BLACK RIO - SOUL FUNK FROM 70'S BRAZIL
The story of Black Rio is an exceptional one founded in the passion of soul and funk aficionados, a story that takes us across the Americas linking Harlem to Rio. It is the story of a music movement that influenced a generation of disenchanted black Brazilian youth, mirroring the struggles of their counterparts in North America. All the more exceptional when one acknowledges that the movement was borne during a harsh military dictatorship where severe censorship even forbid images of mixed-race couples being shown on television, let alone the outright promotion of black culture. Black Rio was an important step forward in the reevaluation of black culture in Brazil and opened the way for subsequent Black music movements, such as Afoxe from Bahia and more recently for the huge rap industry that has sprung up in the suburbs of major Brazilian cities. What started out as a simple expression of the universal power of black music became a symbol for the struggle of poor black Brazilians to leave the ghetto and choose their own destiny, music and fashion.
When one thinks Black Rio the automatic association is of course with Banda Black Rio, who became the international face of the movement, although never actually playing outside Brazil, with their distinct fusion of samba and funk which immediately influenced deejays around the world. In fact Banda Black Rio were part of the end-play of the movement, forming in 1976, almost a decade after the roots of the movement had been laid. If anything Banda Black Rio was a commercial attempt backed by a major record label and brokered by Soul Grand Prix, a Rio-based sound-system, to bring together the best musicians from the funk scene- the union of giants as Gerson King describes them-to record black music for a black audience and cash in on the success of the Black Rio movement. Fortunately under Oberdan Magalhaes', the founder of Banda Black Rio, the resulting three albums were a huge artist success.
Before Banda Black Rio came a host of artists who paved the way. Artists such as Toni Tornado, Gerson King Combo, Tim Maia, Cassiano, Miguel de Deus, Jorge Ben, Dom Salvador, Trio Mocoto laid the foundations for the movement, often battling against prejudice and repression, risking imprisonment or a beating from the police and of course facing a white middle-class media and conservative record industry.
Banda Black Rio did however epitomise the spirit of the Black Rio movement in several important ways principally in creating the definitive fusion of samba and soul/funk. Firstly, BBR typified the kind of cross-fertilisation that was occurring between musicians. A vibrant club scene provided an opportunity for the musicians from different parts of town to play together. It was not unusual for the musicians to be playing in two or three bands on a busy weekend night and they would also be tempted to make guest appearances with other groups. This is exactly what happened with the drummer Paulinho Black who prior to joining BBR played with Copa Sete, a band from the suburbs of Rio. One night when BBR played a concert at Portelao in Madureira and Paulinho was invited to make a guest appearance, a big honour in itself. A few weeks later he was part of the group. In all more than 15 musicians passed through BBR and as Paulinho Black put it, 'the idea of the band was to be school of music'.
As a consequence of this vibrant club-scene improvisation was an important aspect of the club scene and the best musicians were able to just walk in and pick up the groove.
Paulinho Black was not the only musician to come to BBR via the host of little known bands on the scene. Several members of Banda Black Rio served their apprentice in a variety of bands including Dom Salvador's Abolicao, Raul da Souza's 'Impacto Oito', and Oberdan Magalhaes, the founder of BBR, served in the Crybabies who recorded one ultra-rare album. In fact the nucleus of BBR existed under the name of Senzala and it was only after Claudinho Stevenson and Lucio Trombone joined that they adopted the name Banda Black Rio.
Until recently Brazil has even been slow to recognise Black Rio as a legitimate movement, however a recent renaissance in Brazil's black music culture led by a new generation of soul, funk and hip hop artists has led to a reevaluation of this period. There are legitimate reasons for considering Black Rio a real and valid music movement. First several artists involved in founding the movement were independently immersing themselves in North American black culture, often spending protracted lengths periods of time the States and specifically Harlem. On returning to Brazil they were in a position to forge a distinctly Brazilian form of funk. Each artist made a unique contribution lending itself to the diversity of the homegrown scene. Secondly in the earlier Seventies there was a circuit of live events and deejay sound-systems (not unlike reggae sound-systems) developing for an almost exclusively black audience. These parties most notable in Rio (hence Black Rio) would cater to audiences of 5, 8 or even ten thousand people. On a single weekend there would have been over 20,000 young blacks enjoying the sounds of homegrown and international funk acts. Often the visuals accompanying the parties promoted black culture and celebrated music icons. Thirdly as this underground movement grew several records labels attempted to cash in the commercial possibilities of young black artists as illustrated by Banda Black Rio.
