Continuing with the extensive publication on Bossa Nova Clube published on the cover of the Second Cultural Notebook of the newspaper "O Globo" dated 09/05/2016, I wanted to comment here on the great progress, impact and significance that said article has had in the promotion, dissemination and virtual development of our " Desafinado's International Club " within the music sector on the internet. As an example, it is enough to say that currently, our thematic Bossa Nova Clube Channel on YouTube has reached the important figure of +30,000 subscribers and +9,000,000 views, figures that were unthinkable a few months ago. Returning to said publication in its digital format and written press (as I already explained in the 1st part of the Madrilenian Bossa Nova ) the article was based on the audio recording of a personal interview with the journalist Eduardo Macedo Rodrigues, supported by a specific text and detailed that after review by the Editorial of "O Globo", it would later be published in the Media. Well, for reasons unknown to me, I sincerely believe that the finally published article has several important omissions, changes in data, dates, various inaccuracies and imprecisions, both in the agreed content and in the grammatical sense of some situations and/or relationships with third parties. . For this reason and based on the interview recorded at the time (which I still have), I write below the 2nd part of Bossa Nova from Madrid with the complete and correct literary translation in Spanish, with rectifications, explanations, extensions and/or pertinent changes, always faithful and in line with my reality and that of Bossa Nova Clube .
The "O Globo" article continues like this: Anglada venerates living artists in the same way as those who have already traveled to the stars. On specific dates he visits, among others, Baden Powell , Nara Leão, Tom Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, etc., at the São João Batista Cemetery in Rio de Janeiro (RJ).
- "Throughout my life, he comments, curious things have always happened to me at specific moments, singular situations or great coincidences, almost always related to the world of music in general and Bossa Nova in particular. I remember one day, he says Anglada , in my time as a tourist, I decided to go to the São João Batista Cemetery, to bring some flowers to Baden Powell (a musician I met personally in Madrid), one of the musicians that I consider fundamental pillars in the history of Brazilian Music.
Within São João Batista, it was difficult for me to find the specific place of my visit. At the administrative office at the entrance they could not give me any information, due to the amount of bureaucratic paperwork that remained to be sorted, recorded, filed and/or managed. The amount of documents stacked "at will" was striking, as well as the large books piled up on the old metal shelves full of dust...
Given the lack of information, I decided to ask a worker from the "Santa Casa", dressed in a kind of indigo blue work overalls. The operator must have been around 70 years old and was carrying out maintenance work.
- "Bom dia ", by chance would you know where the musician Baden Powell is, who died last year..., do you know him...?
- Of course I know him, come with me... In silence, we walk down the central hallway. We passed in front of the sober tomb of Antônio Carlos Jobim, located next to the only " imperial palmeira " in the entire Cemetery. This palm tree is originally from the same Jardim Botânico of the city and was transplanted there in its day, as a tribute to the Sovereign Master. Turning to the left, in the middle of the curve of said central hallway, is the artistic tomb of the great Carmen Miranda, the Tropical Goddess. Carmen Miranda, born in Portugal, was the artist who most influenced the dissemination and promotion of popular music in Brazil to this day.
We went through practically the entire place, until he led me to a long side wall.
- Here is Baden Powell, commented the official, he played a lot...!
In those days, and despite several months having passed since his death (09/26/2000), Baden Powell's grave was still not properly identified with a tombstone. It was just marked with the number 32 inside a circle.
Right next to the musician's grave, I found a group of people, they were silent.
Due to the proximity and the emotional moment, an informal conversation began between us. The one who seemed to be the eldest brother of the family asked me if I had also come to visit and/or say goodbye to a relative. I told them that in reality, I was just there to thank the great guitarist Baden Powell, for all the music that had accompanied me for so many years. That said, the situation changed. With surprised faces, they began to look at each other. They began to get emotional, saying that their mother (who was in the adjacent tomb), throughout her life, was a fervent follower and passionate about Baden Powell's music. The family commented that with this great coincidence, in a way, fate with its mysterious whims, had wanted to give them a kind of consolation. Continuing with the character that is the reason for this cultural edition, it is worth saying that before hearing the first chords of Bossa Nova, Carlos (inexplicably) was already virtually dreaming of Brazil. In his youth, he already made imaginary trips to the country. On Saturdays he visited different Travel and Tourism Agencies in his hometown of Madrid, collecting posters, brochures and tourist magazines, preferably with images of the city of Rio de Janeiro. A mandatory stop was the office of the defunct Varig Air Company, located in the old España Building, in the Plaza de España.
Knowing about his passion, at the age of 14, he received a very special gift for his birthday from his brother Raúl. A flag of Brazil. -"Raúl, where did you get it from"...? I asked him... - "I climbed up the flagpole of the Casa do Brasil, and I took it from there... Raúl was only 11 years old at that time and he had literally taken a chance just to see the happy face of his brother Carlos.
That was not a common, mass-produced flag, nor an industrial or commercial item. The piece was handcrafted "in the old fashioned way" with pieces of fabric sewn together and had the motto of " Ordem e Progresso " and 21 stars embroidered in relief. Without knowing it, Carlos had in his hands an original flag originating from the 1950s, an official flag symbol of the time of the emergence of Bossa Nova. Another of those coincidences was when his great friend Carlos Alberto Afonso, owner of the "Toca do Vinícius" | Casa da Bossa Nova in Ipanema, decided to create in its fantastic music store and bookstore, a showcase-homage to the great Bellini, on the occasion of the celebration of the FIFA World Cup that year in Brazil (2014). Hideraldo Luiz Bellini was the first captain of the Brazilian National Team to win a soccer World Cup (1958). To decorate that window, a Brazilian flag of the time was almost needed as a central figure. After several weeks of searching, the flag did not appear. And it was in a casual comment when Anglada learned of her friend's interest in obtaining such a relic for her themed decoration. The famous flag "waved" proudly behind the glass of the famous "Toca do Vinícius" showcase throughout the 2014 Soccer World Cup.
