Brazzil
October 2000
Music
Marisa Monte is one of those fortunate beings into whose lap the deities, who determine the destinies of artists, have poured all possible tokens of success. From her background of opera and popular music, Monte evolved a highly individualistic style, becoming the best-selling vocalist in Brazilian popular music (MPB) and one of the most striking musical figures to emerge from Rio de Janeiro in the past 15 years. Renowned not only for her singing, writing, and producing but also for her farsighted concept of the path Brazilian music must take, Monte is widely regarded as a central figure on the MPB scene.
Promoting her new CD, Memórias, Crônicas e Declarações de Amor (Memories, Chronicles, and Declarations of Love), Marisa Monte opened her United States tour at Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA on September 22, 2000. And despite an encompassing on-stage sculpture, big screen projections, fabulous stage sets and lighting by Patrick Woodroffe (well known for his work for Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, and Peter Gabriel); attention quickly gravitated to Monte's slight figure center stage. She is, by general agreement, lovely in a delicate, porcelain way, like a piece of cloisonné; but what is more remarkable is her air of repose. An attractive, dark-haired young woman with a sensuous voice, hands that float ethereally, and truculent eyes; Monte imbues a luminous intensity, like a painting beheld with both ears and eyes.
The voice, a mezzo-soprano, warm in timbre and unbelievably flexible, has a wider sweep of coloration in all ranges than most voices in contemporary Brazilian pop. It is a voice that possesses extraordinary dexterity and whose production does not seem to require any effort. Her pitch, expressive phrasing, and legato skips are exceptional—elements that are often forgotten within the ambit of popular music. She is dynamic and emotional, yet cool and under complete control; her audience appeal is irresistible.
Born into a musical family, Monte attended rodas de samba (samba jam sessions) as a child—many taking place in her own home—and studied piano, percussion, and guitar before seriously pursuing a career in music. After operatic studies in Italy, she served the ultimate apprenticeship by filling theaters and clubs around Rio for close to two years without worrying about signing a recording contract. Her magnetic personal charisma and undeniable talents—musically and otherwise—assured that success was hers for the taking, and she had only to collect it.
Meeting fame with her first recording twelve years ago supplied Monte with a security uncommon in the record industry. Unlike other major MPB (Música Popular Brasileira—Brazilian Popular Music) artists, Monte releases a new work every three to four years; her re-apparition is always an event. Furthermore, her latest agreement with EMI has brought about an unexpected change in the company's policy, especially noteworthy during these delicate times when CD pirating and Internet downloading has offset the power structure of the multinational record labels. Monte's renewed ten-year contract with EMI guarantees the continuous pressing of all her recordings, their distribution through Monte's own subsidiary label, Phonomotor, and complete artistic freedom with no interference from EMI concerning the content of any Phonomotor release.
To premiere the Phonomotor label, Monte produced and made a cameo appearance on the recording Tudo Azul, by the legendary Velha Guarda (Old Guard) da Portela, a group of hallowed sambistas. Selling more than thirty thousand copies, the recording, which is lyrically inspired, harmonically truthful, and rhythmically authentic, has helped to open new markets for traditional samba. Marisa Monte may be a pop singer, but she has brought the variety, charm, and consummate musicianship of Brazil's finest sambistas as well as some of the richest strains of Brazilian culture to a wider audience.
A musician who is not content with excelling in just one musical genre, Monte's flexible approach and unique vocal gifts have enabled her to embrace—more often than not with great success—bossa nova, samba, rock, reggae, R&B, and funk. Her recordings, all surveys of Brazilian styles, have earned a reputation for intelligence in the selection of repertoire not solely for their quality but also for their timely retrieval of traditional forms, every recording paying tribute to the greatest icons of Brazilian imagination.