The birth of Brazilian Soul Brasileiro
To fully unravel the roots of Back Rio once has to go back a few years earlier to look at the immediate precursor to the movement, Soul Brasileiro (Brazilian Soul), founded in the late Sixities by Tim Maia and Cassiano.
Tim Maia is a legend in the story of Brazilian soul who lived the preverbal sex, drugs and rock & roll lifestyle yet with a strong strain of spiritualism running through his work and life. In 1957 he formed the group Os Spuntniks, which included Erasmo & Roberto Carlos. When his father died in 1959 he moved to the U.S. where apart from soaking up the music he found time to join a group called The Ideals. In 1963 he was deported back to Brazil having been arrested and imprisoned for six months, while awaiting sentencing, for possessing weed. Unperturbed the young artist packed his bags and his extensive soul music collection, a collection that was to become the basis of his inspiration in creating 'soul brasileiro'
Cassiano, originally from Paraiba in the northeast of Brazil, moved to Rio aged six where he immediately started to study guitar with his father. Later on he joined the bossa jazz outfit Bossa Trio which became the basis for his vocal group Os Diagonais.. Whereas Tim Maia was fascinated by deep soul rhythms, Cassiano became a master of vocal arrangements influenced by the softer soul of Stevie Wonder, producing and arranging in the style of the Temptations and the Del Fonics for Os Diagonais. In 1970 Cassiano gained a larger audience when Tim Maia recorded two of his compositions Primavera (Vai Chuva) and Eu amo voce, featuring Cassiano on guitar.
As these godfathers of soul brasileiro started to enjoy success they became the impetus for a radical change and opened up the doorway for a further wave of soul and funk music. Gospel and funk sounds were gaining many fans in the suburbs of Rio and the timing was perfect for the hot new American sensation to take them by storm. James Brown had the soul power, the clothes and all the right dance moves that every young black Brazilian wanted to copy in the club. The international success of James Brown had a huge impact in Brazil at exactly the point that samba was less for young back Brazilians.
The most clearly influenced by James Brown was Gerson Cortes who went on to record under the name of Gerson King Combo, a tribute to the King Curtis Combo. His links with James Brown are well documented and a telegram from the Brown adorns the flipside of the 'Mandamentos Black' LP.
Gerson King was born in Madueira, Rio. His entry to the music business was facilitated by his brother, Getulio Cortes, already an established songwriter who got him a job working on the programme 'Jovem Guarda' hosted by Roberto Carlos. There he choreographed and danced alongside his future wife Angela. From there, once again thanks to his brother, he went onto sing with Renato e os Blue Caps, then The Fevers, Erlon Chaves' group Banda Veneno and as a backing vocalist for Wilson Simonal. It was with the latter that he was exposed to a diversity of music whilst touring international in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the States. In 1970 Gerson found himself in Mexico just as Brazil won the World Cup and as he remembers it was fashionable to be a black Brazilian, everybody wanted to hang out with him and he just enjoyed soaking up the new influences.
However his big break was to come on a trip to Jamaica, ' I got together some cash and traveled, to experience new countries, to see how the black race manifested itself in these countries. I went to Jamaica and lived with the people, I felt that reggae was a manifestation of the soul of the Jamaicans. On this occasion The Supremes were giving a show in Jamaica and I went to see it. There were almost 4000 people squashed in to see the show and at a determined point in time they started to dance frantically. I managed to find my way to the side of the stage and the dancing was so contagious that I started to dance but I wasn't satisfied with this; I jumped on the stage grabbed one of the Supremes and started to dance with her. Everybody stopped. I showed with my body what I was feeling, as people dance in Brazil and they understood my body. ' A little later James Brown's manager contacted him and invited him to dance with Brown in New York, hesitantly he went there and became the direct link between Brown's type of funk and Brazil. During this trip to NYC he started dating a girl in Ray Charles band, 'she taught me a lot, she was a slightly older woman, and she was the link between me and (James) Brown, hence she would tell him "Gerson is recording in Brazil and it's really great" and through her I sent him a pre-recording of the LP.' Brown loved it and sent the famous telegraph in response.
