Arrastao
In Person At El Matador!
Sergio Mendes and Brasil '65
Recording Engineer: Wally Heider
This LP was recorded at El Matador in San Francisco, Calif. Atlantic Records gratefully acknowledges the kind cooperation of the management and staff of El Matador
Cover Design: Haig Adishian
Supervision: Nesuhi Ertegun
The cover painting is by Wesley Duke Lee, a well-known contemporary Brazilian painter, who dedicated this painting to Sergio Mendes
Produced by Rio Productions in conjunction with Nesuhi Ertegun
Wanda De Sah and Rosinha De Valenca appear through the courtesy of Capitol Records
Atlantic 8112
1965
The personnel of "Sergio Mendes & Brasil '65
Sergio Mendes - Piano
Sebastiao Neto - Bass
Paulinho Magalhaes - Percussion
Chico Barera - Drums
The featured guitar soloist is Rosinha de Val and the featured vocalist is Wanda de Sah
Sergio Mendes can also be heard on Atlantic LP 1434: The Swinger From Rio
From the back cover: Chauvinism is as reprehensible and as expendable in music as it is in politics, painting or plumbing. Nevertheless, when an esthetic point has to be made, one that involves a particular group of artists and the very special form they have created, it is both agreeable and enlightening to observe them under the same musical roof, with no outsiders on hand.
This is not an oblique way of saying "Give bossa nova back to the Brazilians" or "Yankee go home." It is merely a reminder that no matter how much wonderful music may have derived, in altered style, from the Brazilian popular music. that invaded the United States three or four years ago, there remains nevertheless a substantial body of musicians who are entitled to call themselves the original, the genuine article. Such a group is Sergio Mendes and his Brasil '65 ensemble.
The concept behind the formation of this combo was a logical one. It entailed a desire to present to American audiences an all-Brazilian, self-contained unit, packaged in Rio for export to a country that has heard most of its Brazilian music played by men who have never been farther South than South Bend.
Sergio Mendes was born February 11, 1941 in Niteroi, which is more or less the Oakland of Rio, just across the bay. (Contrary to intelligence in an earlier album, Ipanema is not a town; it is merely the name of a nearby beach.) Since bringing his show here in November of 1964, Sergio has lived in the U.S. He now makes his home with his wife and infant son in Studio City, Calif.
Sergio's bassist, 34-year-old Sebastiao Neto, is also from Niteroi. Chico Batera, 21, comes from Governor Island, near Rio, and Paulinho, whose full name is Paulino Magalhães, is a Rio-born Los Angeles percussionist added specially for this occasion.
When this live date was taped at "El Matador," the popular Latin-pop-and-jazz music club in San Francisco, the group was completed by the 21-year-old Wanda Maria Sa, a Rio girl professionally known as Wanda De Sah, and by Maria Rosa Cannellas, professionally known as Rosinha de Valenca or Little Rose of Valenca, after her home town. Rosinha, who is 23, was inspired by Baden Powell to take up the guitar; she has a phenomenal ear but cannot read music and does not know the name of a single chord.
There is a little confusion concerning the discoverers of the group. Actually it was a music lover named Dick Adler, now their manager, who helped Sergio to assemble the Brasil '65 unit in Rio and bring it to this country. Sergio also says, "I will never forget the help I had from my godfather, Mario Dias Costa, in the Cultural Division of the Brazilian Foreign Office, who aided us financially in getting started; and from Raul Smandeck, the Brazilian Consul in Los Angeles, who helped us when we arrived here."
Tem do de Mim features Wanda and Sergio. Written by Carlos Lyra, it is a typically relaxed and charming Brazilian melody. O Morro, sung by Wanda, means "the hill" and tells a wistful story about the poor people who live in the slums but are, within prescribed limitations, happy in their sadness (like the blues people who are pictured as laughing just to keep from crying).
