BRAZIL by RAVI

Brazil cunjures up many stereo-typical images such as extremes of wealth and poverty, shanty towns and endless beaches; with its breathtaking depth of musical diversity, it has been one of my main sources of inspiration and after various attemps to visit, I finaly took a flight to Rio de Janeiro in October 2002

Whilst staying in this fascinating country, one eventually uncovers the contradictions that are the source of its extraordinary artistic energy. The day I arived my host and friend, the drummer, Roberto Marques, tells me that the head of the drug gangs has ordered (from his prison cell) that the city be closed down, including the bridge between Rio and its sister city, Niteroi, where I am staying. Roberto tells me that he isnt sure if he can make it home tonight to his family in Rio, but being a musician in this city can be a dangerous occupation.

Many musicians told me stories of nail biting drives home in the early hours along deserted streets, where one can come across drug gangs disguised as a police patrol with uniforms and police cars or one can be kidnapped and either taken at gun point to a favella or to cash points to take money out

It wasn't always like this; the Cidade Maravilhosa (marvelous city) had an unrivalled reputation for being at the cutting edge of music, such as the creation of one of the greatest musical art forms, bossa-nova. Now, Sao Paulo has eclipsed Rio, not only in football but also its once thriving music scene. In Rio, Cariocas (the people of Rio) are increasingly scared to go out at night. Despite the massive problems that exist in Brazil, real change does seem to be happening. Whilst I was in the country, Brazilians voted their first left-wing government in for more than forty years, led by Luiz In‡cio Lula da Silva, a former factory worker. Gilberto Gil, the Brazilian pop star, was one of President Lula's appointments as Minister of Culture and at the inaugural ceremony for the new Goverment in Bras’lia, Gil led the celebrations with a performance of songs.

Meanwhile, I had travelled to Brazil to make recordings with some of the many skilled and talented musicians that I had met earlier on my first trip when I came to play concerts in and around Rio. This all came about when I met Roberto Marques, who was playing drums in the backing band for Brazilian singer, Via Negromonte at a Jazz Festival in The Cape Verde Islands, where I was performing with the guitarist Eric Roche and the legendary Cape Verdian musician, Paolino Viera.

My wish to play concerts in Brazil was taken to heart by Roberto, who on his return home set up a series of concerts - my preferred way of getting to know a country. Cape Verde felt like a stepping stone to Brazil, with its colonial architecture, extremes of landscape, history of slavery and Portugese patua. It was also appropriately where the connection was made to make the long awaited journey to the land of samba and bossa-nova Rooms were found in a hundred year old Portugese style villa in Santa Teresa, a funky area of grand old buildings and a population of artists, bohemians and hip folks; its the original city, built higher up and thankfully cooler, especially when the heat of the southern Brazilian summer starts to kick in around early December. The old tram system is still running, on which you pay less than one Brazilian Reial for a ride (or free if you hang on the side). People said that the area wasnt safe although it was fine and I had basic street survival skills by then, such as: no carrying of bags, cards or cash of any real value and only riding on buses in safe areas, (if at all) otherwise it was taxis, which drive like racing drivers (the buses drive like taxis)

This Brazilian adventure brought out a renaissance in my guitar playing and some bossa-nova compositions started to surface from the past, eventually into the set and finally onto the album that I would make on my return to Brazil in December. Recording with musicians in the studios of Rio was also made possible by the vast difference in the Brazilian and British currencies (many still longingly talk of the time when the Brazilian Reial was equal with the US Dollar). One of my main inspirations was some of the timeless recordings of Brazilian greats such as Nara Leao, Joao Gilberto and Tom Jobim. Quite perfectly, just before the time came to record, Roberto chanced upon an antique set of drums, that was confirmed to be used by musicians such as Dom um Romao when creating the bossa sound in Rio from the late fifties to the early sixties and true to his word and to my ears, it had that sound Like any major music city, Rio has a large variety of recording studios, from budget to luxurious, many with picturesque views and some with a beach only one block away. Engineers and musicians of high standards are available and the main recording software is Pro-Tools, which makes it easier if you dont want to be fixed to one studio One of the plans was to meet, play and record with some of Brazil's more legendary musicians, which started with Hermeto Pascual, the musical genius from Alagoas in the North East and a perfect mix of the best of Brazil; MPB, jazz, traditional styles and nature sounds. He lives in the North Zone of Rio, which has an unsavoury and dangerous reputation, so with some trepidation, Roberto and I made the journey to Hermeto's home, where we shared instruments, played and talked. Hermeto entertained us with stories, such as when he was in the States, having being brought over by Flora Purim and Airto and also hanging out with Miles Davies. Hermeto stepped into the boxing ring with Miles, a keen boxer, who was confused about which of HermetoÕs eyes to look at because Hermeto is cross-eyed and which Hermeto took advantage of with a left hook.

