África Brasil E-Book

Kamille Viola

• Herausgeber: Edições Sesc SP
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Coleção Discos da Música Brasileira
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 202

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Among the long string of historical albums he created, África Brasil, from 1976, is a milestone in Jorge Ben's career. It is the record in which he definitely swaps the acoustic for the electric guitar. Narrating Jorge Ben's journey, album by album, to África Brasil, the 14th studio LP of his career, the journalist Kamille Viola interviews musicians, producers, researchers and even soccer stars like Zico (honored in the track "Camisa 10 da Gávea" to review the artist's life story and the background details of the album's production. Considered to be the high point in the career of the author of "Umbabarauma", África Brasil comprises alongside A tábua de esmeralda (1974) and Solta o pavão (1975) Ben's inspired "musical alchemy" trilogy. As Jorge Ben recalls in an interview to author of the book: "This guitar was amazing because I was still playing on the Ovation [guitar], and one day one of my musicians, the bass player Dadi, showed up with it and I liked the guitar, I found it beautiful, and I said: 'Dadi, do you want to swap that guitar or sell it or something?' He said 'No, no'. I said: 'Dadi, you're a bass player and I have a Fender bass guitar. We could swap'. And he agreed immediately. So I got the guitar and that was it, we started to 'electrify' (laughs)". Among artists like Gilberto Gil, Marcelo D2, Lúcio Maia, Jorge Du Peixe, Dadi, Gustavo Schroeter and BNegão, interviewed by the author for the book, Mano Brown, leader of the group Racionais MC's and an outspoken admirer, summarizes Jorge Ben's importance: "He's like James Brown, Marvin Gaye, these great artists with a large body of work, from time to time they come to you. The music comes back. I listened to Jorge Ben at several moments of my life, several moments of his career. I recall many phases. [...] In samba sessions, we would sing Jorge Ben. Whoever could sing Jorge Ben in a samba rhythm was doing ok (laughs)." Kamille Viola, a journalist with over 10 years' research on Ben's work, stresses in the book: "Gilberto Gil, Mano Brown, Chico Science and Nação Zumbi: Jorge Ben was a beacon to all of them. Tropicalism, Brazilian rap and manguebeat, three of the most important musical expressions in Brazil, looked to the alchemist for inspiration. If it were not for Jorge Lima Menezes, the Babulina of Rio Comprido, the history of Brazilian music would certainly be different." The Brazilian Music Records series, published in Portuguese and English, is edited by the music critic Lauro Lisboa Garcia.

Leseprobe

To Gilberto, with whom I share dreams.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to everyone who contributed in any way to making this book come true. Lauro Lisboa and Jefferson Alves de Lima, for the invitation to take part in the series. Chris Fuscaldo, Danilo Cabral and Flavia Lacerda, Elisa Eisenlohr, Jeza da Pedra, João Fernando, Maria Vargas, Nina Mansur, Pedro Só, Renato Vieira, Silvio Essinger and all interviewees: BNegão, Dadi Carvalho, Gustavo Schroeter, João Roberto Vandaluz Jr., Joãozinho da Percussão, Jorge du Peixe, Lúcio Maia, Luiz Antonio Simas, Mano Brown, Marcelo D2, Marcos Queiroz, Mazzola, Neném and Zico. My love, Gilberto Porcidonio; my mother, Suely Viola; my brothers, Mario Viola and Breno Viola, and my sisters-in-law, Danielle da Costa Leite Borges and Samanta Quadrado; my uncle and godfather, Silvio Viola; my grandmother, Conchetta Viola; Jorge dos Santos, Elza Porcidonio and Geise Porcidonio, the dear family I received as a gift; my friends Bárbara Lopes, Fred Leal (in memoriam), Karla Rondon Prado, Luciana Avanci, Maria Amália Cursino, Maria Claudia Pompeo and Paula Maia. Saint George and Saint Jude. And Jorge Ben, for the magnificent work he bestowed on us.