A couple of weeks after the end of the World Cup, Carlos Afonso called Anglada to go pick up the relic that was in the "Toca do Vinícius" on loan. And it was at that precise moment when Carlos Alberto Afonso returned the flag folded into a triangle with great ceremony, when Anglada thought that that emblem of Brazil that had always accompanied him since his youth, a symbol of his dreams, of the music that until today He is passionate about it, and about so many things associated with it, that he should stay forever with Carlos Afonso, in the "Toca do Vinícius". This location is officially the Institute and Reference Center of Bossa Nova in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil and in the World. That flag, after almost 50 years, is finally home...! I don't know how to argue it coherently, our protagonist continues to say, but inexplicably since I can remember, in one way or another, Brazil has always been present in my thoughts. Contrary to what happens now, where we all have an evident saturation of information in every sense, in that Spain of the 70's, we lived in an environment of continuous scarcity of international news, product of a lack of freedom in the communication in general terms. They were the rules of the military regime of the time, which basically told us what we could or could not see, hear and/or read. Suffice it to say that for decades international artists, when they scheduled their European tours, erased Spain from their " tour" , literally ignoring my country, punishing us and depriving our entire generation of emotions and experiences, in line with our age. As a practical example, comment that the first Brazilian Music show in Spain was held in Madrid, in the month of May 1981. That was an unforgettable day, in which I was finally able to see Baden Powell play just a few meters away. And of course, in that entire cultural panorama, anything that involved listening to music other than the national or "politically correct" one was complicated. I remember that it was almost impossible, due to being quite restricted, to be able to buy imported LP records or vinyl records with different or alternative music to that broadcast on radio or television at the time. National audiovisual medium in which, by the way, only the 2 official State TV channels existed. As a group of "more musical" friends, we used to meet on weekends in an English-style pub called " Woody ", located in the Madrid neighborhood of Argüelles. My beloved neighborhood. There for hours, we listened attentively to all those avant-garde wonders. That's how I met Miles Davis, Santana, Deep Purple, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Donovan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, James Taylor, and most importantly, there I heard João Gilberto for the first time.
I remember that day perfectly. At that moment, I couldn't even imagine that that performer with that soft voice, who played new and unknown music, was going to influence me so much that I would make Bossa Nova the musical thesis of my life. That day in " Woody ", I could never foresee that that dissonant, sophisticated, perfect music was going to make me change country and way of life. And much less that the prestigious newspaper "O Globo" was going to dedicate a cover to Bossa Nova Clube and myself in the Segundo Caderno Cultural.
Carlos Anglada , worked in various sectors in Spain, commercially related to art. She created her own company for the distribution and marketing of Brazilian bijouterie and bio-jewelry. That allowed him to travel regularly to Rio de Janeiro (RJ). One day, at the Galeão International Airport, he realized that it was becoming more and more difficult for him to return to Spain, to be away from the Rio city that he loves so much again. Perhaps it was then, when he had already unconsciously decided to move his residence permanently to Rio de Janeiro (RJ). Circumstance that occurred in 2010.
Here he can experience the Bossa Nova musical universe up close, as he always wanted, and thus be able to get to know up close and in first person those artists that he always heard on records for so many years in Madrid.
Carlos is a collector of casual or planned encounters, like the one that took place in 2003 at the airport in Barcelona, Spain. On that occasion, he went to personally receive João Gilberto . Anglada on that "exceptional" occasion was accompanied by a miniature figure of the artist himself.
- " Good afternoon João , bem-vindo to Barcelona ", if you have a minute, I would like to introduce you to someone who has attended several of your concerts in Europe with me. And unrolling a small beige towel, the small figure appeared... - " Joãozinho, I present to you my João , the musician who forever moved to Música do Brasil ." João picked up the doll, staring at it with interest for a few moments. The reality is that one João looked at the other in silence. - " Obrigado ", he told me, thinking it was a gift... - Excuse me João , it's not a gift, I just wanted to make the official introductions of the two of you. He returned Joãozinho to me smiling, saying that he was in a hurry, because in less than two hours he had to play at L'Auditori in Barcelona. I showed him the Concert ticket, saying that the two of us would be at the show... He shook my hand and walked away with his companions smiling.
That July 9, 2003, was the second time that João Gilberto played in Barcelona. In this case, his art was with us for more than two hours. It was a perfect Concert, full of musical news and anecdotes. The audience, in absolute silence, surrendered to João from minute 1. And I, assisting from the center of row 4, with the small figure (as always) peeking out slightly from the top pocket of my blue shirt. It would be my imagination, but at that precise moment I could see a certain different smile in Joãozinho..., I was happy and proud to have been able to personally meet the brilliant João Gilberto .
Shortly, and to complete the extensive article " El madrileño Bossa Nova " from the newspaper "O Globo", the last chapter will be published:
▲ Who will be able to play like João Gilberto...? | Hideki Nakajima (Chapter 3)
To be continued │ It will continue...
PS ► This post was originally edited on http://bossanovaclube.blogspot.co m on 06/09/2018
Desafinado , subscribe to our website and you will receive all the news and updates...!