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Dates:
We're a week late on this, but April 8,9,10 in 1965 marked the unofficial 'changing
of the guard' with the beginning of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira
- the song style which initially replaced Bossa Nova as Brazil's pop music) with
a three-night run at São Paulo's Teatro Paramount with Elis
Regina, Jair Rodrigues and Jongo Trio.
Birthdays: MPB arranger Lincoln Olivetti, 04/17. Wedding
Bells & Baby Booties:
For saxophonist Leo
Gandelman who will wed his lovely Juliana in Rio - they are expecting
a baby this August - along with a new album from
Brazil's most celebrated jazz star. Leo also owns Zaga Studios in the chic section
of Ipanema and he's currently at work on the final mix for trumpeter Marcio
Montarroyos' last recording. Marcio, who passed away from cancer in
December, had dreamed of having this CD released here and several friends are
working hard to make his final wish come true. Coming
home:
After several projects with other labels, it looks as if pianist Eliane
Elias is returning to the Blue Note family for a happy reunion - a new CD
in September, with a Bossa Nova theme. And now comes word of the rumored reissue
of 'The
Legendary Joao Gilberto' album, the 1990 compilation which combined the songs
from Gilberto's first three albums. In my opinion there could
not be a more important release for Bossa Nova's 50th anniversary year.
Let's hope that our friends at Blue Note can make it happen - working through
the necessary permissions can sometimes be a daunting task. We
see that the Washington DC
International Film Festival includes three Brazilian films this year: 'Basic
Sanitation, the Movie' by Jorge Furtado, showing Friday, April 25th, 6:30 PM and
Saturday, April 26th, 7:00 PM at the Regal Cinemas Gallery Place. Director Jose
Padilha's 'Elite Squad' shows Thursday, May 1st 6:30 PM and Saturday, May 3rd
9:30 PM at the Avalon Theatre. And the multi-national team of producers from Uruguay
(Cesar Charlone) and Brazil (Enrique Fernandez) brings us 'The Pope's Toilet'
on Saturday, April 26th 9:30 PM and Sunday, April 27th 5:30 PM at Landmark's E
Street Cinema. We continue to pray for Brazilian cinema. Sigh. Sound
Checks:
Marcos
Ariel's gig at L.A.'s Jazz Bakery on Tuesday featured a special guest - Columbian
guitarist Juan Carlos Quintero sat in for the show.
As always, Ariel's piano, flute and keyboard talents wowed the crowd. Could
Milton
Nascimento be touring again this year? That's the buzz in NYC this week, as
the 'Summer of Bossa Nova' gets ready to spread its wings. Word is that it is
a short one - just 3-4 cities. We'll keep you up to date. The number of Brazilian
performers touring the US in 2008 could set a modern-day
record: Roberto Carlos is now set with these
dates: May 23rd at Madison Square Garden in NYC, May 24th at Boston's Agganis
Arena, Jersey City on May 25th (venue tba), May 31st in Miami at the American
Airlines Arena, and June 7th in Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheater. Singer
Rosa
Passos has shows at New York's Lincoln Center (May 23) and the San Francisco
Jazz Festival on May 25th. You can get the details at www.rosapassos.net.
Djavan
also plans a return to the US this year. Tickets went on sale April 2nd for his
tour wrap up at the Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on Friday, June 13th. Other
dates include June 6th, Knight Theatre, Miami FL; June 8th, Orpheum Theatre, Boston
MA; June 10th, Nokia Theatre, New York; June 11th, Cullen Performance Hall, Houston.
Watch for more Djavan coverage in the weeks to come. Not
to put too fine a point on it, but it's that time
of year when each and every week seems to bring news of a summer performance by
a Brazilian music great. And this week is no exception with news that one of the
greatest of all time will be a part of the world's biggest jazz festival. This
June, the 2008 JVC Jazz Festival in New York City will hold its own celebration
of the 50th birthday of Bossa Nova with the guitarist who started it all: João
Gilberto will perform June 22 at Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium. In
1958, Gilberto played on two versions of "Chega
de Saudade" that are considered the starting point for the genre - the first
as a session musician on a version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes
composition by Elizete
Cardoso; the second on his
own version of the piece, which became a huge hit and is generally considered
the standard bearer for all future Bossa Nova tunes. This
rare U.S. appearance by the notoriously reclusive
Gilberto isn't the only Brazilian highlight of the festival that weekend. Also
at Carnegie Hall on June 21, the night before, Sergio Mendes will perform with
Zap Mama as part of an event billed as "Nouveau Bossa." Over
on the left coast, the World
Festival at the Hollywood Bowl has received a commitment from another Brazilian
performer. Seu
Jorge will launch the 10th annual event on June 22 by performing with the
Washington D.C.-based electronica duo Thievery
Corporation - and Bebel
Gilberto. This is the duo's second straight summer of collaborating with the
daughter of the Father of Bossa Nova: Last year, near the band's home base of
the nation's capital, seh also stepped on stage with the group. In
his dual role as a legendary musician and Brazil's culture minister, Gilberto
Gil continues to make people talk. His US tour
is now set: June 18th, Ann Arbor Summer Fest, The Power Center, Ann Arbor,
MI; June 19th, Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL; June 21st, Westhampton Beach
PAC, Westhampton, NY; June 22nd, Lisner Auditorium, Washington, DC; June 24th,
Nokia Theater, New York, NY; June 27th, Massey Hall, Toronto, ON Canada, June
29th, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA; June 30th, 4th and B, San Diego, CA; July
2nd, Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA; July 5th, at the Jackie Gleason Theater
Miami Beach, FL. Wacth for Gil to perfrom with his new "Broad Band"
- featuring free Internet simulcast and audience connectivity at selected dates.
