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Interview with Jovino Santos Neto

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Some notable musicians are self-taught, but many have a mentor who was an important inspiration. Jovino Santos Neto is a Brazilian artist who was fortunate to have had the singular Hermeto Pascoal as his guide. Pascoal is one of the most important figures in Brazilian jazz and instrumental music. He is known for his great improvisational abilities; his complex, wholly original compositions mixing jazz with northeastern Brazilian idioms; and his ability to create music with whatever instruments or household objects are at hand. Jovino earned his musical credentials playing with Pascoal’s band, “O Grupo,” from 1977 to 1992. Santos Neto functioned as a pianist, flutist, composer, producer, and arranger for O Grupo. Looking back, Jovino recalled how Hermeto expanded his sonic universe. “Hermeto was my school for fifteen years, and I continue to learn from him by studying, practicing and analyzing his music.”

Santos Neto developed into an accomplished composer and musician in his own right and has fused jazz, Brazilian music, and classical music on albums such as Canto do Rio (2003) and Roda Carioca (2006), which garnered Latin Grammy nominations in the category of best Latin Jazz Album, and Live at Caramoor with Weber Iago (2009), which earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Album. And, just as Pascoal once tutored him, Santos Neto has been a mentor to young musicians for many years in North America; he teaches piano, composition, and jazz ensemble at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Jovino was born in Rio in 1954 and grew up in Realengo, a neighborhood in Rio’s western outskirts. At the age of twenty, he left Realengo to study biology at McGill University in Canada. He returned three years later and started playing with Pascoal. Santos Neto embarked on a solo career in 1992, and relocated to Seattle, Washington with his family in 1993. After his move to North America, he was a member of Airto Moreira and Flora Purim’s group Fourth World from 1994 to ’97. He contributed to Purim’s Speed of Light, and was part of Mike Marshall’s Brasil Duets, Ben Thomas’ The Madman’s Difference, and Jesse Stern’s Blues for the Bear, among other recordings. Jovino released his first solo album, Caboclo, in 1997. He has performed as a piano soloist and with symphony orchestras and chamber music groups. The NDR Big Band, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, St. Helens String Quartet, and Trio Vento have performed his compositions.

Jovino still works with Hermeto Pascoal, coordinating international performances of Pascoal’s big-band music. He is a caretaker for Pascoal’s vast body of work, most of which is still unrecorded. Jovino has collected all of Pascoal’s original manuscripts, annotating or transcribing more than a thousand compositions. He edited Tudo É Som (All is Sound), a collection of Pascoal compositions published by Universal Edition. Jovino and Mike Marshall released the album Serenata: The Music of Hermeto Pascoal in 2003.

Jovino and Hermeto at the Blue Note in 1991 (photo by Tim Geaney)

I interviewed Jovino in 2007. This interview is included in a book of my collected Brazilian music interviews that will be published later this year (check this blog for details).


Chris: How did you get involved with the Cornish College of the Arts?
Jovino: I came to Cornish as a student in 1993, and after two semesters I started teaching there, first as a sub, then as an adjunct and now as a full time professor of music there. It's a great place to connect with younger musicians and to keep the creative juices flowing.

Chris: You have been nominated for Latin Grammy awards in the Best Latin Jazz Album category, for Canto do Rio and Roda Carioca. I have been listening a lot to
Canto do Rio lately, and I have to confess I find it very difficult to categorize it. I'm hearing jazz of course, along with choro, baião and other northeastern Brazilian rhythms, and classical-music elements.
Jovino: If you find it hard to fit the music into one category, then I have reached my goal of creating universal music based on my personal musical history. As I experience more colors and flavors from the music of the world, my personal style absorbs them and the result will hopefully still bear my musical DNA.

Chris: Could you talk about the musical ingredients that went into Canto do Rio, and perhaps give examples of different fusions of genres, rhythms, harmonies, and instruments in a couple of your songs?
Jovino:
If you listen to the opening track, "Guanabara," it starts with a choro groove with pandeiro and clarinet, but the main theme has the hits and the melody of a maracatu for a bit, then it becomes a samba, and the improvisation section in 7/4 meter is something else. I personally don't keep track of these transitions. The process is more organic and fluid during the composition and arranging stages of the creation. "Pedra Branca" is another maracatu with two simple parts that get different harmonies and textures as the tune develops. "Primavera em Flor" is a baião for most of the time, but at one point there is an abrupt change into a xote, where the solos happen. "Sempre Sim" is a simple theme in 7/4 built over a pedal vamp, and the band just played it in a loose way, where everyone improvises at once.

Chris: Can you tell us about the album that followed it, Roda Carioca?
Jovino:
With Roda Carioca the composition process was similar, but with different musicians. This is my first CD recorded in Brazil, and I had the good fortune to have players like Marcio Bahia, Rogério Botter Maio, Hamilton de Holanda, Gabriel Grossi, Marcos Amorim, Fabio Pascoal as well as Joyce and Hermeto Pascoal as guests on the recording.


Jovino at Instrumental SESC Brasil, performing Passareio / Amoreira

Chris:You have collaborated with Airto and Fourth World. What kind of music do they play, and what was the experience like?
Jovino:
I learned a lot during my time with Airto, Flora and Fourth World. In that band I was mostly playing keyboards, and I developed a sense of textures and possibilities for using electronic instruments. Airto is a fantastic musician, and I always liked his playing, since I heard him playing the donkey jawbone in "Disparada" way back in the '60s [with Quarteto Novo, backing Geraldo Vandré]. He is a fantastic drummer and percussionist.

Chris:Are you still archiving Hermeto’s compositions? I understand you've filed over 1,000 of his compositions.
Jovino:
I am always working on preparing Hermeto's music as a legacy to the musicians of this and the next generations. I have edited one book, Tudo É Som, which was published by Universal Edition, and that book has been important in helping musicians connect with Hermeto's work. This work of preparing and notating Hermeto's music will probably take many more years, since there is so much material, but I do it one day at a time. Eventually more music will be made available using more modern means, like the Internet.

Chris:Is your archival work for Hermeto helping musicians to perform and record his compositions?
Jovino:
This is what I hope. I have received some great feedback and comments from musicians from all over the world. Of course, Hermeto is a legendary musician, but it is very hard to transcribe his music from recordings. It is also very difficult to tell what is written from what is improvised in his work, so I hope to help other musicians access his work.

Chris: What is the Hermeto Pascoal Big Band exactly?
Jovino: Hermeto has been writing big band charts since the early 1970s. In 1986, 1989 and 1992 he was commissioned by the Danish Radio Big Band to write some more music, which they performed. In 2000 and 2004 another big band was formed with top players in London to perform his compositions, under my direction and with Hermeto as a soloist. We also played in 2005 in France with the Big Band from the Toulouse Conservatory. Hermeto's jazz orchestra charts are challenging and beautiful, audiences really enjoy them. I directed a U.S. premiere of several of them with the Bobby Sanabria Big Band in New York's Merkin Hall in September 2006. [Author's note: Jovino later added that some Hermeto jazz orchestra pieces debuted prior to that in an October 26, 2004 concert with the University of North Texas Jazz Repertory Ensemble, directed by John Murphy at UNT, with Jovino as a guest pianist.].

Chris: What has been the importance of Hermeto as a mentor for you? How did he help you develop as a musician?
Jovino: Hermeto was my school for 15 years, and I continue to learn from him by studying, practicing and analyzing his music. His importance as a mentor to several generations of Brazilian musicians is undeniable. As a teacher, he never "taught", but instead he knew exactly what kind of challenge to place in front of a musician. He knew what kind of language to employ with each one, and how to make musicians with widely different levels of expertise play together harmoniously.

Chris: What were the rehearsals like for O Grupo?
Jovino: Every day was different. We often would spend entire days working on one challenging passage, learning it individually and collectively. He often composed the music in front of us, so we also got to know how to compose, arrange, score and lead a group. At other times he would dismantle the rehearsal by starting some wacky improvised piece of music, and this could lead to new written music. There was never a dull day in the Grupo.

Chris: What were the live performances like for O Grupo?
Jovino: Our sets were never pre-determined, we would often change a piece in the middle into another one. Often there would be guest musicians sitting in with us, or new compositions would be premiered right there in front of the audience. We have played concerts as long as five hours, so this was certainly a stamina-building exercise...

Chris: Can you talk about Hermeto’s harmonic concepts? And how have they influenced you?
Jovino: His harmonic concepts are indeed a new way to look at music. The idea of one tonal center or key signature that we have been using in music for centuries has been replaced with a much deeper and multi-layered approach. His music can be folkloric, regional, popular, jazzy, atonal, but the concept remains as a guiding force. It's hard to explain without an instrument, but its basis is the juxtaposition of simple triads and the avoidance of linear forms such as scales or modes. You can employ it to play all existing music, but it can lead to creation at a much higher level.

Chris:
Are there any important trends you see in Brazilian music today, both instrumental and otherwise?
Jovino: I just got back from Brazil, where I travelled through the Nordeste region, from Alagoas to Paraíba and Pernambuco, and I heard a lot of young musicians playing very creative music based on their traditional forms. I heard bands like Sertão Catingoso, O Quadro, Azabumba, and many others who are combining traditional Northeastern forms with contemporary concepts in music. Also in Rio, I heard young choro players like Eduardo Neves, Caio Marcio and Rogério Caetano injecting new life into a 150-year old style. It's certainly encouraging to hear this music and know that in spite of little attention given in the mainstream media, music in Brazil is alive and well.

Chris: Could you comment about the music of your fellow Grupo alumnus, Carlos Malta?
Jovino: Carlos Malta has always been a virtuoso flutist and saxophonist. Recently I saw him on TV playing with carpideiras, women who sing at funerals, and also with some traditional musicians from Goiás. I admire his talent and his creativity.

Chris: Are there any promising young musicians in Brazil that have caught your ear? Perhaps Yamandú Costa, Hamilton de Holanda? Anybody you'd like to talk about?
Jovino: Yes, both Hamilton and harmonica player Gabriel Grossi recorded with me in Roda Carioca. There are far too many young talented musicians to mention. Itiberê Zwarg, with his Orquestra Família, and the Pró-Arte, with their Flautistas Group, have done a lot to bring new players into the scene. Yamandú is an amazing guitarist, as are Marcus Tardelli, Daniel Santiago, Caio Márcio, and Rogério Caetano. There is a great new generation, and I am very pleased to hear them.

