Brazilian Music

^

I have never felt later to a party than about this: despite being a bossa-nova fan since my early 20s, it was literally in April that somebody mentioned Elis Regina and I said “heard of her, is she good?” and the person to whom I was speaking immediately played me Aguas de Março for the first time. I can’t believe I’d never heard it before? It is handily my new #1 “favourite song ever recorded”, like I am destroyed by it

Ha, I remember I first heard of her because I was talking about some Brazilian stuff in an elevator in graduate school, probably some Tropicalia or Bebel Gilberto, and some stranger piped up to tell me about Elis Regina.

Feel like it’s hard to get a handle on all the things going on in Brazilian music for various reasons.

It is so weird that I missed it! Joao did a version of that song that I MUST have heard at some point, I guess it just bled into the surrounding tracks. I mentioned it to a friend this morning over text and he showed me two pairs of music friends who'd covered the Regina/Jobin version, and I just hadn't noticed. God. What other monuments to musical genius are residing in my blind spots, I wonder!

https://www.discogs.com/master/363981-Cartola-Cartola
this one ^
not on spotify
https://www.musicasdonordeste.net/2017/06/momentompb-cartola-i-cartola-ii-1974.html
grab it here

za za zey za

so i'm here and, uh... did na boca do sol go viral on tik tok or something??

i've been to a million free shows here and never seen a line like this for anything ever

zoomers were climbing onto forklifts in the street to watch Arthur Verocai LOL

https://i.ibb.co/X2zprw7/IMG-20230811-212017385-2.jpg

You wanted a field report, well, by 6:30 the line stretched 3 and a half blocks. I think at that point, most of us understood we weren't getting in, but had decided on standing by to listen from the street. Verocai came on around 8:30 after an interminable DJ set and multiple fawning introductions.

Renditions were note perfect, as you'd expect. They played the album out of sequence, starting with the instrumentals- this postponed the revelation that, for a guy who must be pushing 80, his voice hasn't really aged. It certainly crossed my mind that I might as well be listening to the record from the comfort of home.

But in this context the beauty and depth of the music stood out. So did its anonymity. Makes perfect sense as a crate digger's holy grail, an expertly composed and arranged record that vibes and just needs someone to put a face on it. My friend compared it to library music along similar lines- super OTM. Reaffirmed what I've always felt about the LP (that it's really, really good; that it's not quite the masterpiece it thinks it is)

Presumably some influencer blew this up on social media. I don't know if Adrian Younge is famous enough to account for the popularity of this event on his own or not. Very cool to see Brazilian music from the 70's *fucking finally* getting this kind of love in America!!! Of course it's for the album that conforms the most neatly to an auteur mentality of the Great Gothic Genius all too prevalent in the anglosphere...

had several thoughts yesterday

• the crowd seemed very hip/fashionable – no idea where that came from tbh
• loved to hear lots of classics played before during the dj set – baden powell, tim maia, bethania...
• loved the concert a lot despite a bunch of stuff hahah
• • kinda felt that sometimes drums/bass and some of brass went more jammy/heavy handed than the record. there's a vibe that is hard to achieve again on most of recorded brazilian music between 71 and 76
• • hated the way vocals were handed. I think the live mix is partly to blame – a very clean sound, which made it hard for vocals... they were almost struggling to get it out sometimes. the vocals (as most stuff again from the era) will be these lowkey melodies, hummed and harmonized. maybe some reverb would've helped here, idk
• • at the same time, the female singer was too hammy (she's also a former actress in a very, very bad sketch comedy show in Brazil, can't even believe that). like a very bad caricature of what emotion sounds like, we like to call this som de barzinho in Brazil

all in all thought, it was really cool to see and hear him so revered. his attitude through the concert was also a mix of cool/humble that was <3. and it was kinda cool to hear him attempt to do a small rap at some point hahaha.

ps. also got choked up by the homage the jazz is dead folks did for joão donato beforehand. amazing.

also wtf is people clapping randomly before the music is even finished? makes no sense

this footage appeared as part of the Donato homage – amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lbZ0kcR_48

some of brass went more jammy/heavy handed than the record.

i noticed that too. just personally, the performance didn't deviate enough from the record for my liking, but then when it did it wasn't great.

ps. also got choked up by the homage the jazz is dead folks did for joão donato beforehand. amazing.

oh i missed that!! (took a walk)

Was just thinking that, despite not being as canonical as Elis & Tom, the album Elis & Toots is still top shelf.