I’d like to be many people, but most of all I’d like to be Jorge.

Gilberto Gil

CONTENTS

PRESENTATION Danilo Santos de Miranda

PREFACE Lauro Lisboa Garcia

INTRODUCTION

_1 THE BRAZILIAN BOB MARLEY

_2 THE STORY OF JORGE

_3 HERE COME THE ALCHEMISTS

_4ÁFRICA BRASIL, THE ALBUM

_5 TAJ MAHAL

_6 ALCHEMY, SOCCER, LOVE AND OTHER HIGHS OF JORGE’S MEDIEVAL WORLD

_7 BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL

_8 THE LEGACY: WORDS OF A KING

ALBUM NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As an artistic expression and form of knowledge, music offers fertile ground for the observation of man, of his time and imaginary world. A vast territory of experiences, ranging from the songs of native peoples to religious and classical music, from modinha, lundu, maxixe and choro to pop, rock and electronic music, via samba, bossa nova, baião and xote, musical creation has proved to be one of the most fruitful, present and striking cultural manifestations of Brazilian life.

Supported by the history, heritage and symbolic worlds of different groups that came together in Brazil, the love for music was reflected in the interest with which the country’s modern and urban life welcomed inventions such as the phonographic record and the radio. It was a time when male and female singers and musicians of all styles became popular idols, and young composers wrote songs and carnival marches that would endure across the decades.

This pathway of musical creation is the guiding thread of the present series, Brazilian Music Records. Edited by the journalist and critic Lauro Lisboa Garcia, it features in each volume the story of a striking album in the history of Brazilian music, whether for its aesthetics, social and political issues, influence on public behavior, artistic innovation or market reach.

The album revisited in this volume is Jorge Ben’s África Brasil. The journalist Kamille Viola interviews musicians, producers and even soccer stars like Zico to retell the story and behind-the-scene details of the album and life of one of the greatest exponents of Brazilian popular music.

Written in clear and straightforward prose, the Brazilian Music Records series is developed from the twofold perspective of appreciating musical memory and observing the echoes and reverberations of those creations in current music production.

Danilo Santos de Miranda

Director of Sesc São Paulo

All 20th-century popular music in the world stems from African roots. One of the most significant and original heirs of the diaspora to emerge in Brazil in that century is Jorge Ben (who later changed his name to Jorge Ben Jor). Following various trends without losing his essential traits, Jorge interacted and somehow influenced or exchanged views with musical movements linked to youth and innovation such as bossa nova, tropicalism and jovem guarda. Imparting his personal style to the sound and typical beat of the bossa nova guitar, he stood out with his new samba swing from the generation more receptive to João Gilberto, embraced rock and soul and connected the divergent points of those trends, which would culminate with the libertarian musical movement called Tropicália.

He is a key figure for fans of samba-rock (or swing-samba) and Brazilian funk-soul, exerted a heavy influence on the Pernambuco creators of manguebeat, and remains a striking presence in the world of hip hop. Countless are the exploits of this master who over the years succeeded in renewing his audience thanks to the exuberant and groovy nature of his music.

Equally important was Jorge Ben’s contribution, in the late 1960s, to raising the banner of Afro-Brazilian pride. In this, he had the support of artists like Wilson Simonal (the co-author of “Tributo a Martin Luther King” recorded Ben’s huge hit “País tropical” [Tropical Country] and was the victim of shameful racism by the Brazilian artistic milieu) and his friend and musical soulmate Tim Maia. Many were also the advocates and admirers of his musicality, sense of rhythm and sensual romanticism, such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Mutantes and Elis Regina.

The first phase of his discography, comprising his period with the Philips record label and spanning from post-bossa nova to the age of disco music, features essential titles such as the sensational debut album Samba esquema novo [New Swing Samba] (1963), Jorge Ben (1969, with the influence of tropicalism evident even on the cover), Negro é lindo [Black is Beautiful] (1971), Ben (1972), A tábua da esmeralda [The Emerald Tablet] (1974), Solta o pavão [Release the Peacock] (1975) and África Brasil (1976).