Curiously, response to her latest offering, Memórias, Crônicas e Declarações de Amor (Memories, Chronicles, and Declarations of Love), remains lukewarm in some quarters. Monte is, without a doubt, a remarkable singer with an outstanding cultural and musical foundation, but has delivered so much marvelous music in the past that her fans have come to expect a spiraling higher level of quality from each new release. Devotees of traditional samba and choro have reproached her for abandoning the high art of Brazilian composers like Cartola, Monsueto, Jamelão, and Pixinguinha for what seems to be pop commercialism. Detractors assert that Monte should enlist Rogério Duprat or Gilson Peranzzetta to produce her work, and move beyond the offensive "world music" sonority of Arto Lindsay's productions, which sound predictably the same.
Despite the pop appeal of the disc's arrangements and the production of the hits "Amor I Love You" and "Gentileza" (Kindness), Monte's latest work offers listeners a number of exquisite tunes, including the sambas "Para Ver as Meninas" (To See the Girls) and "Gotas de Luar" (Drops of Moonlight). Memórias, Crônicas e Declarações de Amor is principally pop music, and inside that pop universe, the work is stylistically successful.
Before she left Brazil, we spoke about her background, the new CD, her connection with traditional samba, Phonomotor, and the U.S. tour. I was surprised that an artist of her status could be as open, frank, and friendly as she was. She struck me as extraordinarily personable, a quietly forceful person of integrity.
Brazzil—Can you tell me about your experience with the classical repertoire and why you decided to stop studying?
Marisa Monte—I started to study because I wanted to sing well and classical training was the only methodology available here in Brazil for developing good technique. So I started studying when I was fourteen, and for a long time I took classes every day. It was a kind of workout, something that you really could develop through practice, you know, like breathing, tuning, and extensions. At the same time, I was singing popular Brazilian music in a lot of shows with friends and listening to a lot of traditional samba. So I had a kind of mixed formation through technical study and by playing Brazilian music.
When I was eighteen I went to Italy to study opera, which gave me the opportunity to study the repertoire and to live outside Brazil awhile. But after living in Italy for a year, I began to see Brazil with different eyes. For the first time, I could see how rich, original, and unique Brazilian music is in relation to the rest of the world. I saw myself a long way from home and realized how hard it was going to be to put aside all the cultural weight, the density of my background. Never before had I felt so Brazilian.
To escape my background, to forget all the culture that had been implanted since birth, I would have had to live outside of Brazil for the rest of my life. I also knew that it was going to be very difficult for me to put aside modern production techniques. And since opera is something that is turned more toward the past, I could see clearly how, for me, it was more important to be in Brazil than to be singing opera in Italy. So I came back when I was nineteen. I had been receiving invitations to record pop music in Brazil since I was sixteen, but studying in Europe was just a way of taking enough time to find my way, to decide what I really wanted.
When I came back, I started working on stage, and I worked on stage here for two years, from the time I was nineteen until I was twenty-one. As you know, my first record was a consequence of this work on stage. My career, it seems, even now is structured around the stage. When I tour, especially in Brazil, I do very big tours. But I've also been composing and producing more and more with other musicians from my generation, with people like Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes, you know, people that I admire and that are now working to further Brazilian music.
Brazzil—Marisa, you've co-written a number of tunes on the new CD, and I'm wondering how you like composing with other artists.
M.M.—I love this kind of dialogue. And I love to do this kind of work with people that I admire. Composing is completely magic. You can bring something into the world where there was nothing before. It's very abstract, only waves, only frequencies. You just organize these waves and something suddenly exists. It's magic. And it's very cool to make music with close friends. Since my instrument is a melodic one, my strength is in writing melodies. They are easier for me to write, but I also collaborate on lyrics and on grooves, like acoustic guitar grooves where the feeling of a tune often originates. I'm planning to write much more. You know, I'm trying to find the time because I would like a lot of people to feel my admiration, and I can show it by composing with them, when the process is a partnership.
Brazzil—One of your tunes on the new CD is dedicated to Profeta Gentileza. Who is Profeta Gentileza?
