A nation that lives and breathes music has come up with a fresh style, Musica Popular Brasileira, that is not afraid to mix the old and the new, irritating a few purists along the way
Brazilian music keeps up with trends and 10 new albums have reached European racks recently, reflecting renewed interest for a country where music has always had a leading role. Following a pattern set more than a decade ago, when electronic sounds started making inroads into traditional styles such as samba or bossa nova without altering the basic structure, Musica Popular Brasileira![ext]()
heralds yet another revolution in style.
Arnaldo Antunes and Edgard Scandurra![ext]()
, former leader of the rock group Skank, have released A Curva da Cintura with Toumani Diabaté, the celebrated kora player from Mali. They performed together at the Back2Black festival, which switched from Rio de Janeiro to London in July, just before the Olympics.
A Curva da Cintura is released by Mais Um Discos, a UK operation that specialises in "music from Brazilian artists who fuse styles, disregard genres and irritate purists". Its catalogue also features O Deus que Devasta mas Tambem Cura, by Lucas Santtana![ext]()
, born in Salvador de Bahia in 1970.
At the end of the 1950s bossa nova was all the rage as Brazil entered the modern world. Ten years later, in the grip of a military dictatorship, the Bahia-based Tropicalists![ext]()
took the gentle love songs of their elders, such as João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, and gave them the spin of rock'n'roll and social liberation.
Today's troublemakers seem remarkably restrained by comparison. Born in more prosperous times, they are a long way from the radical criticism of Brazilian society and music launched by the Tropicalists. In 1968, when the military restricted civil liberties, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes released the album Tropicália ou Panis et Circenses (Bread and Circuses), a musical protest manifesto.
The sounds of Lucas Santtana and Bruno Morais![ext]()
, whose album A Vontade Superstar is also released on the British label Black, Brown & White, and Criolo ![ext]()
(whose Nó Na Orelha is distributed in Europe by Sterns) have accompanied the rise of Brazil as it has established its position in the world community. According to Brazilian critics, Morais's output is part of world music. He was born in Londrina, Paraná, in 1979 and went on to found a jazz-funk group, Madame Brechot, before being taken on by the Red Bull Music Academy in São Paulo. In 2005 he went to Seattle, Washington, where he met producers such as Leon Ware, Vitamin D and XXXChange.
A Vontade Superstar, released in Brazil in 2009 and now available in Europe, draws on dub, electronics and samba, while using highly orchestrated brass – a recurrent mark of the new generation. In her latest work, O Que Vôce Quer Saber de Verdade, Marisa Monte![ext]()
, currently Brazil's finest singer, used brass in an English style, resulting in a sort of restrained foxtrot interspersed with snatches of other sounds, another typically Brazilian approach.
Monte, 45, who joined Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes for the short-lived Tribalistas trio experiment in 2003, has played a key role in many innovative offshoots.
As for Santtana, his family's musical background drew on a web of influences involving such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. He played with Gil, then with Veloso's son, Moreno. Later the Brazilian-born American rock guitarist Arto Lindsay started playing Santtana's compositions, giving his career an additional boost. In 2000 Santtana released the hugely successful album Eletro Ben Dodô.
The sociologist and music critic Hermano Vianna wrote that the record "repositioned the pop music of Salvador in the oceanic web of the Black Atlantic, to which all the new digital rhythms are connected". But it has taken a long time for anyone to follow his example. Santtana dropped out of the public limelight, in much the same way as the creators of bossa nova in Brazil, the Tropicalists and many contemporary samba artists.
Twelve years later Santtana is back in the limelight with O Deus que Devasta mas Tambem Cura, a mixture of Recife-style frevo, dub and samba, sampling and Bahia beat. Some of it is really good, other parts more lukewarm, in keeping with much of western taste when it comes to Brazilian music.
Trying to find new routes for Música Popular Brasileira does not necessarily mean dropping older ones, as witness two recent examples. In November the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas paid tribute to Caetano Veloso![ext]()
, man of the year after 45 years in entertainment. Aged 70, he recently completed a tour with Maria Gadú![ext]()
, 26, who favours a very classical style of bossa. To mark his birthday a special CD was released, Tribute to Caetano Veloso, with covers by Beck, Devendra Banhart and Chrissie Hynde from the US, Miguel Poveda from Spain, and Os Mutantes, Marcelo Camelo, Tulipa Ruiz and Seu Jorge of Brazil, among others.
In 2011 Brazil's musical national icon Chico Buarque, 68, released Chico, maybe not his greatest album but beautifully written and performed. It came out on Biscoito Fino, an independent label which attracts some of the greatest names of Brazilian music, such as Gil, Simone, Maria Bethânia, who have tired of the multinationals.
The live version, Na Carreira, just out, features Rap de Calice, a tribute to the rapper Criolo, 36, who did a version of Calice (a song originally composed in 1974 by Gil and Buarque) punning on the title and "Cale-se" (shut up).
Criolo (real name, Kleber Cavalcante Gomes) is undoubtedly the most interesting and unruly representative of the Brazilian new wave. In 2011 he released Nó na Orelha. The son of north-east Brazilian migrants who sought work in São Paulo, he grew up in the city's Grajaú neighbourhood. For 20 years, under the name of Criolo Doido (the Crazy Creole), he worked as an educator and rapped.
Then he gradually switched to song, posting on the internet an odd mixture of bossa, samba, funk and Nigerian afrobeat, with thoughtful yet wide-ranging lyrics. His inventive videos finally became noticed and he was invited to sing one of his compositions, Não existe amor em SP, with Veloso at the MTV Brazil awards. Since then he has never looked back.
