Estudos para Clarinete (Daniel Wolff)
12. Estudo 1
13. Estudo 2
14. Estudo 3
Três Cancões Populares, Quase Eruditas (Nestor de Hollanda Cavalcanti)
15. Simples Balada
16. Vida a Dois
17. Pensando Nela
From Suíte Aberta em Forma de Coisas
18. Coisas da Vida (Nestor de Hollanda Cavalcanti)
19. Revendo o Passado (Francisco José Freire Júnior)
20. Prelúdios de Ensaio (Jayoleno dos Santos)
21. Internautas (Wilfried Berk)

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2007-09-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

Sempre Jacob

Two new CDs and a radio program on KPFA 94.1 FM.

Laércio de Freitas & Alessandro Penezzi, 24 July 2007

Bandolinista Déo Rian and conjunto Noites Cariocas have just released the CD Ineditos de Jacob do Bandolim, Vol. II (Rob Digital), containing 15 choros (see titles), of which 11 were previoulsy unrecorded (the four exceptions were first released by the same musicians in the 1980 album Ineditos de Jacob do Bandolim.

Among the arrangers are Cristovão Bastos, Mauricio Carrilho, and Luiz Otávio Braga. The tunes are all archived at Instituto Jacob do Bandolim.

Not to be outdone, pianist and composer Laércio de Freitas is releasing the album Laércio Homenageia Jacob (Maritaca M1023), in which he teams up with guitarist Alessandro Penezzi. Four of the tracks are included in the All-Jacob radio program that Eddy Pay aired this morning on KPFA 94.1 FM.
Listen here.

01. Receita de Samba – Jacob do Bandolim (Original Classic Recordings)
02. Doce de Coco (lyrics: Hermínio Bello de Carvalho) – Elizeth Cardoso & Rafael Rabello (Todo o Sentimento)
03. Simplicidade – Laércio de Freitas & Alessandro Penezzi (Laércio Homenageia Jacob)
04. Meu Lamento (lyrics: Ataulfo Alves) – Marcos Sacramento (Sacramentos)
05. Noites Cariocas – Joel Nascimento (Relendo Jacob do Bandolim)
06. Falta-me Você – Laércio de Freitas & Alessandro Penezzi (Laércio Homenageia Jacob)
07. Perolas – Modern Traditions Ensemble (New Old Music)
08. Santa Morena – Hamilton de Hollanda (Hamilton de Hollanda)
09. Sapeca – Laércio de Freitas & Alessandro Penezzi (Laércio Homenageia Jacob)
10. Simplicidade – Paulo Moura & Yamandú Costa (El Negro del Blanco)
11. Doce de Coco – Zé da Velha & Silvério Pontes (Só Gafieira)
12. Nostalgia – Laércio de Freitas & Alessandro Penezzi (Laércio Homenageia Jacob)

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2007-08-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

Choro at the Farmers’ Market

Berkeley’s festival de rua.

Andy Connell, Mike Marshall, Brian Rice & Jovino Santos Neto (photo: Mark Altenberg)

Today is the fourth and final day of the third annual Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival, an event that offered many free performances in a variety of venues.

The Brazilian component was represented this year by pianist Jovino Santos Neto, who before heading to Cazadero to teach in the California Brazil Camp, joined forces with fellow CBC teachers Mike Marshall (mandolin) and Andy Connell (sax and clarinet) to do a Berkeleyan take on choro na feira at Civic Center Park, next to the Saturday Farmers’ Market.

The afternoon was sunny, a light breeze wafted about, and the three crack musicians (with percussionist Brian Rice making some deft toques on the pandeiro) treated an appreciative crowd to an hour and a half of Pixinguinha and Hermeto Pascoal, sprinkled with some tunes by Jovino and one by Mike. Between tunes, there was a good measure of ribaldry and punning going on (Jovino on Mike’s archaic-looking mandocello: “He found it in a guitar pit”).