Hermeto didnt make it onto the album, but connections to other exceptional musicians were made such as Paolo Moura, who I caught playing with his band, at an extremely atmospheric venue.In the daytime Rio Scenarium, an old colonial building in the old area of Lapa, is a prop warehouse for TV and theatre and at night one can wonder around its three floors filled with curiosities such as apothecary shop fronts and wind up record players. On the ground floor, there is a dance area in front of the stage, while waiters in dinner jackets serve tables on either side. Paolo's band was swinging, playing Brazilian traditional styles as he glided in and out of it all with his fluid and masterfull clarinet playing

Marlui Miranda, I was suprised to find, was not as well known as I presumed she might be in her native country.As well as working with Egberto Gismonti earlier in her career, her CD, 'Todos Os Sons' features Marlui's extraordinary voice along with guests such as Gilberto Gil and percussion ensemble Uakti, interpreting Brazilian Indian songs with mesmerising effect. Some musicians who knew Marlui had spoken well of my performance in her home town of Sao Paolo and after making contact she managed to create enough time for a session in the studio, where we recorded various improvisations together. The experience of recording with Marlui was overwhelmingly of being in the rainforest.

One musician that I came across under more mysterious circumstances, I met whilst wandering through Ipanema three days before the flight home. Across the square from the legendary 'Hippy Market', where I was doing last minute shopping,there was a cafe where a trio was playing jazz and bossa standards. I had been told of a girl who played harmonica and had tried to make contact without success, so on introducing myself, the first question had to be, 'are you Guta?' , to which came a suprised and affirmative reply. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, we met up that evening to record, which resulted in Guta playing some lovely harmonica on the song 'Bird of Paradise'

Travelling in Brazil reminded me of other enormous countries such as India or North America, over which one can travel either by train or bus, surrendering to a slower form of transport, whilst watching the world go by, or by plane, which tends to be for the wealthier classes. One travelling opportunity came when giving a concert and workshop (teaching overtone singing) in Brasilia. An early sixties, purpose built capital city, futuristic in its appearance even now and for many quite surreal and bizzare. Many I spoke to enjoy living there for reasons such as safety and money, Brasilia being one of the most wealthy cities in the country.

Two hours drive away, close to a national park, is Alto Paraiso (high paradise) and for many living and visiting the town, the experience is strong, due to the bountiful nature experiences to be had, with countless waterfalls and forest areas. I also had the pleasure of playing in an extraordinary dome, called the Kaliandra; a perfectly geometricaly designed acoustic music space, which was like having a mini Taj Mahal to play in. Many residents had built dream houses, free from planning restrictions and from what I could see, the results were inspiring

Other travels included Espiritu Santu, where I chanced upon a local rhythm called 'congo', kept alive in the community of Barra Do Jucu, a coastal town close to Vitoria, the main city of a state which often gets overlooked by tourists. There was also an encounter with a parrot who had been taught to sing what sounded like a mixture ofjazz and opera, which I couldnt quite believe at first. They are truly extraordinary birds, intelligent and humorous.

