Music Doc Beyond Ipanema Screens on Dec 10 in New York City.
Beyond Ipanema
By Alfredo Alvarado
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr8hBm0U1pQƒ
Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music presents a long overdue look at the powerful impact that Brazilian music has had on the American musical landscape. It’s a stylish crash course in Brazilian music, mixing vintage film clips, a funky soundtrack and an array of appearances by seminal figures from record producers Creed Taylor and Arto Lindsay, Tropicália icons Tom Zé, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil to Bossa Nova legends Roberto Menescal, Oscar Castro Néves and Carlos Lyra.
Beyond Ipanema Logo
It is David Byrne, whose independent record label helped launch another wave of interest in Brazilian music with his series of compilations in 1988, who provides much of the commentary for this compelling story. It begins with Carmen Miranda who in 1939 makes her debut on Broadway. The clip from the film “A Night in Rio,” is a revelation and showcases a polished performer who scats like an American singer weaned on bebop. Miranda became the highest paid woman of her era and always insisted on singing several songs in her native Portuguese.
The next chapter of the story unfolds in Rio de Janeiro where in 1958 Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes and João Gilberto were busy laying the foundation of the Bossa Nova sound, that by 1962 would not only be successfully imported to the U.S. but revitalized an American jazz scene that was stagnant. “Jazz was in the toilet,” admits alto saxophonist Bud Shank, one of many American musicians seduced by the new cool sounds from Rio. Another was tenor saxophonist Stan Getz who collaborated with guitarist Charlie Byrd and recorded Jazz Samba, the album that started the Bossa Nova craze. It was his subsequent album with João Gilberto, which featured his wife Astrud singing “The girl from Ipanema,” that caught everyone by surprise when it exploded to the top of Billboard’s hit parade and then garnered four Grammys, placing Bossa Nova firmly in the mainstream of American culture.
Beyond Ipanema
After the Bossa Nova craze cooled off several Brazilian musicians remained in the States. Sergio Mendes stayed and became successful creating pop music with a Brazilian touch. Mendes however, shies away from interviews and is missing in action here. That’s unfortunate, he’s a true pioneer and his perspective is an essential piece of this narrative.
Fans of the legendary rock band Os Mutantes will appreciate the lengthy segment that focuses on their comeback, with singer Zelia Duncan taking the place of Rita Lee. The band is captured live performing at festivals around the U.S. before an entirely new generation of mesmerized fans. Another generation of fans has been exposed to Brazilian music through dance music, drum’n bass and electronica as D.J’s cull samba and Bossa Nova beats from records. The latter part of the film explores this contemporary trend as a series of D.J.’s share how they discovered Brazilian music. But these segments drag on too long.
From clubs downtown the film moves uptown were the Harlem Samba Band, made up of high school students from the Frederick Douglass Academy, rehearses with the enthusiastic support of their principal who adamantly declares, “samba is taking over everything.” The students would probably agree. One of the teenage drummers admits that once he straps on that drum the music takes him to another place. The joy on the faces of these teenagers as they rehearse with their teacher in the school’s gym is palpable.
Beyond Ipanema offers a rare opportunity to finally hear directly from Tom Zé, Marcos Valle, Carlos Lyra and Milton Nascimento, artists responsible for creating those exciting sounds, which influenced American jazz and pop and continues to be discovered today by fans of good music all over the world. Bossa Nova’s main architect, João Gilberto who lives in Rio de Janeiro and remains as reclusive as ever is also missing here. The full story of this enigmatic singer and guitarist, the man with an entire orchestra in his fingers as New York Times critic Jon Pareles describes him in the film, is also long overdue.
More information on the doc can be found at www.figafilms.com
Date & Time: Thu, Dec 10, 2009, 7:00pm
Venue: 92YTribeca Screening Room
Location: 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street Directions
Price: $12.00
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