“Where and how Bossa Nova began is a relatively unimportant thing” said Down Beat magazine in 1962. It was expected that the North-American Jazzophile public at the end of the 1950’s would be startled with this new Brazilian rhythm. The curious and unpredictable thing to understand is, even today in the home of this rhythm, how and why does Bossa Nova remain without a definitive answer? More than forty years later Mariano Marovatto underlines such irrelevances with his first album. Aquele Amor nem me fale (Lets not talk about that love) is a Bossa Nova record after all.
However, the enigma of sitting down on a stool with a guitar in hand so many years after so many things – the advent of Tropicalia, The Beatles, Punk, The 1980’s, Grunge, the Manguebit movement from Recife in the 1990’s, the Internet – and having been immersed in all of these fronts is what defines the true style of Mariano. Unsurprisingly then, each arrangement of each song on the Album was conceived and implemented by one or more musicians and was recorded with the musical styles and influences and accents of each of the invited guests.
And there were many. No fewer that 31 high calibre musicians participated in the execution and conception of the album. A line-up that probably doesn’t leave out any band from Rio de Janeiro. Besides Jonas Sá – co-producer with Mariano himself. Moreno Veloso, David Moraes, Pedro Sá, Ricardo Dias Gomes and Marcelo Callado participated. Three members from Caetano Veloso’s Banda Cê are included. Gustavo Benjão, Gabriel Bubu along with Marcos Thanus, the bassist from Los Hermanos join in. Bruno Medina also from Los Hermanos along with Vitor Paiva, Botika, Papel, Fabiano Ribeiro, Qinho, Alice Sant’Anna, Mariana Albuquerque, Antonia Adnet, Bernardo Palmeira, Daniel Macacchero, Rafael Cosme and Löis Lancaster – the leader of Zumbi do Mato – have participated. Rodrigo Bartolo and Leo Monteiro from the duo Duplexx and Mauricio Pacheco – Producer and former band member of Mulheres que dizem sim and F.Ur.T.O. – are amongst many others. Together he formed his own personal “Clube da Esquina” or music club.
Mariano, besides writing and presenting the music program Segue o Som (Follow the Sound) for TV Brazil, holds a Bachelor degree in Brazilian literature from PUC University, Rio de Janeiro. He wrote his masters thesis about new Brazilian poetry and he is currently writing his doctorate thesis about poetry. He has also released two books First flight (7Letras, 2006) and Amoramérica (7Letras, 2008) along with the poets collective Os Sete Novos (The New Seven) which he forms with the great-grandchildren of the poet Alphonsus de Guimaraes. He is also a researcher and is responsible for organising the poetry collections of the poet and lyricist Cacaso at the Casa de Rui Barbosa foundation.
No wonder then that Aquele Amor nem me fale is a title taken word for word from a poem by Oswald de Andrade. The modernist and cannibalistic reference is justified in the nine tracks included on the album such as the cool Hawaiian version of Não tem lua, a 1992 hit by the band Asa de Águia. Teu, composed with partner Jonas Sá is a delicate vocal duet with Mariano and Jonas in a hybrid Bossa Nova style which reminds us, in the best possible sense, of the band Paralamas do Sucesso. One of the highlights of the album is the unexpected version of Não é por não falar by Titãs which is in the style of samba de roda. On Tanto the sunny atmosphere confirms Mariano’s pop vein – as if Herbert Vianna was suffering a psychedelic hangover and abandoning the reggae-rock for the nylon-strings of Bossa Nova. The simple Pra ela confirms this delirious Bossa-nova-pop and psychedelic-cool as Marovatto’s well chosen path.
In order to translate live the 9 tracks included on the album which are performed by 31 different musicians (and some other songs not included on the album) Mariano formed the Maravilha Contemporânea (“The Contemporary Wonder”), his favoured band that includes Fabiano Ribeiro on drums, Daniel Macacchero on guitar, Mariana Albuquerque on vocals and bass and the poet Alice Sant’Anna on background vocals and keyboards. The album will be released in 2010 with a series of live performances which will crown his welcome to the Rio de Janeiro music scene that increasingly renews and transforms itself in amalgam from a plurality of influences just like the songs on Aquele Amor nem me fale.
Bossa nova was already not the same in 1962 when Down Beat refused to diagnose the origin of the sound. Now is the moment of truth: the chance for Bossa Nova to return and to be new once again and to be even more undecipherable and free with all the joy of time and space.
Vitor Paiva, translated by Kevin Lynch