M.M.—He was a homeless person here in Rio, who for thirty years walked the streets preaching kindness and love. He wasn't someone who was asking for anything on the streets, he was giving. He would say, "People, don't use anger, use kindness. Kindness generates kindness. Violence generates violence." He was a very popular guy here. Everyone in Rio knew him because we always saw him on the streets. He used to write his prophesies on the city's walls. They were messages of peace and love and kindness, so over time the people christened him Profeta Gentileza. One day about two years ago, I was walking by this place where there are many, many walls on which he used to write his messages. I often walked there to see his writings and to read the different branches, the new ones that I had never seen before, looking for new phrases, new expressions. But when I passed by that time, everything had been erased. Yeah, urban cleaning! Someone thought his work was dirty and ugly and had painted over it. I wrote the song "Gentileza" because I thought that that act was so symptomatic of our times and our world and our indifference to others in the urban environment. It was so anti-gentileza. The ONG (non-governmental organization) here in Rio recently restored all his works. Now they're preserved forever and people cannot erase them anymore.
Brazzil—Is Profeta Gentileza still around?
M.M.—No, he died two years ago. A very nice person passed through our world. Now if you come to Rio, you can see Gentileza's works. It's a kind of urban book near the Rodoviária, the bus terminal at the entrance of the city, and it's a very cool kind of welcome mat. Very beautiful, not only the texts, the words he's written; but also the typography, the art, the graphics, all very beautiful. You have to see it.
Brazzil—You mentioned producing, showing admiration, and furthering Brazilian music, so I have to tell you how much I admire your producing the Velha Guarda da Portela. Can you tell me about the project?
M.M.—Well, the Velha Guarda, as it is known today, was founded in 1970 by Paulinho da Viola and is comprised of twelve musicians—nine instrumentalists and three female vocalists—who are the most expressive musicians from the composer group of the samba school. But from the time of their formation until now, they had made only three recordings. The last one (Homenagem a Paulo da Portela) was in '88, so for twelve years they persevered without recording their own work. I learned through Paulinho da Viola that they had a huge repertoire that had never been recorded. So we researched extensively and discovered songs from the forties, from the fifties, and from the sixties that were present only in their minds, in their oral tradition, and then we recorded Tudo Azul. Most of the material had not been recorded before, even though some of the songs are from forty years ago. Tudo Azul was very well received here in Brazil.
Brazzil—Wasn't your father a member of the escola?
M.M.—Yes, yes, when I was very young. I was born in '67, and he was connected to Portela until '73. I remember these guys in my home when I was very young, when I was just starting to listen and learn. I am from Rio, and samba is the strongest musical expression from our city. So I really enjoyed having these artists playing in my home, and I always admired them. My father wasn't really involved after '74, but he continued to buy the records and bring home all this traditional samba. Then in '91, I invited the singers, the three female singers from the Velha Guarda da Portela, to sing with me. And then in '94 all of them came to record with me on Rose and Charcoal with Paulinho da Viola. Since then I've kept in contact with them, and we've been collaborating in shows together. Sometimes they invite me to sing with them, and I go. Sometimes I invite them, they come.
Brazzil—Do you think the recent comparisons of the Velha Guarda da Portela to the Buena Vista Social Club are valid?
M.M.—They're the same generation, but it's a different context. There are some similarities, but musically it's different. The comparisons didn't come from me or from them, but from a few journalists who were trying be clever.
Brazzil—What do you feel it will take for the Velha Guarda to achieve similar worldwide acclaim?
M.M.— Well, they're being released now in France, Spain, Portugal, and Africa on Lusafrica, the same label that releases Cesaria Evora, and there is a label interested in releasing them in the United States. Also, the record was a nominee for the Latin Grammy. You know, there is a new Latin Grammy, a samba category, and we were nominated. But the Velha Guarda musicians are very old, so it's difficult for them to tour, to travel. Some of the guys are eighty years old; some are like seventy-eight, still it's so moving to hear and see them live.
Brazzil—I saw them at Peoples almost ten years ago, which was funny because at the time it was more of a bossa nova club. I don't even know if it's there any more.
M.M.—Ah, you saw them with Cristina Buarque, right? Nice show. Yes, Peoples is still there, but it's much more of a dance club now.
