- country:Brazil
- region:Rio de Janeiro
- style(s):Brazilian
- label:TRAUMTON Records
- artist posted by:Traumton Records
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The man has taste. In the selection
of compositions for his second CD,
Brazilian counter-tenor Fênix falls
back on some of the most brilliant
minds of MPB, Música Popular
Brasileira: Caetano Veloso, Nelson
Cavaquinho, Lulu Santos, Zeca
Baleiro and Totonho. Old and young
masters who stand for the creative
melting of Brazilian traditions with
new international developments.
First-class artists they are, as
ornamental as ivory, which is exactly
what the translation of the album title
'Marfim' means.
Fênix´s androgynous voice has
something of those precious
elephant tusks too. It is light, clear,
and as rare as the sun in a German
summer. Where the singer grew up,
however, in the north-eastern state of
Pernambuco, there tends to be a
little too much sun. In Sertão, the dry
interior of the Northeast, where
drought and flight to the cities shape
life as much as deep-rooted faith
and superstition do, nobody would
have anything whatsoever against a
few days of German summer.
Besides plenty of sun and plenty of
sand, there’s plenty of something
else here too – rhythms. And
amazingly enough, none of them
starts with an 's'.
What do 99 percent of people think of
first when they hear the words 'Brazil”
and 'music”? That´s right: Samba.
Samba embodies the whole tropical
cliché of Sugar Loaf Mountain and
sunny beaches with eternally
dancing mulatto girls in sinfully tiny
bikinis. But Samba doesn’t even
represent 1% of all the forms and
variations Brazilian music has to
offer. Fênix´s roots are called Forró,
Maracatu, Frevo, Coco, Ciranda,
Cavalo marinho, Caboclinho, Xote,
Baião, Mangue-Beat, Afoxé and
Maculelê - the rhythms of the
Northeast. This could be heard very
clearly on his first album 'Eu, causa e
efeito' (2002, Traumton/Indigo),
where, for example, drummers from
Maracatu Nação Pernambuco
contributed rhythmical colors from
the Northeast. Fênix is someone
who defends those colors in that
shady area of pop music.
The countertenor proudly presents
these roots and influences on the
new album, 'Marfim”, as well. This is
expressed in the song 'Nhém, nhém,
nhém', a Ciranda, where metaphors
for rural concerns in the Northeast
are construed with intelligent wit, and
end with the ambiguous lines:
'Porque sonhos não se limitam a
artistas e os tubarões de
Pernambuco não toleram surfistas.”
(Because dreams do not limit the
artist and the sharks of Pernambuco
will suffer no surfers.) Totonho wrote
the song (he also sings and plays
guitar on it), another exciting new
MPB musician from the Northeast;
who has on occasion dedicated his
albums to Fidel Castro, the Madonna
and Jesus altogether.
Fênix also investigates curious
polytheisms. Those of love and of
being left. The eternal Saudade, that
damned longing. And then he does
sing a Samba, though a very tame
one: 'Para um amor no Rio' by Zeca
Baleiro, for whom none lesser than
the outstanding Marcos Suzano
beats time. Just as subdued, he
interprets the song 'Duas horas da
manhã' by Samba legend Nelson
Cavaquinho (written with Ary
Monteiro), as music for blue hours.
Fênix has been living in Rio de
Janeiro for ten years, with periodic
stays in New York. He is certainly no
Pé de serra, 'Mountain-foot'. In
Pernambuco this is what you call
everything raw and unrefined that
comes from the backwoods to the
city. On 'Marfim' five of the eleven
songs were penned by him, two of
them as co-author; they are pop
songs, urban and universal.
Programmatically, he opens the
album with 'Cara a Tapa' (Bet My
Head), his Portuguese version of the
Res hit 'They Say Vision”. He heard
the song in New York on television,
bought the CD and wrote the new
lyrics on his flight back to Brazil: 'Se
fui bem claro eu mostro que é
provável / Sambar, cantar, compor,
erguer sem ser palatável / Finjo o
que sei, o que eu não sei / pra que
me confundir com aquele na
televisão.” (When everything is clear
for me, I’ll show what is possible.
Dance the Samba, sing, compose,
intensify myself without getting too
elaborate. I’ll act like I know
something, act like I don’t know
anything, so I can blend in with that
guy on TV). The phoenix, as it is
known in our culture, incinerates
when it dies and rises up again from
the ashes. Fênix (Phoenix) illustrates
with 'Marfim' a renewal, without
denying his roots. An extraordinary
voice in the universe of Pop Made in
Brazil. More melancholy than joyful.
Saudade is to see things as if it was
for the last time. Or for the first.
Sometimes it’s the same. Cara a
tapa. I´ll bet my head on it.
/ Friedhelm Teicke (Translation:
Nancy Huber)