Sao Paolo was everything I was told about, big and overwhelming, but I was well looked after and enjoyed the chance to meet Uakti, who were performing a show for two months with street kids

On the morning that I am due to leave Brazil, the front page of the local newspaper had a photo of a bombed out bus, that was on the road we are about to travel on, to the Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport. A grenade had been thrown by a drugs gang, who take advantage of the fact that the road passes by the favellas, of which there are many. I am ready to leave, but I will be back. Brazil felt like home and there's no place like home

Ravi playing the Brazilian Berimbao at The Cape Verde International Jazz Festival

The Caliandra, Alto Paraiso

Eridoto and Parrot

Indian Pilgramage By RAVI

There cannot be many places in the world where one can perform in a holy city such as Benares, India and next day read a review in the local paper of the concert whilst sitting on the steps of the sacred River Ganges, after just witnessing the bodies burn to the sound of last rites

This particular journey started as a teenager listening to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan performing on the recording of Concert for Bangladesh (in which Ravi Shankar famously responded to the enthusiastic applause for their pre-concert tune up -I hope you will appreciate the music as much as the tuning- and I imagine this was the introduction for many other other baby boomers (apart from Beatles songs with strong Indian influences). Later, in my home town of Manchester, I hooked up with musicians from the Asian community for my first experience of Indian instruments such as tablas and harmonium, but it was my association with the Indian spiritual teacher Osho that was to be the starting point for a deeper understanding and appreciation of Indian music, through his talks in which Osho often referred to Indian classical music's various ascetic and spiritual qualities

My visits to India created the opportunity to hear concerts by some of the luminaries of Indian classical music (such as master of the bamboo flute, Hari Prasad Chaurasia). Travelling through India on the legendary trains brought endless suprises, such as when we had stopped on the tracks for an hour or so. I started to play my kora (West-African harp) in the crouded compartment, an unknown sound for Indians, from which came a receptive silence for my short piece, after which, the cacophony of conversation quickly returned, but I will always remember those moments as one of my experiences of the underlying peace and spirituality that can be found in India Teaming up with musicians Prem Joshua & Chinmaya Dunster in 1990, I was able to explore with more depth, playing with instruments such as sitar, sarod, tablas and bansuri (bamboo flute) as well as familiarizing myself with Indian ragas (scales), adapting some of them to the kora. Out of this partnership came two CDs No Goal but the Path and Tribal Gathering

In 1996, I recorded an album by two of the greatest musicians in India, Tarun Bhattacharya (santoor) and Ronu Majumdar (bansuri), who were in the UK to play on Ravi Shankar's classic album, Vedic Chants which was produced by George Harrison. After their session, Tarun and Ronu approached me with the idea of recording an album together, which we started on immediately, resulting in the CD Forest of Bliss , which is a translation of the name Benares.

The George Harrison connection continued a year later when I was invited to play a concert at the home of Ian Paice, (the drummer for Deep Purple and by chance one of my childhood heroes). The 'quiet Beatle attended the concert (which had been interspersed with comments of the famous Beatles wit) after which we chatted about the kora and Indian music (I asked if he still played the sitar, to which he replied that he didnt ) A year later, while waiting in the grand circular corridors of the Royal Albert Hall there was another encounter with George. Upon seeing me, he placed his outstretched palm very firmly on my forehead and said, in all earnestness and in that thick accent -You are a beautiful soul, bless you- I returned a little startled to my seat to watch the thirtieth anniversary of Deep Purple with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

My encounters and conversations with George helped me to take a peek beyond the veil of myth that surrounded such an icon and it was transparent that there was a deep and genuine respect for music and the sacred I reunited with Tarun Bhattacharya when he invited me to play concerts with him and Bikram Ghosh in India, which was an illuminating experience and involved staying at his home in Calcutta. The audiences showed themselves to be keen listeners although it did take a while to get used to my feet being touched, even though I was aware that the gesture is simply a sign of respect.