*• *This article appeared in Guardian Weekly![ext]()
which incorporates material from Le Monde
Reported by guardian.co.uk 22 hours ago.
Brazilian music keeps up with trends and 10 new albums have reached European racks recently, reflecting renewed interest for a country where music has always had a leading role. Following a pattern set more than a decade ago, when electronic sounds started making inroads into traditional styles such as samba or bossa nova without altering the basic structure, Musica Popular Brasileira
heralds yet another revolution in style.Arnaldo Antunes and Edgard Scandurra
, former leader of the rock group Skank, have released A Curva da Cintura with Toumani Diabaté, the celebrated kora player from Mali. They performed together at the Back2Black festival, which switched from Rio de Janeiro to London in July, just before the Olympics.A Curva da Cintura is released by Mais Um Discos, a UK operation that specialises in "music from Brazilian artists who fuse styles, disregard genres and irritate purists". Its catalogue also features O Deus que Devasta mas Tambem Cura, by Lucas Santtana
, born in Salvador de Bahia in 1970.At the end of the 1950s bossa nova was all the rage as Brazil entered the modern world. Ten years later, in the grip of a military dictatorship, the Bahia-based Tropicalists
took the gentle love songs of their elders, such as João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, and gave them the spin of rock'n'roll and social liberation.Today's troublemakers seem remarkably restrained by comparison. Born in more prosperous times, they are a long way from the radical criticism of Brazilian society and music launched by the Tropicalists. In 1968, when the military restricted civil liberties, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes released the album Tropicália ou Panis et Circenses (Bread and Circuses), a musical protest manifesto.
The sounds of Lucas Santtana and Bruno Morais
, whose album A Vontade Superstar is also released on the British label Black, Brown & White, and Criolo (whose Nó Na Orelha is distributed in Europe by Sterns) have accompanied the rise of Brazil as it has established its position in the world community. According to Brazilian critics, Morais's output is part of world music. He was born in Londrina, Paraná, in 1979 and went on to found a jazz-funk group, Madame Brechot, before being taken on by the Red Bull Music Academy in São Paulo. In 2005 he went to Seattle, Washington, where he met producers such as Leon Ware, Vitamin D and XXXChange.A Vontade Superstar, released in Brazil in 2009 and now available in Europe, draws on dub, electronics and samba, while using highly orchestrated brass – a recurrent mark of the new generation. In her latest work, O Que Vôce Quer Saber de Verdade, Marisa Monte
, currently Brazil's finest singer, used brass in an English style, resulting in a sort of restrained foxtrot interspersed with snatches of other sounds, another typically Brazilian approach.Monte, 45, who joined Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes for the short-lived Tribalistas trio experiment in 2003, has played a key role in many innovative offshoots.
As for Santtana, his family's musical background drew on a web of influences involving such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. He played with Gil, then with Veloso's son, Moreno. Later the Brazilian-born American rock guitarist Arto Lindsay started playing Santtana's compositions, giving his career an additional boost. In 2000 Santtana released the hugely successful album Eletro Ben Dodô.
The sociologist and music critic Hermano Vianna wrote that the record "repositioned the pop music of Salvador in the oceanic web of the Black Atlantic, to which all the new digital rhythms are connected". But it has taken a long time for anyone to follow his example. Santtana dropped out of the public limelight, in much the same way as the creators of bossa nova in Brazil, the Tropicalists and many contemporary samba artists.
Twelve years later Santtana is back in the limelight with O Deus que Devasta mas Tambem Cura, a mixture of Recife-style frevo, dub and samba, sampling and Bahia beat. Some of it is really good, other parts more lukewarm, in keeping with much of western taste when it comes to Brazilian music.
Trying to find new routes for Música Popular Brasileira does not necessarily mean dropping older ones, as witness two recent examples. In November the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas paid tribute to Caetano Veloso
, man of the year after 45 years in entertainment. Aged 70, he recently completed a tour with Maria Gadú, 26, who favours a very classical style of bossa. To mark his birthday a special CD was released, Tribute to Caetano Veloso, with covers by Beck, Devendra Banhart and Chrissie Hynde from the US, Miguel Poveda from Spain, and Os Mutantes, Marcelo Camelo, Tulipa Ruiz and Seu Jorge of Brazil, among others.In 2011 Brazil's musical national icon Chico Buarque, 68, released Chico, maybe not his greatest album but beautifully written and performed. It came out on Biscoito Fino, an independent label which attracts some of the greatest names of Brazilian music, such as Gil, Simone, Maria Bethânia, who have tired of the multinationals.
The live version, Na Carreira, just out, features Rap de Calice, a tribute to the rapper Criolo, 36, who did a version of Calice (a song originally composed in 1974 by Gil and Buarque) punning on the title and "Cale-se" (shut up).
Criolo (real name, Kleber Cavalcante Gomes) is undoubtedly the most interesting and unruly representative of the Brazilian new wave. In 2011 he released Nó na Orelha. The son of north-east Brazilian migrants who sought work in São Paulo, he grew up in the city's Grajaú neighbourhood. For 20 years, under the name of Criolo Doido (the Crazy Creole), he worked as an educator and rapped.
Then he gradually switched to song, posting on the internet an odd mixture of bossa, samba, funk and Nigerian afrobeat, with thoughtful yet wide-ranging lyrics. His inventive videos finally became noticed and he was invited to sing one of his compositions, Não existe amor em SP, with Veloso at the MTV Brazil awards. Since then he has never looked back.
*• *This article appeared in Guardian Weekly
which incorporates material from Le Monde
Reported by guardian.co.uk 22 hours ago.