*English or Portuguese – that’s the question*

Rio de Janeiro – What before was seen like a bias, today is the reality. Some Brazilian artists of the new generation prefer to use the English to do their songs. This change at the market can be proved at the VMB (Video Music Brazil), an awards of the MTV Brazil, that elects the principal names of music. This year, some categories like Artist of the Year, Best Video clip and Revelation had musicians singing in English.

To sing using other language is a reality that reaches Brazilian artists since some time ago. Carmen Miranda had her career among Brazil and United States, and Tom Jobim had his “Girl of Ipanema” sung by important artists like Frank Sinatra and Madonna. Than was the time of the rock and roll to win the world, Sepultura and Angra were the first musicians to be part of this, but they have been successful initially at other countries to later been known at Brazil. The same thing happened to the group “Cansei de Ser Sexy”, that played their music all over the world, but are not much know at their original country.

Actually, a new generation of musicians pretends to enter this list, the difference is that before travel around the world, they want to attract the Brazilian fans. Mallu Magalhães, Black Drawing Chalks, Holger e Mickey Gang sings in English and were indicated to the VMB. Most of them started at the independent market showing their sound at YouTube and My Space. The producer of VMH Studio, Eden, believes that the bands from the 80s until now had a bigger recognition at other countries, to later be known at Brazil. Today, the process is different: “The musicians sing in English here, than use alternative media to be known at their own country”.

Another band that is getting prepared to be part of this market is the Riverdies. The musicians writes their lyrics naturally in English, they say that is because they already feel familiar with the sound of the idiom. Besides that, the group has influences of international artists like Pearl Jam, Silverchair and Stone Temple Pilots. The decision to choose other language helped them to receive invitations to play at Europe and at the U.S.A, but the group don`t stop to play at Brazil.

FONTE: MI2N.com

Psychedelic rockers Os Mutantes roll again-Brazil ‘09

Os Mutantes, the legendary Brazilian psychedelic-rock group, has reunited to record again after more than 35 years.

The reunion came about because of a miscommunication, says frontman and guitarist Sérgio Dias Baptista.

Courtesy by Nino AndresExperimental Brazilian band Os Mutantes reunites for a tropicalia concert on Saturday night at Tipitina’s.In 2006, London’s Barbican Theatre was hosting a tribute to the small but influential genre called tropicalia.

“It came off crooked in the press, somehow, that we were going to play, ” Baptista said. “I was getting phone calls and e-mail from all over the place saying that we were going to play and it was great. And then the radio station in Sao Paulo was saying that we were already rehearsing. We had no idea. We didn’t even talk to each other. But then our drummer, Dinho, called me and said, if you want to play, I’ll play.”

So they played.

Os Mutantes — literally, “the mutants” — formed in 1966 when two teenagers, Rita Lee and Baptista’s older brother Arnaldo, met in Sao Paulo at a high school band contest. Thirty years later, after David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label reissued their catalog, they would become a cult favorite championed by musicians such as the late Kurt Cobain.

The reunion show was followed by a short American tour. Last year, Os Mutantes recorded “Haih . . . or Amortecador, ” its first release in 35 years, for the quirky Anti Records, which is home to both Tom Waits and Nick Cave.

“When we did start playing all over the place, I thought it did not make sense to be a band that played music from the last century, ” Baptista said.

Os Mutantes “created their own sui generis blend of psychedelic rock and Brazilian popular music, ” Dunn said. They “invented a truly Brazilian language for rock, which is why they sound so original to U.S. audiences.”

The Mutantes genuinely did sound, and look, like nothing anyone had heard before. Sérgio Dias wore a priest’s robe; Rita Lee performed in a bridal gown. They parodied traditional rhythms and whirled elements of The Beatles and Frank Zappa with bossa nova and baiao. They played drinking glasses and cans of bug spray.

 Tropicalia’s heyday had lasted little more than a year. Os Mutantes continued to record for another decade (though Rita Lee left the band in 1972) but the supportive artists’ network of the tropicalists was for the most part gone.