Back in Brazil he went on to produce three albums which although never widely played on the radio (another example of the white media´s reluctance to accept the culture of black Rio) did find a niche audience. He also recorded a variety of singles the most successful of which was Jingle Black, which went on to become a gold disc. His first album Mandamentos Black features Uniao Black, a band that he Gerson discovered playing in the suburbs of Rio and helped to launch to the media who later went on to record their own album which features the track ´Black Rio´.
However one person was to stand it Gerson King's way in claiming to be the undisputed funk king of Brazil, a rivalry which still endures today. Gerson King's dancing make have taken him to New York but there was a singer/dancer so fearsome that he was dubbed 'The Tornado'. Born in Mirante de Paranapanema, Antoinio Vianna Gomes a.k.a. Toni Tornado, had a harsh up-bringing. He moved to Rio aged eleven and was forced to shine shoes in Central Station and ended-up sleeping on the streets until he was taken in by a local school. In 1965 he left Brazil fed up with the military coup, tired of being arrested by the military police and held in custody for days at a time for no apparent reason. Toni traveled to Cuba, Franca, Uruguay and the States where he ended up in Harlem living on 125th street. He spent three years there attending talks and workshops associated with the black Power movement and also got to know Tim Maia.
Toni (pictured above) came back to Brazil at the end of the Sixties totally switched on to black power culture with the clothes and the afro to match. He was swept to fame via the festival circuit. Each year in Brazil there were several national music competitions sponsored by the TV channels. Winning such a festival guaranteed instant national fame. In 1969 Antonio Adolfo and Tiberao had written a track but still lacked the right person to interpret it. However whilst visiting the New Holiday Club they stumbled upon Toni tornado. They invited him to perform the song in the festival and 'BR3' was the out right winner and a national hit.
After this he sung with Ed Lincoln and went on to record to albums. It was not only Toni Tornado´s appearance that was totally black power , so were his politics. He was not opposed to stopping the music in the middle of a party to give the audience a lecture. `Parties weren´t just for dancing otherwise you could just buy the record and stay at home dancing. In the middle of the party I would stop the sound to talk. I would tell people that they had to study, citing myself as an example, showing how I had managed to leave the favela.` he recalls. Often his black only stance wasn´t acceptable to the powers that be, ´I remember a party in Guadalupe. All the blacks were singing ´Pode Crer Amizade´ and the police came in with machine guns wanting to shut down the party because there were no blacks present´.
In 1972 Toni tornado also started his career as an actor with on the soap opera Jeronimo on TV Tupi. He went on to star in films where he was able to portray important black Brazilian figures such as Ganga Zumbi, the true story of an African king who led an up-rising in the northeast of Brazil in Caca Diegues film of the same title.
In contrast to the funk sound of Gerson King and Toni Tornado, Jorge Ben and Trio Mocoto represent the soul side of the movement. Traditionally Jorge Ben is classified as MPB (Popular Music of Brazil) but in the early Seventies he produced a series of albums that had a strong Afro/soul crossover feel, including 'Black is Beautiful' (from which the track Comanche is taken) and 'Africa Brasil'. As the veteran deejay Toninho put it, 'Jorge Ben really spoke the language of these people, his lyrics were made for these people, for the poor Negro. Jorge Ben spoke directly with the Negro.' Between 1968 and 1972 Trio Mocoto were Jorge Ben's backing band and it was during this period that they developed the Afro-Brazilian feel so evident on their 1971 LP 'Muita Zorra'.
The rise of the sound-system
At the end of the Sixties there were a small amount of soundsystems and deejays playing soul music in Rio and the larger cities for a black audience. These events were simply termed bailes black (black parties) playing a mixture of music from partido alto (a traditional form of improvised samba) to the likes of Jimmy Smith, Wes Montegomery and orchestrated jazz. Very underground small-scale parties.