One of the concerts took place deep in the heart of the Bengali countryside where many dont have electricity, but possessed highly developed listening skills as evidensed by their response. Benares was also wonderful and one of the most spiritualy charged enviroments I have ever visited, let alone played in. On returning from India, Tarun and I recorded a new CD called The Afro-Indian Project - Travels with the African Kora in India-

More recently another Indian-influenced project has been three albums with my sister Suvarna, the latest of which is This Dewdrop World (see the INFINITY page on this site) which incorporates chill-out grooves, ragas, chants and Suvarna's voice and electric violin. Creating music with a sibling can be challenging but has a different kind of depth and sweetness. ItÕs been a pleasure to help develop her talent in whatever way I can offer, while she has helped bring more awareness of ragas and the world of chants, for which I am grateful

Music comes closest to meditation. Meditation is the art of hearing the soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence OSHO

RAVI with Bikram Ghosh (Ravi Shankar's tabla player

An interview with Marlui Miranda by RAVI

April 2004

Singer and composer Marlui Miranda is widely acclaimed as the leading interpreter of Amazonian indigenous music.

Adapting and performing the traditional chants and songs of the Brazilian Indians, as well as recorded and toured with Brazilian pop superstars such as Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil, she has also won awards for her film and TV soundtrack compositions, such as Hector Babenco’s 'At Play in the Fields of the Lord'.

Marlui is a renowned anthropologist, documenter of indigenous cultures and a committed campaigner, successfully lobbying for recognition of the intellectual property rights which resulted in being awarded in 2001 the National Cultural Merit Medal from the President of Brazil in recognition of her services to the preservation and diffusion of Amazonian indigenous cultures.

Discovering Marlui’s music, through her award winning album ‘Todos Os Sons’, was a revelatory experience for me and a search for more recordings revealed "Kewere" an Indigenous Mass plus one of her earlier song albums that featured Brazilian legend Egberto Gismonti.

The first opportunity to meet Marlui came about when making my most recent CD ‘The Afro-Brazilian Project’. At a recording studio in Sao Paolo, in which Marlui and I improvised a series of duets for a trilogy of pieces called ‘Amazon Journey’, I asked Marlui about her work and for an explanation of the Indian song which she sang whilst I accompanied her on the kora.

Finaly, last winter, when Marlui came over as special guest to a conference at the University of London, I had an opportunity to speak to this sensitive, fascinating and articulate woman in more depth, as well as discuss our plans for a new project that will be a collaboration between, Marlui, myself and indigenous musicians . Actually, I mostly listened, in complete awe of this extraordinary artist who I have had the privilege to spend time with and who at one point had tears streaming from her eyes due to the subject matter for which she has devoted her life.

Ravi: Can you explain how you became involved with the Brazilian Indians?

Marlui: 30 years ago when I was beginning my career as a musician I got to know Nunes Pereira who worked with the Indians for FUNAI. He had some very old recordings made by a Salesian priest called Alcionilio Bruzzi, which was an impressive collection of six records with a book and a dictionary of five or six languages.. It was totally unknown for most Brazilian people at this time and I was also suprised by the music, the sounds,
and the rhythm of the languages, which is so rich.

I was puzzled and wondered ‘why has nobody touched this?’ There were people collecting indigenous songs, using their own compositions but never approaching the traditional styles and ways of playing, so I said to myself, ‘I’m going to devote my life to this’.

In Brazil we have around 240 indigenous peoples, and 280 different languages; can you imagine? This is like having 240 different countries within Brazil and each with their own styles, so there is plenty to do for an entire life. Only now, 30 years after, did I have the chance to meet the Tuyuka and Tukano People, the original source of inspiration.

Ravi: could you speak about the spirituality of the Indians

Marlui: The Indians are highly spiritual and not like us. We have a division between the natural and the supernatural, but for them it’s all connected and they cross from the natural to the supernatural so easily. Things that we think are natural, like when you compose, is a supernatural fact; it was made by a spirit, using the body as an instrument. The compositions most of the time are the gifts of the spirits or the ancestors and to get to compose or learn something they have to fast, to have some special diet in order not to disturb the body and allow it to be more clean and not to eat white people’s food. They fast for many days and then the names of the newborns or the new names of the teenagers (for rites of passage) appear in the compositions as
well as the music that will be sung during the ceremony and also so they can clearly listen whilst dreaming.