Chris:
What are your current creative projects?
Jovino: I am always working on a few things at the same time. Right now, I am diving deeply into the music of the Nordeste for my upcoming CD, which will be recorded in August. I am working to bring the beautiful musical languages of the aboio, pífanos, maracatu, frevo and xote into a personal blend that will sound harmonically modern, but without losing its connection to the land. It will be called Alma do Nordeste and will be the result of a research trip I just took through the region, courtesy of a grant from Petrobrás. I am also recording a solo piano CD this week for Adventure Music, and I am writing a piece for twenty percussionists that will be premiered here in Seattle in July.

Chris: Brazilians are known for being eclectic musicians and you are one of the most diverse, ranging across Brazilian and American styles, jazz and classical music, and the avant-garde.
Jovino: I feel happy to be able to connect musically with the entire planet.

Since our interview took place, Jovino has released the albums Alma do Nordeste (2008) and Veja o Som (2010). The latter is a double CD of duets with musicians such as Bill Frisell, Paquito d'Rivera, João Donato, Airto Moreira, Joyce, Paula Morelenbaum, Monica Salmaso, Ricardo Silveira, and Gabriel Grossi.

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Jovino's Favorite Hermeto Pascoal Compositions

In 2010, I asked Jovino to send me a top ten of his favorite recorded Hermeto Pascoal compositions, with a sentence or two about each one. Here is his list:

ONE: "São Jorge" -- one of several horse songs Hermeto has composed, this one was also the very first track I recorded as a member of his group in 1978.

TWO: "Nem Um Talvez" -- also recorded by Miles Davis, this has to be one of the prettiest melodies ever written. Gorgeous tune...

THREE: "Dança da Selva na Cidade Grande" -- this one shows Hermeto’s mastery of wooden flutes and natural sounds and his collage of voices and percussion (including sand, corn, beans, chains and water in the studio). One of several ?Indian? songs by HP.

FOUR: "Missa dos Escravos (Slaves Mass)" -- a very mysterious piece, made famous by the use of pigs in the recording. There’s much more than that, though. The harmony (unusual tuning of the guitar), the flutes and the chants make this tune one of my favorites.

FIVE: "Montreux" -- I watched that one being written in a hotel room in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1979 on the back of a laundry list, just a few hours before we played it in front of a huge crowd. My wife Luzia is Swiss; we were there that day and still remember it fondly...

SIX: "Quebrando Tudo" -- this entirely improvised piece one shows Hermeto’s amazing performance on the clavinet. He created the whole thing on the spot.

SEVEN: "Intocável" -- a beautiful choro, modern and traditional at the same time. The great Raphael Rabello recorded it with us. I always remember his laughter when I hear that tune.

EIGHT: "Três Coisas" -- one of the many examples of the Sound of the Aura, a technique created by Hermeto to harmonize the sound of the human voice. I played all the sounds on this one, built around the voice of the great poet and actor Mario Lago.

NINE: "Série de Arco" -- Hermeto composed this one to accompany my sister Maria Luiza’s routine as a rhythmic gymnast in 1980, first as a solo piano piece, then he arranged it for the Grupo. Wonderful harmonic language, a technical challenge to play. The composition followed her movements as she rolled on the floor and jumped around.

TEN: "Suite Norte, Sul, Leste, Oeste" -- a wonderful collection of short vignettes inspired by the diversity of Brazilian music.

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Select Jovino Santos Neto Discography
(U.S. releases unless otherwise noted)

Jovino Santos Neto (solo or with his Quintet)
Caboclo. Liquid City Records, 1997.
Ao Vivo em Olympia: Live in Olympia. Liquid City Records, 2000.
Canto do Rio. Liquid City Records, 2003.
Roda Carioca. Adventure Music, 2006.
Alma do Nordeste. Adventure Music, 2008.
Veja o Som See the Sound. Adventure Music, 2010.

Jovino Santos Neto & Weber Iago
Live at Caramoor. Adventure Music, 2009.

Richard Boukas & Jovino Santos Neto
Balaio. Malandro Records, 2000.

Wolfgang "Humbucker" Frisch, Dr. Nachstrom, et al.
Rhythmic Fission: Digital Revisions of Classic Trax. RCA, 2004. (included Jovino Santos Neto & Tamara L. Weikel’s "Ritual Rhythm," based on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring).

Mike Marshall & Jovino Santos Neto
Serenata: The Music of Hermeto Pascoal. Adventure Music, 2003.

Hermeto Pascoal (with Jovino Santos Neto in O Grupo)
Zabumbê-Bum-Á. WEA (Brazil), 1979.
Ao Vivo em Montreux. WEA (Brazil), 1980.
Cérebro Magnético. WEA (Brazil), 1980.
Hermeto Pascoal e Grupo
. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1982.
Lagoa da Canoa, Município de Arapiraca. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1984.
Brasil Universo. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1985.
Só Não Toca Quem Não Quer. Som da Gente (Brazil), 1987.
Festa Dos Deuses. PolyGram (Brazil), 1992.

Joyce Yarrow & Jovino Santos Neto.
Total Reflex. Independent, 2000.

Jovino Santos Neto Bibliography

Tudo é Som (ed.). Vienna: Universal Edition, 2001.
World Music Brazil: Play-Along Flute. Universal Edition, 2008.


*Top Photo of Jovino Santos Neto by Lara Hoefs (Courtesy Jovino Santos Neto)



Brazilian Sound Now in Italy and Spain!

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"The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil" (Temple University Press) is also now available for sale by Amazon.com in Italy and Spain. Here are the links to find the print editions of the book in various countries:

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon U.S.)

The Brazilian Sound (Barnes and Noble U.S.)

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon U.K.)

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon Canada)

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon Italy)

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon Spain)

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon France)

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon Germany)

The Brazilian Sound (Amazon Japan)


The Brazilian Sound on Nook!

Gaby Amarantos, the Muse of Tecnobrega

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Gaby Amarantos, the muse of tecnobrega, has teamed with producer
DJ João Brasil (a carioca now in London) to create a startling version
  of Antonio Carlos Jobim's classic "Aguas de Marco" that you will
probably either love or hate. Here's my Huffington Post about it:
The Muse of Tecnobrega Boosts Brazil's Latest Musical Export

Here is Gaby Amarantos singing "Aguas de Marco" on YouTube:



Here are Jobim and Elis Regina performing "Aguas de Marco" live:


Here is Gaby performing a full-on tecnobrega number,
"Príncipe Negro," on YouTube. Bob Fosse meets Lady
Gaga meets Bélem do Pará.






Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Get an Oscar Nomination

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Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown teamed up last year on the music of the animated film Rio, and the partnership of the Brasil '66 veteran and the idiosyncratic composer-percussionist from Bahia once again yielded successful results. The two have been nominated for an Oscar for Best Song for "Real in Rio," which was co-written by Siedah Garrett, John Powell and Mikael Mutti. 

John Powell contributed the soundtrack and Mendes was executive music producer for Rio, which also includes the songs "Let Me Take You to Rio (Blu's Arrival)" by Brown, Ester Dean and Mikael Mutti; "Fly Love" by Brown and Garrett; "Funky Monkey" by Garrett, Brown and Mutti; "Sapo Cai" by Brown, Mutti and Mendes; "Valsa Carioca" by Mendes; and, "Forró da Fruta" by Brown and Mutti, as well as "Samba de Orly" by Toquinho and Chico Buarque (performed by Bebel Gilberto) and "Hot Wings" by Will.i.am, who co-produced the album Timeless with Mendes in 2006.

Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown collaborated on the noteworthy Brasileiro in 1992. which showcased Brown and fused MPB and Rio samba with axé music and funk. The record won the Grammy Award in 1993 for Best World Music Album (the Brasileiro liner notes are here).




Carlinhos Brown


Sergio Mendes


Nara Leão: Everything!

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The late singer Nara Leão was the "musa" of bossa nova and an important figure in the transition from bossa to MPB. Through the generosity of her family, every one of her songs from every one of her albums can now be heard for free on the Nara Leão website, which is in Portuguese. All the lyrics are included as well. Go straight to the songs here: Nara Leao discography.


Michel Teló Catches Global Fame

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Sertanejo universitário
star Michel Teló has scored a global hit with the single "Ai Se Eu Te Pego" (“Oh, if I Catch You”), which has gotten millions of views at You Tube. Since September, the song has been listed #1 in at least nine European countries, according to the Feb. 4 Fox News Latino article Brazil's Michel Telo Becomes an International Country-Western Star, which quotes my Brazilian Sound co-author Ricardo Pessanha. I find the song annoyingly simple and repetitive, with an uninteresting melody. But simple + repetitive + a sexual theme often translate into worldwide success. Showing lots and lots of beautiful women in the audience for the music video, a few making provocative gestures, boosts online hits and sales as well.

Jazz Samba Turns Fifty


Carol Saboya: Belezas

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Brazilian vocalist Carol Saboya, known for her clear, sweet, pitch-perfect voice, often brings a jazz interpretation to a bossa nova and MPB repertoire. Along those lines, she has just released Belezas, devoted to songs by Ivan Lins and Milton Nascimento, MPB icons who are two of Brazil's greatest composers. Nascimento's "Bola de Meia, Bola de Gude,""Tristesse,""Anima," and "Tarde," and Lins's "Velas Içadas,""Doce Presença," and "Abre Alas" are among the twelve selections, five of which include English-language lyrics. Hendrik Meurkens, a German harmonica player who has collaborated with many Brazilian musicians, is featured on "Doce Presença." Saboya's father, the keyboardist-composer Antonio Adolfo, produced and arranged the album. The backing lineup consists of Adolfo (piano), Jorge Helder (bass), Claudio Spiewak (guitar), Rafael Barata (drums and percussion) and Dave Liebman (saxophone on two tracks). While Carol has released eight albums in Brazil and Japan to date, this is her first U.S. release.

The Girl from Ipanema: 50 Years Old in 2013

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The song "Garota de Ipanema" had its 50th anniversary in 2012, while the English-language version, "The Girl From Ipanema," celebrates that landmark in 2013.

