Meia Volta Has Arrived!
Painting a fuller picture of Brazilian music
Welcome y’all, Brazilian music lovers <3
Co-editors Beatriz Miranda and Ted Somerville here, and we are thrilled to present the opening issue of Meia Volta!
We came up with this after a rather obvious realization. While Brazilian music is widely appreciated overseas, be it in Japan, France, or the United States, a myriad of scenes, artists and stories of música brasileira don't appear in the foreign media, and never reach international audiences.
Meia Volta is the first monthly English-language newsletter presenting the nuances of Brazilian music that often go under the radar. It will bring a fuller picture of Brazilian music cultures to enthusiasts around the globe.
Why Meia Volta?
In Portuguese, “meia volta” means a 180º twist toward the opposite direction. This newsletter aims to take a metaphorical "meia volta", posing a different direction to Brazilian music coverage and shedding light on the often-overlooked aspects of música brasileira.
In this issue…
Q&A with rapper legend MV Bill, a list of Brazilian violonistas that will blow your mind, an anecdote related to samba queen Alcione, and more!
Bora lá? :)
BRAZILIAN SONG OF MY LIFE
In this section, Brazilian music peeps share a testimonial on one Brazilian song that touches their souls.
Opening this section is Jam da Silva, a Latin Grammy-awarded multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, and actor.
The song he chose is “Assum Preto” by Luiz Gonzaga, the king of baião music:
"My eyes tear up whenever I hear it. It is an inspired song that is sung from the heart, and full of symbolism. Luiz Gonzaga had just had an accident and lost vision in one of his eyes. The song speaks of a pet bird that had his eyes gouged so that he’d "sing better." It speaks of imprisonment and suffering, but at the same time, it speaks of strength. To me, it translates the pain of the oppressed. It makes me think of my enslaved ancestors and everything they went through. “Assum Preto" takes me back to my grandparents who would play albums by the old Gonzaga on the record player in their home in Gravatá, in the countryside of Pernambuco, 8° 12' 03" South, 35° 33' 54" West. Those were beautiful times."
“Hip-hop was almost like a news agency”
Q&A with MV Bill, the first successful Black rapper from Rio de Janeiro.
Long misunderstood by conservative audiences, but respected by giants like Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, the music of MV Bill is acclaimed for viscerally portraying the structural violence against the (predominantly Black) people who live in the favelas --- in the day before our conversation, a 13-year-old boy was shot in the back during a police operation in Cidade de Deus (City of God), the world-famous favela where Bill was born and still lives in.
Also an actor, writer, film director, and activist, MV Bill revisits his 30-year music career in this exclusive for Meia Volta. Check the edited version below!
Meia Volta - In 2023, it will be 30 years since you first appeared on a music album. What were the crucial turning points in your artistic path?
MV Bill - I started to feel my musical evolution on my second album, “Declaração de Guerra.” There, I was already much looser. The second album brought elements of samba-rock, which I mixed with violins, and I made a song together with Charlie Brown Jr. The song was considered, in Brazil, the first grime - a type of rap popular in London and some parts of Europe. It was a super experimental song at the time. But, sometimes, those who reviewed my albums seemed like they ignored the music itself. They paid more attention to my lyrics. Even I, too, never emphasized my musical evolution in interviews. I was always talking about social problems, about what should change in Brazil, but I never talked so much about the aesthetic choices of my music.
Meia Volta - And 2023 was also the 50th anniversary of the emergence of hip-hop in the United States. When you think about identity, political awareness, and self-esteem, what is hip-hop's role in forming people who live in the outskirts and favelas of Brazil?
MV Bill - Well, in the beginning, rap was closely linked to education, knowledge, unity, and respect. Hip-hop arrived here with this baggage and became the voice of those who had never had a voice. At times, hip-hop worked like you do, almost like a news agency: If you wanted to know what was happening in the favelas of São Paulo, you listened to a group there. You wanted to know what was happening in the outskirts of Porto Alegre? You would look for a rap group there. The rap groups narrated what was happening on the outskirts, from systematic cowardice to community action to help all residents. We transformed an entire generation through lyrics. I was transformed through it, and I passed it on.
Hip-hop grew a lot in Brazil but lost some of its discourse. Today, those who rap and are successful can make a lot of money, but the music they produce won't necessarily lift other people out of bitterness or adversity.
It seems that those who talk about social problems are in the past. But the problems are there. We experience these problems every day in Cidade de Deus. I'm not the most listened-to artist here. But I know that my music matters. Yesterday, at the end of the day, at 11 pm, the police came in shooting and killed a 13-year-old child. When this happens, people leave their illusory world and return to reality. That reality that we don’t want to hear. This is the moment where my rap comes in.
