Florida International University

From the SelectedWorks of Stephen Thomson Moore

May 22, 2003

Brazilian Popular Music on DVD: A Review Stephen Thomson Moore, Florida International University

Creative CommonThis sL wicorke nis sliceensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC-ND International License.

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/st_moore/122/ Brazilian Popular Music on DVD: A Review

by Tom Moore

Just as the introduction of the CD revivified the recording industry, expanding the variety of recordings available and making newly available recordings that had been out of print, the introduction of the DVD has brought changes to video. The most important of these changes, at least for those interested in programming from outside the United States, is the fact that DVDs can easily offer subtitles in a variety of languages, so that the same DVD can be marketed to viewers from different markets, whether they speak English, Spanish, or French, which takes in a substantial portion of the world population. Many DVDs produced in the developed world are restricted by zone, so that producers can control the distribution of feature films. Nevertheless, there are many DVDs that can be played in any zone, and fortunately viewers interested in Brazilian video, many Brazilian DVDs fall into this category and can be used in the United States on any player.

Caetano Veloso Prenda Minha Universal 04400618562 (1999) Directed by Monique Gardenberg Time: 91' Titles in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French. Includes "Making of".

Chico Buarque Chico e as Cidades BMG Video 743321806839 (2000) Directed by José Henrique Fonseca Time: 77' With Oscar Niemeyer, Tostão, Jamelão, Velha Guarda da Mangueira, and Maria Bethânia No titles. Includes "Making of".

Brazilian music has become increasingly well-known and popular in the United States in recent years. 's performance of "Burn It Blue" was nominated for the 2003 Oscar for Best Song, and his fusion in the late sixties of American pop with Brazilian roots and an avant- garde sensibility, known as Tropicália, is beloved with hip young rock fans thirty years later.

Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque represent the strand in Brazilian music known as Música Popular Brasileira, or MPB for short. This is music that has its roots in the bossa nova of the early sixties, but has moved on stylistically incorporating elements from many sources, particularly rock from outside .

Caetano (1942-) is perhaps one of the best representatives of the cultural practice known in Brazil as antropofagia (cannibalism), where Brazilians, rather than slavishly imitating cultural products from outside, "eat" foreign culture, so that it in the process of digestion those products become fully Brazilian. Listeners will hear some familiar elements, but incorporated into a brew that is wholly new. Caetano is a talented composer and lyricist (as a lyricist he was influence by the "concrete" poets of São Paulo), but particularly excels as a performer, using his voice beautifully even at age sixty, and always connecting with the audience, flexible, at easy, changing with each song. The live show recorded (at the Metropolitan, Barra da Tijuca, , Sept. 12-13, 1998) for Prenda Minha combines some older material (the classic "Meditation" by Tom Jobim, as well as some favorites from his own catalog, dating to the seventies (Terra, Eclipse Oculto), with more recent songs, in a production that emphasizes variety of affect, and a self-consciously arty presentation (noticeable in the lighting, and in some of the camera work in the recording). The ensemble incorporates a percussion in the Bahian style (Caetano is from Bahia), which is rare in MPB. Essentially this is the record of a public performance by an important performer at the peak of his powers.

Chico Buarque (1944-) is the most respected lyricist in Brazil, with an amazing command of the language, allusive, full of images, and yet not out of touch with the tradition of the samba. His music may be considered MPB, but it is much closer to the roots, and incorporates little in the way of foreign influences. In contrast to Caetano, Chico was not born to perform – he seems somewhat uncomfortable in front of the public, stiff, ill-at-ease, and his voice is an instrument that he is unable to completely command, with a tone that is not free, and occasional lapses in intonation. The video is a travelogue of the tour for Chico's album and show "As Cidades" (The Cities), combining back-stage and on-stage views of the artist with interviews around Rio de Janeiro. Particularly involving is the joint interview with Chico and Maria Bethânia (Caetano's sister, and a star in her own right). As soon as she begins to sing she begins to simply gleam, and it is impossible not to be captivated.

