Brazzil
September 1999
Music

Savoring
Salmaso

The waiting is over, as Mônica Salmaso, the lyric soul of Brazil, launches the renovation of Brazilian popular music.

Bruce Gilman

"It was an unforgettable night," says Mônica Salmaso, winner of the 1999 Prêmio Visa de MPB Vocal Edition. "When I entered the stage and saw the theater completely full and the orchestra ready, I understood why I was there, and I wanted to sing as well as I possibly could. I became emotional while I was singing, letting out my feelings, being sincere."

The Prêmio Visa de MPB, a competition for young musicians created and produced by Eldorado Radio and sponsored by Visa, took place for the first time in 1998, awarding instrumentalists, as the 1999 edition awarded vocalists, and next year's will award young composers. Performers in the vocal edition were selected from a record 1,247 applicants, who had to be Brazilian or residents of Brazil for at least ten years, be under twenty-nine years of age, and present a program of Brazilian music—any period or genre.

A contingent of jurors headed by Maestro Nelson Ayres (president of the jury during the entire competition) made a preselection of twenty-four singers who began presenting on March 1, 1999. Candidates were directed to change their repertoire at each step of the competition and to be sure that half of their selections were well-known in order to allow the jurors comparative parameters. From the preselected candidates, twelve semifinalists emerged, and from these, the five finalists who performed on Monday evening, May 31, 1999, in the Sala Esther Mesquita of the Teatro Cultura Artística.

For her final performance of the competition Mônica Salmaso was accompanied by the Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica on two works written by Chico Buarque and Edu Lobo, "A História de Lilly Braun" (The Tale of Lilly Braun) and "O Grande Circo Místico" (The Great Mystic Circus). Her climatic selection, "Canto de Três Raças" (Chant of Three Races) by Paulo César Pinheiro and Mauro Duarte, was arranged for voice, cuíca, surdo, and six congas by the singer and percussionists. Hers was a victory of elegance and sobriety, of technique and emotion. Salmaso's prize: forty thousand reais (approximately twenty-one thousand dollars), a recording deal for one CD on the Eldorado label, and a new Volkswagen.

Salmaso does have an exquisite instrument, a stimulating, acutely precise natural voice with a wide range and huge timbric palette that emits effortlessly. Her vocal style has been admired for its purity of tone, perfect intonation, instrumental concept, and highly refined sense of harmonic climax by some of the most important names in Brazilian music: Paulo Bellinati, Edu Lobo, Leny Andrade, and José Miguel Wisnik. "About Monica," says singer-songwriter Joyce, "I think she's one of the most interesting new voices in Brazil today. She doesn't sound like anyone else. Most young singers are still trying to sound like Elis, Bethânia, or Gal Costa, especially like Elis. Monica seems to have her own sound already. This is rare!"

Exuding warmth and an intimacy with words, the 28-year-old mezzo-soprano has been delighting listeners for almost ten years. But until recently, she had been solely a cult figure with a small legion of devoted fans on the furiously competitive São Paulo club and theater scene. On stage, she imparts sincere, yet controlled emotion, free from any kind of egotistical gestures or exaggeration, each movement choreographed with grace, so that you have to both hear and see to believe. Salmaso also has something important to say about music and tradition, and she says it without compromising her standards in any way.

Originally intending to become a journalist, Salmaso changed her career plans after a month of voice lessons, an activity that she took up during her university preparation as a form of relaxation. Through a friend she was introduced to theater director Gabriel Villela in 1989, who was opening a work titled O Concílio do Amor (Congregation of Love) and needed a young singer to play the role of Verônica and to interpret Gregorian chant. Salmaso stayed with the show for one year then started working the São Paulo club scene, and it was there, in the famous Vou Vivendo, frequented by the bohemians of São Paulo, that composer Eduardo Gudin heard her, became an immediate fan, and invited her to participate in his recently created group, Notícias dum Brazil. Gudin, at that time, had some projects running with the Velas record label and intended to record the complete Afro-Sambas by Baden Powell and Vinícius de Morais.