Meia Volta - And, back in 2002, you were part of a historical episode, when hip-hop began to dialogue with the Federal Government to think about the possibility of a social transformation agenda with public authorities. How was this meeting with Lula (then president in office) and Gilberto Gil (then Minister of Culture), what was the atmosphere like?
MV Bill - In the early 2000s, rap in Brazil was still considered music by thugs. It was a completely marginalized thing. We, with CUFA [an NGO focused on promoting social justice in favelas, co-founded by Mv Bill] had already held six editions of a hip-hop festival, but brands wouldn’t dialogue with us, and we couldn’t get investment. I was thinking with Celso [the other CUFA founder] about a way to make people aware of our rap. Celso had the idea of us going to Lula, who was in his first term. We were attended to. At the meeting, we demanded an inter-ministerial front to speak to all ministries. It was important at that moment.
However, I don't think it's good for us to get too attached to politicians. I personally don't like it. I never campaigned for anyone, I never stood on a platform. I want my music to have the freedom to talk about whatever I want. Talking about who, damn it, is rooting for my death, about who wants our people to get killed. I want to be able to criticize whoever was chosen as our representative, stole, or did wrong. We can only do this if we have lyrical freedom.
Meia Volta – Changing the angle of the conversation a little, you say that the first time you talked about love in your music was when you participated in the “Poesia Acústica” project. Why did it take “so long,” so to speak, to talk about love?
MV Bill – I came from a very, very bitter background. An environment where we talked about very rough issues. So, I couldn't even consider the possibility that rap could be a musical expression of love. I also came from a family that didn't display much love. But when I debuted my first album, the first song they chose to play on the radio wasn't a song about social issues. It was a song called “A Noite,” in which I said that the night was cool and that it was important to have fun. So, when this song played in São Paulo for the first time, many people didn't like it either, not because the song was bad - it was great. But they didn't like it because, well, Bill isn't talking about shooting; he's not talking about reality but about entertainment. We talk about social problems, but when we have the opportunity, we go out for beer, to the cinema, to meet friends...
Meia Volta - And who are the artists, whether in music or other art languages, that you admire outside the hip-hop context, both in Brazil and outside Brazil?
MV Bill - Here in Brazil there are two very good girls. They are the renewal of Bahian and Black music, Larissa Luz and Luedji Luna. There's Conceição Evaristo, who is an amazing fucking writer.
Meia Volta - And next year you turn 50 years old! What are you most proud of in these almost 50 years of life, and what do you still want to achieve?
MV Bill - I'm very proud of being one of the old-school names in Brazilian rap and how I can dialogue with other generations. Last week, in Minas Gerais, at the front of the stage, there were just 18, 19-year-olds singing my songs, which are older than them. That makes me really proud, you know?
Now, I want to make the records that I couldn't make in the past. I'm thinking about making an EP with more romantic songs, my way of talking about feelings. But I also think about doing something completely mixed with samba rock.
INTERSECTIONS
Here, we present any expression in which música brasileira dialogues with other realms of society.
To shed light on Black Consciousness Day in Brazil, commemorated in November, this “Intersections” features O Canto dos Escravos.
As if listening to the encounter of three greats from the Afro-Brazilian music landscape - Tia Doca, Clementina de Jesus, and Geraldo Filme - wasn’t a privilege by itself, “O Canto dos Escravos” (1982) is a rare historical document, confirming the irrefutable Bantu heritage in Minas Gerais. Followed by traditional drums, the voices of Geraldo, Doca, and Clementina go back in time to give life to the vissungos - chants that Afro-Brazilian communities from Minas Gerais inherited from their enslaved African ancestors from Bantu ethnicities. Evoking themes such as work, religion, past, and death, the vissungos are one of the few cultural expressions preserving what has remained from the Bantu languages that arrived in Minas Gerais around the eighteenth century - quimbundo, quicongo, and umbundo, mainly. Blending Portuguese with remnants from these languages in most of its chants, “Canto dos Escravos” is a melodic, soulful statement that Brazil’s African heritage should be sung until the day it sounds redundant.
Sources:
“A Árvore da Palavra Banto em Minas” - Sônia Queiroz
https://www.geledes.org.br/o-canto-dos-escravos/
Listicle: 25 BRILLIANT ACOUSTIC GUITARISTS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Rolling Stone Magazine recently published a list of the top 250 guitarists in history - but c’mon now, who’s got time for all that? We decided to cut it to 1/10th and present to you 25 of the most brilliant Brazilian guitarists you should know about (names are not in order of preference). We’ve refined this list to the top Brazilian acoustic guitar players, in Portuguese, “violonistas”. Our selection was based on the following criteria: violonistas whose technique/creativity/authenticity stood out in a specific Brazilian music scene, but who are yet mostly unknown among foreign audiences. Also, we have tried to consider diversity of genres- from chorinho to música missioneira, and geographies- from Rio Grande do Sul to Pernambuco. Stay tuned for our upcoming electric guitarist list!
