August 14

The last full day of my residence in Porto Alegre. The trivial notion of the time flying by is more than appropriate in this case. My head and heart full of impressions, experiences and emotions, I spent the morning packing up and writing bunch of emails.

At 3 pm the director of the Goethe-Institut Reinhard Sauer picked me up with a taxi and we went on to the great restaurant "Na Brasa", where Nils Wogram and I already had a great meal last year. This time it was just as good, maybe a bit more crowded - it was the Father's Day here in Brazil, which is very much a family affair here, meaning that the children give presents to their dads and have together an opulent meal, usually at lunch time.

Reinhard and I had a very good conversation, moving from general topics to more specific ones, concerning the residence, it's goals, results and the possible ramifications thereof. It was a new experience for the institute too, having a "jazz" musician here for an extended period of time, building creative and personal connections with the local scene and exchanging views and practices with them. We talked about things which could be done better or differently next time they have one of the colleagues over.

The weather, having turned bad again a day before, was showing itself from the worst side.
In spite of it, I was not about to sit it out in the four walls of my apartment on the last day here.

Instead, i grabbed a cab and went to the very center of the city, to the Santander Cultural. It is situated on Praça de Alfándego, which has a park in the middle and bunch of old buildings surrounding it, practically each of them housing a museum. This one is an old bank building, turned into a cultural center with a concert space, spaces for exhibitions, cinema and a cafe (in the former treasure vault).

The old facade does not prepare one for the very modern design of the concert space inside.

The attraction of the evening was a concert of the trio Nó De Pinho, with Paulo Gaiger, Thiago Colombo and Leandro Maia. They compose and play modern musica gaucha, playing a vast variety of instruments. Very fine band, great tunes.

Thiago is a great guitarist and a son of Claudio, the boss of the beloved bar Parangolé, where everything started for me here in Porto Alegre last year.
Claudio is another wonderful warm person I had the fortune to meet here. He not only gave me Thiago's splendid new CD, but also provided me with a ticket.

Diego Dos Santos came by too, and so did Dunia Elias.

After the concert Diego and I said our goodbyes. I am quite thankful to him for helping me to find the books, giving me many names of Brazilian musicians I never heard of, and making me the company in a number of bars along the way…

Dunia and I went to a bar to have a nice talk and a few drinks. She brought me back to the Institute, where I packed my stuff, wrote more emails to my new friends here and listened to some music I discovered in the last 6 weeks in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Many thanks to all my friends here, for the friendship and music!

Special thanks to everyone at Goethe-Institut, here in Porto Alegre and in Munich!!!

So, that's it folks, thanks for reading my little blog!

August 13

At 11 in the morning Dunia Elias came by bringing the copies of some music scores I asked for - entire books of Edu Lobo and Gismonti, some classic Zambas and a concise descriptions of the rhythms of Argentinian music - very valuable material!

At 12:30 I met José Fernandes. We went to have a lunch at Delicia Natural. After that we drove to Zona Sul, the beach of Ipanema - yes, there is such a place here, in Porto Alegre, and it is very beautiful.

At 4 pm José dropped me off at the Odomodé - the cultural center Afro-Sul, which keeps the tradition of the black music of Brazil alive here for 30 years, providing social programs for the kids of poor background and lessons in batucada, among other things.

The special event was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Chico Santana, one of the great sambistas of Velha Guarda da Portela - a samba school in Rio de Janeiro.




About 30 players from several cities were sitting in a huge circle, playing and singing his sambas for hours on end. I already saw these events plenty of times while in Rio, but every time this strong communal spirit picks me up and propels to the new heights of joy and sharpened awareness of all things around. I was very happy to finally, in the nick of time, have caught one of these gatherings there. Feijão and Careca were playing too.

here is a photo of the roda do samba, taken by Carolina Melo, a nice girl from Uberlándia, Minas Gerais

Later on Rafael Ferrari came by, partially because it was the last chance for us to hang out.
After a few hours we went to Goethe, to meet Jota and Daniel who brought the entire material (audio and video) of the 3rd concert with Mimmo Ferreira, to be copied on the spot.

While waiting for this to be accomplished, Rafael was showing me some of the most remarkable bandolim players on youtube.

For instance, I discovered the great predecessor of Jacob do Bandolim - Luperce Miranda:



On the other end of the time spectrum, the amazing Hamilton de Hollanda:



The material safely on my HD, Rafael and I quickly moved to the MEME, where the Bahian musician Mateus Aliluia, maestro of the Musica Preta Brasileira was giving a solo performance. His talk and music had a very meditative, calming and rooted qualities, all about afro-brazilian traditions of the older times.