Brazzil—What else are you planning for the Phonomotor label?
M.M.—Well, my new record and my old records will be issued and distributed worldwide through Phonomotor. But I don't plan on becoming the artistic director of a big record label or taking care of a lot of other artists. I just don't have the time for that. Phonomotor is something that I created only for my projects, like the Velha Guarda or for something that I decide to produce in the future. I envision it as a very restrictive independent label that allows me to produce whatever I want. And I don't really want to release new artists or look for new people or start listening to tons of tapes. People have already started sending me a lot of material, and I really can't do that work. Phonomotor is something very chained to my work. When you see Phonomotor, you'll see Marisa Monte.
Brazzil—Marisa, some critics have said that your latest CD lacks the courage of your previous works and that the CD as a whole is too romantic. Would you comment on this?
M.M.—Well, most of the critics were very positive, and I can tell that many people have been moved by the record. I'm touring Brazil, and I can feel the energy at the shows. The record was released only three months ago, and no matter where we perform, everyone in the audience knows the songs. Yeah, singing and listening, I can feel that they're really happy because we're singing together. And the sales, like 700,000 in three months, are too much, much more than the other records I've made. Maybe I should explain that my relationship with the critics is very impersonal. I know that whoever writes and signs his name to a review, is stating a personal opinion, not mine, so I don't really get angry. I don't get involved with critics. They're a part of the business that I keep away from. My critic is my audience.
Brazzil—Nobody talks about Marisa Monte's personal life, and this kind of privacy is unusual in Brazil. How do you maintain your mysterious aura?
M.M.—Well, I just put the music first, always. I really don't think I'm more important or more interesting than the music and the art and the creation. So all the space that the media gives me, which for me is very valuable, I use to talk about music. My responsibility is to form an audience for music, not to spread gossip, so I just don't contribute. Most of this personal gossip comes from artists who like to talk and think they have to, or think they need to, or something like that. For me, that kind of attention doesn't work. It's too restrictive. I'm really kind of shy with press like that. I don't have anything to hide, but I don't have anything to show. I'm a musician. I make music, and I don't think that because I'm a musician, I have to expose my intimacies. It doesn't make any sense. It's a profession for me. It's like being a teacher or a doctor. Why aren't teachers and doctors asked to explain their personal lives to the press? I'm a singer, for me it's the same.
Brazzil—The media does get a little too crazy sometimes, like all that business we had here with Clinton. It's really none of anybody's business.
M.M.—Ah, no, but Clinton is an elected guy. He's someone who has a civic career. It's different for someone who takes care of laws and peoples' money and their safety. Music is just music. It's something that doesn't really interfere. It's optional. If you don't want to, you don't need to listen. A musician and a president are different. I think they're different. Music is a profession for me. It's only work. The way people deal with media exposure is an individual matter. Everyone has their own style and reasons. And I'm already exposed a lot. I reveal myself a lot through my work because I'm very involved in all I do. If you just look at my work, it tells a lot about me. And I just want to tell about myself through that. I think it's more interesting.
Brazzil—You have such an ethereal stage persona; I'm wondering if your gestures are spontaneous or part of choreographed presentation.
M.M.—No, they're the same kinds of gestures that I make when I'm talking. Really, I talk a lot with my hands. It's funny because in the new show, I play a little bit, so in some songs my hands are attached to the guitar, and I really miss moving them. It's like a suspension of my expression. Moving my arms and hands is something that really helps me to sing and to communicate a song's meaning.
Brazzil—Can you tell me a little about the new show's visual effects?
M.M.—Well, in Brazil I always have shows that are much more produced and much more structured than my shows outside the country. Occasionally we tour abroad with everything, but generally, we take only the band. This year, however, I'm bringing the whole show to the United States, the same one that we're now presenting in Brazil. Ernesto Neto, who is one of the most important visual artists in Brazil and whose career has a huge projection outside of Brazil, created a fabric sculpture for the show with a lot of transparencies, with different planes and different perspectives, and it works as a catalyst, dramatically integrating the lighting and the scenery in the production. It's something that you have to see and which is hard to explain.