Thank you to the artists and researchers who contributed to this list: Pedro Fonte, Helô Ferreira, Marlene Souza Lima, Daniel Machado, and Alessandro Soares.
Before we get to the violonista list we want to pay special tribute to Lanny Gordin, one of the kings of Tropicália psych-rock guitar, who sadly passed away on his birthday at the age of 72 just this past Tuesday. Famous for his frenetic fuzz shredding, he was a prodigy who laid down solos and rhythm guitar on many of the groundbreaking albums of the 60s and 70s. He is now up in the heavens tearing it up with Gal Costa. Rest in Peace, Lanny.
Bola Sete
Rio de Janeiro’s Bola Sete stood out for his unpaired technique, glow on stage, and combination of jazz, references from música brasileira (from choro to bossa nova), Indian music, and flamenco. He was a guitar guru for Carlos Santana.
"Mambossa" (pun of word combo "mambo” and "bossa")
Raphael Rabello
Raphael Baptista Rabello was a virtuoso considered one of the greatest acoustic guitar players in the world during the 80s and 90s. He left a prodigious body of work, both solo and on albums by other Brazilian legends.
Dino Sete Cordas
One of the original masters of the 7-string guitar, Dino was so synonymous with his instrument that it became his nickname, Seven-String Dino. He worked with Carmen Miranda, Elis Regina, and Cartola, to name a few, during his six-decade career.
"Aperto de Mão" (translates to "Handshake")
Gilberto Gil
Adored by millions worldwide for his uplifting music, as well as his social justice activism and previous role as Brazil’s Minister of Culture in the early 2000s, Gilberto Gil’s phenomenal guitar work is mostly overlooked due to his massive popularity as a singer and songwriter.
Expresso 2222 (translates to “Express Train 2222”).
Baden Powell
Baden Powell was one of the most outstanding violonistas to blend classical and jazz guitar. In collaboration with poet and composer Vinícius de Moraes, he recorded, Os Afro-Sambas de Baden e Vinícius in 1966, a watershed album in MPB history.
"Manha de Carnaval" (translates to "Carnival Morning")
Marco Pereira
He has an extensive academic background and has recorded with major Brazilian music artists. Currently, he is a professor in the Composition Dept at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
"Frevo" (frevo is an energetic music and dance unique to the city of Recife, in Northeast Brazil)
Rosa Passos
Rosa Passos possesses an equally smooth voice and guitar style, and has recorded since the 70s including an album with bassist Ron Carter called ‘Entre Amigos.’
"Você Vai Ver" (translates to "You'll See")
Badi Assad
She was awarded Best Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist by Guitar Player magazine in 1995 and has collaborated with many legends in the realms of classical and jazz fusion including Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Larry Coryell, and John Abercrombie. The clip above is a stunning display of her technical mastery and creativity at vocal scatting and playing guitar simultaneously.
Additionally, you can’t spell Badi Assad without “Badass.” :)
Levino Albano da Conceição
Permanently blinded at the age of seven after contracting yellow fever, he dedicated his life to music and fought to improve the lives of the visually impaired. He also mentored another one of Brazil’s finest acoustic guitarists, up next here.
"El Pasado" (translates to "The Past")
Dilermando Reis
Dilermando Reis, with more than 20 albums, was both prolific as a composer and influential as a teacher, giving lessons to not only other greats such as Bola Sete, but also to the daughter of Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek.
Deixa Comigo (translates to "Leave It To Me")
Egberto Gismonti
Both a guitar and piano virtuoso, he has an extensive history of experimentation with unique luthier-crafted guitars of many more strings. His collaborations include experimental jazz masters Hermeto Pascoal, Naná Vasconcelos, and Airto Moreira.
Luiz Bonfá
He recorded two of the most important songs in twentieth-century Brazilian cinema, “Samba de Orfeu” and “Manhã de Carnaval,” with composer Antonio Maria for the 1959 movie ‘Ofreu Negro’ (Black Orpheus). His song “Seville” was also sampled for the intro of Gotye & Kimbra’s Grammy-winning hit “Somebody that I Used to Know.”
Cristina Azuma
She is a Ph.D. of Musicology from the Paris Sorbonne University and an award-winning classical guitarist specializing in late 17th-century music.
"Migalhas de Amor" (translates to "Love Crumbs")
Celso Machado
He is a multi-instrumentalist incorporating percussion and wind instrument traditions of Brazil’s neighboring countries into his compositions. Over his forty-year career, he has had success touring internationally and has lived in Vancouver, Canada.
Rosinha de Valença
Rosinha de Valença accompanied many of the Brazilian musical giants of the 60s and 70s. By her early twenties, she was already playing with Baden Powell and Jorge Ben and touring the U.S. with Sergio Mendes. She also made tour trips to the U.S.S.R., Israel, and countries in Europe and Africa.