Unlike the Choro na Feira in Laranjeiras, this was a comfortable and spacious venue, with the audience lounging on chairs arranged on the lawn.

See Mark Altenberg’s slide show.

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2007-08-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

Youth and choro

Regional Carioca carries on the tradition.

Regional Carioca at Modern Sound, 2006 (photo: Carol Novaes)

One of the youngest choro ensembles in Rio de Janeiro, Regional Carioca aims to follow the path blazed by legendary conjuntos regionais of the past, such as the Regional do Canhoto and Época de Ouro.

In its short life. the group has turned over most of its members. The current lineup includes Ana Rabello (cavaquinho), Julião Pinheiro and Rafael Mallmith (guitars), Tiago Souza (bandolim), and Marcus Thadeu (percussion).

These are not just any kids. Ana Rabello and Julião Pinheiro are the children of Luciana Rabello and Paulo Cesar Pinheiro. Tiago Souza is the son of Ronaldo do Bandolim. And they are doing exactly what Raphael and Luciana Rabello did when forming Os Carioquinhas.

Regional Carioca is represented by Joaninha Produções, which posted three tracks from the CD Regional Carioca (Acari Records, 2005) for our listening pleasure. The entire album is devoted to the work of Joventino Maciel, a little-known fluminense bandolinist whose signature composition, “Cadência,” was recorded by Jacob do Bandolim and Época de Ouro on their classic album Vibrações.

Cadência

Choppiniana

Mexeriqueiro

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2007-08-24T17:52:00.001-07:00

Tempo Feliz CD contest

Paulinho Garcia was kind enough to send me three copies of his lovely new CD Tempo Feliz.

Eddy Pay and I played three tracks from the album this morning on KPFA FM (Listen to the program).

I will give the CD to the first three responders with the correct answer.

1. Answer this question: José Gonçalves had two artistic names. What were they?

2. E-mail your answer to me.

3. If you’re a winner, I will ask you to provide a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the CD.

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2007-08-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Early morning jazz & bossa nova on KPFA 94.1 FM

Eddy Pay and I play selections from three highly listenable new releases:

Viviane de Farias: Na Hora da Paixão/Moment of Passion
(In+Out Records 77087-2) 2007

01. Preciso Aprender a Ser Só (Marcos Valle/Paulo Sergio Valle)
02. No Hora da Paixão (Johnny Alf/Paulo Morello)
03. Amanhã (Paulo Morello/Viviane de Farias)
04. Rio (Roberto Menescal/Ronaldo Bôsocli)

Ricardo Silveira: Outro Rio
(Adventure Music AM 1033 2) 2007

05. Outro Rio (Ricardo Silveira)
06. O Sol na Janela (Ricardo Silveira)
07. Choro Bacana (Ricardo Silveira)
08. O Monstro e a Flor (Ricardo Silveira/Cláudio Roditi)

Paulinho Garcia: Tempo Feliz
(Jazzmin Records 09874 33762) 2006

09. Aos Pés da Cruz (José Gonçalves/Marino Pinto)
10. If You Could See Me Now (Tadd Dameron/Carl Sigman)
11. Duas Horas da Manhã (Nelson Cavaquinho/Ary Monteiro)

Listen here.

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2007-08-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

New York Magazine finds Brazil score sinister

But the Barroso family (or at least Irmãos Vitale) must be happy.

“Score From ‘Brazil’ Wildly Popular, For Some Reason,” says New York Magazine today, displaying a sample from the film plus three movie trailers and a TV commercial to prove the point.

How naïve of me to have thought that the inclusion of “Aquarela do Brasil” in all those spots had to do with the unrivalled pep and instant recognition of the tune. Not so, says the Tube Junkie in New York:

[...] this summer—possibly to acknowledge that we’re currently living in a dystopia—everyone seems to have chosen something slightly less pleasant: Michael Kamen’s score for Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil, because nothing says “animated children’s film” quite like “negative Utopia.”