Salmaso became the principal soloist with Gudin's group in 1992 and recorded the Notícias dum Brazil (News From Brazil) CD for the Velas label. During this time she also sang on a Paulo Tatit project, Canções de Ninar (Lullaby), which won two Prêmio Sharp awards. Salmaso left Notícias dum Brazil in 1995 to pursue a solo career and to record Afro-Sambas as a duo with virtuoso guitar player Paulo Bellinati. Afro-Sambas was released on the Atração label in Brazil (due to a "misunderstanding" with Velas) and GSP in the United States. It was nominated for the Prêmio Sharp in 1997.

In 1998 Salmaso drew public attention when the foremost instrumentalists in Brazil invited her to join Orquestra Popular de Câmera (Popular Chamber Orchestra). Each member of this orchestra has a prosperous solo career, and their names—Teco Cardoso, Benjamim Taubkin, Paulo Freire, Toninho Ferragutti, Mané Silveira, and Caito Marcondes to name a few—appear on hundreds of important recordings by the distinguished artists who make up Brazilian popular music. Collaborating as an ensemble, these players communicate in an extraordinary musical language and dialogue with instruments typical not only of an urban orchestra (cello, piano, contrabass, woodwinds) but also of popular Brazilian music, folk forms, and choro (bandolim, accordion, viola caipira, percussion, bamboo flutes).

"This kindred musical language takes into account not only a tremendous amount of information," says Salmaso, "but also the musical personalities of each member, which in turn is considered at the moment arrangements are made and during improvisations. The essence of sound has been central to this whole group. Never just `sound,' but more an invitation to alter one's way of perceiving music. We create experiences out of texture and timbre, adding instruments in unison washes of sound while projecting our voices in search of `the' Brazilian sonority. In my case, I sing in the orchestra, without lyrics, only vocalizing, as another instrumental voice. The experience is very important because, for me, it is a school for the voice as another musical instrument. I have to balance equally in arrangements with twelve other instruments. It's a very special lesson for me, and musical relationships among the group members are very rich. "

I've always felt that a great recording is one which transcends the everyday, a dynamic experience that transports the listener to a different time-element, a sphere beyond himself. This is the feeling I have when I listen to Afro-Sambas interpreted by Paulo Bellinati and Mônica Salmaso, a project that clearly demonstrates the personality of Salmaso as an interpreter. It is also the case when I listen to Trampolim (Springboard), Salmaso's first solo CD, which has just been released in the United States on the Blue Jackel label. The recording is a testimony to Salmaso's interpretive gifts and to Edu Lobo's comment that any praise you bestow upon Mônica Salmaso is not enough in relation to her talent.

Any CD, if carefully considered, crosses the categorical boundaries reviewers set for it. And sometimes these pigeonholes bog down in polemics and illogical distinctions because the experts are desperately unsure of their capacity for esthetic judgment; because most were never trained as musicians, musicologists, or academic analysts; and because they are fearful of looking ridiculous if some other "authority" proclaims them wrong. But music does not evolve in straight lines, and Trampolim overlaps more boundaries than most.

Evocative and expressive, the CD is both a challenge to conventional notions of quality popular music and a work devoted to the rediscovery of Brazilian roots. It shows an unusual respect for original sources, one that gives musicology an almost meticulous authority, but one that also gives the interpreter a freedom from the rigidity of accustomed forms. Trampolim delineates regional characteristics of the Brazilian people and their folklore, not from a regionalist point-of-view, but rather from an objective and universal perspective. The CD travels through a seldom inhabited repertoire of work songs, religious liturgy, legends, and songs from Brazil's indigenous people, all passed through the prism of this modern interpreter whose voice is the optimum vehicle to passionately project these poetic texts. It is a demanding and authentic project, one of those rare, must-listen to from beginning to end recordings that continues to appreciate with repeated listenings.

Trampolim is not only a rare work of art but also a fundamental response to the polluted popular, pseudo-eclectic industry formulas; there are few, if any, concessions to commerciality. And like the Prêmio Visa de MPB festival, Trampolim functions as a showcase for Salmaso to unveil Brazilian popular music of the highest quality. By being rigorous and critical in choosing this particular repertoire (one that would have been disastrous with a lesser voice), Salmaso is proclaiming a renovation within Brazilian popular music and creating a kind of spiritual independence that seems, better than anything else, to define what is characteristic about the CD.