Tall and tan and young and lovely, "The Girl From Ipanema" is also a survivor. The iconic tune has been recorded by a multitude of jazz greats and pop legends, as well as crooners of lesser talent, appeared on the soundtracks of remarkably diverse movies, ridden elevators from Shanghai to Chicago as a Muzak standard, and been subjected to innumerable lounge renditions. Through it all, it has endured as a global favorite and is the second most recorded song in the world according to Performing Songwriter magazine, trailing only "Yesterday" by the Beatles. The song's original version, "Garota de Ipanema," with music by Antonio Carlos ("Tom") Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes, was first performed in 1962 and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2012. Meanwhile, Stan Getz and João Gilberto's debut recording of "The Girl From Ipanema," which added English lyrics, turns fifty in 2013.

Hêlo Pinto, the OG (Original Girl) from Ipanema

"Garota de Ipanema" made its debut in August, 1962 at a club in Copacabana called Au Bon Gourmet, during a show that ran for several weeks and featured the first and only joint performances of bossa nova's three most important figures—Jobim, the poet-lyricist-singer de Moraes and guitarist-singer João Gilberto (who invented the bossa nova beat on the guitar and is the genre's greatest interpreter). They were backed on stage by Otávio Bailly on bass, Milton Banana on drums, and the Os Cariocas vocal group. Bossa nova was four years old in Brazil and had run a little off track with its own success; the show's participants and its producer Aloysio de Oliveira hoped to remind audiences about the style's fundamental strengths with the all-star event. The concerts garnered rave reviews and nightly packed the room, which could just barely squeeze in three hundred patrons. "Garota de Ipanema" was received with cries of "how beautiful!" The Au Bon Gourmet sessions were also a launching pad for several other tunes that are now classics: Jobim and de Moraes debuted "Só Danço Samba"; Jobim launched "Samba do Avião"; and Vinícius introduced "Samba da Benção" and "O Astronauta," which he had written with Baden Powell.

Vinícius, Tom, João and Os Cariocas at Au Bon Gourmet

"Garota de Ipanema" made its Brazilian recording debut in January of 1963, with separate releases by vocalist Pery Ribeiro and the instrumental group Tamba Trio. Its monster global success was yet to come, however.

The inspiration for the song was a beautiful, tanned teenaged girl named Heloisa ("Helô") Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto who lived on Rua Montenegro in Ipanema and used to “sway so gently” past the Veloso bar on her street as she made her way to the beach or around town. Jobim and de Moraes were regulars at Veloso, where they gathered to chat and down copious quantities of beers and scotch. They didn't fail to notice the young woman's charms as she passed by, often whistling in appreciation and calling out to her, as did other male patrons, all to no avail.

Hêlo at the beach in Rio

They turned their appreciation of the young woman into a song, but didn't compose the tune on napkins at Veloso, contrary to many reports. Rather, Vinícius penned the lyrics in Petropolis, in the mountains north of Rio. Jobim composed the music on the piano in his Ipanema apartment on Rua Barão da Torre. The song had a working title of "Menina Que Passa" (Girl Who Passes By), was originally intended for a musical comedy called Dirigível(Blimp), and initially had a different opening verse.

The next month, bossa nova really took off overseas, thanks to jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd's Jazz Samba album. It had been released in April 1962 and the album and its instrumental hit single "Desafinado" (by Jobim and Newton Mendonça) entered the Billboard pop charts in September. Jazz Samba ultimately hit no. 1 and stayed on the charts for seventy weeks. Jazz and pop musicians released a flood of bossa-themed albums. Getz quickly followed up with Big Band Bossa Nova and Jazz Samba Encore, making the pop charts with both.

Jobim, Getz and Gilberto at the recording session

By March of 1963, the bossa nova craze was starting to lose steam in the U.S. but many good recordings with the style were still being made. Getz had long wanted to play with Gilberto and Jobim and invited them to New York to record an album. Getz/Gilberto had the small stellar lineup of Getz (saxophone), Gilberto (guitar and vocals), Jobim (piano), Milton Banana (drums), and Tommy Williams (bass). It was a dream lineup and a chance for Getz to go straight to the source of bossa nova and play with its two greatest musical figures: João and Tom. Yet it wasn't all smooth sailing. Getz still wasn't getting bossa nova quite right and Gilberto the perfectionist was impatient with him, saying things in Portuguese to Jobim like, "Tom, tell the gringo he's a moron," according to Brazilian journalist Ruy Castro. But Getz biographer Donald L. Maggin claims that Stan and João shared a great rapport, and that a major problem arose the first day when the naturally shy and reclusive Gilberto refused to leave his hotel room to go to the recording session. It reportedly took hours of pleading by Getz's wife Monica to get him to the studio. In any event, it all came together, especially after Getz downed a few shots of whiskey, and the memorable LP was cut on March 18 and 19, 1963.

Getz, Milton Banana, Jobim, Creed Taylor, João and Astrud

Two of the album's tunes, "Corcovado" and "The Girl From Ipanema," featured the light, gentle vocals of João’s wife, Astrud Gilberto, who had practiced singing with João and performed at informal bossa gatherings but was not yet a professional. Getz claimed it was his idea to include her on the album and that Tom and João opposed it; Ruy Castro wrote that it was Astrud's idea; Tom said that it was his and João's inspiration; and, Astrud herself was quoted as saying that it was all her husband's idea. In any event, it worked far better than anybody could have hoped for. Some Brazilian musicians still cringe at her somewhat amateurish performance on "The Girl From Ipanema," but it's hard now to imagine the song having become such a success without her cool, slightly awkward, innocent yet sexy vocals. Astrud sang about the girl from Ipanema and for many listeners was the girl in the song.

Norman Gimbel wrote the English lyrics for "The Girl From Ipanema," which were inspired by the original Portuguese words by Vinícius but were not a translation. He also cut out two syllables (and two repetitive notes) from the opening phrase, going from "Olha que coisa" (five syllables) to "Tall and tan" (three syllables), as noted by Jobim biographer Sérgio Cabral, who claimed Tom wasn't bothered by it. Gimbel himself noted, in an email sent to me, that "I simplified [the music] by taking out some notes from the original to give it 'edge.'"

Lyricist Norman Gimbel

Gene Lees, the English-language lyricist for several famous Jobim songs and a noted jazz essayist, wasn't happy with the adjustments. In one of his books he wrote, "The opening line contains five notes; Gimbel reduced this to three…which completely destroys the swing."

However, Gimbel felt the change was part of what made the song a huge worldwide success, along with the English lyrics, which "told a universal story in a fun international (American) way," said Gimbel. In both versions, the observer admires the beauty of the pretty girl walking by and is sad that she isn't his. In the Portuguese lyrics, he doesn't think about doing anything about it. But in the American version, the observer wishes he could talk to her.

                         But I watch her so sadly
                         How can I tell her I love her
                         Yes I would give my heart gladly
                         But each day, when she walks to the sea
                         She looks straight ahead not at me

Vinicius's lyrics are more of a poetic lament, a meditation on youthful beauty. Gimbel tells a tale of a one-sided, frustrated romance and his words are more about the girl herself.

Gimbel mentions the words "the girl from Ipanema" during the song, while the Brazilian lyrics mention that she has a "golden body from the Ipanema sun" but don't ever call her the "girl from Ipanema." Her appearance is less abstract and more tangible in the English version. Instead of "look, what a beautiful thing, so graceful" (Vinícius) we have "tall and tan and young and lovely" (Gimbel), which creates a more striking impression.

Gimbel managed to both evoke the celebratory/melancholy mood of the original song and successfully imprint a character in the public imagination. The original lyrics are more subtle and poetic, but the direct English words were probably essential to the song's enormous global success.

Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
When she walks she’s like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gently

João and Astrud's vocals were both included in "The Girl From Ipanema" track on Getz/Gilberto. João sings the Portuguese lyrics, Astrud sings the English lyrics, Getz delivers a sublime sax solo, Jobim follows with a short piano solo, and then Astrud's voice and Getz's sax close it together. It is the greatest performance of the song, but when it came time to release the single, producer Creed Taylor cut out João's vocals entirely, leaving only the English lyrics and reducing the song's length to just over three minutes.


Astrud and Getz perform the abridged version of "The Girl From Ipanema"

Taylor kept the album on the shelf for a year, not wanting to compete with Jazz Samba, which was still riding high on the charts. As a result, the song—with the title "The Girl From Ipanema" but in an instrumental form—made its U.S. debut in 1963 on Jobim's album The Composer of "Desafinado" Plays, which had been recorded two months after Getz/Gilbertobut released immediately.


Getz/Gilberto, released by Verve in 1964

Verve released Getz/Gilberto only in March 1964 and "The Girl From Ipanema" single in April of that year. Both hit the pop charts in June. “The Girl From Ipanema” bridged the language gap with the U.S. audience and the breezy song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1964 (awarded to Stan and Astrud) and went to number 5 on the Billboard singles chart. With one suave stroke, it altered Brazil's international image. One might have previously pictured Carmen Miranda, coffee and the Amazon when thinking of Brazil, or perhaps even Brasília and modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer. Now, "The Girl From Ipanema" was a new symbol of the country, with its casual sophistication, its paean to unattainable young beauty, and the implicit evocation of beachside Rio's easygoing charm in the early '60s. Astrud's participation in the song made her an instant star and provided her with an international singing career, although she didn't earn a penny from the hit single or the album.

Astrud Gilberto with Stan Getz

Most importantly, "The Girl From Ipanema" opened the minds of listeners across the world to the richness of Brazilian music. Its smooth syncopation and graceful lyricism made it into a standard. Unfortunately, in the 1960s and '70s it was so overplayed that in the United States “The Girl From Ipanema” began to epitomize pop corniness. In 1980, it was heard as elevator music in the comedy "The Blues Brothers." Happily, time has dissipated the excesses of commercialization and the song’s definitive version (the unabridged track from Getz/Gilberto) is again a delight to hear: cool, seductive, and wistful.

The album Getz/Gilberto garnered three other Grammys (Best Album, Best Instrumental Jazz Performance (Small Group), and Best Engineered Recording (Non-Classical) as well and went to number 2 on the pop charts. It failed to reach number 1 only because the Beatles were making pop music history that year. Getz/Gilbertospent an extraordinary ninety-six weeks on the charts, fifty of them in the Top 40. It has never gone out of print and deserves its success: the album is a great marriage of Getz's sensuous, lyrical saxophone with João and Tom's sublime bossa nova.

