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Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 9
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By Joe Lopes
March 6, 2008
No More Blues? Man, You Got That Wrong!
Elizete Cardoso‘s flagrant disregard for his unsolicited advice did not deter João Gilberto from putting his own spin to "Chega de Saudade," laid down by him as a 45-rpm single in July of that year and subsequently issued on Odeon Records - with the unseen hand of its arranger, mestre Tom Jobim, having moved heaven and earth to accommodate the incredibly demanding singer-guitarist.
What normally should have been a straightforward, two-to-three-hour recording session dragged on interminably beyond all practical limitations.
In spite of his well-earned reputation as an obsessive, nitpicking perfectionist, the fastidious and reclusive Joãozinho took full control of the infant bossa-nova idiom from the start with his unrivaled ability to pull the vocal line every which way.
"Bossa nova overwhelmed us," offered fellow Bahian and devout apologist, Caetano Veloso, by way of elaboration. "What João Gilberto proposed was a deeply penetrating and highly personal interpretation of the spirit of samba."
Picking up on this thread, writer Jeff Kaliss, in "Bossa Nova: Music of Modern Love," a contemplative piece he submitted for the architectural-design magazine CA-Modern, made the argument that João had sought "an inner vision" for himself, "a percussive, plangent style that would become the envy of all guitarists.this style bore the swing of samba, but made samba‘s elements sound sweetly from a single instrument, with ‘altered‘ chords that evoked both African folk music and the sophistication of [American] jazz."
Jobim expressed it best, however, when he reached the self-evident conclusion that "It was the rhythm, the swing. It was João Gilberto with his guitar, the beat of bossa nova." Added columnist and music critic Daniella Thompson, the voice went "in one direction, the beat in another."
There are some noteworthy examples of his quirky style in existence. In a comparison of two versions of "Chega de Saudade," recorded more than 40 years apart - the first, from his aforementioned 1958 single, which surrounds him with a swirl of strings; the second, from a 2000 release João: Voz e Violão ("John: Voice and Guitar"), on an imported Verve CD and produced by Caetano himself - the voice has noticeably aged, but, like the finest wines, it has settled into a mellow companion-piece to his vintage guitar-work.
Still recognizable despite the passage of time, Joãozinho has lost much of his former sweetness and bloom. Miraculously, what he‘s managed to preserve is that singularly individual timbre and precise enunciation of the Portuguese text - his charming Northeastern accent still mercifully intact - as well as perfect pitch and a complete oneness with the composer‘s musical ideas, all of them absolute prerequisites for putting the song‘s tongue-twisting imagery across to succeeding generations of listeners.
This is what set an artist of João Gilberto‘s exalted caliber apart from the majority of his contemporaries: that offbeat, off-kilter vocal style All Music Guide contributor Terri Hinte reverently referred to as his "fine muttering form" - an intense, vibrato-less delivery that made him sound as if he were formally engaged in a one-sided conversation "with somebody in his breast pocket."
That‘s the most convincing summation of his art as any I‘ve ever read. It‘s no small wonder Elizete lost patience with the man, as did so many others that came after her. As for the tune that thrust Joãozinho into the probing eye of the microscope, it was just the beginning of a mass awakening to what Veloso ultimately recognized as "Tropical Truth," a lyrical introduction to the potentially revolutionary force that popular music was destined to exert on South America‘s largest song market; and during a transitional phase the Dylanesque singer-songwriter had devoted a good deal of thought to in his writing of the tell-all book of the same name, aptly subtitled A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil:
"I saw in ‘Chega de Saudade‘ the manifesto and the masterpiece of a movement: the mother ship. A samba with some traces of choro, immensely rich in melodic motifs, with a flavor so Brazilian it could be a recording.from the thirties, ‘Chega de Saudade‘ managed to be a modern song while having enough harmonic and rhythmic daring to attract any bop or cool-jazz musician. On the other hand, the title and lyrics suggested a rejection/reinvention of saudade, that word so prevalent in and emblematic of our experience and our language. A lush composition full of uncommon commonplaces.this song was a generous example of everything Tom, João, Vinicius, and others wanted to offer, containing all the elements that were elsewhere scattered. It was the prime mover of bossa nova, the map, the itinerary, the constitution."
- Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil, originally written, in Portuguese, in 1999; translated into English in 2002.
On that basis, and on the magic he was able to capture on the stage and recreate in the recording studio, João Gilberto was promoted forthwith into the swelling ranks of self-appointed musical ambassadors, as the final ingredient in the formula that popularized bossa nova in their native land and to a waiting world.
Their defining moment came, interestingly enough, not in Rio de Janeiro but during a nondescript Manhattan recital held in the island borough‘s famed Carnegie Hall auditorium, hosted by jazz critic and political activist Leonard Feather, and billed as an evening of "New Brazilian Jazz," that took the unsuspecting nation by storm on a subfreezing late-November night in 1962.