Reflecting the connection that exists between religious practice and the continuous musical activity of festivals, funerals, and processions that accompany it in Brazil; Trampolim bears an almost spiritual overtone. But says Salmaso, "I don't have a religion, and I have a pessimistic impression of all of them, as institutions. But I have a deep individual feeling of spirituality. I may view religion with suspicion, but I view and have much love for the people who have faith. I feel a profound, personal affection for this characteristic."

The starting point for Trampolim was a project called Mundo, São Paulo that Rodolfo Stroeter, bassist and owner of the Pau Brasil record label, was directing in 1997 with the purpose of introducing the public to new talents from São Paulo performing with the Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica. "Mônica was one of the participants," says Stroeter, "and from the very beginning I felt, that besides her amazing voice, she had what I would call in Portuguese `alma lírica brasileira' (lyric soul of Brazil). She is deep into a certain view of Brazilian music that connects the very modern with the very traditional."

After the Mundo, São Paulo project was mixed, Stroeter called the singer, expressing his interest in having her record for the Pau Brasil label. "It took Monica and me about a year to decide which songs we were going to record. We met every week to listen to and talk about songs that she brought. Of course, this was a pretty arduous process, and the funny thing about it was that we never played a single note while we were in this initial stage. It was primarily listening and more a matter of finding the right musicians that could collaborate with this kind of project."

Throughout the process Salmaso kept returning to songs whose melodic and poetic characteristics reminded both singer and producer of the mystical and religious aspects of their Afro-Brazilian culture. Says Salmaso, "Rodolfo pointed this out and proposed that we follow this concept in order to have a common thread, a unity for the CD, and this became my major preoccupation. From there we categorized the first repertoire, and then I started looking for other songs that would be in line with this theme. I conducted research and interviewed important researchers in São Paulo. Edgar Poças showed me "Bate Canela," and introduced me to the music of Antônio Tavernard and Waldemar Henrique—the great translator of music from the Amazon. Paulo Dias, a serious collector of Brazilian folk material from the University of São Paulo, showed me "Canto dos Escravos" and introduced me to the music of Mestra Virgínia."

After the repertoire was selected, Stroeter and Salmaso began discussing arrangements and which musicians were going to participate. The players had to understand both the structure of the indigenous tunes and possess a musical language that was modern, sophisticated. Naná Vasconcelos (percussion and voice), Lelo Nazario (keyboards), Toninho Ferragutti (accordion), and Paulo Bellinati (guitars) were the principals chosen. An interpreter who embodies what she sings and who refuses to be bound by the gimmickry, limited trends, and popsy touches of the industry's formulas; Salmaso surrounded herself with a contingent of musicians capable of rendering the traditional with the utmost integrity and the contemporary with finesse—the duality that permeates Trampolim.

Opening the CD, "Canto dos Escravos" (Chant of the Slaves) is a Vissungo, or work song of the African slaves who were brought to Brazil. It was discovered in São João da Chapada, Minas Gerais by Aires da Mata Machado. Making a request to God and to the Virgin Mary to bless the work of the day that is beginning, the text blends the Portuguese and Tupi languages and refers to both Catholic and native divinities. This arrangement for voices and percussion features the atmospheric playing and vocalizing of master percussionist Naná Vasconcelos, a marvel who accomplishes his infinitely fine musical embroidery by means of allusion and elision. Vasconcelos fragments and reassembles phrases, creating a many-layered backdrop of contrasts and large-scale rhythmic tensions into which Salmaso pours her full coloristic range. Their interpretation is profound, richly textured, and beautifully expressive. The listener only needs an appetite for a hypnotic, sometimes dizzyingly textural arrangement and a willingness to indulge himself to appreciate this performance.

"A Permuta dos Santos" (The Exchange of the Saints) by Chico Buarque and Edu Lobo from the ballet Dança da Meia Lua (Dance of the Half Moon) is a song whose lyrics comment on the distinctive religiosity of the poorer Brazilian population and specifically talk about a Catholic ritual called "procissão" (procession) in which images of the saints are carried on the shoulders of the faithful from one church to another.

