Brazil Beat
Published in The Beat Magazine 6.05

“Acoustic Gems Polished”
By Mara Weiss & Nego Beto

DJing in the clubs can have its downsides. Everything becomes focused on seeking out music that has the maximum get-up-and-shake-yer-ass value. It’s times like this that one may suddenly realize they don’t take enough time to listen to acoustic music. But fortunately for everyone, the new compilation Acoustic Brazil (Putumayo) has all the remedies in hand!

Gal Costa’s sublime “Aquele Frevo Axe” brought on a huge bout of saudade, longing for Brazil. The jazzy conventions do incredibly beautiful things with the elastic vocal chords of this legendary singer. This previously unrecorded bossa-nova written by Caetano Veloso and Cezar Mendes spearheaded her 1998 critically acclaimed album by the same name. Immaculately recorded. Brazilians can go hard, incredibly hard--there’s nothing quite as heavy metal as the din of 400 drummers playing samba in a Rio carnival parade--yet when Brazilian music goes downtempo, it is with incredible grace and intellect. The pearl of this compilation is the second track. When Paulinho da Viola sings “Meu samba e a voz do povo,” (My samba is the voice of the people) he is singing the people’s story: the poor, the artists, those who suffered repression under the military dictatorship. This song was written and recorded for the tribute album for legendary northeastern lyricist João do Vale (whom we had the pleasure of meeting shortly before he passed away in 1996). In the metaphor of the “flower that the wind cast to the ground,” this song exemplifies the fascinating trend in Brazilian music (created by censorship) of writing lyrics full of criticism of the government and status quo, cleverly encased in giria (slang) and extended metaphors.
Marcio Faraco is Brazil’s Jack Johnson (who lives in Paris). His music is so good it deserves to be incessantly played on the radio. Faraco grew up moving around with his family all over Brazil. This gave him a taste of many different folkloric and popular musical traditions. He doesn’t draw too much from any of them. His style is truly all his own. This song is the title track off his debut album Ciranda (2000). This album took many people by surprise, definitely us. After the obligatory review, it actually stayed in the player. And stayed. Which doesn’t happen with many of the new MPB artists.

“Eu sou assim / quem quiser gostar de mim.” (This is the way I am / like it or not.) With these flippant lyrics, Teresa Christina sings the innate pride of the povo brasileiro (Brazilian people), at home and scattered across the world. This is the way we are. Idealistic, like this song, which speaks of making choices to avoid a life of crime and violence. Opportunistic, like Wilson Batista, the author of this masterpiece of poetry. Batista wrote songs about the early favelas, which were a bit like a life in the roça, (the country). An unsung musical treasure, Batista was a notorious malandro (rogue, player) in the Lapa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro in the 1930s. He was a member of the first generation of musicians to crystallize the musical style that had begun to widely call itself “samba” (the peversion of polka that it was at the time). His phonograph recordings are preserved in the archives of the Museum of Image and Sound, alongside his colleagues in the precious history-in-vinyl of Brazilian popular music.

Northeastern groover Rita Ribeiro contributes a bouncy, saucy number “Tem Quem Queira” (There are plenty who want me... if you don’t). New artist Glaucia Nasser proves herself with “Labios de Cetim” a song that starts off somber with cello, building to a guitar and piano bridge, and catapulting itself into a dubby, experimental and slightly psychedelic finale accompanied by udu, all very very beautiful due to her bell-clear voice. And gifted Pernambucan producer and songwriter Lula Queiroga brings up the rear with “Noite Severina” a poignant, beautiful (baiao???) A great mix of classic and new acoustic music.

Now check this out, a true acoustic gem Luiz Bonfã: Solo in Rio has just been re-released by Smithsonian Folkways. Bonfã, one of the great fathers of bossa-nova, did not record solo very often. In this warm, relaxed moment in time, Bonfã imparts his blessing upon the listener. Twelve of the dazzlingly beautiful songs included are improvisations or semi-improvisations. The soundtrack of the 1957 Marcel Camus film Black Orpheus featured Bonfã’s “Manha de Carnaval” as its main theme. The movie, as we know, iconic; the song became a global jazz standard. This and the sixteen other cuts from the original Cook Records LP are joined by fourteen bonus tracks, compiled of solo versions of Bonfã’s many compositions. Don’t let this one go by.

On the far, far other end of the spectrum (and definitely NOT to be listened to immediately after either of the two previously reviewed CDs!) comes the music of today’s favelas cariocas (slums of Rio). Well, the music of the under-30s. “Funk,” in this incarnation, started driving the bailes (massive outdoor dance parties) in the mid-‘90s. “Eu só queeeero ser feliz...” bellowed from speakers in the hilltop ‘hoods and filtered down to the ‘burbs below. Today funk is every bit as flashy and hardcore as it was then, but now there are radio programs in England that play it. Slam Dunk Presents Funk Carioca (Mr. Bongo) is a mix of jumpin’ tracks from the record box of DJ Tetine. The crime stories and X-rated encounters are cut, looped and thoroughly mashed up for the literally millions of ghetto youth who create racy dances to the booming bass riddims.

A group of young Rio people who definitely don’t listen to funk carioca, but who have a whole different electronic thing going on, are the guys of BossaCucaNova. Constituents of the Brazilian musical elite, firmly rooted in Rio, the trio helped kick-start the electro-bossa trend which has yielded Bebel Gilberto and a whole mess of groovy, loungy music. Their first recording task in 1999 (Revisited Classics) was to take bevy of bossa oldies and remix them (i.e. add electronic snare drum tracks). Their second album, Brasilidade (2001) showed improved (and at times inspired) production techniques, freshened by the guitar work of celebrity dad Roberto Menescal. Now Márcio Menescal, Marcelinho DaLua and Alexandre Moreira deliver their third album of remakes/remixes, on a consistant upward path toward greatness. On Ipanema Lounge (Sixdegrees) they are more liberal with the beats. However, they do not lose the connection to the original vibe of each song, allowing “Aguas de Março” to remain whispery, while propping up “Onde Anda Meu Amor” with a full-strength drum ‘n bass backbone. “Samba da Terra” featuring Zuco 103 hits an earthy, tribal note, and guests Leo Gandelman, Trio Mocotó, Celso Fonseca and Cris Delanno lend superb inflections to this intellectual definition of cool.

The sixth installment of the groundbreaking Brazilian Beats series from Mr. Bongo is waiting for you. Before the record store shelves got crowded with a seemingly endless supply of Brazilian “groove” and “electronica” compilations, tracks from these collections were getting serious rotation in UK clubs. Brazilian Beats 5 rocked 2004, a missile of supercharged Brazilian hip hop and funk. Number 6, which is more eclectic, runs the risk of being all over the map. In a good way! From Clara Nunes’ bright Afro-bossa “Morena da Angola” to the deadpan dub of Juca Chaves’ “Take Me Back to Piaui” to the ever-welcome soccer adoration of “Flamengão” and funky samba-pagode of Trio Mocotó, this is all about wide-open horizons and music to move the body. MC Black Alien and Marcelo D2 finish it off with a mash-up of heavy hip hop styles.

Keep digging for the great Brazilian sounds, y’all! One Love.

Back to brazilbeat.org