So there you have it. Someone is making a pile of money in royalties on the tune, although it’s not clear whether Ary Barroso’s descendants are participating in this windfall. Some years ago, the Barroso family sued Irmãos Vitale, the music publisher who has handled Ary Barroso’s body of work for over six decades, claiming accounting irregularities. The court allowed Vitale to continue administering the composer’s catalog.

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2007-08-08T17:26:00.001-07:00

It’s quiz time

Answer the question, win a CD.

It’s summer, no one wants to read, so here’s a giveaway. Or almost a giveaway.

To make it just a tad more interesting, there’ll be a simple quiz.

There’s a prize CD for each of the first two correct answers. Take your pick if you’re the first to answer correctly.

The brand-new Moment of Passion/Na Hora da Paixão, with charming vocalist Viviane de Farias and featuring Paulo Morello and Kim Barth.

Two For Brazil Goes to the Movies, featuring Paulinho Garcia, Greg Fishman & guest vocalist Judy Robert.

How can you win a CD?

1. Answer this question: what is the stage name of the artist born as Alfredo José da Silva?

2. E-mail your answer to me.

3. If you’re a winner, I will ask you to provide a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the CD.

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2007-08-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

Trio Surdina

The history of a legendary musical group.

Garoto

Fafá Lemos

Chiquinho

In the early 1950s, the Musidisc record label was a pioneer in Brazil. While all the major labels were still churning out 78-rpm discs, Musidisc specialized in LPs, albeit of the 10-inch, 8-track variety.

Under the artistic direction of singer Nilo Sérgio, a discophile who had traveled to the USA and owned a record store in Rio de Janeiro, Musidisc unleashed on the market a slew of titles. The first was Datas Felizes (M-001), with Nilo, the Estrelas, and Leo Peracchi and his orchestra. Peracchi, a renowned arranger, would appear repeatedly on the label’s products, orchestrating disparate recordings, from Orlando Silva singing Ary Barroso and Custódio Mesquita to collections of Portuguese songs and lullabies.

One of the first acts signed by the label was Trio Surdina, made up of the guitarist Garoto (1915–1955), the violinist and vocalist Fafá Lemos (1921–2004), and the accordionist Chiquinho (1928–1993). The group had acquired its name by performing on the Rádio Nacional program Música em Surdina (Music on the Quiet). Although the trio’s first appearance on the program occurred in April 1951, the name was not conferred until November of the following year.

Trio Surdina’s recording career at Musidisc was extremely short. In just four sessions between 5 December 1952 and January 1953 they recorded the material that would find its way into their four LPs. On 5 January 1953, Fafá Lemos left for the USA. The critical accolades that followed the release of the trio’s LPs were all published after the group had stopped performing together.

Musidisc continued to capitalize on the name by launching many more Trio Surdina albums recorded by a different set of musicians. The label was not in the habit of dating its records, and until now it’s been almost impossible to sort out the provenance of all the so-titled Trio Surdina discs.

Fortunately, the guitarsit and music researcher Jorge Mello got hold of Garoto’s diary, pored over newspapers of the period, and was able to shed light for the first time on the trio’s trajectory.

Read his article here.

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2007-07-31T11:28:00.001-07:00

João Gilberto manifests himself in orkut (or does he?)

Most of us cultivate pet activities that give us immense pleasure but are not readily explainable to people who don’t share our taste. Some people fish, others play golf or collect coins—passions that leave me cold.

I frequent the João Gilberto community in orkut. Like other communities, it can be a mixed bag, offering boredom and trivia along with highly rewarding booty.

Some members (there are 8,513 of them as of this moment) engage in nonsense like the poll “Who is the worst MPB singer of all times in the last week?” In compensation, the community boasts some of the world’s best-informed minds on the work of João Gilberto. Not only is this a continuing source of information, but the ardent fans here share their musical treasures, including rare recordings and videos.

I’m always wary of strangers who send me “friend” requests in orkut, and I was doubly so this morning, when orkut informed me in one e-mail, “João Gilberto has written you a scrapbook entry” and in another, “João Gilberto has added you as a friend on orkut.”

