What’s that song really about? If you love the sound of Brazilian music you might suspect there’s something more to those songs than just fantastic melodies, harmonies and rhythms. Maybe, even if you don’t know Portuguese, you’re intrigued by the language you’re hearing, and you wonder what’s being said. And if you’re aware that Brazil’s songwriters have a special talent for mixing love, politics and social commentary, you might be curious to discover what all this has to do with you.
If so, then this public workshop Brazilian Resistance Songs is for you! Join London-based singer Mônica Vasconcelos and translator David Treece in their Arts Council of England funded São Paulo Tapes Project. Not only will you have the chance to explore with us in depth some of the most powerful political songs of the 1960s and 70s, you will also be contributing to the development of new artistic material!
Hearing Monica sing from her new album The São Paulo Tapes and using David’s original song translations, we will travel with you deep into the themes and dramas of Brazil’s resistance songs, both in their own historical and cultural context, as well as considering their resonances for us today. The workshop will be filmed, so that we can take forward the fruits of our dialogue to a second series of creative rehearsals involving performance poet Francesca Beard and four musicians. There we will develop new “resistance music” in the form of soundscapes & poetry, which will be presented to larger & broader English-speaking audiences across and beyond London.
But why should we take Brazilian song lyrics seriously? “Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking. . .” – probably the best known words of any Brazilian song performed in English – conjure up a lazy tropical culture, lightweight, carefree and frivolously erotic. But when they were first heard, in Astrud Gilberto’s March 1964 release with Stan Getz, Brazil stood on the threshold of a military coup. During the next 21 years of dictatorship, which haunt the country’s present political crisis, song became a vital, precious resource for those who refused to be silenced. But how could music fight fear, repression and ignorance in the name of democracy and freedom of expression, when the regime had the weapons of censorship, imprisonment, torture and exile at its disposal? What place could there be for song in a world where tyranny ruled and the loudest voices in the streets and on people’s televisions were those of the powerful and privileged?
The country’s most talented songwriters and performers – among them Chico Buarque, Geraldo Vandré, João Bosco & Aldir Blanc, Ivan Lins & Vitor Martins, Gonzaguinha, Taiguara and Caetano Veloso – faced these challenges with amazing creativity and courage, sustaining the hopes and resolve of those committed to the struggle for democracy and for a better, more egalitarian Brazil, while also giving voice to their pain and suffering. Harnessing the powerful interplay between melody, rhythm and poetry, their songs ranged across moods and styles, themes and strategies: whether using code, metaphor and allegory, drawing parables of struggle from black history and everyday life, bearing lyrical witness to loss and exile, or dreaming of Amerindian worlds and Carnivals still to come.
This project builds on our shared commitment to the idea that interpreting, performing and listening to music from other times and places is a collaborative, creative activity, an act of translation in its broadest sense. And no one is better qualified to lead this process of inter-cultural exchange and creative collaboration than Monica Vasconcelos, described by The Guardian as “a curator of Brazilian music, rediscovering her compatriots' sound and reinterpreting it in a coolly individual way”. ...
Brazilian Resistance Songs Workshop
July 7, 2017, 7:00pm - July 7, 2017, 10:00pm
What’s that song really about? If you love the sound of Brazilian music you might suspect there’s something more to those songs than just fantastic melodies, harmonies and rhythms. Maybe, even if you don’t know Portuguese, you’re intrigued by the language you’re hearing, and you wonder what’s being said. And if you’re aware that Brazil’s songwriters have a special talent for mixing love, politics and social commentary, you might be curious to discover what all this has to do with you.
If so, then this public workshop Brazilian Resistance Songs is for you! Join London-based singer Mônica Vasconcelos and translator David Treece in their Arts Council of England funded São Paulo Tapes Project. Not only will you have the chance to explore with us in depth some of the most powerful political songs of the 1960s and 70s, you will also be contributing to the development of new artistic material!
Hearing Monica sing from her new album The São Paulo Tapes and using David’s original song translations, we will travel with you deep into the themes and dramas of Brazil’s resistance songs, both in their own historical and cultural context, as well as considering their resonances for us today. The workshop will be filmed, so that we can take forward the fruits of our dialogue to a second series of creative rehearsals involving performance poet Francesca Beard and four musicians. There we will develop new “resistance music” in the form of soundscapes & poetry, which will be presented to larger & broader English-speaking audiences across and beyond London.
But why should we take Brazilian song lyrics seriously? “Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking. . .” – probably the best known words of any Brazilian song performed in English – conjure up a lazy tropical culture, lightweight, carefree and frivolously erotic. But when they were first heard, in Astrud Gilberto’s March 1964 release with Stan Getz, Brazil stood on the threshold of a military coup. During the next 21 years of dictatorship, which haunt the country’s present political crisis, song became a vital, precious resource for those who refused to be silenced. But how could music fight fear, repression and ignorance in the name of democracy and freedom of expression, when the regime had the weapons of censorship, imprisonment, torture and exile at its disposal? What place could there be for song in a world where tyranny ruled and the loudest voices in the streets and on people’s televisions were those of the powerful and privileged?
The country’s most talented songwriters and performers – among them Chico Buarque, Geraldo Vandré, João Bosco & Aldir Blanc, Ivan Lins & Vitor Martins, Gonzaguinha, Taiguara and Caetano Veloso – faced these challenges with amazing creativity and courage, sustaining the hopes and resolve of those committed to the struggle for democracy and for a better, more egalitarian Brazil, while also giving voice to their pain and suffering. Harnessing the powerful interplay between melody, rhythm and poetry, their songs ranged across moods and styles, themes and strategies: whether using code, metaphor and allegory, drawing parables of struggle from black history and everyday life, bearing lyrical witness to loss and exile, or dreaming of Amerindian worlds and Carnivals still to come.
This project builds on our shared commitment to the idea that interpreting, performing and listening to music from other times and places is a collaborative, creative activity, an act of translation in its broadest sense. And no one is better qualified to lead this process of inter-cultural exchange and creative collaboration than Monica Vasconcelos, described by The Guardian as “a curator of Brazilian music, rediscovering her compatriots' sound and reinterpreting it in a coolly individual way”.
- one free rum punch on entry (please bring Eventbrite confirmation with you)
- the fantastic sounds of Haitian Disc Jockey DJ Christo
- Raffle prizes, including dinner for two at Grill Shack Tiki Bar (owned by Haitian chef Jean Daniel François), one bottle of Caribbean rum, a CD from Haitian artist Renes BBWI, and more!
- a chance to learn about the work and successes of the Haiti Support Group over the past 25 years
- the launch of our Haiti Briefing Archive, our main publication with analysis of Haiti's development issues, reflected through the voices of popular organisations on the ground ...
Haiti Support Group UK 25th Anniversary Party
July 1, 2017, 7:00pm - July 1, 2017, 11:00pm
- one free rum punch on entry (please bring Eventbrite confirmation with you)
- the fantastic sounds of Haitian Disc Jockey DJ Christo
- Raffle prizes, including dinner for two at Grill Shack Tiki Bar (owned by Haitian chef Jean Daniel François), one bottle of Caribbean rum, a CD from Haitian artist Renes BBWI, and more!
- a chance to learn about the work and successes of the Haiti Support Group over the past 25 years
- the launch of our Haiti Briefing Archive, our main publication with analysis of Haiti's development issues, reflected through the voices of popular organisations on the ground