The believers sing, pray, and ask several favors of the saints (graças) and follow this ritual of sacrifice with the objective of obtaining what they requested as proofs of their faith. But in "A Permuta dos Santos," there is an ironic twist. If at the end of all these efforts the graças are not fulfilled, the images of the saints will be left behind to return to their altars by themselves. The arrangement is based on the maracatu rhythm and is embellished by Toninho Ferragutti's sinuous accordion artistry, which speaks directly to the subconscious and projects the tune's otherworldly pigment.

"Tajapanema—Foi Boto Sinhá" (Tajapanema—It Was the Dolphin, Mistress), a song from the Amazon region and one of the first songs chosen for the project, recounts the legend of Boto, the dolphin, who transforms himself into a human being at night and seduces a young virgin. In this arrangement for voice and guitar by Paulo Bellinati, Salmaso communicates her palpable love for sonority and rhythm with an earthy sexuality; Paulo Bellinati, an insightful and prolific musical partner with whom Salmaso has recorded and performed for almost six years, plays with an economy that is as brilliant and eloquent as it is dynamic. Bellinati's arrangement for the tune is a perfect example of how he incorporates soul and creativity with virtuosity to great effect.

For the Lenine and Bráulio Tavares composition "Tuaregue e Nagô," keyboard player Lelo Nazario prepared an original and impassioned arrangement that spotlights the musical interchange among gifted instrumentalists that characterizes Trampolim.1 The Tuaregue, or Tuareg, are a nomadic tribe of a people who live in the extremities of the Sahara desert; Nagô is a name that refers to Brazil's African culture. The tune's lyrics speak in a planetary way about miscegenation, race, and the cultural diversity of the Brazilian people. And Salmaso's rich mezzo-soprano, impeccable phrasing, and emotional depth on this piece reveal the kind of effortless singing that has enabled her to encompass such a wide variety of material. Yet, this is only the doorway to a stirring repertoire that includes among other gilt-edged tunes, "Saci" (Guinga and Paulo César Pinheiro), "O Bem do Mar" (Dorival Caymmi), "Lenda Praieira" (Mário Gil and Paulo César Pinheiro), "Na Ribeira Deste Rio" (Dori Caymmi and Fernando Pessoa), and "Na Volta Que o Mundo Dá" (Vicente Barreto and Paulo César Pinheiro).

Just as Trampolim was a conceptual "taking off" that grew out of Salmaso's interests as well as her work with Paulo Bellinati on the Afro-Sambas CD, there exists a natural parallel between Trampolim and her new CD, Voadeira (Flyer), which possesses that same sense of intuitive rightness of form and texture that distinguishes the two earlier works. Says Salmaso, "This points out the way I have chosen to sing, according to my artistic personality, which is still developing. I look only to be truthful with myself and to love my work, and I am preoccupied with both. In relation to the repertoire on the new CD, I continue to be very interested in talking about Brazil as a country rich in diversity, geography, and customs, but without the clear focus on folklore that occurs in Trampolim."

The repertoire of Voadeira, which includes classics like "Ave Maria no Morro" by Herivelto Martins, and Dorival Caymmi's "O Vento," is much like Trampolim in that it presents a panorama of Brazilian song. And indeed the sheer breadth of styles and their musicological thoroughness and care make the disc a kind of compendium of Brazilian musical history. But unlike Trampolim, the songs talk about Brazil in a more internal way through the lyrics, rhythms, and melodies. There is less work with keyboards and much more percussion, acoustic piano, bass, and acoustic guitar. Among the 15 tracks there are pieces by Guinga, Paulo César Pinheiro, Chico Buarque, Fátima Guedes, two tunes by Joyce, and one from Chico César.

Salmaso invited Rodolfo Stroeter to produce Voadeira, as they have played together for two years, have a mutual understanding of the recording process, and have already made one CD together. And as with Trampolim, the constellation of talented musicians was culled from the Pau Brasil and Núcleo Contemporâneo stables: Paulo Bellinati, guitar; Benjamim Taubkin, piano; Paulo Freire, viola caipira; Marcos Suzano, percussion; Nailor "Proveta" Azevedo, clarinet; and Teco Cardoso, flutes (see below for complete list). The project was recorded in various duet and quartet arrangements in the studio with as live a setting as possible in order to create the kind of chemistry, the greater fluency and musical dialog within the various ensembles, that occurs on stage.

