Lower Manhattan Morning w. Djavan I have a new coworker, a Brazilian from Alagoa. And a huge, huge fan of Djavan. While training him to meet the nightly quota of news wires, we have spent the past two nights listening to old and new music from his beautiful hometown. A feast of an earthly paradise. Im in love with Pernambuco, which after Bahia is the place that knocks me out. More than a decade ago, again under the creative impulse of David Bryne, Pernambuco became a musical reference. (Think of Chico Sciences mangue beat revolution.) But like many things in Gringolandia, the exposure became a fad: interesting now, boring the next minute. And yet thanks to Bryne I went into the pernambucano groove, making some contacts and, most delightfully, the acquiantance of a now dear friend who goes by the pen name of Zeca Bi (not to confused with another influential MPB collector: Zeca Loro). Bis blog, dedicated exclusively to Pernambucos musical culture, became my daily diet. It was a time when Google was starting to crack down on those download blogs, so before Bi closed shop, I went to for it and downloaded the entire collection (and all the posts), an impressive treasure transferred (mostly) from vinyl to mp3. If I am touting my own horn, please forgive me. But Brazil is my passion. And it gives me great pleasure when I can show a native Brazilian how the culture and music of that country have worked on the psyche of a non-Brazilian like me. There are many Brazilians, but mostly two come to mind: those who believe that by fleeing the country the past can be left behind; and then there are those who take to the wealth of culture as a religion. Bi belongs to the latter; my coworker... Well, lets say that he has been living in New York for too many years and Brazil has became a rekindled affair. A good thing indeed if he to learn that the history of Brazil can never toss aside all those songs coming from poets, musicians, doctors, radio djs, lawyers, housewives, workers... Actually, the history of the country can be unfolded by its music, for hardly any other country can sing the way my Brazil does.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 13:02:31 +0000
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