In the meantime he paired up with Gilberto Gil to produce the double album Gil e Jorge: Ogum Xangô (1975), a memorable session of voice and guitar improvisation. Gil, who claims to have undergone a major transformation in his craft since the release of Samba esquema novo, acknowledged that Jorge “conceived the Afro-Brazilianity thereafter so celebrated which originated all those new trends in Brazilian music”1. When Gil exalted the creativity of the poor black youth in his no less brilliant Refavela (1977), he created an interesting dialogue with África Brasil. Alongside the prominent Black Rio movement of the mid-1970s, these albums became the new reinforced pillars of the assertion of Afro-Brazilian culture through music, whose cornerstone Jorge had already laid down with Negro é lindo. Not by chance, one of the most prominent songs in África Brasil is the re-recording of “Zumbi”, released in A tábua de esmeralda in a more acoustic version.

After África Brasil – picked to be the third volume in the Brazilian Music Records (History and Background of Anthological Albums) series − Jorge switched definitely from the acoustic to the electric guitar. This third title of his alchemy trilogy is considered by many to be his last great album. It is one of the great classics of Brazilian music, celebrated by critics in Brazil and abroad, one of the most extolled albums in lists and entries of musical reference publications such as the US Rolling Stone magazine, the AllMusic database and the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Unclassifiable and enshrouded in glorious and luminous mysteries, the “pope of swing”, with his emblematic speak-singing, is a one-man aesthetic movement in the history of Brazilian black music and music of any genre, nationality and time. According to Gil, his sonority “contains the clearest elements of black complexity in the development of Brazilian music”2.

The Rio de Janeiro journalist Kamille Viola, an inspired and stimulating connoisseur of Jorge Ben’s work, delves deep into Jorge’s musicality in her quest to bring to light two of its fundamental elements enhanced in this album: ancestral Muslim influence and alchemy. She also evokes the echoes of this musicality among its artistic heirs, such as the bassist Dadi (an equally multifaceted musician and former member of Novos Baianos, who has worked with Caetano Veloso, Marisa Monte and Tribalistas, among others), the guitarist Lúcio Maia (from Nação Zumbi) and the São Paulo rapper Mano Brown (leader of Racionais MC’s, the Brazilian most important group of its kind), in a moving statement. Hail to thee, Jorge!

Lauro Lisboa Garcia

1 Gilberto Gil, “‘Após ouvir Jorge Ben, senti que não precisava mais compor’, diz Gilberto Gil”, Folha de S.Paulo, 21 Apr. 2018, available at: <https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrissima/2018/04/apos-ouvir-jorge-ben-senti-que-nao-precisava-mais-compor-diz-gilberto-gil.shtml>, accessed in: July 2020 (in free translation, as well as the following quotations from works in other languages).

2 Marco Aurélio Luz, interview with Gilberto Gil, Revista de Cultura Vozes, v. 71, n. 9, Nov. 1977.

The gods (astronauts?) so willed that I should sit beside Jorge Ben (by then renamed Jorge Ben Jor, with different versions for the name change spread by the artist himself) at a fashion show in January 2008 and thus become acquainted with one of the artists I most admired. Thanks to my work as a reporter for a major Rio de Janeiro newspaper, I had the opportunity to rub shoulders with him a few times and become more familiar with an artist who, over time, increasingly avoided the press.

At that time he lived between the United States − where his family still resides − and Brazil, and attended many social events in Rio. We would see him at music awards, parties, carnival parades and Corujão da Poesia, a soiree from midnight to the early hours that alternated musical performances and poetry reading, a perfect combination for a literature freak and night owl like Jorge Ben.