The Garota de Ipanema bar/restaurant (formerly Veloso)

Helô became nationally famous in 1965 once Jobim and Vinícius revealed her as the inspiration for the song. Jobim was smitten by the young woman and proposed marriage to her several times, all in vain. She married her boyfriend, an engineer, became Helô Pinheiro, and had four children. She became a friend to the famous songwriters, although remained an unattainable muse for them. Today the Veloso bar is named Garota de Ipanema, after the song. The street it faces, Rua Montenegro, is now called Rua Vinícius de Moraes.

Also See:

Getz/Gilberto (Original Recording Reissued)

The Brazilian Music Book by Chris McGowan (Kindle edition)

The Brazilian Sound (3rd edition) by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha (paperback)


Another Side of Jazz Samba: An Interview with Buddy Deppenschmidt

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Buddy Deppenschmidt in 1992.

Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s 1962 album Jazz Sambais one of the most important popular music albums in history. Without it, bossa nova might never have boomed outside of Brazil and become such an indelible part of the world's music. And Jazz Samba might never have been recorded were it not for a young drummer's enthusiasm for bossa, which he first heard on a trip in early 1961 to Brazil. William "Buddy" Deppenschmidt, who played drums on the album, was on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of South America that year as part of the Charlie Byrd Trio, along with guitarist Byrd (1925-1999) and bassist Keter Betts (1928-2005). While in Salvador, he heard bossa nova for the first time, and was enraptured by the new style. He and Betts spent many hours on the trip trying to learn the new style, and when they returned to the U.S. they continued practicing. Eventually, they and Byrd started performing bossa nova songs at the Showboat Lounge in Washington, D.C.

According to Deppenschmidt, he was the first to suggest that the trio record a bossa nova album and he and Betts spent months trying to convince Byrd to do it. Byrd eventually talked to saxophonist Stan Getz about doing a joint album of bossa songs and played him a Gilberto record. Getz liked the music and the concept. He went to A&R executive Creed Taylor at Verve, who gave it a green light. According to many sources, they initially tried to record Jazz Samba in late '61 with Getz's musicians, and it didn't work. So, Buddy and Keter were brought back into the project.

In an August 29, 1963 Downbeat article by Leonard Feather, Byrd recalled, "We tried to make the album in New York, as you know, with a New York rhythm section, but they just couldn't make it. Buddy Deppenschmidt deserves an awful lot of credit for his part in the album; he spent so much time working on getting the exact rhythmic thing down." His wife Ginny added, "Buddy and Keter stayed up nights learning those rhythms." Byrd added, "All Stan had to do was come in and play. We had the rhythm section and the idea." Byrd picked the songs (by Antonio Carlos Jobim and others), provided the musicians, did the arrangements, and set up the recording session. Getz flew down from New York to Washington, D.C. for the day with Verve's Taylor, who produced the album. Jazz Samba was recordedin about two hours on February 13, 1962 at the All Souls Unitarian church. Drummer Bill Reichenbach and guitarist/bassist Joe (Gene) Byrd completed the lineup.


The original cover of Jazz Samba

Jazz Samba eventually made it to the no. 1 position on the Billboard pop albums chart, the only jazz instrumental album to have ever achieved that feat. One of its highlights was the sublime "Desafinado," a composition by Jobim and Newton Mendonça. With inspired soloing by Getz, the tune stayed on the pop singles chart for sixteen weeks, and won a "best solo jazz performance" Grammy for Getz. Jazz Samba stayed on the charts for seventy weeks and sold half a million copies within eighteen months. It was more jazz than bossa, but the new sound struck a nerve. Byrd and Getz were the first Americans to release an album of bossa nova songs, and it launched the bossa craze in the United States.

About a month after the release of Jazz Samba, Getz offered Deppenschmidt a gig, according to Buddy. Stan asked if he had a New York union card (he didn't) and said, "Well, if you can get one, you've got a job. We're getting a lot of requests for the bossa nova stuff and my drummer isn't getting it." Alas, the young Deppenschmidt was already working steadily in D.C. with Byrd and didn't want to pay the $500 for the card. "I was young and didn't realize how much my playing was worth and had a young family to support." It was a missed opportunity. Soon after, Byrd replaced Deppenschmidt in the trio with Reichenbach, although he used Buddy for another recording later in the year.

Deppenschmidt only received $150 for his playing on Jazz Samba. While Byrd took Verve's parent company MGM to court in 1964 for a fairer share of the album's royalties, Deppenschmidt waited much longer, until 2001, to sue Verve and its then parent, the Universal Music Group; according to the drummer, he reached a settlement with them around 2004. His and Betts' vital contributions to the conception and realization of the album were largely ignored until June 2004, when JazzTimes published David Adler's article "Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd: Give the Drummer Some." Buddy's account differs from that of the Byrd family; Elana Byrd (Charlie Byrd's sister-in-law) claims that the project was the idea of Charlie's wife Ginny. Whichever account is true, the album certainly wouldn’t have sounded the same without Deppenschmidt and Betts, in part because they were so enthusiastic about the new style and because of the hours they spent practicing it before recording with Byrd. The interview below tells Buddy's side of the story, which deserves to be heard.


Buddy Deppenschmidt (born February 16, 1936 in Philadelphia) played with Byrd from 1959-1962 and appeared on such albums as The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd, Charlie Byrd at the Village Vanguard, Blues Sonata, Jazz Samba, Latin Impressions, and Once More! Charlie Byrd's Bossa Nova. He also performed with jazz figures such as Chet Baker, Mose Allison, Clark Terry, Coleman Hawkins, Herb Ellis, King Pleasure, Phil Woods, Lionel Hampton, and James Moody, and has long been active in jazz education. In recent years he has led his own group, Jazz Renaissance, and has been a faculty member at The Conservatory music school in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where he teaches music theory and improvisation in jazz, Brazilian, Latin and other styles.

Chris McGowan: You filed a lawsuit against Verve and Universal Music Group in 2001. Was there a result?
Buddy Deppenschmidt: It went into mediation because they didn’t want it to go into court. I had to sign a gag order so I’m really not supposed to talk about it. But they reneged on part of their agreement. They didn’t fulfill their end of the bargain. I was even considering possibly re-opening the case. They didn’t treat me fairly at all. They claimed they couldn’t come up with any sales figures for Jazz Samba. They didn’t even know if it had sold a million copies. And I’m sure it went gold, platinum and diamond. It had to. You still play $18 or $19 for a copy of the CD when you go into one of the larger record shops. It’s there, everywhere, and still selling.

C: What year did the settlement take place?
B: I think maybe around 2004. I'm somewhat disappointed but can’t talk about it. I wish the Adler [JazzTimes] article had [already] come out; I would have probably been treated with more respect.

C: When Charlie Byrd sued MGM (Verve's owner then) back in 1964, did you not also sue them then because you didn’t have the money for the legal fees?
B: Yeah. I didn’t have enough money to hire a lawyer. I was in my twenties and very inexperienced. If only I had known then what I know now, I would probably have realized that any lawyer could have done it on a contingency basis. I know that of all the people who were involved in that project, the person who did the least was [Verve's] Creed Taylor, because all he had to do was show up.

C: Yet, even though you couldn’t afford a lawyer back then, why did you wait until 2001 to file suit? It had been such a long time and that album had sold so much over the years.
B: I’ll tell you why. Because I was busy playing and living in the present and not in the past. My girlfriend deserves a lot of credit because she’s the one that said this isn’t right, this isn’t fair. Let’s do something about it. She helped me and we put out a press release together and we sent it out to people.

C: So, your girlfriend talked you into pursuing it.
B: Yes, and I’m glad she did. Because I found it was more satisfying to know that I had at least done something about it. To just be complacent isn’t the way to go. And I had just given it up. I was so disappointed in the whole thing and the way it turned out, other than the way the music turned out well and that it was a successful venture, God knows it was successful for Verve records and for Stan Getz and for Charlie Byrd. But it wasn’t very successful for me. I was still happy to see my idea be materialized, and I was part of it and I got to do it and the music is there and it will be there forever. And I have to get my satisfaction from that. Because if I had dwelled on the fact that I didn’t get financial compensation, I would have been miserable over it, so I just had to dismiss that.

The 1961 tour of Latin America: Buddy Deppenschmidt, Charlie
Byrd and Keter Betts on the left and Ginny Byrd on the far right.


C: It all started with a three-month Latin American tour in 1961, sponsored by the State Department. How long were you in Brazil for?
B: Approximately two weeks. We went to eight cities—Bahia, Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Recife, Belo Horizonte and Belém. We did not play in Belém. We didn’t go to Rio because the state department had sent large groups down there. Since we were just four people—Keter, Charlie, Ginny [Byrd's wife] and myself—they sent us to cover bases they hadn’t covered in the past. To send Count Basie’s band was airfare for twenty or thirty people. We were just four people. So they tried to send us to a lot of places that had never had any American jazz before. 

C: Was the purpose of the trip to spread American culture?
B: That’s what it was. It was called the Cultural Exchange Program, and we surely did culturally exchange. I learned a lot down there and I tried to teach everyone we had contact with, all the musicians. Whenever we’d get together I’d show them stuff and they’d show me stuff. Even after I got back to the United States I had drummers mailing me rhythms written out on paper. There were nights we stayed up all night. 

C: What did you perform in your concerts in Brazil?
B: We played a lot of Latin stuff in our repertoire. It was on our concert program. We had four programs and in each city the embassy would choose which program they wanted us to play. All of the programs had some Duke Ellington tunes and some Latin-type tunes. I got to play a lot of Latin rhythms, mostly based on rhumba.

C: When you were in Brazil, it must have been a pretty magical time, because in 1961 Brazil was at a peak in a lot of ways, and had much less crime and a much smaller population. You probably went at a great time. 
B: It was wonderful. I loved it, every minute of it. I’m glad I didn’t just go to embassy cocktail parties. I reserved most of my off time to hang out with local people and most of the time they were musicians, but not all of the time. Sometimes it would be like a local jazz club, or something like that (in Uruguay not in Brazil). I remember the people so well. I got letters for quite a while. 