Not all the next day‘s reviews were kind to them, however; in fact, most were positively frigid, much like the wintry weather itself. That did not impede the performers from warming up to the expectant crowd that had gathered to hear real music-history in the making.
Among the legendary participants were the then unknown trio of João, Jobim and Bonfá - all three of who stayed on in the city to eventually record, with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, the ground-breaking Jazz Samba Encore! and Getz/Gilberto albums for Verve - in addition to Agostinho dos Santos, Oscar Castro-Neves, Sérgio Mendes, Milton Banana, Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal and Chico Feitosa.
Prominent by his absence was our friendly neighborhood songwriter, the reluctant "Little Poet" and vice-consul Vinicius de Moraes. Invited to attend but still miffed at the U.S. for its handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis of the previous October, the avowed Communist sympathizer made the startlingly controversial move to sit the event out.
For a ranking member of Brazil‘s diplomatic corps, he was anything but that when it came to his private impulses and pet idiosyncrasies. Once again, politics and poor personal choices - however explosive the combination may have seemed - easily trumped fortune and recognition in the jazz-pop field for the increasingly independent-minded, "left-wing hedonist."
Knowing the poet as we do, he could not have cared a whit for what others had to say about his far-flung ideals. The likelihood, then, that his libertarian lifestyle had interfered with his becoming a household name in America (in the slightly more tolerable Jobim mold, perhaps) is unusually high. Besides, the time to profit from his previous stay there had long since outlived its usefulness.
In 1969, after years of putting up with his errant ways, Vinicius was ignominiously dropped from the Brazilian Foreign Service. Paradoxically, after the surprise success of the historic Carnegie Hall concert - and after the music genre was well on its way to conquering audiences in the United States and abroad - the 1964 military takeover in Brazil put a halt to the optimism and exhilaration that propelled bossa nova‘s inexorable upward climb in the charts after nearly a decade of steady growth and expansion on its home soil.
Protest songs operating under the guise of pop-rock "anthems," in addition to the ubiquitous Música Popular Brasileira (or MPB for short) and the even shorter-lived Tropicália movements, were becoming all the rage vide the eyebrow-raising endeavors of the young and restless Edu Lobo ("Arrastão", introduced on national television by the future queen of pop, Elis Regina, with lyrics by O Poetinha de Moraes), Chico Buarque ("A Banda"), Caetano Veloso ("Alegria, alegria"), Gilberto Gil ("Aquele Abraço"), and a slew of influential others.
Even the former "Muse" herself, Nara Leão, got into the thick of things by tossing out - at least, in theory - bossa nova‘s pervasively romantic appeal in favor of themes with more relevant social content.
It was just as well, since many of the stellar attractions previously associated with the seductive easy-listening format had, by then, left sunshine-happy Rio for points due north and west; in short, a bit further north (as in the Big Apple) and a lot farther west (as in the City of Angels) than any of them had dared to admit.
The resultant "brain drain" of entertainers was felt across the board in fun-loving, music-worshipping Brazil. But unlike many seemingly insurmountable obstacles found there, the gap was soon filled by the above-named avalanche of talent, to most everyone‘s favor and delight - everyone, that is to say, except the newly-installed ruling military body, which did not take kindly to the barely-concealed bashing it was receiving in the electronic media and elsewhere.
Calling to mind Newton‘s Third Law of Motion (from which I quote: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction"), the changes to Brazil‘s musical landscape were a direct result of the disruptions caused along its political and economic frontier, which were scarcely to anyone‘s favor or delight.
As we soon learned, though, this was an exceptionally dangerous game Brazilian artists had been playing at, one that was sure to backfire on them in the days and months to come.
By that measure, saudade, an ever-present "longing" or "regret" for the good times that came before; for idling by a sandy strip of Ipanema shoreline, with a beer in one hand and a "tall and tan and young and lovely" girl on the other; for those feelings of nostalgia that bossa nova once engendered in the trouble-free youth of the era, was manifestly all that was left once the crackdown of dissidents (the so-called "second revolution" of 1968) had begun in earnest, with a rebellious Caetano, Gil & Company placed at the head of the class.
Brazil - that exotic Amazon outpost overflowing with musical milk and honey - was still a long way from steering a middle course between the rigid, hard-line of repression (which, regretfully, only got worse over time) and a more flexible form of self-governance.
To be continued...
Copyright © 2008 by Josmar F. Lopes
A naturalized American citizen born in Brazil, Joe Lopes was raised and educated in New York City, where he worked for many years in the financial sector. In 1996, he moved to Brazil with his wife and daughters. In 2001, he returned to the U.S. and now resides in North Carolina with his family. You can email your comments to JosmarLopes@msn.com.