In no way could it be João, right?

There are many famous Brazilian artists who are orkut members, but João Gilberto could not possibly be one of them.

The scrapbook entry, posted at 6:26 am, reads: “Gostaria de agradecer por tudo o que vens falando e esclarecendo na ‘comunidade João Gilberto’. Muitíssimo Obrigado.”

Checking the orkut profile of the person purporting to be João Gilberto, little information is offered. relationship status: committed; languages I speak: Portuguese. That’s it.

João has joined three orkut communities: his own, Tom Jobim (160,279 members), and Dorival Caymmi (4,424 members).

The orkut João had one friend: my cyberfriend Gregório Queiroz, who is one of the luminaries of the João Gilberto community. Greg had not hesitated in accepting the friendship request. After all, what did he have to lose should the profile prove fake? I decided to do the same. So now João has two friends.

João’s scrapbook contained three entries from regular posters to the community—all perfectly serious, without the slightest hint of skepticism. Greg tells João how special his work is. Jorge, an overloquacious Spaniard, showers thanks and blessings on him. Arquimedes Luiz James Barros, like Greg a major voice in the JG community, has a request for João’s next recital. No tongue in any cheek, although the request by Arquimedes is a test.

Greg and Arquimedes had received scrapbook entries identical to mine.

What’s going on here?

So I dropped into the JG community to investigate the fallout.

Here there’s a new topic, posted by João at 6:24 am: Fico muito feliz por isso aqui.

Há pouco resolvi entrar no tão comentado Orkut, afim de constatar o que já me vinham avisando. Que haviam algumas Comunidades criadas nesta rede para discutirem e trocarem informações sobre minha carreira e etc.

Não acreditei quando vi. Até porque, tudo isso é novo para mim. Computadores, internet, e-mail. Um grande amigo meu é quem está nesse momento digitanto este recado. Em pouquíssimas vezes visitei meu próprio web site.

Enfim, gostaria de agradecer todo esse carinho que constatei ao passar a noite de ontem quase que inteira lendo os "tópicos" que vocês criaram.

Muito Obrigado.

João Gilberto.

So far, no one has dared respond to this post. I will venture first.

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2007-07-20T15:49:00.001-07:00

Rodrigo Lessa on KPFA

Eddy Pay and I play tracks from Rodrigo Lessa’s vocal disc Fora de Esquadro (2004), whose songs were composed by Lessa, with lyrics by Mauro Aguiar. We also included two tracks from Rodrigo’s instrumental CD, No Bangalô da Bandola, released at the same time.

Listen to the program.

01. Balangandã (Rodrigo Lessa) – No Bangalô da Bandola
02. Pagode Jazz Sardinha’s Club (Rodrigo Lessa/Eduardo Neves/Mauro Aguiar)
03. No Gurufim do Tio Sam (Rodrigo Lessa/Eduardo Neves/Mauro Aguiar)
04. Sossega Leão (Rodrigo Lessa/Mauro Aguiar)
05. Copacabana (João de Barro/Alberto Ribeiro) – Dick Farney, 1946
06. Lembranças de Copacabana (Rodrigo Lessa) – No Bangalô da Bandola
07. Remorsos do Ofício (Rodrigo Lessa/Mauro Aguiar)
08. Insônia de Morcego (Rodrigo Lessa/Mauro Aguiar)
09. Samba Castiço (Rodrigo Lessa/Mauro Aguiar)
10. Chave de Cadeia (Rodrigo Lessa/Mauro Aguiar)
11. Fora de Esquadro (Rodrigo Lessa/Mauro Aguiar)
12. Café Requentado (Rodrigo Lessa/Mauro Aguiar)

See my interview with Rodrigo Lessa in Brazzil magazine.

Listen to Eddy Pay’s previous Rodrigo Lessa program, which aired on 19 May 2006 and focused on No Bangalô da Bandola.

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