C: You had some particularly important meetings in Salvador.
B: I got to meet Master Bimba [Mestre Bimba, the leader of the "capoeira regional" school of capoeira]. We were having lunch and when we were done lo and behold there was master Bimba with his troupe of guys and they were doing capoeira. And that’s when I got berimbau [lessons]. They got some shots of Charlie playing his guitar with master bimba after at the restaurant and some shorts of Bimba in my hotel room, giving me lessons on the berimbau. He made me a berimbau and taught me how to play it. I’m not a virtuouso but I can play it and I still do. I still have it and have used it on some recordings. I make a few now for my students and show them how to play it. I was really interested in the berimbau and particularly in the bossa stuff [Mestre Bimba Tocando Com Charlie Byrd on YouTube is a very short video showing Mestre Bimba with both Buddy and Charlie Byrd].

A late '60s photo of Buddy playing berimbau.

C: You also went to the house of a judge [Carlos Coqueijo Costa], and he played some bossa records for you. Was Charlie Byrd with you or were you off on your own?
B: He was with us then. They invited the whole group of us to his home for dinner, and after dinner we had wine and he played music for us and they passed the guitar and everyone played guitar. And his wife played the guitar; his son played piano and drums. That was the first time we ever heard Gilberto and Jobim. Keter and I went out the very next day and bought his [Gilberto]’s records. And we started rehearsing in our hotel rooms. Just he and I. Charlie was not included in that. 

C: At the judge’s house, were they teaching you the rhythms and also showing Charlie how to play bossa nova on the guitar?
B: Not really. You know, they weren’t giving me a lesson in it either. I was just fascinated with how his son played the brushes on a record jacket. He stuck an LP jacket between his knees and started playing brushes in it.

C: What were the two bossa albums you bought?
B: The first two João Gilberto Odeon recordings [Chega de Saudadeand O Amor, O Sorriso e A Flor]. The judge brought the third one [João Gilberto] up to me in Washington D.C.

   
Mutinho (guitar), Malu (center) and Buddy.

C: You also learned a lot about Brazilian music in Porto Alegre?
B: About a week later in Porto Alegre this girl, Malu Pederneiras, came up to me after a concert and invited me to lunch at her house the next day. I didn’t know what to think of it. I thought maybe she was coming on to me. I didn’t know what to expect and it turned out to be a very wholesome regular get-together. It was a musical thing. She wanted me to come over and meet her boyfriend and he was going to show me how to play the [bossa nova] rhythm. Probably when she heard me playing Latin rhythms on drums, she thought, "We should show you how to play the new stuff. Come on over to the house tomorrow, bring your brushes and your sticks, and we’ll show you how to play it." She just invited me over to lunch and they started showing me how. Her boyfriend played guitar and was a drummer. His name was Mutinho. He’s playing in São Paulo now. She had her whole family there and her father didn’t go to work that day; he stayed home. And all of her relatives were there and friends. It was like a family reunion. We must have spent an hour or two where they were teaching me how to play the rhythm.

Mutinho, Buddy and Malu.

C: Were they teaching Charlie how to play the guitar? Was he there?
B: He wasn’t there. She just came to me and invited me over and didn’t say anything to anyone else.

C: So, you were already practicing bossa nova while you were in Brazil.
B: I loved the music. I fell in love with the music the first time I heard it. Keter too. And I said let’s rehearse a little bit while we’re here instead of waiting until we get back home. Let’s just get together and play in our rooms a little bit. And we started getting it together and I said [to Keter], "We’ve got to do an album of this stuff." I was really hot to do one. I didn’t even start talking to Charlie about doing an album until we got back to the States, and then when we got back I said, "We gotta do this. No one has heard this music in the States. It’ll be the first album if we do it." 

C: Well, Capitol had released the João Gilberto album Brazil's Brilliant João Gilberto [his second Brazilian LP, with a new title] in 1961 but it bombed. Nobody really listened to it.
B: It just goes to show. That’s the pure version. As far as I’m concerned that’s the real deal (laughs). I do what I do. I do my version of it. I was brought up and steeped in the bebop era and Stan Getz was my idol. I had all of his records, all of his stuff. I always did think he was a wonderful player. I thought to myself, this is the way we make it sound. But they really play it the pure way. I don’t know why [Gilberto's album] wasn’t a huge hit.

João Gilberto's debut album Chega de Saudade for Odeon in Brazil.

C: Well, I can hear that. For a huge massive success it was necessary for a slight translation. And João Gilberto’s voice was too different for Americans and he sang in Portuguese. You guys did an instrumental album. I just wonder if there would have been a bossa nova boom in the United States if Jazz Samba had never come out. Maybe nothing would have ever happened.
B: I thought the same thing. I think it opened up an opportunity for Brazilian musicians to come play music in this country and make a decent living doing what they do. And I thought it was great for them.

C: I think what you guys and Herbie Mann and others were playing was jazz bossa.
B: That’s what it is. You can’t call it bossa nova music because it’s not pure bossa nova. It is definitely a fusion of jazz and Brazilian music. And it’s a really nice combination. I can see why it was so popular because it was probably the mixture of the two that finally convinced [the public]. They weren’t ready to hear it the way João Gilberto did it, they weren’t ready for that, they couldn’t quite accept that. But what we did sort of hit a nerve and all of a sudden they said this is pretty good stuff. You can dance to it. It’s unobtrusive. You can have a conversation and it’s not in your face. And it’s interesting, it’s not boring, it’s not elevator music. It’s everything that you would want, actually.

C: Was the album your and Keter’s idea? Or was it your idea and he was trying to help you push it?
B: It was really my idea, but I wasn’t getting through. And at the time I was only about 25. Keter was about ten years older than me and had been with Charlie several years before I joined. So I said, "I’m not getting anywhere with Charlie, why don’t you help me, Keter? You’ve been longer with him and he’ll listen to you." And even that didn’t work. And then I went to Charlie’s wife [Ginny Byrd] and tried to talk her into doing it. She said she didn’t think it was the right thing for Charlie, because he was known for playing blues and classical. And I said, "Well, it’s guitar music. It’s perfect for him and we could do a great job. Why don’t you try to talk him into it?" Finally, I convinced her. Because we used to hang out together during intermission when Charlie would do his classical bit. We’d do a jazz set and then Keter and I would get off and Charlie would do twenty or thirty minutes of classical guitar [at the Showboat Lounge], and I would be hanging out with Ginny. I tried to sway her and I finally did. And she talked to Charlie. Keter had already done it, and I had been pushing it. And finally he decided maybe we should do this.

 
Betts (bass) and Deppenschmidt (drums) during the '61 tour.

C: Whose idea was it to play with Stan Getz?
B: The whole thing with Stan Getz was my idea. And I said, "Look, if you can’t get Stan Getz you can try to get Paul Desmond. He would be good for this music."

C: Once Byrd gave it the green light, the next hurdle was finding a receptive record label. Byrd's label, Riverside Records, wasn't interested.
B: Riverside didn’t want to have anything to do with it. No interest in it at all. Keter even mentioned to me that he played the records we bought for Orrin Keepnews [co-founder of Riverside] and he didn’t think much of it. I don’t understand why. It just goes to show you can be good but you don’t know everything. I’m sure he kicked himself in the butt after Jazz Samba came out and was such a big hit. And then everybody started going that way.

C: But producer Creed Taylor at Getz's label, Verve, was interested. According to many sources, at that point you almost were removed from the project, as Getz and Byrd recorded tracks with Getz's band in two or three sessions in October 1961 at Rudy Van Gelder's Studio in New York*.
B: Keter is the one who told me. Keter knew John [Neves], who was the bass player for Stan at the time, and he went to New York and he met John on the sidewalk and John said “Hi, how you doing, I just did a date with your boss today.” And Keter said, “What do you mean, you did a date with my boss?” And he said, “It’s the second one we’ve done and we couldn’t get one track that we could use. It’s that Brazilian stuff.” Keter is the one that came to me and told me this. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known about it. They tried to do it with Stan’s rhythm section, or at least his bass player and drummer. And Roy Haynes [Getz's drummer] is one of the finest jazz drummers you could wish to have in your group but at the time he wasn’t getting the feel of the bossa nova right and they didn’t get anything that worked.

[*Author's note: Charlie Byrd referred to The New York "phantom sessions" in the 1963 Down Beat interview mentioned earlier; it was also mentioned by Getz biographers Donald Maggin and Dave Gelly, John Litweiler (who wrote liner notes for a Jazz Samba reissue), and musicians Keter Betts and Roy Haynes (in the JazzTimes article by David Adler). The latter notes that the Verve master discography lists two recording sessions with Getz and Byrd on 10/25/1961 labeled "JAZZ SAMBA." Creed Taylor, however, denies that the "phantom sessions" ever took place.]

Creed Taylor

C: Why did Getz want to use only his own musicians?
B: I think the only reason they didn’t use Keter and me right off the bat was that Verve Records was insisting that Getz use his musicians and Charlie would be brought in as a guest artist. And the way it worked out they wanted to do it on Stan’s record label with Stan’s musicians. It would be Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd. Not Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz on Riverside.

C: But it didn't work out like that.
B: They tried to do it without us and it didn’t work.

C: Did Charlie ever talk to you about the failed recording dates?
B: Charlie never mentioned them.

C: They had to come back to you and Keter.
B: It finally came to pass. Charlie said he had decided to do the album. I said, "When?" And he said, "On Saturday." And Saturday was just three or four days away. It didn’t make me nervous because I was ready. So when they decided to do it with us it worked and we did it in two hours. 

C: You guys had been playing bossa nova at the Showboat Lounge already.
B: Yeah, it started then. It took almost six months before we started playing it in public and when we did it was received very well and Charlie liked that, and I think that [part of the reason] he finally gave in [was] because he saw that the public liked it and it was good music for us, guitar, bass and drums, perfect instrumentation. We were probably doing it in the club for three months, something like that.

C: In the days between when Charlie told you about the recording date and when you did it, were there any specific rehearsals of the material?
B: There were no rehearsals.

C: But you guys, by playing bossa tunes together at the Showboat Lounge, had essentially been rehearsing. So when you went to the recording session you were well rehearsed.
B: Absolutely. We were ready to rock and roll.