On one of those occasions I saw him posing for a magazine cover at 4:30 a.m. The reporter had done part of the interview on the flight from São Paulo, as Jorge was increasingly slippery with journalists. The nights at Corujão invariably ended in the Rio-Lisboa bakery, a traditional meeting point for bohemians in Rio, where he would order a plate of buttered toast and two fried eggs.

By then he already knew me and my friend and then editor Karla Rondon Prado. On the strength of that familiarity we decided to risk an ambitious plan: to write an authorized biography of the singer and songwriter. We talked to a major publisher that showed interested in the project, but imposed a condition: the artist himself would have to give his permission. In 2007, the singer Roberto Carlos had succeeded in suppressing a biography to which the author had dedicated 15 years of his life, and the copies had to be removed from the bookstores. Nobody wanted to take that kind of risk.

For some years we tried to get his permission, but Jorge was both favorable to and wary of the idea. Although he liked us and hinted he would authorize the biography, things would change when we talked about interviewing his family. We started on the preliminary research and, in the meantime, in 2011, he gave me interview for my newspaper at the time. This took place during lunch at the Copacabana Palace, where he liked to put up from time to time − and where he currently lives, as revealed by the press in 20193. He claimed to be rehearsing for a concert with the repertoire of A tábua de esmeralda, supported by a group of producers that admired him, but unfortunately it came to nothing.

After some time trying to get an answer, we contacted his manager, a move which the publisher had initially tried to avoid. He supported the idea but said he no longer worked with Jorge, and put us in touch his wife, Domingas, and his eldest son, Tomaso. They were courteous, but politely denied our request.

For many years I harbored the frustration of not being able to transform those years of research into a book. Brazil was one of the few countries in the world with restrictions on the publishing of biographies, alongside Iran, China, Cuba, Russia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Despite the opposition of many famous names in the music industry, in 2015 the Federal Supreme Court voted to lift the ban on unauthorized biographies, a decision that would only be published in February 2016. This was a light at the end of the tunnel for researchers of music, a field whose memory is still riddled with gaps.

At that time, friends and acquaintances who knew about my research on Jorge Ben started asking me when the biography would come out. But the project had been left aside a few years earlier and I was involved in extensive research for other work.

When the editor of this series, Lauro Lisboa, invited me to write about África Brasil, I had started studying alchemy a few months earlier, one of those coincidences that seem to surround everything concerning Jorge Ben. Delving once again into a subject that had been part of my life for so many years would be like eagerly resuming some vital aspect that had been dormant all along.

A new stumbling block now loomed: after so many years I had lost my hard-earned contact with the singer and had to start over the arduous task of securing an interview with him. We extended the deadline, I made several attempts but he always proved elusive. We even had a pandemic to deal with: in April it was announced that the Copacabana Palace would shut down for the first time in 97 years. Only two guests would remain living there: Andrea Natal, the general manager of the group that owns the hotel, and Jorge Ben, “who has lived there since 2018”4. The story was also reported by the Associated Press and disclosed worldwide.

So I actually submitted a version of this book without having talked again with its main character, the author of the África Brasil album. I looked up information in interviews he gave at different times and talked to people who contributed to the record and younger artists to whom Jorge Ben’s influence was decisive, from Mano Brown to the musicians of the manguebeat movement.

And then out of the blue came an opportunity for a phone conversation with Jorge, who was still confined to the hotel. It was on a May 25, Africa Day and the eve of my birthday. At that stage, talking to Jorge Ben, isolated at the Copacabana Palace, was the dream of ten out of ten Brazilian music journalists. The gods seemed to be on my side again.

He told me that living near Gil, who resided in the neighboring Chopin Building, brought him closer to his “soulmate” again.

