Music to the eyes: Bossa Novas art

Posted on November 23, 2010

Interview and article by Tom Crookston Cover to cover: iconic designs of Brazils musical Golden Age are brought together in Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s, a book launched by Soul Jazz. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a band with a great album must be in want of a great album cover. When done well, it becomes almost impossible to imagine Abbey Road, say, without The Fab Four on the pedestrian crossing, or The Velvet Underground without Warhols banana. But when done just right, cover art can go beyond individual albums, and come to represent an entire era. Nowhere was this more evident than in Brazil during the late 50s and early 60s, where designs used by labels like Odeon and Elenco stand, alongside the music of Joo Gilberto and the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer, as iconic symbols of the countrys age of Modernity. A hand-picked selection of these remarkable designs is gathered for the first time in Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s, the stunning new LP-sized book from Soul Jazz. Compiled by Stuart Baker and Gilles Peterson, it tells the story of the close relationship between the music, the art and the era and, according to Baker, it wasnt hard to find the covers. Ive been collecting Brazilian music for 15-20 years, as has Gilles. We had all the records between us. More challenging, however, was exploring the way the music responded to society, how it turned from the groundbreaking Brazilian music of the 1950s into the elevator muzak of the 1970s. Bossa was a radical modernist movement, completely in sync with the times. But abroad, the world took to it in a different way seduced by its power to imagine tropical beaches, love and exotica. But while for some the music has become a byword for bland, the distinctive visual style of Bossa Nova remains as showstopping as ever.

Cover to cover: iconic designs of Brazils musical Golden Age are brought together in Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s, a book launched by Soul Jazz. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a band with a great album must be in want of a great album cover. When done well, it becomes almost impossible to imagine Abbey Road, say, without The Fab Four on the pedestrian crossing, or The Velvet Underground without Warhols banana. But when done just right, cover art can go beyond individual albums, and come to represent an entire era. Nowhere was this more evident than in Brazil during the late 50s and early 60s, where designs used by labels like Odeon and Elenco stand, alongside the music of Joo Gilberto and the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer, as iconic symbols of the countrys age of Modernity. A hand-picked selection of these remarkable designs is gathered for the first time in Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s, the stunning new LP-sized book from Soul Jazz. Compiled by Stuart Baker and Gilles Peterson, it tells the story of the close relationship between the music, the art and the era and, according to Baker, it wasnt hard to find the covers. Ive been collecting Brazilian music for 15-20

years, as has Gilles. We had all the records between us. More challenging, however, was exploring the way the music responded to society, how it turned from the groundbreaking Brazilian music of the 1950s into the elevator muzak of the 1970s. Bossa was a radical modernist movement, completely in sync with the times. But abroad, the world took to it in a different way seduced by its power to imagine tropical beaches, love and exotica. But while for some the music has become a byword for bland, the distinctive visual style of Bossa Nova remains as showstopping as ever. Where did the idea for the book originate from? I have been collecting Brazilian records for 15-20 years, as has Gilles Peterson. We had worked together earlier on a book of jazz record covers so it was very esy to do the same with Brazilian music. Did you have to do a lot of research and digging around? Or are these records that you already knew and loved? Yes! We both had all the records between us and have known them for many years. It became clear that a lot of these records had never been seen outside of Brazil and so that was our objective. The research I did do was into the social and cultural conditions that created bossa nova in Brazil Soul Jazz have had similar projects focused on jazz and Blaxploitation funk. How does bossa nova relate? Whats the common thread? I am interested in all musical genres, how they come about, how they relate to the society they came from and how they relate to music and society today. Whats significant about bossa as a development in Brazilian music? How/why was it radically different from what had come before? Bossa nova was the first modernist music of Brazil created at the same time that Brazil was advancing into the first world at an exciting pace From the building of Brasilia to, for instance, the birth of the Brazilian automobile industry. It was a very exciting and optimistic period. Bossa nova came after 30 years of Samba, an equally exciting style that had become watered down over the years and tired by its musical reduction and also by government co-opting it as the national music. How did the relationship between the music and the artwork function? Did designers like Cesar Villela intend to create a visual style that captured the aesthetic of bossa nova, or is it only later that the two have come to seem synonymous? They were synonymous. Villela worked at Odeon in the 1950s before Elenco. His style developed over this period into brilliant modernist designs that matched the musical modernism of Joo Gilberto, the futurist architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and so on. Have you got any particular favourites among the records featured in the book? Either in terms of the artwork, the music, or both? Well I have to say I like all of them! One last question: these days bossa nova for a lot of people (in the UK/USA at least) has come to evoke elevator music and lounge bars. Any thoughts on why this is, or how something that was once so revolutionary has become seen as bland? I agree with you! Bossa nova in Brazil was a radical modernist movement, completely in sync with the times. It developed musically and lyrically in the years 1958-64 adapting to the changes in political and social climate. By the time of the military coup in April 64, the music was as radical and revolutionary as it was on arrival (but in a different form). Unfortunately abroad, the world took to bossa nova in a

different way seduced by its power to imagine tropical beaches, love and exotica. These were bossa novas original themes in 1958 when there was a period of optimism in Brazil. So when the military arrived on the streets of Rio in 1964, what did people abroad know about Brazil? The Girl From Ipanema which was at the top of the charts all around the world! An irony made even more extreme by recently declassified documents showing that the US government had offered support for the takeover. I think if you seperate what Bossa Nova meant in Brazil at the start of the 1960s from what it became when it became an international musical style, it is quite easy to see it as revolutionary.