C: Did Charlie pick all the songs to be recorded on Jazz Samba? Did you have any input?
B: I had no input on the song selection. Charlie chose them and sketched out the simple charts.

C: You have disagreed with certain claims by Creed Taylor about the session.
B: In that [JazzTimes] article by David Adler, he [Taylor] denies there were any other attempts to make the record without us. [And] he says he brought a tape recorder and two microphones which is absolutely preposterous. Contrary to what Creed Taylor claims, there were nine mics including the ambient mic, which can be seen on a stand above us in the session photo. There were three microphones on the drum set alone, and Bill Reichenbach had a microphone because he was doing a thing on a snare drum with brush, and then Charlie’s brother had to have a microphone on his bass and guitar, and Keter had a microphone and Stan Getz had a microphone. Whoever wrote all that publicity from the record company, Hans Christian Anderson couldn’t have done a better job. I think “Jazz Samba” may have been the only thing that was Creed Taylor’s idea.

Stan Getz, Joe Byrd and Charlie Byrd at the Jazz Samba recording session.

C: The name of the album?
B: I think he came up with the title. Everyone thought he could walk on water because of Jazz Samba though he didn’t have a darn thing to do with it. The only thing he had to do—he was the A&R man at Verve and Stan Getz was under contract to Verve.

C: Speaking of all of you guys, it's amazing that Getz got so much of the credit. Charlie and you and Keter had been playing this for a few months. And Charlie set up the recording session and Getz just showed up and played for two hours.
B: It was more like Getz was sitting in with the Charlie Byrd Trio.

C: The actual recording session was about two hours long?
B: We started at noon and the recording was over by 2pm. They were listening to playback as I was packing my drums up. I was out of there by 3pm. Back over to the Showboat and getting my drum set back up for that night. Then I had to drive over to Arlington, Virginia where I lived, eat, take a shower, get dressed, and get back over to D.C. to play that night. So I wasn’t going to hang around and listen to the playback. "I’ve heard those tunes before, I’ve played those tunes before." 

C: Did it match what you wanted to do, your idea?
B: Yes, it did. Except that I hadn’t counted on having two bass players [Joe Byrd and Keter Betts] or a rhythm guitar player [also Joe Byrd], or another drummer [Reichenbach].

C: Was Joe Byrd someone who played with you at the Showboat Lounge much?
B: No.

C: He wasn’t part of the band.
B: He wasn’t part of the band, but there were a few times he substituted for Keter. I can only remember two or three times that Joe played bass while I was in the band.

C: You hadn’t expected him to be at the recording session?
B: I did not know that Bill Reichenbach was going to be on that date and I didn’t know that Joe was going to be on that date. Charlie told me at the last minute. I was thinking it was just going to be a quartet—Charlie, Keter, myself and Stan Getz. Our trio plus Getz. I didn’t know he was augmenting the band with two other people.

C: Why was Bill Reichenbach brought in to play on Jazz Samba?
B: Maybe Charlie had intentions of getting Bill Reichenbach in the band and letting me go. I don’t know.

Buddy, Keter and Charlie listening to playback
of The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd in 1961.

C: When the album came out you didn’t get any credit for it having been your idea. Did you have any argument with Charlie about that?
B: No, I’ll tell you the truth. At the time I was just so excited that the album came out and I was happy with my job. I was getting to play the kind of music I wanted to play every night. It didn’t enter my mind that I wasn’t getting any credit. After he let me go, I thought, "Well, that’s gratitude for you." I talk him into doing this great album that’s very successful and then he fires me. I just don’t understand it. And then when he fired Keter two months later I thought he was losing his mind. If you’ve got Keter Betts, he was as good a bass player that has ever played [Betts went on to play for many years with Ella Fitzgerald]. I thought we had a great trio and it didn’t make any sense at all, musically. I’m now firmly convinced that the reason he let me and Keter go might have been the advice of Pete Lambros, who was his manager. He probably said, "Look, get rid of these guys and you’re going to take all the credit for this."

C: When did Getz ask you to come join his band in New York? Were you still in Byrd's trio? And had Jazz Samba come out? 
B: When Stan Getz asked me to join his band, it was because he was getting a lot of requests for bossa nova because of the release of the album. I was with Charlie when Stan offered me the job because I turned it down thinking that I had a solid position with Charlie, didn't want to leave him and relocate, and couldn't afford it. Therefore, I was still with Charlie when the album was released. [Later] he brought me back to do one album that was called Once More [Once More! Charlie Byrd's Bossa Nova]. At that time Bill Reichenbach was playing for him.

C: What happened between Getz and Byrd that they didn’t record together again?
B: I don’t know why. Maybe because Charlie sued for royalties and he rubbed him the wrong way.

C: Were they friends before Jazz Samba?
B: I don’t think they had really met each other.

C: Who are your favorite Brazilian musicians?
B: Who I really like a lot is Maysa. I really like the stuff she did. Jobim and Dom Um Romão.

C: What about percussionists Airto Moreira and Naná Vasconcelos?
B: I love Airto, and Mutinho.

C: When you recorded Jazz Samba, did it feel like something special when you were doing it?
B: Well, it felt like it was good. I had no idea that it was going to be as successful as it was. But I knew the music was going to be good. There was no way it was going to be bad.


Read more about Jazz Sambahere:
Blame It On the Bossa Nova: Jazz Samba's 50th Birthday

Read about Getz/Gilberto and "The Girl from Ipanema" here:
The Girl from Ipanema: 50 Years Old in 2013

A four-CD box set of Stan Getz's bossa nova albums:
Stan Getz, The Girl from Ipanema: The Bossa Nova Years

Read more about Brazilian music:
The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil


Dominguinhos

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Accordionist-composer Dominguinhos, one of the musical greats from Brazil's Northeast, passed away on July 23rd. His accordion playing on his many solo albums and works by Luiz Gonzaga, Gilberto Gil, Elba Ramalho and many others is an indelible part of Brazil's musical history. Born on February 12, 1941 in Garanhuns, in the interior of Pernambuco, Dominguinhos started learning to play the accordion at age six, met and impressed the legendary Luiz Gonzaga at nine, and moved to Rio at 13 to pursue a musical career, where he re-connected with Gonzaga and became part of his band. He was a master of the regional forró, xote and baião styles, and also delved into bossa nova, jazz and pop.

He went on to tour and record with Gonzaga, and worked with many important figures of MPB (also including Martia Bethânia. Toquinho, Nana Caymmi, Sivuca and Yamandú Costa), being called upon "when the perfect accordion touch was required," as noted in The Brazilian Sound. He recorded more than forty solo albums and as a songwriter teamed with Anastácia, Nando Cordel, Gilberto Gil, Djavan, Chico Buarque and others. He contributed numerous Northeastern-flavored classics such as "Só Quero Um Xodo" and "Lamento Sertanejo." He was considered a fine person and will be sorely missed. He was much beloved in Brazil's musical community: here are some testimonials to Dominguinhos (in Portuguese).

Here are two of his most well-known compositions:



Dominguinhos, "So Quero Um Xodó"



Dominguinhos and Gilberto Gil, "Lamento Sertanejo"


More info (in Portuguese): Dominguinhos official site.


Cristina Braga and the Brazilian Harp

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When Cristina Braga plays the harp, she can weave enchanting melodies with ethereal glissandos, and she can pluck, tap and slap the strings to create driving, rhythmic, and even edgy sounds. The first harpist with the symphonic orchestra of Rio de Janeiro's Teatro Municipal, Braga is a crossover artist who freely roams between classical music, samba, bossa nova and even rock and roll. Here is my Huffington Post article about her new album, and below are some additional video and related links not included in that piece:


More Cristina Braga Videos


Roberto Menescal and Cristina Braga perform "Triste"
on The United Kingdom of Ipanema DVD



Cristina Braga, "Love Parfait" (Ricard Medeiros / Bernardo Vilhena)



Cristina Braga and Ricardo Medeiros, "Stairway to Heaven"


CDs and DVDs (Amazon.com)

Samba, Jazz and Love (CD)

United Kingdom of Ipanema: Roberto Menescal Convida Andy Summers (DVD)

Cristina Braga CDs (All)

Jorge Benjor's "Mas Que Nada" - 50 Years Later

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In May of 2013 I was interviewed about Jorge Benjor's song "Mas Que Nada" by the Japanese television show Song to Soul*, which airs on the BS TBS channel in that country. Each hour-long program profiles a particular song that has achieved status as a classic in Japan. In this case, the show focused on the recording of "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, which projected the song globally.

"Mas Que Nada" (Oh, Come On) is a composition that left an indelible cultural mark in many countries, and has become one of the most played Brazilian songs of all time worldwide. Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Al Jarreau, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Trini Lopez, Al Hirt, Ella Fitzgerald and many notable Brazilian artists are among the few hundred musicians who have recorded it. In recent years, it has been the most played song in North America sung entirely in Portuguese, and the Sergio Mendes version was the only all-Portuguese recording to have been a pop hit in the U.S., other than Carmen Miranda's "Mamãe Eu Quero."

Jorge Benjor (Jorge Duílio Lima Meneses) first recorded the song fifty years ago in 1963, after introducing it to enthusiastic bossa nova and jazz audiences at Bottles Bar, in the famed Beco das Garrafas lane of nightclubs in Copacabana. One of those who heard Benjor (then going by the name of Ben) playing there with the Copa Cinco group was a Philips executive and the young singer-songwriter-guitarist was soon signed to a contract. Benjor released "Mas Que Nada," a kinetic samba with hints of maracatu,on his album Samba Esquema Novo for the Philips label. Just prior to that, the song was recorded by the Zé Maria group (with Jorge supplying vocals) for its Tudo Azul album and by the Tamba Trio on Avanço.


The song had Benjor's unique groove, and didn't fit into the realms of either traditional samba or bossa nova. "Mas Que Nada" was a hit and helped launch Benjor's career in Brazil. It achieved iconic status outside of Brazil thanks to the 1966 album Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66, which incorrectly lists the tune as "Mais Que Nada." Mendes had been tinkering with his group and repertoire, trying to find the right combination to achieve success in the U.S. And on this album, recorded for A&M Records, he found it. It featured a light, upbeat blend of Brazilian music and American pop, and Lani Hall's double-tracked vocals (she later sang in unison with Janice Hansen, who joined the group after this recording was finished). The album reached no. 7 on the U.S. pop charts, with a big push from its lead song, "Mas Que Nada."


