The musician takes a fresh look at the composer’s ideas and gives more strength to the album with the voice of the transgender singer Verónica Valentino
Each new recording by Brazilian pianist Antonio Vaz Lemes is an adventure in new ways to approach not only the concert music audience, but all audiences. That was the case with the CD Chrome (2018), in which he invited the popular singer Eliane Barni to travel through a territory of cultured songs, including, for example, the Sonnet of separationin Vinicius de Moraes, set to music by Ronaldo Miranda. His YouTube channel, PianoQueToca, has turned him into a powerful digital influencer, with over 500,000 followers.
Your new album, Antonio Vaz Lemes – Villa Lobos, resembles a biographical-musical account of his relationship with Villa. Predictable pit stop. After all, he plays Bachianas Brasileiras n.º 4, which he studied as a student at the Conservatório de Tatuí, and learned to love Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras, two short pieces, through the work and grace of Gilberto Tinetti, who recently left us and he made before them the prefix of his Pianissimo program on Cultura FM. “He showed me this delightful diptych on the imaginary of Brazilian nature. Songs of imaginary birds, winds, trains and tribes,” says Vaz Lemes in an interview with Estadão.
Due to the last 5 minutes of the album, filled by Samba Clássico, Vaz Lemes tells this story: “I discovered this song recently, when I was directing the music for a documentary about the artistic tour that Villa made in 1931 along the railways of São Paulo. I was struck by the piano introduction, but I thought the text was presumptuous and even a bit silly (signed by Villa himself with a pseudonym). And I thought: where did he get this perfect Brazil?”.
IRONY
After having matured with this “samba”, Vaz Lemes concluded: “And precisely because of the introduction of the piano: what if he himself were already a nonconformist? Calling someone like her, who has a place to talk about the difficulties of living in Brazil as artist and trans woman, to present the song. I asked her to sing with irony. I felt that this way we made Samba Classico current”.
Listening to this interpretation is like witnessing the transfer of a composition into a state, let’s say, erudite, to the popular universe, in which the voice conveys the place of the word in which the battle for the affirmation of gender diversity in the country is fought. What would be mere pride becomes a motto of resistance.
Villa’s verses say it is possible to dream of a land “Which chooses no race/Nor prefers creed” and, when they were written, in the 1930s, they rang hollow. Now, with Verônica Valentintino and Antonio Vaz Lemes, they sound like real symbols of struggle.
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Source: Terra
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