When I walked down the street, I would always look up to see if there was anyone at the window (laughs). And there wasn’t. Gil was on tour in Europe. We also toured Australia with Banda do Zé Pretinho, we played there in the summer. When we got back to Brazil, this virus problem started. So suddenly I’m stuck at home for two months without going out... April, March... almost May, without leaving. I’m stuck here, but I look out my window at the beautiful view, thank God, and to the right I see the Sugarloaf Mountain, and on the other side I see the statue of Christ the Redeemer with its open arms. I do it every day because I can’t go out... And when someone comes here, I have to wear a face mask. When someone comes knocking on the door.5

It was interesting to observe Jorge’s efforts over the years to preserve his private life and family, besides the different versions he often tells for a same story. One has to respect a man who is able to keep even his age involved in mystery. Reality and fantasy blend in the career of one the greatest figures of Brazilian music, respected all over the world. Thus are legends.

My goal here was to portray the period leading to the recording of África Brasil, partly presenting a brief historical background to contextualize the events. I refer to him here as “Jorge Ben” because that was his stage name at the time the album was released. He switched it to “Jorge Ben Jor” in 1989, but to this day the fans of what is considered his golden age refuse to call him so.

I lay no claim to exhausting the facts about him or even the period portrayed in this book. Many are the mysteries surrounding his life. Many are the symbols and references to be unveiled in his work. The research on Jorge Ben is my private philosopher’s stone: a project on which I will probably work for decades without reaching a definitive result. Even more so because, hopefully, he will continue collecting songs and stories for many years still.

Keep flying high, Jorge.

Kamille Viola

Autumn 2020

3 “Jorge Ben Jor se muda para hotel de luxo no Rio”, O Dia, Fábia Oliveira column, 9 May 2019.

4 Eduardo Maia, “Em meio ao coronavírus, Copacabana Palace fecha pela primeira vez em 97 anos”, O Globo, 9 Apr. 2020.

5 Interview to the author in May 2020.

THE BRAZILIAN BOB MARLEY

The large, orchestral recording studio was hosting a party. Members of the bands Traffic and Bad Company were among the guests. Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, personally supervised all details. Having introduced Bob Marley to the world two years earlier with the album Catch a Fire, he was now recording a Jorge Ben album in his studios. A stage had been set up in the room.

The aim was to introduce Jorge to the English public. The members of his band, Admiral Jorge V6, were overwhelmed by the events, especially Dadi Carvalho and Gustavo Schroeter, who were fans of the British rock bands. If the technical quality of the studio in which they were working, far superior to anything in Brazil, were not enough, they were now face to face with some of their biggest idols. The only one who did not seem to be at all excited about the idea was Jorge Ben himself.

They had been received with pomp: on landing in London, Jorge Ben’s musicians were picked up and whisked off to the hotel in two deluxe limousine-style cars, a Bentley and a Mercedes 600. Jorge, his wife Domingas and the producer Armando Pittigliani, who was traveling with them as road manager, had stayed in Paris. When the band boarded the plane to the English capital, the couple had not arrived yet. Pittigliani went to look for them and ended up missing the flight also.

That night the musicians dined with Robin Geoffrey Cable, who had worked on albums of artists like Carly Simon and Queen, his Portuguese wife, Tina, who was to be interpreter and translator during the recordings, and Blackwell and his first wife, Ada Blackwell. The owner of Island Records talked to Dadi about his expectations for the recordings and his plans to organize a concert to introduce Jorge Ben to English musicians and important names of the local show business.

Ben was tired when he arrived for dinner and joked about his hotel room being small. No wonder, given that he was used to staying in luxury hotels on international tours and had once put up at the sumptuous George V in Paris for many days. The following night everyone met in the studio − the same one where Bob Marley’s latest records had been mixed and where he would record classic albums like Exodus (1977) and Kaya (1978) − to discuss details of the recordings. Blackwell offered the musicians a hashish joint, which all the Brazilians refused. Dadi later explained to the interpreter that they never smoked in front of Jorge, who did not take drugs.

The recording sessions in the 24-track studio went smoothly, almost as if they were playing live. They would redo each song until Cable considered he had the best version. That way everything would sound more natural.

