Braga, Portugal, and Brazil
JUDE MONTAGUE and VICTORIA KINGHAM
The association between Brazil and Portugal dates back to the 16th century, when Brazil was colonised for its plentiful trees (Brazilwood), then later used for sugar production and diamond and gold mining. Most of those activities were facilitated by slaves, firstly indigenous Brazilian people, then many more people ‘imported’ from Africa.
By 1815, Brazil’s status was elevated to that of a kingdom in union with Portugal, and the Portuguese transferred their Royal Court to Petropolis in Rio De Janeiro, for safety during the Napoleonic invasion. By 1825 Brazil’s independence had been proclaimed and then ratified by Portugal.
This background has produced in Brazil an extraordinary and diverse cultural heritage. All variety of influences can be seen in its art, its architecture, and primarily, its music. One of its most pervasive musical exports during the twentieth century has been the Bossa Nova, brought first to the US and then to the rest of the western world by such jazz luminaries as Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd. There’s a vast subsequent jazz history incorporating the (now universally appreciated) Bossa rhythms, but also wonderful singers, composers (João Gilberto, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, many others) and gifted instrumentalists (too many to name here).
PROTEST IN SONG
During the 1960s and 1970s, the brutalism of military dictatorship in Brazil produced a generation of musicians whose aim was to use songs for political protest. Clearly they could not do this openly, and as a result produced songs with ambiguous lyrics that were easily interpreted, by their young listeners, as protest music. This movement, and the incursion of North American and British popular music, resulted in the seminal Tropicalia, ou Panis et Circenses album by Caetano Veloso. Chico Buarque (though criticized by other musicians for conservatism) produced La Banda, popularized at the time by Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass and reaching Italy and the rest of Europe. Veloso and collaborator
Gil was arrested for subversion during these turbulent years. This was in spite of the fact that Veloso’s audience considered Tropicalismo a kind of sell-out to Western culture, and there’s an extraordinary recording of his performance at the Rio International Song Festival where he was jeered, insulted, and condemned, the audience pelting him with rotten fruit and eggs. (It sounds a bit like a similar moment when Bob Dylan suddenly appeared with an electric backing band).
Nevertheless Veloso considered himself a radical, and along with Gilberto Gil was imprisoned for three months. Both were exiled to London until 1972.The suppression of protest was not confined to music – all artistic culture was scrutinised and censored. The Tropicalismo movement extended to visual artists such as Helio Oiticica, some of whose more recent works were exhibited here at De La Warr Pavilion last year.
AND NOW …
Rita Braga is a Portuguese musician, and like many Portuguese singer-songwriters and composers has a special closeness to Brazilian music. She cites the music of Veloso and Buarque as primary influences. When she was a child, her sister gave her a cassette tape with their songs, and those of Elis Regina (who died age 36 in 1982, a few years after making a beautiful album with Antonio Carlos Jobim). Braga is known for her ‘vintage’ songwriting, further influenced by musicals and films as well as other analogue sounds. She also enjoys singing in different languages, including Serbian, Greek, Hindi and Japanese – nevertheless her sound is unique. She has hitherto preferred electronic sound, though still using vintage drum machines, organs, and analogue synths. Her next album, though, will take a more acoustic turn. Throughout all her musical explorations, she maintains a spare, minimalist style, and continues to play the ukulele, a perfect instrument for traveling and a great accompaniment for singing.
She studied at Goldsmiths, London, and comes back regularly to the UK having developed a long term relationship with Resonance FM and Club Integral. She is now based in Porto, Portugal. Brazilian music has always meant a great deal to her, and in her late teens and twenties she began enthusiastically researching and digging for more Brazilian gems. She also hosts a monthly radio show online, at a station from Porto (Super Braguita FM on Radio Yé Yé), where she often plays Brazilian music. She lived in São Paulo for six months, and last year she returned for a mini-tour.
Braga continues: “One of the highlights of my last trip was being interviewed by Arrigo Barnabé on the radio. He was a leading figure in São Paulo’s avant-garde music scene in the ‘80s, with his extraordinary debut album Clara Crocodilo, which blends atonal music with pop culture, performance, and comedy. That meeting and conversation – which was also about Portuguese music and Fado–was significant for me, and it may have influenced the direction of the new album I’m working on.” [This strange and wonderful album itself is worth a listen – find it on Spotify or read the explanatory entry at Bimhuis, indicated at the end of this article].
I asked Rita about any significant collaborations and she produced a string of illustrious names including Ana da Silva (of the Raincoats), Ian Svenonius (frontman of the bands Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, Chain and the Gang…) and Rui Reininho, the singer of pop-rock band GNR – one of the most well-known bands in Portugal.
Illegal Planet was Braga’s 2023 album, sung mostly in English. For her next album she has been diving into the history of Fado, taking a fresh approach in terms of instrumentation. This is a bold move, since in Portuguese culture Fado is considered a very conservative genre, unchanged for generations.
“Many of my songs, despite a light or fun surface, often incorporate social commentary. For instance, there’s the song Amore 002, the codename of a digital spy created by AI to seduce users and steal their private information. Maybe I’m following in the tradition of the medieval fool or jester—no matter how bad the state of the world is, it’s important not to lose your sense of humour, or the ability to laugh at yourself.”
SAMBA AND TROPICALIA IN HASTINGS
Ócabrazóka hosts a monthly family-friendly gathering featuring music from Brazil including Samba, Forro and Tropicália. Dendê Nation Samba Reggae gives weekly performances of Afro-Brazilian percussion. A Nossa Bossa takes place annually, directed by Marcio Da Silva, conductor of the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, himself born in Brazil. Hastings bands inspired by Brazilian music include the long-running Samba-fusion community band Sambalanco. The well-established YYPPFD (Yeah Yeah Party Party Freedom Drums) is a samba-based drumming group directed by Julian Humphries, who also runs workshops in Latin percussion for young musicians and adults; he now also has a new electric rhythm band, with samba origins, called Blocco Electro. A duo, Pito Pato, combine keys and percussion to play bossa classics and originals at monthly ‘Latin Lite’ events at the Jenny Lind and the Prince Albert. In St Leonards an open drum circle, inspired by the ‘Musica do Circulo’ movement, combines music improvisation dynamics with vocal and body percussion. The sessions happen monthly at the Clifton Centre.
There’s probably much more–we’d love to hear of elements of Brazilian musical culture in Hastings that we have missed out of this brief roundup.
Read about Clara Crocodilo at bimhuis.nl/en/calendar/arrigo-barnabe-claras-crocodilos-2 Rita Braga headlines Adventures in Pop at the Jenny Lind on Tuesday 6 May, 8pm
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