In the early ‘70s, during her first wave of stardom in Brazil, Gal Costa looked like a mermaid who had washed in from the sea: a doe-eyed nymph with a bikini top and a
flower pinned to her hair. She had a honeyed voice of uncommon grace, and sang
with a childlike innocence. But Costa was also fearless. In the same concert
she would yowl out the acid-tripping Afro-Brazilian rock known as Tropicália;
sing samba with the lighted possible touch; barrel her way through funk, blues,
and folk songs from her native Bahia.
It began in 1964, when the teenage Gal—born Maria da Graça Costa
Penna Burgos in Salvador, the capital of Bahia—took part in a pair of local
shows. They included four other Baianos—Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Maria
Bethânia, and Tom Zé—who were likewise headed for great things. Costa was the
shy non-intellectual who “never wanted to do anything else in her life besides
sing,” recalled Veloso. All of them moved away to pursue their careers; Costa
went to Rio, where she recorded her first sides in 1965. At the time, Americans
envisioned the city as a tropical paradise of bossa nova and carefree life; in
fact, Brazil had recently come under a dictatorship that by the late ‘60s would
turn murderous and oppressive. Costa was swept up in a youth movement of
protest, led by musicians who were bewitched by her singing.
She became the key voice of Tropicália, a new avant-garde
movement, spearheaded largely by Veloso and Gil, that echoed the chaos and
rebellion of the day. Costa was game for almost anything. In 1976, when all of
them were still at their peak of hippiedom, they teamed with Maria Bethânia to tour
as Os Doces Barbaros (The Sweet Barbarians). Their shows inspired filmmaker Jom
Tob Azulay to create a documentary named after the group; it stands as a
historic portrait of a group of defiant young renegades, living in a country in
turmoil.
But Costa spent most of her time exploring the richness of
Brazilian popular song. She championed the work of Chico Buarque, Roberto
Carlos, Djavan, and other latter-day giants, while also saluting the elder
statesmen. Over the years she has made albums in tribute to Ary Barroso, the
samba composer who wrote “Aquarela do Brasil”; Dorival Caymmi, the king of
Baiano composers; and Antônio Carlos Jobim, her partner on a live DVD, issued
by Verve in 1987. Costa has also gone farther than most Brazilians in exploring
American music; her discs include songs by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Duke
Ellington, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hart. She has played New York often—most memorably at Carnegie Hall just weeks after 9/11, when she closed with
“America the Beautiful.”
Her rebel days may be well behind her, but that voice remains one
of her country’s iconic sounds. Its influence is heard in many prominent young
singers, including Marisa Monte and Adriana Calcanhotto. According to André
Tavares, an actor-singer from Salvador: “She is very much a legend, a part of
our history. Singers like Gal, Elis Regina, and Clara Nunes are from a period
when singing was a reflection of the human soul, more than a way to make money
and become a star.”
--
James Gavin, 2011
[James Gavin’s books include Stormy
Weather: The Life of Lena Horne and Deep
in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, soon to be republished by Chicago
Review Press.]
Related: March 24, Gal Costa