When an idea comes to them they wake up and memorise it, keep it for themselves and present it to a council of elders. Most of the elders are healers and shamans who accept the composition and see the gift is given by the spirit and acknowledge it to everybody and hence this person is acknowledged as a composer; a spiritual source is given by a specific spirit or ancestor.

When they fish in the canoe another way to learn songs is to put the ear on the water and listen to what the spirits of the underwater world sing and especially the fishes.

Also some tribes (this is related to the Kamaiura people and sometimes the Nambiquara people) used to take a couple of weeks being in a area where there grows, in season, bushes of bamboo, called Taquara, which grow in special places where only men can go. When they see it they wait till the spirit blows the taquaras and by drinking some hallucinogenic substance, they can listen to the music of the wind beating on the bamboo which brings to them the most extraordinary compositions.

Every single sound is considered music for the Indians, like an ant walking, a stone rolling or an arrow cutting the air. Everything is incorporated in the world of sounds . The hearing capability is most important, because if the person turns out to be deaf, he is also spiritually deaf, he cannot hear the sounds of the fishes and the spirits, because its the spirits that are transmitting from the spiritual world into the real world. He cannot participate in ceremonies or do anything, so the deaf person is seen like the way white society sees a mad person, a total outsider, who cannot participate, hunt, sing, or do anything practically, because everything in the indigenous world is about hearing.

Hearing is understanding as well; for us we think of the brain as the place where we understand things, where we complete ideas and where ideas come, but for the Indians the ear is everything and does everything. So when they say ‘it is in my ear’, it’s because it was transmitted; you can understand in your ear because of the miracle of the spirits. You don’t go beyond your understanding and the understanding is everything. You understand the situation, you understand the music and you understand the world. You listen to individual sounds. You have to develop your ear and to hear bird song like the shamans do.

You can also fly from one village to another and turn into a bird and so bring news. Whenever that happens the shaman has a good composition, has a good spirit and a good bird who sings good music. The more the music is good and is considered good for the parents, the better magic comes and the ancients meet.

So I don’t see boundaries in real life and in terms of music . Sometimes they don’t want to contact us, they don’t want to approach us; they feel like this would disturb the quality and purity of the language. Not only the life, the land, the security and everything, but I think it would mainly disturb the spiritual side of their lives which is so connected to nature so they would forget little by little the capability of hearing which is beyond our imagination, what they hear and how strong is their intuition to know and to foresee situations.

The problem with contact with society is that they learn to listen to different things and they are driven more and more to listen to the concrete world and less of the supernatural. We do not hear the supernatural, not any more. Once we lose this, it is hard to get back to that. This is still going on in Brazil, because if we are talking about indigenous people we are talking about religion, faith and spirituality.

Everything comes out of spirituality; if they go to harvest there is a religious procedure, you cannot do it at a different time. If there’s some kind of animal passing through, you have to stop because it is not a good sign or it is not a good day to do it or you should not be doing it at certain phases of the moon. There are lots of supernatural reasons to do or not to do certain things. There are times such as just before the dawn, when it is not totally dark and you can see the stars and you can see little spirits of people. The shaman will sit, call and shout things whilst the people are dancing in the shape of an infinity symbol, designed in the earth by their feet, a choreography of the spirits.

Its the most spiritualised moment I’ve ever experienced, one doesn’t see anything but the lights of the stars, the spirits of people and the voice of the shaman singing. It’s impossible to describe it.

The only moments that are not spiritualised in the indigenous life is when there is confrontation with white people.

Ravi: is there a parallel with the way the Tibetan people have been forced to become exposed to the outside world. Apart from all the awful events that have happened there’s also a feeling that these circumstances enabled them to come out of their isolation.

Marlui: Yes, I think so. The indigenous peoples have had to look for outside support because they’ve got problems they cant sort out on their own and also because it’s issues related to the outside world like economics and the global economy. They haven’t the strength to fight and pull all the community together and face people who are aggressive, so they need our support and not only financial support, they need friendship. It’s very important for them to keep going, the situation for them is very difficult and nothing is simple or easy and some groups are in a better situation than others.