By the mid-Seventies after a massive explosion in club culture there would be over three thousand in Rio alone. Deejay culture in Brazil can be traced back at least to the Fifties but it's rise in the Seventies must surely be attributed to the on-going commercialisation of samba that led to a shift in emphasis and to the increasing attention given to black American culture. Young blacks could no longer find the stimulation they wanted in samba and the samba schools were only to happy to exploit their position with hefty charges for parties so it was time to find a new direction. Many were forced to seek new means of asserting their identity and the funk parties offered the perfect outlet for this expression.
Brazilian sound-systems and the culture surrounding them are worthy of a study in their own right and it will have to suffice to make a few points. Up until about 1972, according to the veteran deejay Toninho, black music deejays would operate with just one record deck and the dancing would stop as records were changed over, announcements regarding forthcoming events were made without amplification which, given that at this point the parties were still quite small, was fine. In 1972 came the first pair of record decks, which included a switch rather than a fader, allowing you to go directly from one deck to the other. In about 1974 mixers became commonplace. As technology grew so did the amount of people involved. Sound-systems might be made up of as many as 20 people often through extended-family relations. Hence systems could be passed down the family ensuring their survival. Many sound-systems dating back to the Seventies, such as Transa and Chic Show, still exist today and are still actively promoting events.
Operating as distinct units each sound-systems would be responsible for organising all aspects of the parties, booking the acts, designing the flyers, running the bar & front of house and decorating the venues. It would not be usual to find the mother of the deejay running the bar and maybe a brother running the front-of-house. They would have their own speakers and amplifiers. The more established systems boasted MCs and dancers with such names as Pink Panther and the godfather of Brazilian street dance Nelson Triunfo. More successful groups such as Soul Grand Prix or Dynamic Soul were able to promote international acts.
As a reaction funk parties started crop up all over the suburbs, any space would do, a sports hall, a basketball court or an old warehouse, just as long as it was large enough to handle crowds the numbered 3000 and could swell up to 10,000. As the parties spread across Rio there is a proliferation of sound systems with such names as Black Soul, Boot Power, Monsieur Lima, Black Magic and Arte Negra. The sound-systems also enjoyed much success in Sao Paulo and we see big ones such as Chic Show and Transa Negra. At one point there were over 3000 sound systems spread around the state of Rio (as opposed to just the city) and probably an equal number across Sao Paulo
The black youth on the whole left violence outside preferring to immerse themselves in the whole Black Rio experience sporting afro's and donning funked up clothing and later on platforms shoes. Suitable film and slide projections were laid on, beer and Brankfort Black, a working class whiskey, were available.
According to Gerson King, around 1969 there were some small parties where one could here soul music but the Black Rio movement only really kicked off in 1972 when he teamed up with the deejay/promoter Big Boy who organised parties at the Canecao. 'There were often five or eight thousand people in these parties, in the Canecao alone you could fit 5 thousand people,' he recalls adding that because of the demographics of Rio a venue like the Canecao in the south side was more open to a mixed crowd, blacks and non-blacks, whereas in the Zona Norte (north side) it was more exclusively black.
In an interview given (to Jornal da Musica) in 1976 Dom Filo, leader of the Rio-based Soul Grand Prix sound-system one of the truly legendary sound-systems, explains something of the Black Rio movement and the role of the sound-systems. For Dom Filo it all started in about 72, 73 when he was engaged in a project for young blacks with the cultural group Cultural do Renascenca (Culture of Rebirth). They were using the the story of Orfeu Negro (the Brazilian version of the tale of Black Orpheus) to construct a theatre piece and consequently Dom Filo became interested in notions of black identity thrown up by the play.
After this project he decided to host Black music parties on Sunday nights from 8pm until midnight. Dom Filo recounts, 'The parties were a huge success. I chose the name and made a visual programme with slides films and a cultural programme with a really mixed sound. Our reportoire at the beginning was an escape from the clubs of the south side. There the deejay was obliged to play whatever was in-fashion. Soul Grand Prix is sound at high speed, we have no political motivation and brought no problems.'
He is also very clear on why the soul funk parties were so successful, ' That fact that people left samba behind for soul was an incredible thing. It was because samba was overplayed not in its social form but its taste. In the year of 72 we were enjoying the nostalgia of samba from 66, of those nights of partido alto and those sambas enredo. When we entered the period 72..3 samba was at it´s peak, but a really commercial peak. The young kids decided it wasn't cutting it any more. Let's check out something else and soul has roots. A mixture of soul and samba has more energy, it is an incredible combination.'
