TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/101689/10168900.084

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MUSIC, Page 81

The Old Seducer Returns

Bossa nova's sensual rhythms once again infatuate the pop world

By Edward M. Gomez


    More than 25 years ago, Desafinado and The Girl from Ipanema
swayed the world to the sinuous sound of bossa nova. Now a new
generation of musicians is discovering the old seducer: Brazil.
Some of the world's leading pop stars -- David Byrne, Paul Simon
and Peter Gabriel among them -- are intent on weaving novel strands
of ethnic music into a fresh, global sound. They have been flying
down to Rio for inspiration and coming back laden with rhythm.

    Earlier this year Byrne, the leader of Talking Heads, assembled
a sampling of 1970s Brazilian pop on the Fly/Sire Records album
Beleza Tropical: Brazil Classics Vol. I. This month a follow-up
collection, O Samba: Brazil Classics Vol. 2, is due to appear,
along with Rei Momo, Byrne's solo album based on Brazilian and
other Latin song styles. Simon is planning to include
Brazilian-inspired material in his next album, scheduled for
release in early 1990. Gabriel, whose new Real World label focuses
on non-Western music, based his score for the film The Last
Temptation of Christ on the sounds of Brazil and Africa. Brazil's
influence is also acknowledged by Roberta Flack on her late-1988
album Oasis. "Under a warm Rio night/ We danced on the edge," she
coos in a number dedicated to Brazilian singer-composer Djavan.
"And my heart stood still/ Oh, Brazil, Oh, Brazil."

    U.S. record-company executives are crooning the same refrain.
At Polygram, vice president Richard Seidel is overseeing a new
"Brazilian Wave" series that includes anthology albums for a number
of major Brazilian pop stars. Celluloid, an independent U.S. label,
has launched a subsidiary called Braziloid, dedicated to musica
popular brasileira, a term used by Brazilians to refer to the
country's diverse contemporary sounds. CBS Records is promoting
Brazilian stars like Djavan and Rio de Janeiro-born vocalist Milton
Nascimento as pop acts in the U.S.

    It is rhythm -- lots of rhythm -- that accounts for the new
craze, and a good deal of the beat comes from the state of Bahia.
There, in the Brazilian equivalent of the American Deep South,
African tribal dances are blended with European sounds to create
the insistent samba; the afoxe, associated with the Afro-Roman
Catholic Candomble religion; and the chugging, accordion-dominated
forro, which blends African rhythms with Portuguese folk music.
Says U.S. guitarist Arto Lindsay, co-producer with Peter Scherer
of the latest album by an eminent Brazilian performer, Caetano
Veloso: "In Bahia and the north you find the purest African
rhythms, some of the most innovative in Brazil." Notes Byrne:
"Bahia may be to Brazil what New Orleans was as the birthplace of
jazz -- a source of musical ideas that are later refined into new
styles." Brazilian music, he explains, allows him to feel "the
direct link between the ecstatic release of rhythmically based
popular songs and the spirituality that is (at) their roots."

    To their strong rhythmic foundation, Brazil's
composer-performers add spicy blends of European melodies and
unique harmonies. Maria Bethania, 43, first achieved prominence in
1965, when she substituted for the ailing star of a Rio musical.
Her dark, husky voice shares a certain androgynous quality with
those of some of Brazil's other top performers. Bethania's brother,
Veloso, 47, is -- along with Gilberto Gil -- one of the main
exponents of tropicalismo, the buoyant music of the student
generation that emerged during a period of military dictatorship
after 1964. That style advocated the rights of blacks, reintroduced
strong Afro-Brazilian rhythms and made prominent use of electric
guitars. Veloso projects intimacy in personal, deeply reflective
songs such as those on his new album, Estrangeiro (Stranger). Gil,
whose lyrics can range from overtly political to dreamily poetic,
is a versatile stylist whose repertoire ranges from reggae to rock
to electric variations onsamba.

    Gal Costa, 43, whose unforced vocal range and sweet tones are
the envy of her peers, has interpreted works ranging from bossa
nova to tropicalismo to mainstream pop. Multi-instrumentalist
Hermeto Pascoal, 50, coaxes music out of everything, it seems, from
teapots to hubcaps to sewing machines. Singer-songwriters Djavan,
40, and Ivan Lins, 42, are purveyors of easygoing, soulful music
in a sophisticated urban style. Djavan, who hails from the
northeastern state of Alagoas, began making records in the
mid-1970s; his most recent albums have included songs in English.
Lins' songwriting is freighted with rich chord changes; like
Djavan, Lins is aiming for mainstream crossover appeal abroad. With
this in mind, he sings in English on this year's Love Dance, his
latest album release.

    The Brazilian star perhaps most widely admired abroad is
Nascimento, who credits trumpeter Miles Davis, saxophonist John
Coltrane and the Beatles as influences. In airy harmonies that
resound with the church music of Minas Gerais, the state in
east-central Brazil where he grew up, Nascimento writes uplifting
sound poems full of yearning and determination. His music is
infused with a near mystical celebration of life and love, coupled
with a respect for nature that borders on animism. Ironically,
Nascimento's records, as well as those of many of his popular
colleagues, have been largely displaced on the radio playlists in
their own country by the likes of Madonna, local crooners or the
standard rock 'n' roll with Portuguese lyrics.

    Oddly enough, some Brazilian purists fear that foreign
enthusiasm for their music could corrupt it. Djavan, for one, has
dismissed David Byrne's efforts as "inconsequential." Nascimento
disagrees. "You're always trading ideas," he says. "It gives you
life." Others are concerned that jaded outsiders will soon move on
to something else. Anything is possible in the fickle pop-music
world, but for now, musicians agree, it's Brazil that's got rhythm.


-- Laura Lopez/Rio de Janeiro