We already met the evening before, and talking to him left a wonderful mark on my somewhat agitated mood (last few days were increasingly emotional for me - spending these 6 weeks here apparently meant much more to me than I suspected).

A nice meal and funny conversations rounded up the day.

August 12

Another pleasant warm day, spent partially outside, partially organizing some last minute meetings. Adair Gass invited me to a well-known Bar de Beto, in Bom Fim, Jewish quarter. We had a nice talk, about my residence, among other things. After that I took a brisk walk to the beloved MEME, where Mimmo Ferreira and I opened once again the monthly Espaço Improviso. Had great fun again, this crowd at MEME is like one big family, great vibes, abundance of warmth and human generosity.
Had to split right away, heading to the Boteco Tchê, where Ernesto and Paulinho Fagundes were playing the modern hip version of milongas, chamamès and other types of música gaúcha.

Ernesto plays Bombo legüero - the traditional Argentinian drum. He adds some spice to the performance by not only singing but also using his voice for all kinds of effects.
The great Samuca joined them on accordion.

Rodrigo Panassolo was doing the live sound and hanging out with us - great company.

A wonderful guy, a musician too, Adriano Marques, was hanging out with his girlfriend at our table - we had a very heart-warming talk as well.

Was great to hear strong modern and creative ways to play the music, feeling that this music will not die out any time soon...

August 11

Nice warm day, begging to be spent outside, taking a stroll, sitting outside sipping a cold beer, relaxing…
Did just that, but before settling in the nightly routine of going to the bars with live music, I went to the Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana. I was already familiar with it, but it's strange and complicated structure demanded another visit. It occupies the former Hotel Majestic, right in the center of the city, the two nearly identical buildings connected by passages on each floor. These days it offers place for a number of galleries, small museums, on-going art projects, cinemas and a lovely cafe on the roof terrace. After a brief check of a few spaces, I went to see the film "Filhos de João" (João being João Gilberto), about the history of the "Novos Baianos", the band which came up with a very fresh sound in the 70's: I really love their tunes from that period.
The music, and the film even more so, reveal the spirit of the community, similar to the hippie in appearance, but, to me, much more valuable in its output…

here is a rare color footage of them doing their greatest hit Brasil Pandeiro:



Strolling down the Rua da Praia, I ran into Diego Dos Santos, who was having a beer with his friend Andre. I joined them immediately; the evening dropped on us quickly, as it happens here in the winter, and the night life was taking its rightful place…
Having worked up the appetite, Diego and I went to a place right next door to Parangolé, where we had a pretty far out concoction, which goes by the name of a pizza, but has very little in common with what Italians gave to the rest of the world. The pie is several proud inches high, and contains such "toppings" as beef Stroganov and other hearty combos. Once I shook off the memories of pizza as such, I could enjoy this wild creation quite a bit, also for what it represents - the insatiable appetite of gaúchos for piles of meat, hearty toppings and side dishes - this is my kind of land!

After this meal, it was our luck that the next destination was right next door - Parangolé, where I wanted to catch once again Prof. Darcy Alves. This time, besides his companion and nephew Silfarnei, there was one "official" pandeiro player, and two more sitting in occasionally, to my delight.
This style of music, evoking the mist of nostalgic reverie, pleases me immensely, I must admit.

Here is one of the greatest crooners of the yesteryear, Orlando Silva



and another great crooner, Francisco Alves

August 10

The weather continues to improve, to the greatest joy of all - this winter here wasn't that much fun…

What turned out to be fun was the "process" of getting the audio material of the first concert. Since, unfortunately, José no longer can give me the lessons in Portuguese (the semester started at the university), my afternoon was all free. I informed Rodrigo Panassolo, one of the recording engineers, that I could come over to the studio earlier. A short disscussion of plans resulted in him inviting me to join him and the guitarist Paulinho Fagundes for the lunch. We went to a new place not too far from Institute "Delícia Natural", which turned out to be a great place with a wonderful view.

Paulinho Fagundes, a really fine musician - I am listening to his CD right now, and it's very happening - comes from a musical family, his father and two other brothers are all very serious musicians and have a band together. Paulinho is one of the musicians here in Porto Alegre, who are combining the modern jazz language with some subtle elements of regional música gaúcha.
Hearing the accounts about this scene and hearing this CD, I realize that I've missed a bit on the chance to get together with these guys…
Some of the names are: Jorginho do Trompete (heard many legends about him), Michel Dorfman, a very fine pianist, Edu Martins, bass, Marquinhos Fé, drums.

Anyway, our next stop was a music store "Guitar Point", where Rodrigo, who plays guitar too, wanted to check out a new model of Chinese make, using Paulinho's expertise.
After that we were off to Petrópolis, a very nice residential area of the city, where the Transcendental Audio Studio of Leo Bracht is situated.
I spent a few hours there, listening to some recent studio's productions, chatting with Leo, Rodrigo and a couple of younger musicians - pianist and bassist - whom I already knew from my workshops. Leo prepared and copied all the material on my HD, and off I was, back to the Goethe.