Before the day of the party, which would include a small concert, Jorge had not been told he would perform. With the long concert run in Paris followed by the recordings, he felt his voice hoarse. Besides, he resented being taken by surprise. So he said he was there to record, not to perform. “Picture this huge bash. [...] And he set up a stage there, in Jorge’s honor. Then he invited the local Brazilian elite, the embassy crowd, about two hundred people, a big party with plenty of food and everything. And Jorge was furious! He said: ‘I didn’t come here for this, to perform, I came here to record an album!’”, recounts Gustavo, the drummer7.

“He was tired, in a bad mood... Because Jorge is like that, when he’s in a bad mood, he gets fed up with everything. Then things get tricky, see? That was the case then in London. Chris Blackwell told me: ‘I love everyone in Brazil, I love Gil, I love Caetano, but it’s Jorge Ben who can really make it big’”, recalls Dadi. “He was ok with what he had already achieved, see? He would play a few concerts abroad, come back home, I don’t think he wanted more than that. He enjoys it when he’s recording. Then came this party and his mood went sour, he got fed up. So much so that he played two songs, threw the guitar aside and left”, he recalls8.

Excited to be with musicians they admired, the rockers Dadi and Gustavo kept on jamming with Steve Winwood on the Rhodes piano, the drummer Jim Capaldi (whom Dadi had met in Brazil, for he was married to a Brazilian, Ana Campos), both of them former Traffic members, and musicians from Bad Company. The party went on till five in the morning.

When they returned to the hotel, they found Jorge, Armando, João and Joãozinho in the restaurant, with an empty champagne bottle. Dadi’s father called the hotel after him. “He wanted to speak to everybody, and we were on the phone for almost an hour, laughing a lot. We went to sleep around eight in the morning”, he recalls9.

Blackwell had met Jorge Ben on a trip to Brazil in November 1974 with Capaldi (who married Ana the following year) and Chris Wood, of the now defunct Traffic. According to the Brazilian press at the time, Blackwell had come to Rio de Janeiro after Cat Stevens, who had been there for two months10. After a dinner hosted by André Midani, CEO of Philips Records − where he met Ben, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa and Rita Lee −, the founder of Island Records invited Jorge to record an album in England11.

The musicians spent twenty days recording in the studio with Robin Geoffrey Cable, who was in charge of producing and mixing the album. Jorge was accompanied by the band he had recently formed, Admiral Jorge V: Dadi (bass guitar), João Roberto Vandaluz (keyboards), João Baptista Pereira, aka Joãozinho da Percussão (percussion) and Gustavo (drums). Three local female studio singers (Barry St. John and Liza Strike, from the UK, and Joy Yates, from New Zealand) did the backing vocals, and there were also two local musicians on the saxophone and string synthesizer (Chris Mercer and Ann Odell, respectively).

The drummer recalls that they were delighted with the facilities: “There were 24 tracks, in 1975. We hardly had eight in Brazil (laughs)! It was a large, cool studio, with that huge mixer. [...] I alone had eight tracks for the drums. Me! Eight tracks just for me, yeeaaa! Bass drum, snare drum, incredible toms, cymbals, hit-hat. [...] I had never seen anything like it. I said: ‘I’m in paradise! This is paradise!’ (laughs)”12.

A pop sonority predominated throughout the album. The songs recorded were “Taj Mahal” (in a rock version with a reggae-style horn riff), “Os alquimistas estão chegando os alquimistas” [The Alchemists Here Come the Alchemists], “Chove chuva” [Falling Rain], “O namorado da viúva” [The Widow’s Boyfriend], “Mas que nada” [Come Off It] and “País tropical”. Two original songs completed the album’s playlist, “Jesus de Praga” [Jesus of Prague] and “Georgia” (with the muse’s name spoken in English), plus a track in English, “My Lady”, sung by Ben in a deliciously broken accent, which had been released on the soundtrack of a TV Tupi soap opera in 1973, As divinas... e maravilhosas