Tracks (Caetano Veloso):

1. Minha Voz, Minha Vida 2. Jorge de Capadócia 3. Prenda Minha 4. Meditação 5. Terra 6. Eclipse Oculto 7. Drão 8. Carolina 9. Sozinho 10. Esse Cara 11. How Beautiful Could a Being Be 12. Linha do Equador 13. Doideca 14. Odara 15. Não Enche 16. A Luz de Tieta 17. Os Passistas 18. Atrás da Verde-e-Rosa... 19. Não Enche (Videoclipe) 20. Livros (Videoclipe) 21. Mel/Miel (Bonus Track)

Tracks (Chico Buarque):

1. Paratodos 2. Homenagem ao Malandro 3. A Volta do Malandro 4. Cotidiano 5. A Ostra e o Velho 6. Olhos nos Olhos 7. Olhos nos Olhos (w/ Maria Bethánia) 8. Piano na Mangueira 9. Quem te Viu, Quem te Vê 10. Iracema Voou 11. Assentamento 12. Construção 13. Bancarrota Blues 14. Feijoada Completa 15. Sala de Recepção 16. Capital do Samba 17. Capital do Samba/Chão de Esmeraldas 18. Chico Buarque da Mangueira

Ney Matogrosso Vivo Universal 04400532099 (2000) Directed by Ney Matogrosso Time: 101' Titles in Portuguese and Spanish

Click photo to enlarge Ney Matogrosso (1941-) is almost unknown outside Brazil, but has been an important artist in since coming to public view in the group Secos e Molhados in the early seventies. Although he was once considered to be a glam-rocker in Brazil (in a David Bowie-esque vein), genre boundaries in general are more porous there than in the US, and from the beginning Ney has been eclectic in his choice of repertoire, drawing on songs associated with Carmen Miranda or coming from the folk-related songs of the interior (unlike Chico or Caetano, Ney is an interpreter, and not a lyricist or composer). His performances reflect his long involvement with the theater and cinema, and his professional expertise with lighting design. What may well be striking to American viewers is Ney's flamboyantly gay sexuality, with scanty and very feminine costumes, changed several times in the course of a performance, and a body language that is charged. Reinforcing this ambiguity is Ney's exceptional high tenor. The DVD presents a live show with a full band (including such leading musicians as Leandro Braga, keyboards, Marcio Montarroyos, trumpets, Chico Sá, saxes and flute) recorded on December 4, 1999 at the Pal ácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte.

Tracks:

1. Mulher Barriguda 2. Com a Boca no Mundo 3. Miséria no Japão 4. Vira-Lata de Raça 5. Novamente 6. Poema 7. Olhos de Farol 8. Mesmo que Seja Eu 9. Faço de Tudo 10. A Balada do Cachorro Louco 11. O Vira 12. Exagerado 13. Fazê o Quê ? 14. Bomba H 15. O Último Dia 16. Garota Nacional 17. A Cara do Brasil 18. Sangue Latino 19. Rosa de Hiroshima 20. Balada do Louco 21. Homem com H 22. Pro Dia Nascer Feliz 23. Metamorfose Ambulante 24. Poema 25. Miséria no Japão

Toquinho Biscoito Fino 260-070-9 (2001) With Paulinho Nogueira, Chico Buarque, Fiorella Mannoia, Jorge Benjor, Quarteto em Cy, Gilberto Gil, Vinícius

de Moraes, Ivan Lins No titles. Includes scores and lyrics. Toquinho (1946-) is an artist that is associated with the bossa nova, the music (along with samba) for which Brazil is most well-known in the wider world. Born in 1946, he was too young to be present at the creation, but by the early sixties he was much involved in the bossa nova/MPB scene, working with Chico Buarque, Nara Leão, Sergio Ricardo and others. Most importantly he had a long and very productive partnership with the great poet and lyricist Vinícius de Moraes, for ever associated with the bossa nova (he wrote the lyrics for Girl from Ipanema), from 1969 until the latter's death in 1980. Unlike all the other discs reviewed here this DVD surveys the length and breadth of the musician's career, and all the film and video clips from earlier days are worth treasuring. One gets a sense of the magic of the collaboration with Vinícius – these moments are the highlight of the disc. Toquinho's importance was primarily as an artist working in collaboration with other great artists – his production on his own is less compelling than when he was setting others' lyrics.