It was time to play Concert 3, concluding my musical activities of this residence.

It was a duo concert with the percussion player Mimmo Ferreira, who already participated in the first concert on August 5.
I loved the fact that with him I could combine playing some free or open improvisations, and at the same time go into all kinds of genres and grooves of Brazilian and Argentinian music. It was fun to do an open loose version of milonga or chamamé, drop into a fast samba, or do a "forró" version of my tune Dança Nova, with Mimmo playing triangle. The only complaint I have is that, once again, the attendance was rather disappointing. Really don't understand it…

Afterwards, the director of the Institute Reinhard Sauer invited us for a meal in the old, traditional, "real" Italian place called "Copacabana". Feijão came along, and so did Carol, Mimmo's wife. The food was really fantastic. It went a long way to linder the feelings of not having accomplished nearly as much as intended...

Feijão, while driving to the restaurant, was appalled to hear that I wasn't aware of the great Radamés Gnattali, composer and pianist from Porto Alegre, who helped to form the genre of choro, among many other things.

Here he plays one of his tunes for piano:



And here is a very rare footage (give it a moment, the quality gets better):




Another great composer of Porto Alegre whom I was hardly aware of before is Lupicínio Rodrigues. He worked in the 30's-50's, writing elegant, somewhat sentimental songs about love lost and such. Many of the greatest performers of these times included his songs in their repertoire.

Here is a sample of his style:



And another one, combined with Paulinho da Viola

August 9

Yesterday I played Concert 2

This one was solo, since the idea with the large piece requiring large ensemble didn't work out and there was no more time to prepare more material with Luizinho.
The weather was terrible, and the promotion of this event seemingly on the light side, all of it resulting in a somewhat smallish audience.
Those who came out in this rain and storm were very attentive and thankful. I played a melange of Herbie Nichols, Monk and free improv.
I went away a rather satisfied customer, I hope the others too…

Tonight Mimmo Ferreira (percussion) and I will record at night here. I am really looking forward to it - I've always loved playing and recording duos with drummers - the duo CD's with Han Bennink, Tom Rainey and Park Je-Chun are not so silent witnesses to it.
But I never played a duo with a Brazilian percussion player - untill few weeks ago. It feels pretty damn good to me!
Tomorrow night the same duo will play the third and last concert of my residence.

Continuing our walk through the never ending garden of genres and types of Brazilian music: here is Jayme Caetano Braun, one of the greatest of payada, texts based on the models of old troubadour stories of medieval and Renaissance times, but fitted to the campeiro taste and topics. Some of these stories of daily hardships and the proud gaucho spirit are known by heart in this region.It's typical for the entire South of the continent - Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.




Here is the great Cenair Maicá, who belonged to the same scene of música nativista.

August 7

A quiet day for me, mostly staying home and nursing the cold.
Using the situation, I started to check out some of the Brazilian musicians Diego and some others were suggesting.
I am very thankful for every new name worthy of checking.
I started with Sérgio Sampaio, one of the "bad boys" of Brazilian music in the 70-80's. I am not prepared to comment much on his place in the music, but I already see that he did quite a few different things stylistically.
I like what I am hearing so far a lot.

All these new (to me) musicians apparently fall between the cracks as far as genres and generalizations go, and that's what I dig about this journey...

Here is one on a more melancholic side



And this one musically more typically "Brazilian", with a satirical text




I can only strongly recommend to search for further material on these muscians, in this blog I'll only list them, considering it a gentle push in the direction...

The next giant I am discovering today is Elomar Figueiro de Melo, or simply Elomar.
Once again, way too early to try to be "smart" about this phenomenon from Bahia.
A fresh (in this context) harmonic language and delivery bringing together some kind of troubadour styling with the stories about sertão. The language of the songs is full of his own inventions, also using heavily the sertaneza, the regional dialect. This certainly adds up to the uniqueness of the style.

Here is one powerfull example:



And here is Xangai, a musical partner of Elomar, performing Elomar's classic "Violêro"



I feel a bit like a fake, skipping here from one great artist to the next so rapidly, but, since I am not in position to tell too much about them at the moment, that's what is left to do.

On the other hand, my personal experience reminds me, that nowadays just one suggestion of a name or clip can lead to a most satisfying hunt on youtube or elsewhere.

So, now returning to the classics of the Música Gaúcha, here is the wonderful Noel Guarany:



Very soulful stuff, I find... And another one:



And now for something different - here is a great Argentinian bandoneon player Chaloy Jara: