A Brazilian Bid to Bring Street Music Inside
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: October 25, 2005 on The New York Times

The Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury works hard to make her shows full of dance and flash and energy, but also full of Afro-Brazilian culture. After her early career as a siren of Axé music, the Bahian carnival music that became tremendously popular in Brazil during the early 1990's, she has tried to universalize Bahia, collaborating with all kinds of songwriters and producers in and outside her country; she wants to seek out any new sounds and visuals, from fashion and art and D.J. culture, always yoking them to the popular impulses that made her a star in the first place

Her show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Saturday was a variation on a familiar theme: the Brazilian pop concert that tries to transfer the energy of street music to a North American sit-down concert hall and ends up somewhere in a vague, theatrical middle zone.
Ms. Mercury, who has just turned 40, looked fantastic, in a small black dress with openings on the sides, asserting control while projecting the image of a beneficent bandleader. And she is an effective high-energy dancer: in her song "Nobre Vagabundo" she danced out the word "vagabundo," shaking her hips completely back and forth on each syllable, and at another point, during a quick show-and-tell about capoiera, she did a high capoiera kick herself. But she also let her backup singers and dancers demonstrate the difference between how to dance samba in Rio and in Bahia, and she left the stage in the middle of the show for a percussion-and-dance number involving seven large-diameter frame drums.
That particular sequence was all right as spectacle, but not much as percussion music and seemed symbolic of the concert as a whole: for some reason - maybe the hyperpop, hyperrushed demands of the show? - her eight-piece band, with three percussionists and a trap-set drummer, never really made the potentially powerful music soar.

Not for lack of trying, though. There were ballads, and rock, and samba-reggae, and the slower, deeper ijexa rhythm of Afro-Brazilian culture, and even an English-language Beatles song ("And I Love Her"), done in the style of Sarah Vaughan. The set brightened at the end with two of her more recent hits: the fast, marchlike frevo "Rapunzel," from the late 90's, and finally "Maimbê Dandá," written by Carlinhos Brown, one of the biggest hits of this year's carnival in Bahia.
Both of those songs are detonations of fun, and like most great carnival anthems, they're structured with drum beats and syllables written to make you move your body or pump your fists. Ms. Mercury got the audience to surge left and right in the rows of the theater and ran back and forth across the front of the stage with her dancers, giggling at being able to make a little chaos in an orderly place.

Transcendent Grooves

The energy level was hitting the top of the excitement barometer at Royce Hall on Saturday night even before the first infectious rhythms of "Carnaval Eletronico" were heard.
A packed crowd, seemingly dominated by the Southland's Brazilian community, waited impatiently, cheering, applauding, shrieking and -when the musicians, singers and dancers dashed onto the stage - erupting into decibel-shattering roars of approval.

But even that intensity was topped when the headliner herself - the little Daniela Mercury - appeared at the top of a riser, a perpetual smile on her face, singing a welcoming song, moving smoothly through the sensous steps of the samba.
It was to come - a program in which music, dance and the sheer joy of perfomance transcended any limitations of language.
Concerts by Brazilian artists - especially those produced by Patricia Leao and her Brazilian Nites company - are always notable for their effervescent connection between artists and audience.
But Mercury's performance took it to another level. Before the first song had concluded, the entire front half of the Royce audience was crowding the stage, overflowing the aisles, especially converting the performance into a standing, arena- style event.
Mercury, who turned 40 in July, has been a Brazilian (and to some extend, globla) superstar since the early '90s, when her album " O Canto da Cidade" brought the Afro-Brazilian rhythms of Bahia's Axe music to the international pop world.
Her performance here, based in part on the template of her latest album, also titled " Carnaval Eletronico," blended the electronic grooves of the CD with a sprinkling ofher greatest hits.
Leaving the stage for only a few moments during brief instrumental passage or choreographed dance segments, she was a study in motion and sound for more than two hours.
One song quickly gave way to another, often with the ecstatic crowd singing along - in characteristic Brazilian style - with the lyrics.
Mercury's hit version of Carlinhos Brown's " Mambe Danda " surfaced at the beginning and end of the program, each time triggering joyous participation in the " Zum, Zum, Zums " of the chorus.
At one point, shifting from Portuguese to English, she spoke of her youthful fascination with a Sarah Vaughan album of Beatles tunes and sang a warm, utterly idiosyncratic version of " And I Love Her."
But the most fascinating aspect of this extraordinary event was its seamless combination of meticulous craft (complex choreocraphy and stage movements, flawlessly executed ), mesmerizing music, body-moving rhythms and, above all, the sheer vitality of Mercury's life-affirming performance.

By Don Heckman       

SUNSHINE CLASSICS FOR THE MOONLIT HOURS

Frank Sinatra called them “the wee hours of the morning.” These are the hours where some of us call it a night and others decide to start theirs. Only one kind music will fit these brooding hours: great music… Music where each word has its weight set in gold along with every note… music in which lyrics and songs will speak to both our feelings and intelligence –but where consonance will not dispense with dissonance… music, in other words, for adult conversations. The ideal place for this type of cocktail mix is the Downtown Arts District bar: a romantic ambiance, low-key lighting subject to subtle diabolisms and a mike one could easily do without, as the vibes between the singer and her public are as direct as direct could be. If all these ingredients are present and accounted for, Daniela Mercury Live at São Paulo’s own Bourbon Street is whom you’ll be thinking of…

Daniela Mercury? Yes! The same Daniela we’ve come to identify as that wild trio elétrico queen of Salvador da Bahía’s Carnival, drawing her explosive joie de vivre from an apparently inexhaustible source. During the past ten years, this solar powerhouse of a singer has seen her fan numbers multiply. She has also generated controversy. Though loved by many, she never made unanimity. That’s because the “Daniela do Carnaval” has up to now not given us the full measure of the complete singer she had to offer.

Daniela’s career began on the back drop of Salvador’s night bars. There she sang classics by Jobim, Vinicius, and Chico Buarque that had swapped age for eternity. And even before all that, she had gone through a great deal of stage training, acoustic guitar classes and church choir activities. These were the times when Daniela’s musical affinities were defined. They made a profound mark. Watch and listen to the impressive ease with which she dives straight into songs crooned so many times before by other great singers… Watch the self confidence she displays while juggling these classics around with the highest mark of respect –not flattery! Respect… Daniela doesn’t shy from taking the competition’s material (such as “Upa Neguinho” sung by Elis Regina herself) and turn around to hand us versions that are exclusively her own! She also rehabilitates barely remembered works such as “Brigas Nunca Mais,” and “Amor Até o Fim” and doesn’t hesitate to throw her own creations (“Maria Clara,” “Aeromoça”) into the mix. No styles or rhythms have any secrets for her. She will turn into a bossa nova, samba, jazz, or jazz-samba singer whenever she means to. She will be at home in all genres without in any ways sacrificing who she is.

When a singer opts for great music, he or she is no longer just a mere singer. That person becomes an intimate confident with whom we hold silent dialogues, and from whom we receive wisdom or support. This artist will jump out of the CD to inhabit the diffuse dimension that lies between life and art. How many singers can claim to have reached such a stage?

In Clássica, Daniela has an adult conversation with the listener –while still being the girl in the pony tails who, on one sunny day, asked for the first time to sing night gigs. They let her. What the audience saw was a kid who stretched her arms towards the skies, and pulled out a star to fix upon her head. For this reason, she can also sing the music of the moonlit hours –she enlightens them with the glow of a thousand Suns.

RUY CASTRO,
(translated from the Portuguese by PHILIPPE RENAUD).

National anthem will have amazing voice of Daniela Mercury

Brasil got strength against Chile, in the next game, valid for the play offs of World Cup, 9/4: the National anthem sung before the game will count with the strong and vibrant voice of Daniela Mercury. The Bahian promises to thrill and encourage even more the fans that will be at the Stadium Mane Garrincha, in Brasilia.

Photo: http://fotolog.terra.com.br/danielagomes

Daniela sings classics of the MPB in new DVD/CD

Daniela Mercury just released the new DVD/CD Classica by Som Livre, which she leaves the mix of samba-reggae, techno and axe to loan her voice to great successes of the MPB, bossa nova and jazz. The DVD/CD is result of a presentation of the singer in Bourbon Street, in Sao Paulo, last year. In the selection, “Atras da porta” (Francis Hime & Chico Buarque), “Vapor barato” (Macale & Waly Salomao), “Se eu quiser falar com Deus” (Gilberto Gil), “Brigas nunca mais” (Tom & Vinicius) and “Corsario”(Bosco & Blanc) among others.

 

MTV AO VIVO - DANIELA MERCURY

In general the recordings of live albums are an artist’s career review, with some new arrangements of his/her greatest hits, the public singing along and, one or another new song, if any. But Daniela Mercury is so restless, artistically speaking and so bold that she decided to innovate, take risks. Much more than a review of her career and greatest hits, "Eletrodomestico", the concert, is a platform for the release of new songs and international duets that provide the sequence and depth to her career in Europe, United States and Latin America. And at the same time it is a registration of the transformation and evolution of her work in Brazil, absorbing new tendencies, recording new composers, researching new rhythmic fusion, between the international “electro” and the “domestic” percussion that fascinate the musical world.

Eletrodoméstico introduces 12 new songs side-by-side with some re-recordings and her greatest hits, from the title track ( a very Carioca funk-rap-samba composed by Falcão, and Lobato, of the band Rappa, specially for her) up to Meu Plano, a new and astoundingly romantic song by Lenine and Dudu Falcão, also tailor-made for Daniela and which is amongst the best songs created by him, considering all the beautiful songs he has composed. A classic born song that enables Daniela to perform it in a more grave and sensual tone, more warmly intimate, in a harmonious contrast with the explosion of the dance and joyfulness that is the benchmark of her style.

It shall certainly be a great surprise to hear Daniela singing, in a cool yet warm way, in excellent English, the first notes of It Ain’t Over Till It's Over, a classic by Lenny Kravitz. Even more so upon hearing the pulse of the samba-reggae involving the song. The idea of suggesting this song started years ago, in New York, when I heard her singing a sensational pop version with Brazilian percussion of Sting’s "Every Breath You Take", leading thousands of Americans to ecstasy. It is a continuation and a development of her successful idea of fusion and rhythm integration. With Lorenzo Jovanotti, the Italian rapper, one of the greatest European talents, Daniela chose to sing another classic, Jorge Benjor’s Ives Brussel, mixing to the Brazilian rhythms, the international electronic beat and the latest generation Italian hip hop. Riqueza is the Spanish version of " Tour ", one of the greatest songs by Carlinhos Brown, that Daniela performs in a duet with the Spanish Rosário Flores, who, much more than the actress that touched the world as the bullfighter in Almodovar’s “Able com Ella” is one of the greatest names of the Spanish pop music, with her exuberant and dancing style similar to Daniela’s. Flamenco and afoxé, bullerias and samba-reggae, gitanos and baianos in the same party.

Dulce Pontes. Well, since Caetano Veloso introduced me to her first album ten years ago and after listening to her, fascinated, in the United States and in Europe numerous times, I consider her ( along with important international critics ) one of the best singers in the world. For a CD/DVD aimed at the international market, it would be fundamental the presence of an artist from Portugal, where Daniela detains an absolute record in terms of album sales. Dulce’s name barely needed to be mentioned, or at least it was said at the same time by both of us, along with the certainty that the two would produce an unforgettable version of one of Caetano Veloso’s best songs, Milagre do Povo, composed for Globo TV Network’s mini-series Tenda dos Milagres.

Listening to the albums of Jovanotti we found one of his greatest songs, a 1992 rap, with a sensational beat and lyrics, which was one of the greatest European hits of the year. It is the emotional view of a foreigner over the hopes and beauties of a race made of races, of a color made of colors, in a world full of sun, music and dance. I wrote a version in Portuguese for Daniela, partially true to the original foreign version and in parts of it I took the liberty of providing our view within this Bellybutton of the World ("Umbigo do Mundo"), a rap that integrates the world music, samba, reggae, capoeira and even bossa nova.

After an afternoon in the studios with Falcão, Lobato and DJ Negralha working on the arrangements of "Eletrodoméstico ", Daniela left to enjoy the evening in Rio and at the nightclub Melt she heard the new group Eletrosamba (a development of AfroRio, one of the greatest hits of Rio de Janeiro’s nightlife) playing a song that, even before being recorded was already a big hit in Rio, sang in unison by the audience in all Eletrosamba concerts. It sounded just like her. Dona da Banca is an electro-samba-funk of exciting happiness and immediate communicability, that found in Daniela its ideal interpreter.

Still within the novelties, a very beautiful romantic song by Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes, To Remember, that he sings along with Daniela; the pop-disco-samba Temporada das Flores, by Leoni, that Daniela wished she had already included in her previous album but still perfectly up-to-date and a great song of a young composer from Bahia Alexandre Peixe, and Beto Garrido, a pop-dance high quality music with house beat mixed by DJ Memê and that I wrote a new part for the song at Daniela’s request. This song, Pára de Chorar was recorded in studio and is a bonus track on the CD. What a bonus! Amongst the cover versions, three songs can be highlighted: the surprisingly cool rap version of Nossa Gente (Avisa lá) , with Daniela’s voice juxtaposed three times in harmony and a choir in English, aimed at rocking the dance floors; the rocking trip hop version of the tropicalist classic Baby and a cool bossa arrangement of great sensitivity and elegance created by producer and DJ Bid for Chico César‘s A Primeira Vista , one of Daniela’s greatest hits. And, of course, old and recent hits such as Canto da Cidade, Swing da Cor, Rapunzel, Nobre Vagabundo, Só Pra Te Mostrar, Minas com Bahia, Voce Não Entende Nada and Mutante.

We worked hard, with great intensity and full dedication, for a year in the production of this TV program, CD and DVD - MTV ao Vivo, I am sure the Brazilian and the international audience will appreciate more of Daniela’s best as well as the new faces and shades of her talent in permanent evolution. I am proud and happy to have collaborated with a great artist, a vibrant and bold woman, a friend of life, of love and of art itself, in this flight that will take her further and higher.


Nelson Motta, Salvador, January 2003