Nara Leão
As an important singer in the bossa nova movement, Nara’s guitar often goes unnoticed. She was a vocal critic of Brazil’s military dictatorship - on both her solo album ‘Opinião,’ and as a contributor to the revolutionary ‘Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis,’ the album that heralded in the counter-culture tropicália movement.
"Maria Moita", "Berimbau" e "Carcará"
Duo Siqueira Lima
Formed by virtuosos Brazilian Fernando de Lima and Uruguayan Cecilia Siqueira, this power duo plays with amazing dexterity together on the same guitar. They also give international master classes and workshops.
"Tico Tico no Fubá" (translates to "Sparrow in the Cornmeal")
Duo Abreu
Brothers Sergio and Eduardo Abreu, both born in Rio de Janeiro had a rather short but illustrious stint as both an internationally acclaimed duo and as soloists from 1968 - 1975. Eduardo quit music, but Sergio continued on as a luthier, crafting high-quality classical guitars.
Karai Guedes
Carrying on a family music legacy maintaining the tradition of missioneiro music of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Karai Guedes’ guitar playing is dramatic and blazing fast, and his collaborations are stunning.
Toninho Horta
A prominent figure in the Minas Gerais music movement of the 70s, having arranged, composed, and recorded with countless famous singers, and contributed to ‘Clube da Esquina’ - which is ranked by Rolling Stone Brasil in the Top 10 of the greatest Brazilian albums of all time.
"Beijo Partido" (translates to "Broken Kiss")
Elomar
He is a singer, composer, songwriter, and guitarist whose work has been interpreted and re-recorded by many artists. His music and poetry are characterized by his rich storytelling and representation of the often harsh Brazilian countryside, incorporating medieval Iberian elements as well.
"O Violeiro" (translates to The Guitarist)
Garoto
Garoto mastered many types of Brazilian stringed instruments and is best known for his contributions to choro music, his heavy influence on most of the other violonistas on this list. He performed in Carmen Miranda’s ensemble in the U.S., both on Broadway and in Hollywood films during the early 1940s.
"Desvairada" (translates to "Frantic")
Paulinho Nogueira
He was a self-taught master of classical music and composed extensively with more than 20 albums in classical and bossa nova styles. He also invented a type of teardrop-shaped guitar, called craviola, whose timbre mixes the sound of a harpsichord (“cravo” in Portuguese) and viola caipira, a type of guitar popular in rural Brazilian music.
"Samba em Prelúdio" (translates to “Prelude Samba”)
Toquinho
Best known for his partnership with Vinicius de Moraes, having produced over a hundred songs and performing several hundreds of shows together. He also studied under Paulinho de Nogueira at a young age.
Tele Nostalgia Espectaculares (TV performance)
Yamandu Costa
He is known for taking traditional Brazilian, Uruguayan, and Argentinian folk guitar music styles to a whole other realm technically.
"Brejeiro" (translates to "From the Swamp")
BONUS: GUITAR DUETS
Rosa Passos & Ivete Sangalo
Nara Leão & Pepeu Gomes
"Samba da Minha Terra" (translates to The Samba from My Land)
Baden Powell & Toquinho
Rosinha de Valença & Sivuca
"Saudade de Matão" (translates to Missing Matão)
Dino 7 Cordas & Zé Menezes
BONUS #2! If you have Spotify, we have also created a playlist so you can listen to these supreme violonistas on the go:
BRAZILIAN MUSIC IN A PHOTO
Ted Somerville: In 2015, I was teaching at an English school in Rio, and it turned out that one of my students in my morning class, Alexandre Rocha, was the bassist in Dudu Nobre’s band at the time. We’d always talk music before or after class. He invited me to Samba in Rio, the unfortunately less appreciated samba version of Rock in Rio, held at the Sambadrome that year. The highlight of the festival’s wonderful performances was the Queen of Samba, singer Alcione. Her 1975 debut album ‘A Voz do Samba’ (translates to ‘The Voice of Samba’) was one of the first samba albums I ever heard. I was especially hooked on the killer groove in “Acorda Eu Quero Ver”, and would often play it on my morning Brazilian music radio show years before to get hype for the day. Listen to it here. While her live show presented more of her dramatic slow ballad hits that I wasn’t familiar with, I was absolutely mesmerized by her confidence and command of the stage as the royalty she is, yet the humility and warm charm she also exuded.
On that note…
During Carnival 2024, Mangueira Samba School is honoring Alcione as an artist who played a key role in popularizing the Afro-Maranhense culture and consolidating women's representativity in the samba and pagode environments. Mangueira will be the fourth school to parade at the Sambadrome on Monday, February 12. Check out its samba enredo (competition theme song) for 2024 here.
Thanks for reading Meia Volta! If you enjoyed this, please share it with your music communities out there. See you next month 😉