Mendes's infectious version of "Mas Que Nada" was more celebratory than Benjor's own (which had been arranged by J.T. Meirelles) and closer in spirit to the organ/percussion-heavy Zé Maria recording, with Sergio's driving, jazzy piano and Lani Hall's soaring chorus. While "Mas Que Nada" was only a minor hit, reaching no. 47 on the Billboard pop singles chart, it caught the ears of many other musicians and has stayed in the public consciousness to this day. Sergio recorded it again in 2006, a hip-hop-charged version with the Black Eyed Peas, for the album Timeless. The new version hit no. 1 in Brazil, Holland and Hungary, no. 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, and no. 6 on the U.K. singles chart. The version was included in EA's 2006 FIFA World Cup and NBA Live '07 video games, and in a Nike ad with soccer players from the Brazilian national team. Mendes recorded it again with his wife, singer Gracinha Leporace, for the 2011 animated film Rio.

Starting with "Mas Que Nada" and Samba Esquema Novo, Jorge Benjor carved out a unique musical identity for himself, fusing elements of samba, bossa nova, rock, and funk, not fitting into any one category. He knocked down cultural walls just by being himself, and was able to move freely between different musical factions -- whether it was the bossa nova crowd, the Jovem Guarda pop stars, or various MPB artists. "Pais Tropical,""Fio Maravilha,""Chove Chuva," and "Taj Mahal" are among his other many oft-recorded standards. The Jorge Benjor "swing" has influenced generations of Brazilian musicians, including contemporary romantic pagode samba artists, and is still fresh after all these years, as is "Mas Que Nada."

Here is Jorge Benjor's own 1963 recording of the song:


Sergio Mendes's 1966 version:


And the 2006 Sergio Mendes and Black Eyes Peas recording of "Mas Que Nada":


--Chris McGowan

*There is information in Japanese about the July, 2013 "Mas Que Nada" edition of Song to Soul here: http://www.bs-tbs.co.jp/songtosoul/onair/onair_74.html.

Brazilian Jazz Singer Luciana Souza Makes Her Mark

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In 2013, Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza garnered not one but two Grammy nominations, for The Book of Chet (for Best Jazz Vocal Album) and Duos III (Best Latin Jazz Album). The 47-year-old vocalist and Los Angeles resident now has a total of six Grammy nominations, a distinction that has gone largely unrecognized in her native country. Here is a link to a Huffington Post piece I just published about Luciana: Luciana Souza: A Bossa Nova Baby Makes Her Mark in the Jazz Realm.

And, here are a few Luciana Souza YouTube videos:


Luciana Souza, "Doralice" (Duos III)


Luciana Souza, "Tim Tim Por Tim Tim" (Duos III)



Luciana Souza, "The Thrill Is Gone" (The Book of Chet)
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Carlos Lyra: 60 Years of Bossa Nova

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Carlos Lyra will celebrate the 60th anniversary of his career this year with concerts in several major Brazilian cities and the recording of a live DVD, both mostly likely in September. The singer-guitarist-songwriter is one of bossa nova's key figures and most important composers. João Gilberto recorded three of Lyra's songs—"Maria Ninguém" (Maria Nobody), "Lobo Bobo" (Foolish Wolf) and "Saudade Fez Um Samba" (Saudade Made a Samba*)—on Chega de Saudade (1959), generally regarded as the first bossa nova album. Lyra was one of the first bossa artists to release a solo album, in 1960. And he took the genre in new directions in the early '60s, with polemical lyrics and his involvement in musical theater productions that protested social injustice in Brazil.

Antonio Carlos Jobim praised Lyra as a "great melodist" and "formidable composer," while Marcos Valle commented that Lyra "was the guy who knew how to create bossa nova's most beautiful melodies. Tom [Jobim] was fantastic, with his harmonies and everything, but the melodies of Carlinhos were unbeatable." In the early '60s, Stan Getz, Charlie Byrd, Zoot Sims, Cal Tjader, Herbie Mann, Quincy Jones Vince Guaraldi, Phil Woods, Paul Winter, Lalo Schifrin, Astrud Gilberto, Sérgio Mendes and even Brigitte Bardot recorded Lyra's songs. And Paul Winter performed "Maria Ninguém" at the Kennedy White House in 1962.


Kay Lyra and her father Carlos perform "Você e Eu" on live TV

Despite all this, Lyra's works have had much less of a presence in international jazz and pop recordings since the '60s, as opposed to Jobim, whose compositions are still heavily performed and recorded. In part, this is because Lyra fell out of favor with Brazil's military, which overthrew a democratic government in 1964, and he went into a self-imposed exile from 1964 to 1971. This took him away from the Brazilian recording industry for a long and crucial period in his career, and he spent most of his exile in Mexico, hardly a launching pad for global recognition at the time. Lyra always marched to his own drummer and never put much effort into establishing a career in the U.S., as did Jobim and many other Brazilian musicians. "I never pursued success, not even in Brazil," Lyra comments. "I always pursued quality. My songs, when they were heard, were accepted and recorded by many in the whole world, without my having to ask, do marketing or let go of my life and my tranquility in order to run after success."

As a result of this, Lyra is still a musical hero in Brazil, for his bossa nova classics and for being a symbol of the resistance during the dictatorship, but his catalog of songs lies largely untouched overseas. In the new millennium, Phil Woods and Barbara Casini have covered Lyra's "Você e Eu" (You and I) in 2001, Luciana Souza recorded "Se É Tarde Me Perdoa" (If It's Late, Forgive Me) in 2003, andRosa Passos interpreted "Lobo Bobo" in 2004. But such efforts are few and far between, and the last ten years have seen an even bigger drought. Jazz and pop artists who appreciate Brazilian music would do well to acquaint themselves with Lyra's work, which is a somewhat undiscovered source of bossa classics, with great melodies and rich harmonies.


Carlos Lyra and Leila Pinheiro perform

"Saudade Fez Um Samba" and "Se É Tarde Me Perdoa."

Lyra was unusual for bossa nova in that he was both a charismatic performer and an acclaimed songwriter; the other principal artists were mostly good at one or the other thing. Jazz saxophonist Paul Winter teamed with Lyra on The Sound of Ipanema album in 1965 and recalls, "He was a little more outgoing than João [Gilberto]. I remember many nights when Carlos just would melt the clothes off every lady in the room. That guy had a magic that probably surpasses that of any other performer I’ve ever known. His music was so alluring and sensual. His melodies are gorgeous, whereas João didn’t write and Jobim didn’t perform a lot."

Lyra started his career precociously. Born in 1936 in Rio de Janeiro, he wrote his first song "Quando Chegares" (When You Arrive) in 1954. The next year, singer Sylvia Telles recorded Antonio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça's "Foi a Noite" (It Was the Night); the other side of the single was the young Lyra's composition "Menina" (Girl). Around this time, he began frequenting the Plaza Bar in the Hotel Plaza in Leme, a neighborhood adjacent to Copacabana. It was a formative site for the creators of bossa nova, a place for the likes of Johnny Alf, Jobim, Gilberto, João Donato, Baden Powell, Sylvia Telles, and Dolores Duran to share musical ideas. 

Jobim, Vinícius, Bôscoli, Menescal and Lyra

In 1956, Lyra opened a guitar academy with high school buddy Roberto Menescal, who would become another major figure in bossa nova. One of their students was a young Nara Leão, whose parent's Copacabana apartment became a favorite spot for jam sessions and who later became one of bossa's most renowned singers. By the next year, singer-guitarist João Gilberto had introduced the bossa nova beat to his musician friends, distilling samba rhythms into a simpler and irresistible pattern and acting as a catalyst for much great songwriting to come. Lyra, though, remembers Gilberto as having introduced his new beat at an earlier date, and doesn't give it as much importance as others do, seeing it as part of bossa's repertoire rather than its essential rhythm.

The new style of music made its public debut with Lyra and others before some two hundred people at Rio's Clube Hebráica (Hebrew Club) in 1957. Either the club's events director or an anonymous secretary billed the night's offerings as "Today, Sylvia Telles, Carlos Lyra and the bossa nova group." From that point on, "bossa nova" became accepted as a label for the new style. Odeon released Gilberto's recordings of "Chega de Saudade" and "Desafinado" in 1958, and the album Chega de Saudade in 1959, the latter produced by Jobim and including three Lyra songs as well as three Jobim tunes in the mix.


But Lyra became fed up with the Odeon label's delay in recording him and others and signed with Philips, for which he recorded his first album Bossa Nova in 1959, released in May 1960. This created a small rupture in bossa nova, with some musicians staying with Odeon, which had been nurturing them for some time and making promises, and others going to Philips.

Also in 1960, Lyra began his collaborations with poet and lyricist Vinícius de Moraes, who replaced Ronaldo Bôscoli as his main songwriting partner. Vinícius was the genre's most important lyricist and Jobim's frequent collaborator, and wrote the words for "Garota de Ipanema." Philips released Lyra's second album Carlos Lyra in 1961, and the next year he appeared on Bossa Nova Mesmo with Sylvia Telles, Vinícius and Oscar Castro-Neves, and Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall, the live recording of the historic concert that introduced many of bossa's main figures to an American audience.

In front: Carlos Lyra, Nara Leão and Vinícius de Moraes

By 1961, with bossa nova booming in Brazil, Lyra had already begun to take his art in a new direction, co-founding the leftist CPC (The People's Center for Culture) of the UNE (National Student's Union), which sought to create revolutionary popular art and popular art forms to take the masses out of "alienation and submission." The CPC also sought to facilitate interchanges between the culture of the povo(the "people," i.e., the poor and working class) and the middle class. At this time, Lyra had begun to feel that bossa nova needed socially conscious lyrics and that, as he would later say, it had "a hell of a lot of form, but lacked content."