With beauty and rapport as her primary criteria, Salmaso demonstrates on Voadeira that she is an artist who not only strives to reach the audience, to move it emotionally, but who also does so with only the finest material, despite an industry whose emphasis is on formulaic mega-releases. "I am the sergeant of myself," says Salmaso. "I am not going to behave like the voice of MPB that for years has aligned itself with the industry before testing the possibilities." Salmaso may never succumb to the pasteurization necessary for the greater commercial success that is massively propagated on the radio—and certainly, radio exposure determines tastes, sales, and frequency of recording. But those who are fortunate enough to discover the work of this strongly instinctive interpreter will experience an intoxicating sonic pleasure. Mônica Salmaso is the singer that Brazil has needed for so long. As Edu Lobo, says, "I sign my name to this without giving it a second thought."

1. "Tuaregue e Nagô," appears on the classic CD Olho de Peixe on the Velas label, which has not been available from Velas for years due to another "misunderstanding." It is slated to be released on Lenine's Mameluco label, a subsidiary of BMG.

Bruce Gilman, music editor for Brazzil, received his Masters degree in music from California Institute of the Arts. He leads the Brazilian jazz ensemble Axé and plays cuíca for escola de samba MILA. You can reach him through his e-mail: cuica@interworld.net 


Lyrics


Na Volta Que
o Mundo Dá

(Vicente Barreto and
Paulo César Pinheiro)

Um dia eu senti um desejo
profundo
De me aventurar nesse mundo
Pra ver onde o mundo vai dar

Saí do meu canto na beira do rio
E fui prum convés de navio
Seguindo pros rumos do mar

Pisei muito porto de língua
estrangeira
Amei muita moça solteira
Fiz muita cantiga por lá

Varei cordilheira,
geleira e deserto
O mundo pra mim ficou perto
E a terra parou de rodar

Com o tempo
Foi dando uma coisa em
meu peito
Um aperto difícil da gente
explicar

Saudade, não sei bem de quê
Tristeza, não sei bem por que
Vontade até sem querer
de chorar

Angústia de não se entender
Um tédio que a gente nem crê
Anseio de tudo
esquecer e voltar

Juntei os meus troços num
saco de pano
Telegrafei pro meu mano
Dizendo que ia chegar

Agora aprendi por que
o mundo dá volta
Quanto mais a gente se solta
Mais fica no mesmo lugar


The World's Return




One day I had a profound
craving
For adventure in this world
To see where it was going

I left my nook on the edge of the river
And took to the deck of a ship
Following the routes of the sea

I stepped into many
foreign ports
And loved many single girls
Singing many songs along the way

I crossed mountain ranges,
glaciers and deserts
I was at one with the universe
And the earth stopped turning

But with time
Something kept slipping into
my heart
A tightness difficult to
explain

Longing, for what, I don't know
Sadness, I know not why
Wishing, almost wanting
to cry

Anguish of not understanding
Tedium you could not believe
Anxiety within everything to
forget and return

I put all my belongings in
a cloth bag
Telegraphed my brother
Saying that I was going to arrive

Now I know that one's
world returns
The farther the separation
The stronger the bond

 


Tuaregue e Nagô
(Lenine e Bráulio Tavares)

É a festa dos negros coroados
No batuque que abala o firmamento
É a sombra dos séculos guardados
É o rosto do girassol dos ventos

É a chuva, o roncar de cachoeiras
Na floresta onde o tempo toma
impulso
É a força que doma a terra inteira
As bandeiras de fogo do crepúsculo

Quando o grego cruzou Gilbraltar
Onde o negro também navegou
Beduíno saiu de Dacar
E o Viking no mar
se atirou
Uma ilha no meio do mar
Era a rota do navegador
Fortaleza, taberna e pomar
Num país Tuaregue e Nagô

É o brilho dos trilhos que
suportam
O gemido de mil canaviais
Estandarte em veludo e pedrarias
Batuqueiro, coração dos carnavais