Os Mutantes was not without its own personal storms. Arnaldo Baptista, who performed with the band in 2006, has battled psychological and drug problems since the ’70s, and did not appear on the new album. Rita Lee has been estranged from Os Mutantes for decades. Of course, a Mutante must, by definition, mutate.

The band on “Haih . . . or Amortecador” only includes two original members: Sérgio Dias and drummer Dinho Leme. The young multi-instrumentalist Vitor Trida, who wrote several of the new songs, is the newest of the bunch; the other tracks are collaborations with well-known tropicalists Jorge Ben Jor and Tom Zé.

OS MUTANTES

What: Cult Brazilian tropicalia band reunited after a 35-year hiatus. DeLeon opens.

When: Saturday, 10 p.m.

Where: Tipitina’s, 501 Napoleon Ave., 504.895.8477

Tickets: $20 in advance; $25 at the door.

FONTE: www.nola.com

Tags: Brazilian music, concert, Music, Os mutantes, psychedelic rockers

Afro-Brazilians Priced Out of Back2Black Concert

On stage, singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil highlighted Brazil’s “genetic and cultural” connection to “Mother Africa,” to applause from a predominantly light-skinned audience at a concert that black people generally could not afford – symbolic of the country’s “veiled racism” at an international festival organised to combat it.

The stars of the international festival in Rio de Janeiro were Gil, a former minister of culture (2003-2008) in the leftwing government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Youssou N’Dour of Senegal, introduced as “Africa’s greatest voice,” Brazilian rap artist MV Bill and the Banda Black Rio ensemble, among others.

According to its web site, “the aim of the Back2Black Festival is to promote encounters. Encounters between music and art, politics and film, dance and social conscience, literature and fashion, consumption and theatre, and of contemporary human beings with themselves.”

“Back2Black seeks to highlight the importance of Africa in global terms,” Lopes said, in a press release that defined the festival as a gathering “to stimulate discussion and reflection on issues ranging from social and political development in Africa, to the future of the continent, by way of its progress expressed through the arts.

The festival was sponsored by heavyweight Brazilian companies like Petrobras, Oi Futuro and Vale do Rio Doce, the Ministry of Culture and the Culture Secretariat of the state government of Rio de Janeiro, and even the World Bank.

Fonte: IPSNews.net

“Salve Geral” to represent Brazil at Oscar 2010

 

 

 

  

“Salve Geral“, yet another film dealing with violence in Brazil, is to be Brazil’s candidate for the Oscar for “Best Foreign Film” in 2010, according to an announcement made on 18th September 2009 by a special commission of the Audiovisual Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture. It is the twelfth film directed by Sérgio Rezende, a film-maker born in Rio de Janeiro in 1951 who is known for biographical films on political figures, such as “Zuzu Angel” (2006), “Lamarca” (1994) and “O Homen da Capa Preta (Tenório Cavalcanti)” (1986).

“Salve Geral“, to open in Brazil on 2nd October 2009, tells the story of a widow, played by Andréa Beltrão (well-known for her acting in films, in the theater and on TV as “Radical Chic” and “Marilda” of “A Grande Família“). Desperate to obtain the release from prison of her adolescent son, she becomes involved with a major organized criminal gang, the São Paulo-based PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital). Founded in 1993, the PCC (an ally of Rio de Janeiro’s CV (Comando Vermelho) gang) reached the height of its power in 2006. They organized a series of prison riots in March 2006; in May the São Paulo state government decided to move several hundred prisoners to more secure penitentiaries. Prisoners from the PCC, using contraband cell phones, organized simultaneous prison rebellions by more than 250,000 prisoners in 73 prisons.

Members and supporters not in custody carried out over 250 simultaneous external actions, burning buses and attacking police stations and banks.

This brought São Paulo, one of the world’s largest cities, to a halt in late May and supplies the backdrop for “Salve Geral“, which is subtitled “the day São Paulo stopped”. There was further violence in July 2006.

“Salve Geral“ was selected from a shortlist of nine Brazilian films; it will compete with productions from 95 countries to be one of the five candidates for “Best Foreign Film” at the 2010 Oscars. The five finalists will be announced on 2nd February 2010.

 Veja o trailer do Filme  Salve Geral – trailer