In his playful but powerful Manifesto Antropófago
published in 1928, Brazilian modernist poet Oswald de Andrade used
the metaphor of cannibalism to offer a strategy for creating a
post-colonial culture that would be truly national, but also modern
and cosmopolitan. Rather than fighting off the cultural products
of, say, civilized Europe or the brash, omnipresent United States,
he called on his fellow Brazilians to "eat" them and metabolize
them Brazilian. It's something Andrade brilliantly sums up in a
line that appears in English in his text—"Tupy or not Tupy, that
is the question"—which conjures images of the Tupy people (one of
the original inhabitants of Brazil and practitioners of ritualistic
cannibalism) considering matters of identity while dining on
Shakespeare.
Without explicitly championing Andrade, and each in its own terms,
the work of singer, poet, visual artist, and songwriter Arnaldo
Antunes and the 20-piece Orquestra Imperial speak to the continuing
influence of his ideas. Their music—vital, multilayered, and
individually Brazilian and cosmopolitan—not only confounds notions
of what is foreign and national, but also of what is modern and
traditional, sophisticated and primitive, high and low
culture.
A rock star in the 1980s as a member of the band Titãs, Antunes has
spoken of growing up nurtured by musical influences as disparate as
Chuck Berry, João Gilberto, The Beatles, Roberto Carlos, Led
Zeppelin, and Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, whose Tropicália
movement embraced Andrade's ideas.
"I come from a generation that didn't search for the roots of
Brazilian music," Antunes told Russ Slater in an interview for
BOMB magazine in 2010. "Brazilian music was for my
generation a mix of rock 'n' roll, reggae, samba,
maracatú—it was impossible to hear the influence of
foreign music. You could say that the only music that is uniquely
Brazilian is the indigenous music. The most important thing for me
is to be free to transmit the many different influences, either
from Brazil or outside, and not worry about mixing them. I think
this is a very Brazilian thing because Brazil has always been such
a mix of cultures."
And in a previous conversation with poet and essayist Eucanaã
Ferraz, also for BOMB, Antunes discussed how the
cosmopolitanism of São Paulo, his hometown and a microcosm of
Brazil in its diversity, informs his vision and his work. "I
believe the experience with this ethnic, cultural, linguistic,
architectural, religious, culinary, and behavioral multiplicity
allows a certain detachment in relation to notions like homeland or
cultural roots ... At the same time, that huge mix of references
perhaps represents, in itself, a form of identity, with which I
could recognize and express myself."
Meanwhile, Orquestra Imperial is "a psychedelic version of a
gafieira orchestra," explains Geraldinho Magalhães,
manager and one of the founders of the band in a conversation from
his office in Rio de Janeiro. Gafieira is a dancehall
samba that emerged in Rio in the 1940s and took its name from the
popular halls where it was created. It became, Magalhães says, "a
very popular musical genre in the 1950s and '60s—it was basically
big bands playing samba." Gafieira peaked in the late
'70s; by the turn of the new millennium, he says, "but for two or
three very traditional bands, this type of orchestra didn't
exist."
Orquestra Imperial was founded in 2002 by "a group of musicians
from different bands and different music styles and traditions,"
recalls Magalhães, "who had the dream of putting together a typical
gafieira orchestra—but much more psychedelic." Key players in the
creation of the Orquestra include composer and producer Berna
Ceppas; notable young pop musicians Moreno Veloso and Kassin (who
are both still in the orchestra), and Seu Jorge; plus such historic
figures as percussionist and singer Wilson das Neves (who also
remains in the ensemble). As the band explains, the idea is "to
interpret a varied repertoire, including boleros and songs from the
'60s—classics of the ballroom culture in new arrangements."
In fact, the musical updating has led Orquestra Imperial to
collaborate with artists as disparate as Caetano Veloso, Marisa
Monte, and The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. As for repertoire, the
band has been known to pay tribute to classic samba and do a
version of the rock group Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart," but also
feature Caetano Veloso and Jane Birkin on a show dedicated to the
music of Serge Gainsbourg. "This is not a project about
researching or preserving tradition," says Magalhães, chuckling at
the notion.
Instead, the music of Arnaldo Antunes and Orquestra Imperial are
celebrations of some of the improbable mixes, the many sources, the
generous embraces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the
culture of Brazil.
It's "Tupy or not Tupy …"—played out loud, with electric guitars,
pandeiros, and trombones.
—Fernando González is an independent music writer and critic whose
work appears regularly in The Miami Herald,
JazzTimes, and The International Review of Music.