But most of Gil's coverage continues off-stage
these days. According to the publication World Politics Review, Gil unleashed
a frenzied response in the Brazilian blogosphere
when he talked about Internet access in Brazil's favelas being vital towards reducing
crime. Quoted at a debate in Rio de Janeiro, Gil said residents of Brazil's poorest
slums can "leap over all the barriers in their way" with such access.
Many bloggers attacked the idea, according to the magazine, because it was too
idealistic. What's next? Virtual gangs? Under
President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, however, Brazil has launched
several innovative social welfare programs - including
one that helps the working poor purchase their first computers. The Brazilian
Internet Steering Committee reports that Brazilians earning $600 to $1,000 each
month owned 17 percent more computers last year. Nationwide, a research firm says
Internet surfing is up more than 56.7 percent from the year before. Gil,
who plans to step down from his government post later this year, may be spending
more time outside the country once he returns to music full-time. The New York
Observer reports that Gil just bought a 13th Street two-bedroom condo for $1.34
million. What was that about favelas? Dare
to Explore: April
22nd is the date Brazil celebrates as 'Discovery Day' - when Pedro Álvares
Cabral and his Portuguese sailors first set foot on 'Terra Brasil' - and we've
dedicated four consecutive weeks to 'A Month of Discovery'. You can join in the
fun: Visit our new Connectbrazil.com
Buyers Club members page to catch up on the latest Brazilian buzz and explore
one of Brazil's unique musical styles with us: Forro! Surrounded
in equal parts by swirling rhythms and regional mystique, the Brazilian music
called Forró is actually an amalgam of a number of popular 'down home'
weekend dance styles found in the Northeast. One story goes
that Forró is derived from the English expression 'for all': back in the
1900s, the engineers of the Great Western Railroad would throw weekend parties
that were open to the general public, or 'For All'. Another view is that the
word Forró comes from 'Forrobodó' which means 'great party'.
Some
Brazilian scholars (who apparently don't like to dance) state the 'Forrobodó'
is itself related to the word 'forbodó' which is a bastardized form of
the Imperial Portuguese word 'fauxbourdon', which literally means 'a dull party'.
Whatever. Everyone
knows that Brazilians throw great parties, and if you're lucky enough to be invited
to one soon, chances are pretty good that you'll
be hearing (and dancing to) this
CD. And doesn't it just figure that Forró In The Dark hails from New
York City? This group knows Forró inside and out, and it doesn't stand
on tradition, either: Like that old saying about omelets, this group isn't afraid
to break a few eggs - by throwing them against the wall. Each
of these dozen songs are dance-inspired. Each is a festive romp from beginning
to end and each is particularly different in its style. Some songs bristle with
energy, some lope along. Some feature an earthy, buoyant flute to carry the melody
while others showcase some pretty impressive vocal performances from David Byrne,
Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, and even Bebel Gilberto, who sings on 'Wandering Swallow'
and decidedly non-Forró torch song originally recorded by Miss Peggy Lee.
Make
no mistake - the sound here is contemporary, and whatever you think it might be
- it probably isn't. And while none of use here can
agree on what the locals would think of this
CD back home in the Brazilian Northeast, we all pretty much agree that they'd
end up dancing to it anyway. That's what Forró is all about, after all…
David
Parsons,
founder and artistic director of Parsons Dance, continues to criss-cross the country
performing his 1990 piece "Nascimento." Commissioned by the University
of Arizona, the show features elaborate interpretations of Milton Nascimento's
music. In a recent interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Parsons described the
circumstances that led to the piece's creation once a mini-tour of Brazil had
been completed. "After it was done, I took five of my dancers into the Amazon
and we took a trip on a boat down the river for seven days," he told the
newspaper. "We hung out with the natives and slept in hammocks. We went wherever
we wanted. It was amazing."
It's apparently a two-way street when
it comes to the world and Brazilian TV. This week, the Brazilian broadcasting
behemoth TV Globo announced plans to launch the La
Telenovela Channel in Australia, signed a deal with a French TV channel to broadcast
Portuguese programs to Brazilians living in France and sold its hit telenovela
"The Clone" to Singapore. Best known for its telenovelas or soap operas,
Globo is the fourth largest network in the world - and about 90 percent of its
programs are said to be Brazilian in origin. By the way - what do you thik of
the new daily broadcast schedule Globo International released last week?
News and current events shows are now buried, midday. Meanwhile,
going the other way is the Disney Channel's Playhouse
Disney, which started offering its pre-school fare in Latin America
this week - including a special feed broadcast in Portuguese
for Brazil. What
do you get when you mix a popular soap brand, the
lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls and a remake of
a Duran Duran song? The answer is obvious: A marketing campaign for Caress
Brazilian Exotic Oil Infusions Body Wash, a cleanser aimed at helping women
"unleash their sensuous sides, vivacious charm and Brazilian spirits,"
according to Caress' manufacturer Unilever. Free sample
if you click on the link. In
conjunction with the product's launch, Nicole Scherzinger of the Dolls is releasing
her own version of the Duran Duran hit "Rio." "Brazil is all about
smooth moves, vivacious sounds and beautiful skin," Scherzinger is quoted
by the company as saying. "That's why I'm thrilled to be recording such a
fun, Brazilian remake of my favorite Duran Duran song" The
company says it picked Scherzinger because she is "an exotic beauty who embodies
the same enchantment and vivaciousness of Brazil." That said, the singer
apparently doesn't have a spec of Brazilian blood in her. She was born 30 years
ago to a Filipino father and a Hawaiian/Russian mother.
Connectbrazil.com
Tip Of The Week:
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can use our keywords to access various pages at Connectbrazil.com from the top
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