É o frevo a jogar pernas e braços
No alarido de um povo a
se inventar
É o conjúrio de ritos e mistérios
É um vulto ancestral de
além-mar

Quando o grego cruzou Gilbraltar
Onde o negro também navegou
Beduíno saiu de Dacar
E o Viking no mar
se atirou
Era o porto pra quem
procurava
O país onde o sol vai se pôr
E o seu povo no céu batizava
As estrelas no sul do Equador


Tuareg and Nagô


It is the festival of the crowned blacks
With a cadence that shakes the sky
It is the shadow of the centuries kept
The face of a sunflower in the wind

It is the rain, the roar of the waterfall
In the forest where time clutches
impulse
It is a force that tames the entire land
Flags of fire in the dawn

When the Greek crossed Gibraltar
Where the black also navigated
The Bedouin left Dakar
And the Viking threw himself
on the sea
An island in the middle of the sea
It was the route of the navigator
Fortress, bar, and orchard
In the country Tuareg and Nagô

It is the radiance of the way that
supports
The moaning of a thousand plantations
Standard in velvet and jewels
Drummers, heart of the carnavals

It is the frevo that throws legs and arms
On the yells of a people inventing
themselves
It is the bond of rites and mysteries
It is the ancestral ghost from
beyond the sea

When the Greek crossed Gibraltar
Where the black also navigated
The Bedouin left Dakar
And the Viking threw himself
on the sea
It was the port for those who
searched
The country where the sun would set
And the people baptized the stars
In the sky south of the equator

 


Lenda Praieira
(Mário Gil and
Paulo César Pinheiro)

Nasceu num barco pesqueiro
Pescava desde menino
Mestre das águas proeiro
Do litoral nordestino

Em roda de jangadeiro
Deixou seu nome Quirino
Quem vive em chão
de saveiro
É o chão do mar seu destino

Foi isso que deu-se um dia
Cação virou seu veleiro
Foi luta de valentia
Do peixe contra o barqueiro
Sangue, suor, maresia
O ar ficou com esse cheiro
Subia água e batia
Tudo sumiu no aguaceiro

Houve arrastão na baía
Do quebra-mar à costeira
Do fundo nada surgia
Só da jangada a madeira

As moças em romaria
Puxavam reza praieira
No fim do sétimo dia
Fez-se a oração derradeira

A sua histôria foi bela
Virou cordel seu destino
Tem nome em pano de vela
Verso em chegança e divino
Mas uma moça donzela
Teve depois um menino
A cara do filho dela
Era de novo Quirino


Beach Legend



Born in a fisherman's boat
He had fished from childhood
Master of the bow
From the Northeastern coast

Among the group of raft men
He was known as Quirino
One who lives on the deck
of the fishing boat
Has the ocean floor as his destiny

This is what happened one day
The shark capsized his sailboat
It was a valiant fight
Fish against boatman
Blood, sweat, the smell of the sea
The air filled with that smell
The water rose up and beat down
Everything vanished in the squall

There was a dragging of the bay
From the breakwater to the coast
From the depths came nothing
But pieces of the raft

The young girls in pilgrimage
Prayed together
After seven days
They made a final prayer

His story was beautiful
And became a legend
His name appearing on sails
And in festivals
But afterward a virgin
Gave birth
And the face of her son
Was that of Quirino

 


Bate Canela
(Public Domain)

Ora, bate canela que eu
quero ver

Sinhá Maria tem sete filho
Todos sete pequenininho
Panelinha pequenininha
Todos sete querem comer


Dancing


Now, dance so I
can watch

Maria has seven children
All seven are very small
Small pots
All seven want to eat

 


Tajapanema—Foi
Boto, Sinhá

(Waldemar Henrique
and Antônio Tavernard)

Tajapanema chorou no terreiro
Tajapanema chorou no terreiro
E a virgem morena fugiu
pro costeiro

Foi Boto, sinhá
Foi Boto, sinhá
Que veio tentá
E a moça levou
E o tal dançará
Aquele doutor
Foi Boto, sinhá
Foi Boto, sinhá

Tajapanema se pôs a chorar
Tajapanema se pôs a chorar
Quem tem filha moça é
bom vigiar