Brazzil—As you know from last time you played Los Angeles, the entire Brazilian community will be there to see it.
M.M.—That's funny because in big cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami there are so many Brazilians, even outside the United States, in Europe. When we go to Madrid, there are hordes of Brazilians. But when we go to small cities, like last time we came to the United States, or like we did in Europe when we played six cities in Spain and eight cities in Germany, then we start getting into places where there are no Brazilians, and that's interesting. The last time we performed in L.A., we played Palm Springs, which was so funny because there were maybe three Brazilians in the crowd. The audience, remarkably, was American, and it was really fun.
Brazzil—Brazilian acts come to the United States every year, but your shows are usually the only ones to sell out months ahead of time.
M.M.—Yeah, but this is a consequence of what we were talking about before, my career being on the stage. I've been working a lot lately as a composer and also producing more and more and working in the studio, but I prefer that direct connection with the audience.
Brazzil—Will you be bringing the same band with you that you brought in '98?
M.M.—For this tour, I'm using a slightly different instrumentation. I have three percussionists, a cavaquinho, and a keyboard player, so the band formation is also a little different.1 Toninho Ferragutti, I changed because I didn't want to have an accordion now that I have keyboards, but three guys are the same: Davi Moraes, guitars; Dadi, the bass player; and Peu on percussion. The group is a little bit different, but this is normal. It's always a matter of sonority.
Brazzil—Marisa, is there anything special that you want to convey to your fans or anything important that I haven't asked you about?
M.M.—Well, the only thing I'd like to mention is my web site. I think it's cool. It's a brand new one, completely renewed. And there, people can find all the information about the tours and about the recordings. They can get Tudo Azul and also listen to music that I've programmed there. So for people who are far away, I think it's the best channel to me.
Brazzil—Marisa, it's been a pleasure speaking with you.
M.M.—Thank you, Bruce. I hope to see you there.
Brazzil—I'll be there.
M.M.—Beijo (kiss).
Marisa Monte Official Web Site:
http://www.uol.com.br/marisamonte/index-d.htm
1. Cavaquinho player Mauro Diniz is the son and musical partner of the great Monarco (Hildemar Diniz)—singer, composer, director, and cavaquinho player of the Velha Guarda da Portela.
Bruce Gilman, music editor for Brazzil, received his Masters degree in music from California Institute of the Arts. He leads the Brazilian jazz ensemble Axé and plays cuíca for escola de samba MILA. You can reach him through his e-mail: cuica@interworld.net
Gentileza
(Marisa Monte)
Apagaram tudo
Pintaram tudo de cinza
A palavra no muro
Ficou coberta de tinta
Apagaram tudo
Pintaram tudo de cinza
Só ficou no muro
Tristeza e tinta fresca
Nós que passamos apressados
Pelas ruas da cidade
Merecemos ler as letras
E as palavras de gentileza
Por isso eu pergunto
A vocês no mundo
Se é mais inteligente
O livro ou a sabedoria
O mundo é uma escola
A vida é o circo
Amor palavra que liberta
Já dizia o profeta
Kindness
Everything was erased
They painted everything gray
The word on the wall
Was covered with paint
Everything was erased
They painted everything gray
Only the wall was left
Sadness and fresh paint
We who hurry through
The streets of the city
Are entitled to read the letters
And the words of kindness
That's why I ask
You in the world
Which is more intelligent
The book or the wisdom
The world is a school
Life is a canvas
Love is a word that liberates
The prophet said