Tracks:

1. Aquarela 2. Bachianinha 3. Samba de Orly 4. O que será que será 5. Que maravilha 6. Na boca da noite 7. Samba para Vinícius 8. Tarde em Itapõa 9. Samba da benção 10. Regra três 11. A felicidade 12. Tonga da mironga 13. Carta ao Tom 74 14. Escravo da alegria 15. La voglia la Pazzia 16. Doce vida 17. Amor em paz 18. Caso sério 19. Hino ao Corinthians 20. Ao que vai chegar 21. Até logo companheiro 22. A casa 23. O pato 24. O caderno 25. Canção para Jade 26. Criança feliz

Mílton Nascimento Acústico na Suíça Editora Jornal DVDS-001 Accompanied by Wagner Tiso Time: 60' Titles in Portuguese

Click photo to enlarge For many years Milton Nascimento (1942-) was the most well-known of the singer-songwriters of MPB outside Brazil, having already recorded his second LP for A&M in Hollywood in 1969. He went on to record a Grammy-winning disc with Wayne Shorter in 1975 (Native Dancer, Columbia), and more discs for A&M would follow. Nascimento was born in Rio de Janeiro, but moved with his family as an infant to Três Pontas, Minas Gerais. As an adolescent he was already making music with Wagner Tiso, his accompanist on this live video made for Swiss television in 1980. Nascimento stands out from MPB and Brazilian pop in general in a number of ways. Most noticeably, he sings in a high range and makes use of a uniquely recognizable falsetto, in contrast to many leading Brazilian singers, who tend to sing low in their range, with a notably spoken, rather than traditionally cantabile, production (the best of example of this would be trendsetter João Gilberto, whose singing would be unthinkable without the microphone). Nascimento's musical style also has little to do with popular genres from Rio de Janeiro or Salvador, two of the most important musical centers, with no reminiscences of either samba or bossa nova, with airier, and less rooted melodies and harmonies, which may have been part of what made his music appealing to new-age sensibilities and jazz musicians seeking new paths in the seventies.

In some ways Nascimento, at least as he is captured here in the TV studio, is more like Chico than Caetano, that is, a songwriter whose performances are less "performerly", less calculated, more naïve, and whose importance is in the beauty and novelty of his songs, with Nascimento's forte being more on the musical end of the lyrics-music continuum. Nascimento accompanies himself on the guitar, but as is often the case, the guitar here is simply a support for the voice, rather than an important voice in its own right (indeed the tuning goes out to a noticeable degree during the course of the performance). A document of an important musician in a more informal time.

Tracks:

1. Nada Será Como Antes 2. Travessia 3. Outubro 4. Para Lennon e McCartney 5. Pai Grande 6. Circo Marimbondo 7. San Vicente 8. Maria, Maria 9. Cravo e Canela 10. Fazenda 11. Choro de Mãe 12. Canção do Sul 13. Dos Cruces

Adriana Calcanhotto Público BMG 74321874949 (2001) Directed by Jodele Larcher Time: 60' Titles in Portuguese. Includes "Making of".

Singer-songwriter Adriana Calcanhotto (1965-) is from a later generation of MPB. She began her career singing in nightspots in her native (capital of the state of , southernmost state in Brazil). By the later eighties she had produced a number of shows in Porto Alegre, and finally in 1989 she moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she seems to have become an overnight success, and finally hit the jackpot in 1990, with the release of her first disc, and a song heard in the soundtrack for a novela (a kind of prime-time serial drama)on TV Globo. Her DVD was recorded at the end of a year-long tour. Adriana accompanies herself on guitar in a less-is-more show featuring predominantly her own songs, with two nods to the past (the classic samba "The world didn't come to an end" by Assis Valente, and "Ela é carioca" by Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes). She wryly pokes fun at elder statesmen Caetano with her "Vamos Comer Caetano", accompanied by a pre-recorded CD sampling some of Caetano's recent Bahian musical tics.

Tracks:

1. E o Mundo Não se Acabou 2. Mais Feliz 3. Maresia 4. Uns Versos 5. Metade 6. Devolva-me 7. Clandestino 8. Una Mujer 9. Traduzir-se 10. Remix Século XX 11. Inverno 12. Esquadros 13. Vamos Comer Caetano 14. Medo de Amar Nº3 15. Vambora 16. Ela é Carioca 17. Mentiras