Adventurous times for classical music lovers

December 28, 2011|John von Rhein | Classical music critic A resident at the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville taps the cheek of Maestro Riccardo Muti, a trait which she noticed the Maestro often does with people as a friendly gesture. What sort of year was it for classical music in Chicago? For starters, you had an increased number of groups and not just the famous ones putting on performances worthy of a world-class cultural center. You had loyal contributors and audience members maintaining their support of these groups despite the ailing economy. You had an expansion of local activity in early music, along with a steady stream of performances of new music by area composers.

Take a bow, classical music makers and consumers. For Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the year began with misfortune but ended in triumph. The music director's shocking tumble from the podium during a February rehearsal resulted in injuries that benched him for several months. When he returned in May, it was with vitality undimmed. Muti presided over a string of successes, including a concert version of Verdi's "Otello" that took both Orchestra Hall and Carnegie Hall by storm; a latesummer European tour; and subscription programs honoring the Liszt and Mahler anniversaries. Muti made his presence felt in other ways, bringing music and a message of hope to juvenile offenders incarcerated at the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville. Cellist and CSO creative consultant Yo-Yo Ma, Muti's fellow foot soldier in the orchestra's movement to engage with the larger community, introduced Citizen Musician, an ambitious plan to encourage more Chicagoans to share in the musical experience. Soprano Renee Fleming, Ma's creative counterpart at Lyric Opera, did her bit to help establish partnerships between the company and other Chicago institutions, as part of Lyric's far-flung Renee Fleming Initiative. In November the diva began a series of Web-based master classes with selected high school-aged voice students from the Merit School of Music. The initial "Skype session" suffered from technical glitches but pointed up the enormous potential of such cooperative educational ventures. The arrival of the British-born Anthony Freud as Lyric's new general director in October found him administering a season planned by the previous administration. Lyric's offerings for 2011 included more hits than misses, with "Lohengrin," "Hercules," "The Tales of Hoffmann," "Boris Godunov" and "Ariadne auf Naxos" among the former. No Lyric-bred star of tomorrow emerged with greater brilliance than soprano Amber Wagner, whose Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss singing here was the real deal.

Several other developments brightened the local operatic horizon. Chicago Opera Theater named the Vienna-born Andreas Mitisek, Long Beach Opera's artistic and general director, to succeed Brian Dickie as COT general director. Many are counting on Mitisek's similarly progressive spirit to build on and extend Dickie's creative reach. Meanwhile, the latter's penultimate season boasted winning productions of Todd Machover's "Death and the Powers" and Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Medea." Also, the Haymarket Opera Company, the first Chicago ensemble dedicated to authentic stagings of early operas, made its debut with a stylish production of Handel's rarely produced "Aci, Galatea e Polifemo." Other auspicious debuts included those of Mei-Ann Chen as the vigorously engaged new music director of Chicago Sinfonietta; and Finnish conductor Susanna Malkki and French conductor Stephane Deneve on the guest roster of the CSO. Stephen Williamson and Stephanie Jeong took their places as the CSO's principal clarinet and associate concertmaster, respectively.

My candidate for the year's best new undertaking in classical music was the International Beethoven Project's Beethoven Festival 2011, an ambitious, eclectic, barrier-blasting, uneven, ultimately wonderful celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven and composers who fell under his towering influence. For five days and nights, the Chicago Urban Art Society rocked to concerts, master classes and discussions that grappled with the idea of what Beethoven's music means, and can mean, to today's listeners. More, please. The Beethoven bash wasn't the only attempt to shake up the staid concert format with unusual programming and/or novel presentation. Violinist Hilary Hahn devoted the bulk of her recital program at Orchestra Hall to roughly a dozen new encores she had commissioned from composers around the world as part of a twoyear project. The quality level was as high as the level of her performance. It's good to know she will unveil a second set of encores next season. The self-styled "avant-chamber group," Fifth House Ensemble, launched a new concert series, "In Transit," featuring original, multimedia playlets loosely based on the theme of how the interactive digital age is changing the ways in which we communicate. You have to admire the sheer chutzpah and creative whimsy these young musicians bring to their enterprise, which they are presenting, free of charge, at the Chicago Cultural Center and other community venues around the city. It was a year of podium transition at suburban orchestras, with Carmon DeLeone stepping down as music director of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra after 25 years, and Robert Hanson resigning the same position with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra after 37. Hanson, who has made the ESO one of the most widely respected of Midwest regional orchestras, left following disagreements with the board majority and administration, who proposed renting out the orchestra to private groups for Christmas parties and other functions.

Meanwhile, music directors such as Lawrence Rapchak at the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra and Alan Heatherington at the Ars Viva Symphony, Lake Forest Symphony and Chicago Master Singers continued to pursue artistic excellence with the full support of their boards.

An unusual number of Chicago musical organizations celebrated signal milestones in 2011. The year marked the 75th anniversary of the Chicago Chamber Music Society; the 60th of fine arts radio station WFMT-FM 98.7; the 40th of the William Ferris Chorale; the 35th of the People's Music School; the 25th of the Chicago Chamber Musicians and the Newberry Consort; and the 20th of the Music in the Loft concert series. In 2011 the musical community lost Music in the Loft founder-director Fredda Hyman; former CSO musicians Joseph Golan, Edward Druzinsky, Sidney Harth and Alice Clevenger; Lyric Opera Orchestra principal viola Keith Conant; WFMT program host Andy Karzas; and former Chicago American critic Roger Dettmer. They will be missed. jvonrhein@tribune.com Twitter @johnvonrhein