This new post is the faithful reflection of a personal conversation held years ago with a director of Empresa África of São Paulo, one of the main advertising and marketing agencies in all of Brazil.
In the waiting room of the Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo (SP), talking about music with said manager, he told me the following:
- "Some time ago, my company was chosen to carry out an important institutional advertising campaign for the Brazilian multinational company VALE SA. The center of said advertising campaign had the musician João Gilberto as its protagonist ."
- "It was not an easy task. Our client's executives had to hold numerous telephone conversations for several weeks, persistently insisting with different arguments to try to convince João himself of the scope and importance of the business project.
Finally he accepted, and João Gilberto spent three months rehearsing the song " Já pensou ", a composition by Nizán Guanaes.
- "Once the song was recorded in the studio, a few days later, we received a double case with two identical discs. Both CDs had a curious title...
On one it was written " comgravata " and on the other " simgravata ".
After listening to the two albums several times carefully, it seemed to us that they were actually the same recording. The only noticeable difference was that there was about 3 seconds of duration between them.
"We thought that perhaps for security reasons, they had sent us the original and a copy, but what none of us knew or intuited was the meaning of those handwritten observations on the discs themselves."
"We immediately called his manager, who explained the following to us:
- João , he has recorded this Samba in several takes and/or on different days, and he warned me to tell you that on one CD he sings with a tie ( com Gratata ) and on the other without a tie ( sim Gratata )...!
He also told me to tell you that he prefers the recording of: "with a tie"...!
On our thematic Channel on YouTube, we can see and listen ( "com Gravata" ) this video by the brilliant João Gilberto recorded for the Brazilian Company VALE SA, which apparently paid the artist the sum of R$ 500,000 for only 57 "magical" seconds. of interpretation.
Já thought you were born not cold,
Já thought you were born without Samba,
Já thought that he was born without Sol, he was born without ball, without Copacabana,
I thought you were born without the sea, you were born without a Rio or without a Bahia,
I thought I was born without heart, without that smile and that joy,
I didn't think it was something that was funny, it wasn't what it was, or what would it be...?
I didn't think about losing that claw and that courage and that energy,
Did I think I didn't understand that faith, I didn't understand what it was, what it would be...?
I thought of this entire country, the best of Brazil, the Brazilian people.
- E você…, did you think there was no fosse or João Gilberto , or what would it be…? - And you...., have you already thought about what music would be like without João Gilberto ...?
PS ► This post was originally published on http://bossanovaclube.blogspot.co m on 05/07/2010
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