Arrastão is a song about fishermen casting their nets on the waters. Written by de Moraes and Eduardo Lobo, a new melodist, it won a $5,000 award in Brazil recently as best new song of the year. My Portuguese being roughly on a level with my Swahili, I cannot vouch for the lyrics, but the melodic contours and the harmony have a unique charm, and there is a suspenseful quality to the main statement. The performance has a form and variety of moods and tempos that lend additional strength to Wanda's interpretation.
The Black Orpheus medley opens with a delicate and simple treatment of Mahna de Carnaval by Rosinha, in a melancholy mood in which Sergio and the rhythm section are soon involved. A bold percussion interlude spans the bridge into Samba de Orfeu, Sergio's delineation of which invited immediate recognition and applause from the generally quiet and attentive audience. Wanda, with unison vocal assistance from her colleagues, completes the medley with A Felicidade, a paradoxically minor-mode song about happiness.
Samba do Astronauta, which is not dedicated to the Wright Brothers, is a Baden Powell melody that serves as a delightful vehicle for the dexterity of Miss de Valenca. The mood it was designed to evoke does not involve the space ship but rather the view of the earth as seen from beyond. There are lyrics, I am told, by de Moraes, but in this version Rosinha manages to tell the story most effectively with her own genius-tipped fingers.
Vai de Vez, which means get lost, or don't come back, was composed by Menescal and has a particularly easy, legato rhythmic feeling that seems to me to symbolize the whole mood of bossa nova, or at least the most essentially Brazilian elements of this often-distorted idiom. Rosinha plays the melody just as it was written; the only ad libbing is offered by Sergio, whose single-note lines have some of the delicacy of a John Lewis.
Samba de Jose, featuring Rosinha, was composed by a fellow-guitarist, Jose Menezes. As in so much of the album, the rhythm is understated yet never wants for virility (if one dare ascribe such a quality to a group that includes Miss Valenca).
Sergio's light touch and improvisational flair can be scrutinized in Noa Noa, his own composition. ("I named it for the island where Gauguin went.") There is more of Mendes, incidentally, in his own album, The Swinger from Rio, on Atlantic 1434.
Caminho de Casa, meaning the road home, was composed by Joao Donato, a pianist from Brazil who now lives in Los Angeles. The very basic chords here will sound familiar to those who have heard some of Vince Guaraldi's work.
"I don't like to play a lot of notes or use the familiar jazz clichés," says Sergio, an observation the truth of which is reflected in his relaxed treatment of Joao Donato's Jodel. This track offers a moment in the spotlight to bassist Sebas- tiao Neto, whose ideas seem equally unpretentious. This is, all in all, the most charming instrumental track in the album.
Reza, the theme number of the Brasil '65 unit, is described by Sergio as "based on an African prayer, and with lyrics by Rui Guerra to a melody by Eduardo Lobo." The main melodic figure, consisting of only two notes, has a haunting quality that leaves people singing it as they walk out of El Matador- or out of the living room as they finish playing this fascinating album.
Brasil '65 has undergone one or two changes in personnel since this session took place, but the spirit remains the same. Now that we have Sergio Mendes permanently among us, we can only hope that he will continue to remind us North American adaptors and imitators that his music doesn't have to concern itself about whether it sounds authentic. It was born that way. May it continue to manifest its intriguing characteristics in Brasil '66, Brasil '67 and so forth far into the Pan-American future. – LEONARD FEATHER
Reza - Sergio Mendes
O Morro - Wanda De Sah
Samba Do Astronauta - Rosinha De Valenca
Tem Do De Mim - Wanda De Sah
Jodel - Sergio Mendes
Samba De Jose - Rosinha De Valenca
Noa Noa - Sergio Mendes
Black Orpheus - Ensemble
(a) Manha De Caraval
(b) Batuque De Orfeu
(c) Samba De Orfeu
(d) A Felicidade
Arrastao - Wanda De Sah
Vai De Vez - Rosinha De Valenca
Caminho De Casa - Sergio Mendes