To read previous articles by Joe Lopes click below:
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 8
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 7
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 6
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 5
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 4
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 3
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 2
Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 1
Brecht, Weill & Buarque: The Brazilian Play‘s the Thing! Part 3
Brazil: "Opera" in the Amazon - Werner Herzog‘s Fitzcarraldo, or The Madness of Foreign Men Part 4
Brazil: "Opera" in the Amazon - Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, or The Madness of Foreign Men Part 3
Brazil: "Opera" in the Amazon - Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, or The Madness of Foreign Men Part 2
Brazil: "Opera" in the Amazon - Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, or The Madness of Foreign Men Part 1
The Brazilian Beat Goes On: My Own "Best-Of" List of Present-Day Bossa Nova Classics Part 5
The Brazilian Beat Goes On: My Own "Best-Of" List of Present-Day Bossa Nova Classics Part 4
The Brazilian Beat Goes On: My Own "Best-Of" List of Present-Day Bossa Nova Classics Part 3
The Brazilian Beat Goes On: My Own "Best-Of" List of Present-Day Bossa Nova Classics Part 2
The Brazilian Beat Goes On: My Own "Best-Of" List of Present-Day Bossa Nova Classics Part 1
Brazil: The "Italian" Composer from Campinas Part 4
Brazil: The "Italian" Composer from Campinas Part 3
Brazil: The "Italian" Composer from Campinas Part 2
Brazil: The "Italian" Composer from Campinas Part 1
Bringing People Together: Electronic Voyages to Brazil Part 6
Bringing People Together: Electronic Voyages to Brazil Part 5
Bringing People Together: Electronic Voyages to Brazil Part 4
Bringing People Together: Electronic Voyages to Brazil Part 3
Bringing People Together: Electronic Voyages to Brazil Part 2
Bringing People Together: Electronic Voyages to Brazil Part 1
Brecht, Weill & Buarque: The Brazilian Play‘s the Thing! Part 2
Misunderstanding Brazil‘s National Anthem: A Crash-Course in the Hymn of the Nation
Brecht, Weill & Buarque: The Brazilian Play's the Thing! Part 1
Theater, the Brecht of Life: The Influences on Chico‘s "Modern" Street Opera, Part II
A Walk on the Weill Side: The Influences on Chico's "Modern" Street Opera Part 2
A Walk on the Weill Side: The Influences on Chico's "Modern" Street Opera Part 1
Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Brazilian Bach Part 5
Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Brazilian Bach Part 4
Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Brazilian Bach Part 3
Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Brazilian Bach Part 2
Heitor Villa-Lobos: The Brazilian Bach Part 1
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 11
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 10
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 9
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 8
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 7
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 6
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 5
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 4
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 3
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 2
Two Brazilian Charmers Part 1
Teaching English In Brazil Part 21
Teaching English In Brazil Part 20
Teaching English In Brazil Part 19
Teaching English In Brazil Part 18
Teaching English In Brazil Part 17
Teaching English In Brazil Part 16
Teaching English In Brazil Part 15
Teaching English In Brazil Part 14
Teaching English In Brazil Part 13
Teaching English In Brazil Part 12
Teaching English In Brazil Part 11
Brazil: Thrills, Spills, and... Oh Yes, No Ifs, Ands or Head-Butts, Please
Teaching English In Brazil Part 10
Teaching English In Brazil Part 9
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 4
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia‘s Fragile Wings Part 4
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 3
Brazilian World Cup Debacle: Just Wait Till 2010! Part 2
Brazilian World Cup Debacle: Just Wait Till 2010! Part 1
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia‘s Fragile Wings Part 3
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 2
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia's Fragile Wings Part 2
Brazil: A Fever Called Corinthians Part 1
Brazil: Taking Flight on Florencia‘s Fragile Wings Part 1
Teaching English In Brazil Part 8
Teaching English In Brazil Part 7
Teaching English In Brazil Part 6
Teaching English In Brazil Part 5
Teaching English In Brazil Part 4
Teaching English In Brazil Part 3
Teaching English In Brazil Part 2
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 4
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 3
Teaching English In Brazil - Part I
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 2
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest Part 1
"Down in Brazil," with Michael Franks Part 3
"Down in Brazil," with Michael Franks Part 2
"Down in Brazil," with Michael Franks Part 1
Brazil: A Candid Talk with Gerald Thomas
Getting to the "bottom" of Brazil‘s Gerald Thomas
A Brazilian Diva Torn Between Europe and Brazil
The Enraged Genius of Brazil's Maestro Neschling
A German Ring in the Brazilian Rainforest
Brazil‘s Musical Polyglots: What Was That You Were Singing?
Did Bossa Nova Kill Opera in Brazil?
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