O Boto não dorme
No fundo do rio
Seu dom é enorme
Quem quer que o viu
Que diga que informe
Se lhe resistiu
O Boto não dorme
No fundo do rio


Tajapanema—It Was
the Dolphin, Mistress




Tajapanema cried in the yard
Tajapanema cried in the yard
And the dark skinned virgin fled
to the coast

It was the dolphin, mistress
It was the dolphin, mistress
That came to tempt
And took her
To that ball
That doctor
It was the dolphin, mistress
It was the dolphin, mistress

Tajapanema started to cry
Tajapanema started to cry
Those with young daughters
should be wary

The dolphin does not sleep
On the bottom of the river
His talent is enormous
Those who have seen him
Say that he is crude
If you resist him
The dolphin does not sleep
On the bottom of the river

 

Selected Discography:

Artist Title Label Date
Mônica Salmaso Voadeira Eldorado 1999
Mônica Salmaso Trampolim Blue Jackel (US)
Pau Brasil (Brasil)
1999
1998
Orquestra Popular de Câmara Orquestra Popular de Câmara Núcleo Contemporâneo 1998
Various artists Canções Curiosas Palavra Cantada 1998
Mônica Salmaso Afro-Sambas & Paulo Bellinati GSP (US)
Atração(Brasil)
1997
1996 
Various artists Canções de Brincar Palavra Cantada 1996
Various artists Canções de Ninar Palavra Cantada 1995
Eduardo Gudin Eduardo Gudin Notícias dum Brasil Velas 1993

 

The repertoire of Voadeira:

1. "Dançapé" (Mario Gil / Rodolfo Stroeter)

2. "O Vento" (Dorival Caymmi)

3. "Valsinha" (Vinícius de Moraes / Chico Buarque)

4. "Canto em Qualquer Canto" (Ná Ozzetti / Itamar Assumpção)

5. "Silenciosa" (Fátima Guedes)

6. "Beradero" (Chico César)

7. "A Violeira" (Tom Jobim / Chico Buarque)

8. "Senhorinha" (Guinga / Paulo César Pinheiro)

9. "Cara de Índio" (Djavan)

10. "Juparanã" (Joyce / Paulo César Pinheiro)

11. "Neguinho do Pastoreio" (Joyce / Silvia Sangirardi)

12. "Minha Palhoça" (J. Cascata)

13. "Ilu-Ayê (Cabana / Norival Reis)

14. "Ave Maria no Morro" (Herivelto Martins)

15. "Canário do Reino" (Carvalho and Zapatta)

The musicians on Voadeira:

Teco Cardoso - flutes

Nailor "Proveta" Azevedo - clarinet

Toninho Ferragutti - accordion

Mario Gil - arrangements and guitar

Paulo Bellinati - arrangements and guitars

Webster Santos - guitar, 12-string guitar, and bandolim

Paulo Freire - viola caipira (folk guitar)

Bass - Rodolfo Stroeter

Piano and arrangements - Benjamim Taubkin

Keyboards - Lelo Nazario

Marcos Suzano - arrangements and percussion

Guello - percussion

Eduardo Contrera - percussion

Caito Marcondes - percussion

Zezinho Pitoco - percussion

Orquestra Popular de Câmara:

Mônica Salmaso - voice

Teco Cardoso - flute, bamboo flutes, saxophone

Mané Silveira - flute and saxaphone

Toninho Ferragutti - accordion

Paulo Freire - viola caipira

Dimos Goudaroulis - cello

Luiz Coimbra - cello

Benjamim Taubkin - piano

Sylvio Mazzucca Jr. - contrabass

Ronen Altman - bandolim

Guello - percussion

Caito Marcondes - percussion

Zezinho Pitoco - percussion


Web sites of interest:

Mônica Salmaso: http://www.sync.com.br/msalmaso.htm  

Blue Jackel: http://www.bluejackel.com 

Pau Brasil: http://www.paubrasil.com/ 

Núcleo Contemporâneo: http://nucleo.art.br/2.html  

Related back issues of Brazzil:

http://www.brazzil.com/poroct97.htm  

http://www.brazzil.com/musmay98.htm  


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