Para Ver as Meninas
(Paulinho da Viola)
Silêncio por favor
Enquanto esqueço um pouco
a dor no peito
Não diga nada sobre meus defeitos
E não me lembro mais
quem me deixou assim
Hoje eu quero apenas
Uma pausa de mil compassos
Para ver as meninas
E nada mais nos braços
Só este amor assim descontraído
Quem sabe de tudo não fale
Quem não sabe de nada se cale
Se for preciso eu repito
Porque hoje eu vou fazer
Ao meu jeito eu vou fazer
Um samba sobre o infinito
To See the Girls
Silence please
While I forget, a little, the pain in
my breast
Don't say anything about my flaws
I don't remember any more
who left me this way
Today I only want
The pause of a thousand beats
To see the girls
And nothing else in my arms
Only love so relaxed
Who knows everything, don't talk
Who knows nothing, be quiet
If it's necessary, I'll repeat
Because today I'm doing
Things my way. I'm going to write
A samba about the infinite
Gotas de Luar
(Nelson Cavaquinho/
Guilherme de Brito)
Se eu pudesse roubar
as gotas de luar
Que vi brilhar nos olhos teus
Guardava aquele encanto
Para enfeitar meu pranto
Na hora do adeus
Sei que muito breve
Tu irás me esquecer
Eu sei que vou sofrer
Por culpa da minha paixão
Eu devia te deixar
Mas vou continuar
Para castigar meu pobre coração
Drops of Moonlight
If I could steal the
drops of moonlight
That I saw shining in your eyes
I would keep that wonder
To grace my weeping
At our goodbye
I know that soon
You will forget me
I know that I'm going to suffer
For my passion
I should let you go
But I will continue
Punishing my poor heart
Cinco Minutos
(Jorge Benjor)
Pedi você
Prá esperar cinco minutos só
Você foi embora sem me atender
Não sabe o que perdeu
Pois você não viu, você não viu . . .
Como eu fiquei
Pedi você
Prá esperar cinco minutos só
Você foi embora
Sem me atender . . .
Pois você não viu
Não sabe o que perdeu
Pois você não viu, não viu,
não viu
Como eu fiquei
Dizem que foi chorando,
sorrindo, cantando
Os meus amigos, até disseram
Que foi amando, amando
Pois você não sabe,
você não sabe
E nunca, e nunca,
E nunca, e nunca,
Vai saber porque
Pois você não sabe quanto vale
cinco minutos, cinco minutos
Na vida
Five Minutes
I asked you
To wait only five minutes
You left without listening
You don't know what you missed
Since you didn't see, you didn't see . . .
How I was left
I asked you
To wait only five minutes
You left
Without listening . . .
Since you didn't see
You don't know what you missed
Since you didn't see, you didn't see,
you didn't see
How I was left
They say I was crying,
smiling, singing
Even my friends said
I was loving, loving
Since you don't know,
you don't know
And never, and never,
And never, and never,
Will you know
How much five minutes is worth,
five minutes
In life
U.S. Tour Dates:Sept. 22 Los Angeles, CA UCLA—Royce Hall
Sept. 23 Escondido, CA Escondido Center for the Arts
Sept. 25 Berkeley, CA UC Berkeley—Zelerbach Hall
Sept. 28 Washington DC Georgetown University—Lisner Auditorium
Sept. 30 New York, NY Beacon Theatre
Oct. 1 Boston, MA Berkelee Theatre
Oct. 4 Miami, FL Jackie Gleason Theatre
Selected Discography:
Artist(s) Title Label Date Marisa Monte M M World Pacific/EMI-Odeon 1988 Marisa Monte Mais World Pacific/EMI-Odeon 1991 Cassiano Cedo ou Tarde Columbia 1991 Monarco A Voz do Samba Kuarup 1991 Marisa Monte Rose and Charcoal (Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Azul, Cor-de-Rosa e Carvão) Metro Blue/EMI 1994 Marisa Monte A Great Noise (Barulhinho Bom) Metro Blue/EMI 1996 Various Red Hot+Rio Antilles/Verve 1996 Titãs Acústico WEA 1997 Timbalada Vamos Dar a Volta no Guetho Polydor 1998 Carlinhos Brown Omelete Man Virgin/EMI 1998 Marisa Monte Memórias, Crônicas e Declarações de Amor Phonomotor/EMI 1999 Velha Guarda da Portela Tudo Azul Phonomotor/EMI 2000 Paulinho da Viola Série Dois Momentos Vol. 10 WEA 2000