Ravi: Do some tribes find it easier than others to engage with the outside world?

Marlui: Yes, they don’t put all members of the tribe into this situation but choose one, two or three individuals who are capable of dialogue with society. Some are chosen for a specific mission such as those who speak the language and some who have very good communication with the world. All the ethnic peoples in the world choose somebody to contact the outer world because if they don’t do this they could disappear.

Ravi: with some cultures, their music has been a way to reach out to the world. One particular example I have witnessed is the music of The Cape Verde Islands and I’m wondering how that relates to the Indians and the potential for help through their music.

Marlui: Yes music can create miracles. The way I have been helping them was through their music supporting the community. But there is nothing for free, so we are going to record some songs to provide another source of survival, because their economy is very small and also has little contact with people to help create understanding of who they are and what they need. I do believe in music to help us to contact the people we belong to. And we don’t know, we even don’t even know that we belong to them. They are part of us. It’s the entire humanity. They are inside us. We just find out bit by bit that we belong to this humanity. We think we belong to a local part of the planet but we belong to the planet itself, to the entire world, we are not isolated. Or, I should say, the more isolated, the more we belong to this world.

Ravi: Could you speak about the Indians’ place in Brazilian society

Marlui: There’s a recent statistic that 80% of Brazilian society don’t want the Indians to be extinguished and want to see them alive and taken care of, because half of the responsibility is with society. We are their tutors. The government holds the possibility to take care of them and the Indians can adopt citizenship fully if they want to and have all relevant documents. So in recent years the work developed by Brazilian citizens, the work of NGOs along with international criticism has changed the relationship amongst the surrounding society to the Indians.

The Indians are redefining their position in society and being more accepted in terms of their music. Before 1995 they used to be shown only on the ‘Indians Day’, where the press would say ‘let’s do something for them’. Now it is different and they can perform throughout the year and be noticed. That, in its turn changes the mind of society and people are learning more by example in schools and accepting that they have indigenous blood. Up to 1995 it was very bad and at that time people were saying to me why should the Indians survive? so I replied “is it not enough that he’s a human being like you?” In fact part of Brazilian society still consider Indians are like animals. Our main problem is a racial one, it’s not only geographic; why shouldn’t they be considered as Tuyuka, as Guarani and as Kayapo. This is not written in the Brazilian constitution, not like Australia and Canada, which have multicultural constitutions.

There’s still a lot of work to do, but in general people have been very open to the Indians because the world is so small and the Kayapo tribe are going to make the first Indian television station, so anybody can see the Kayapo, who are very wealthy and have a good hold of political issues.

Ravi: There is a new project that you and I have just created: Neuneneu, Humanity ‘A Celebration of Human Musical Plurality’.

Marlui: Yes... It came out of the respect I have for different cultures in general. I respect my own racial backgrounds: African, Jewish, Indigenous, Spanish, Portuguese and the first time I heard the Kora being played by you (Ravi) , I had the impression that this was the right moment to explore a cultural synchronicity, because although you are not from Africa, you are African as well and transmit this so perfectly; the idea of the African culture crosses through your hands; it’s so transparent and sometimes I hear ancestral songs in your playing.

It’s very difficult to recreate indigenous songs because everybody tends to massacre the songs, to crush it with lots of elements and when we met, I found there was space in the music and this shows what we have on our backgrounds. The Indians used to live in proximity with the African people and for centuries the runaway slaves used to hide in the jungle and live as a free community. They used to exchange ideas with the Indians and do things together. Some of the melodies I have chosen for this project have some similarity with African songs; very old and ancestral songs which might have come from these exchanges.

Ravi: What do you see as the vision for this project?

Marlui: To spread the word of understanding to each other, who we are, where we are going to and how close we are to the most distant cultures. This is the basic stuff besides Africa, besides indigenous, besides everything, it’s about understanding.

Ravi: Thank you Marlui.

Marlui: I thank you.

all articles copyright JP Freeman