He and Vinícius wrote the musical Pobre Menina Rica (Poor Little Rich Girl) in 1962. It had politically conscious lyrics, such as those of the electrifying "Maria Moita," which manages in just a few words to be both a protest against social inequality and an early feminist anthem. Pobre Menina Rica was released as an album in '64, staged in France that year, and translated into Spanish by novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

A young Antonio Adolfo participated as a pianist in the musical. "It was a privilege having Carlos Lyra invite me and my Trio 3D to participate in the wonderful and magical play by him and Vinícius. He was the one who baptized my trio. We worked on Pobre Menina Rica for three or four months from December 1963 through March 1964, at the Teatro de Bolso in Ipanema. Jobim always mentioned, 'Carlos Lyra was the finest melodist of bossa nova' and I agree completely. His songs are so inspired, and the combination of melody and harmony is really something. Later, during the '90s, when I worked with him again as arranger and producer of his Bossa Lyra album, I had the chance to go deeper into his songs and become more and more passionate for his music. He is one of the greatest composers of all time." 


Vinícius de Moraes and Carlos Lyra

Also in 1963, another of Lyra's new songs was the polemical "Canção do Subdesenvolvido" (Song of the Underdeveloped) about economic exploitation, written with Chico de Assis; it was censored the next year. Lyra was the musical director of Teatro de Arena, which staged controversial productions. One of their most famous shows was Opinião, directed by Augusto Boal, which protested Brazil's poverty and social problems and in which Lyra played an important role.

While working on a film soundtrack, Lyra had visited Mangueira, a poor neighborhood that is home to a venerable samba school of the same name, and gotten to know Cartola, who introduced him to fellow samba composers Nelson Cavaquinho, Zé Keti and Elton Medeiros. They met often at the apartment of Lyra, who sought to introduce their music to a wider public. He introduced them to bossa singer Nara Leão, who would record their songs on her 1964 album Nara; one of the tunes was Keti's "Diz Que Fui Por Ai," which became a hit. Later, Leão, Keti and northeastern composer João do Vale starred in the politically charged musical Opinião, which debuted in December and was a big success. Lyra contributed two songs, "Lamento de Um Homem Só (Song of a Man Alone) and "Marcha da Quarta-Feira de Cinzas" (Ash Wednesday March) and was present in the early rehearsals of the show, a precursor of the MPB (eclectic post-bossa Brazilian popular music) to come with its mixing of bossa, samba and regional music.

While Lyra wanted to take bossa nova in a different direction, he also surprised some CPC colleagues by unashamedly stating that he was part of the bourgeoisie and that he created bourgeois, not popular, culture. He was always true to himself and wouldn't let others sway him. When Lyra appeared in one of the first televised bossa performances, on TV Excelsior in São Paulo, he was told backstage beforehand that he would be offered some Mentex chewing gum (Mentex was one of the show's sponsors) and should say, "Thank you. I love Mentex." He refused, replying that he wouldn't plug their product or anyone else's for free. The show's representatives didn't give up and tried to force the issue. During the performance, a girl dressed as a bunny approached him and asked if he'd like some Mentex. "No, I hate it," he replied on live television.


The Sound of Ipanema (1965) with Paul Winter (left) and Carlos Lyra (right)

In 1964, he recorded the The Sound of Ipanema with Paul Winter (released in '65) and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival with Stan Getz. His career was flourishing, but the military had overthrown Brazil's democratically elected government on March 31 of that year. Lyra knew his days there were numbered, as sooner or later the government would come after him. He left Brazil, came back, and left again, this time for seven years. While he was gone, he toured with Getz in 1965 and '66, and decided to relocate to Mexico, where he lived for five years. While there, he married the American actress-model Katherine Lee Riddell (now Kate Lyra); their daughter Kay is now a singer.

After he returned to Brazil for good, he still had to tread carefully. His album Herói de Medo (Fear's Hero), recorded in 1974, was initially censored entirely. He left to live in Los Angeles for two years, where he took Arthur Janov's "primal scream" therapy (there, he met John Lennon, a fellow participant) and studied astrology. Since his return to Brazil in 1976, he has performed often, but recorded relatively few works, with the exception of the retrospectives Bossa Lyra (1993) and Sambalanço (2000); Carioca de Algema (Carioca in Handcuffs), a 1994 album of original songs; and group efforts like Vivendo Vinícius Ao Vivo (1998), with Baden Powell, Miúcha, Toquinho, and Os Bossa Nova (2008) withRoberto Menescal, Marcos Valle and João Donato.



Leo Gandelman (sax) and Charlie Hunter (guitar)
improvise to "Quem Quiser Encontrar o Amor."


Some of his other well known compositions not mentioned above include: "Aruanda,""Minha Namorada" (My Girlfriend), "A Certain Sadness,""Influência de Jazz,""Coisa Mais Linda" (The Most Beautiful Thing), "Quem Quiser Encontrar O Amor" (Who Wants to Find Love), "Samba do Carioca" and "Primavera" (Spring). The retrospective DVD Carlos Lyra: 50 Anos da Música (2005) is an excellent introduction to his work; Lyra performs 27 of his best known songs with guests such as Leila Pinheiro, Antonio Adolfo, Roberto Menescal, Marcos Valle, João Donato, Wanda Sá and his daughter Kay Lyra.

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*saudade = missing someone or something.

references:
-Much of the background information is from a 2013 interview with Carlos Lyra by Chris McGowan (for The Brazilian Music Book).
-Jobim quote from Carlos Lyra Songbook (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Lumiar, 1994).
-Marcos Valle quoted in the DVD Carlos Lyra: 50 Anos de Música (Biscoito Fino, 2005).
-According to Paul Winter, interviewed by Chris McGowan in 2014.
-Mentex story from from Magda Botafogo, Carlos Lyra's agent and manager.

-Additional information from The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha (Temple University Press).



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Brazil Carnaval 2014

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Grande Rio samba school (Getty Images).
  
Carnaval ("Carnival" in Portuguese) keeps getting bigger and more colorful in Braziland is celebrated across the country. The strongest Carnaval traditions are in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife/Olinda,but there are great blocos and processions in nearly every bigor small town. Celebrants parade and dance to rhythms and styles like samba, marcha, frevo and maracatu. These days you're also likely to hear some funk carioca thrown into the mix. This year, the Unidos da Tijuca won the escola de samba (samba school) competition in Rio, and a reported 150,000 participants partied with the Simpatia É Quase Amor bloco, which starts its procession in Ipanema in Rio. Here are some images from Carnival celebrations across Brazil.

Carnaval blocos in Olinda, Pernambuco.

Frevo dancing in Olinda.


Grupo Arrasta Ilha: maracatu in Florianópolis.
 
Mangueira samba school in Rio (Reuters).


Maracatu de Baque Solto in Nazaré da Mata, Pernambuco.

 Mocidade Independente samba school in Rio (AP).

 Maracatu de Baque Solto
in Nazaré da Mata, Pernambuco  (Reuters).

Santa Tereza streetcar in Rio.

 Maracatu de Baque Solto in Nazaré da Mata.

 Bloco Pilantragi in São Paulo (UOL).

 Beija Flor samba school in Rio (AP).

 Olodum in Salvador, Bahia (AgNews).

 Bloco da Lama in Parati, RJ (Getty Images).
 
Frevo dancers in Recife, Pernambuco.

 Grande Rio samba school (Getty Images).

 Maracatu de Baque Solto in Nazaré da Mata (LeiaJa).

 Olodum in Salvador.

 Unidos da Tijuca, which won the samba school
(escola de samba) competition in Rio in 2014.

 The bloco Simpatia É Quase Amor in Ipanema
in Rio de Janeiro (Getty Images).

 Carnaval in Salvador at night.

 Before the parade in Olinda (Lais Castro Trajano).

Access The Brazilian Sound: Links for All Editions

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The Brazilian Music Book

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The Brazilian Music Book:
Brazil's Singers, Songwriters, and Musicians Tell the
Story of Bossa Nova, MPB, and Brazilian Jazz and Pop

by Chris McGowan

Now available in Kindle (see below)

"The Brazilian Music Book by Chris McGowan is an involving work thanks to the insight of the author, his integrity and his deep love for Brazilian music. It is a book destined for success and I hope to see it translated into Portuguese as soon as possible."Turibio Santos, classical guitarist, director of the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro and artistic director of the Vale do Café music festival.

Journalist Chris McGowan has covered Brazilian music for Billboard magazine, The Huffington Post, and his own The Brazilian Sound blog, and co-authored multiple editions of the definitive reference book on the subject—The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil. Along the way, he has interviewed many of the most important and influential legends of Brazilian music. In this new omnibus volume, McGowan presents many of these interviews in complete and unabridged form for the first time. There are revealing conversations with 24 iconic figures in Brazilian music, including Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carlos Lyra, Milton Nascimento, Airto Moreira, Dori Caymmi, Laurindo Almeida, Antonio Adolfo, Djavan, Ivan Lins, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Cristina Braga, Luciana Souza and Lenine. A Kindle edition of The Brazilian Music Book (which can be viewed on iPad, Android, PCs and Macs) is available now; a paperback version will be available later this year.


Kindle editions (in English) from Amazon:

Festival Vale do Café 2014

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Performing at one of the fazendas.

A unique Brazilian music event, the Festival Vale do Café (The Coffee Valley Festival), began on July 7 and runs until July 27 in the small towns and old coffee plantations of verdant, historic areas in and around the city of Vassouras, about two hours from Rio de Janeiro. The focus is primarily on jazz, choro, bossa nova, regional styles and classical music. Concerts are free in the public squares and churches of Vassouras and nearby cities, while tickets are required for the intimate music shows staged at stately fazendas (plantations).

Singers Fafá de Belém and Joanna will perform this year in free concerts, while the Bianca Gismonti Trio, Duo Santoro, Nicolas Krassik e os Cordestinos, Gabriel Grossi, Orquestra Carioca do Choro, Turibio Santos, Carol MacDavit, Gilson Peranzzetta, Mauro Senise, Cristina Braga, Bia Bedran and Trio Madeira Brasil will also make appearances. During the festival, many free music classes are offered for children. One night (the Cortejo de Tradições) is devoted to folia de reis, capoeira, jongo, cana-verde and other folkloric traditions, peformed by local groups. This is the 12th year of the festival, which was created by harpist Cristina Braga. Guitarist Turibio Santos and Paulo Barroso are the event's artistic directors.

The main house of an old fazenda.

Turibio Santos (guitar) and Cristina Braga (harp).

The main square of Vassouras during the festival.

João Bosco at the festival in 2013.

More info (in Portuguese): festivalvaledocafe.com
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