One of the great Rio deejays Ademir also vividly recounts his experiences in an historic interview,' I was passionate about funk and decided to promote it. But it all really took off when soul started to be played and people started to get into Kool and the Gang, James Brown, Wilson Picket etc. I started the Baile da Pesada in the Canecao. It was a party that brought together people from the north and south side, without discrimination between whites and blacks, it was a pure thing, from the heart. The public worked hard the whole week and had nowhere to enjoy themselves, they didn't have a place where they could cheat about issues. All this happened there. There were about 5000 who went to the Baile da Pesada and they began to remain loyal to the soul. So as not to let the party become monotonous I decided to invite a clever easy speaking guy. Big Boy had these qualities and his fast way of talking was already an attraction.
'Things were going well. The financial rewards were as predicted, but there started to be a lack of liberty of the people who came by. The directors of the Canecao started to complain everything and put restrictions in all. We accepted it until the idea arose to put on the show of Roberto Carlos (Brazilian's own Elvis) It was an opportunity to intellectualise the venue and they couldn't miss this opportunity, so because of this we were asked to end the party.
'In this way we went to the suburbs. In the south side there wasn't a place which held 5000 young people dancing so the north side was the solution We started to open a new market for our work. Everybody started to copy our style; nowadays there are more than 3000 sound-systems in the state of Rio alone.'
The politics of Black Rio
Despite the obvious party atmosphere there was a serious political side to the whole movement. As Midani, director of WEA in the early seventies, 'when the black Brazilian has the misfortune to leave his shanty town to do something other than make samba, he has to deal with the white press which accuses him of loosing his blackness and tells him to continue making samba. It's beautiful, but amounts to saying stay in your shanty town, live in your shanty town, damn yourself in your shanty town, die in your shanty town.'
Several artists linked to the Black Rio were active politically but it is worth remembering that many were also not politically inclined and quite justifiably so; being a musician making this kind of music during a dictatorship was already a challenge why complicate matters. Also they did not see their music as being a political vehicle or as exclusively for a black audience. For example Gerson King although maintaining that ''black is beautiful' also maintained that white was the colour of the clouds and equally as beautiful. Trio Mocoto rather than seeing themselves as an expression of black culture saw themselves as first band to unite the three racial groups in Brazil native Indians, Negros and Mulattos, hence there music was intended for everyone.
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There were others who were decidedly more politicized. Dom Filo, one of the most politically charged promoters and a of black music and dance, picked up on the point arguing that the black youth was expected to represent the 'essence' of Brazil, 'Why is it accepted so naturally that the youth of the Zona Sul (southside), predominantly middle class and white can where jeans, dance to rock and imitate Mick Jagger whilst the black youth cannot dress bright clothes, dance soul music and imitate James Brown. Why does the black man in the northside have to accept the white man in the southside coming along and saying that what is authentic, what is really Brazil is the black Brazilian. The black youth is never interested in saying what is authentic for the white youth.'
Despite what he says Dom Filo was decidedly politicised and although his parties may have been welcoming to all colours he was a key player in promoting black consciousness. 'We were the first in the audio-visual field. We started projecting slides of Shaft, Wattstax and other films. Afterwards we wanted to raise the consciousness of the public projecting slides of Duke Ellington, Dizzie Gillespie, making a kind of introduction to black culture through sources people already knew like music and sports.'
The white press was keen to do down the whole movement, Brazil likes to resist social change and such a strong black power movement could have become a threat, a real danger to the social fabric where blacks have reduced economic freedom and poorer rights. One argument was to say that Black Rio had no base in the folkloric traditions of Brazil, it was just blacks imitating their cousins in Harlem. Another accusation was that the movement was dangerous inciting conflict between whites and blacks. As Dom Filo confirms, 'the affirmation of our blackness does not imply conflict. What we like in the black American is his pride in the beauty and characteristics of our race. We feel like brothers, but also like Brazilians. Life here is different, with soul we want to reintegrate our happiness and daily problems.'