You can’t have everything
Counterpoint: Coisas, by Moacir Santos
Deciding which “Coisa” (thing) to feature is an impossible task
I basically chose Number 6 randomly
Though perhaps influenced by the fact that it was the ringtone I selected upon first learning how to use an mp3 clip instead of the shrill beeps offered by Nokia et al
Santos, and his masterpiece “Coisas,” really deserve a monthly or yearly dose
But I’ll try to contain myself
He was, like Robbie Basho, orphaned early
No-one is sure of the exact date or location of his birth
It was in the arid interior of the Brazilian “Sertao”
Inland in the northeast, always the poorest region of the country, and the locale of much of the nation’s folklore
His mom died before his 3rd birthday, his dad took off to fight in a traveling anti-bandit force
So he was raised by an adoptive family, in Flores, part of Pernambuco’s Pajeu river region
His adoptive family didn’t provide much stability, and he kinda couch-surfed among a bunch of different households around the area
The one place you could always find him was at the rehearsals of the Municipal Band
As a young boy, he was always hanging around, so they had him start taking care of the instruments like a 9-year old manager
So of course he learned to play them
He learned clarinet, saxophone, percussion
Eventually, he’d had it with his foster mom, and ran away
He hitchhiked his away around the northeast
Around the age of 14
Playing in bands, orchestras, jazz bands
At town squares, football fields, small festivals
During this time, he picked up lots of new instruments, heard all different kinds of musical styles, and assimilated foreign styles from the nascent radio culture (this is the late 30s and 40s)
Radio was one of the chief drivers of moving brazilian music (and culture) from a predominantly european influence to american
The new radio stations also helped professionalize music and turn it into a wide-ranging business
Moacir eventually made his way to Joao Pessoa, the nearest capital
(in the northeast, all the state capitals are on the coast)
On the coast, he saw the ocean for the first time
And he later said the ebb and flow of the tides had a huge impact on his music
He started playing in the orchestra of Radio Tabajara
Quickly became its director
As musical director, he no longer had to hustle
Became very well known, and earned a decent living
Which allowed him to do things: gt married, and (in 1947) move to Rio
He started out playing saxophone in the National Radio orchestra
When they gave him a tryout for the jazz band, the conductor left flabbergasted
“It was supposed to be a tryout for him” Chiquinho said
“But he was the one who tested us. He played everything we gave him, and when we ran out he started giving us stuff to play, and we couldn’t keep up.”
[okay, i’ma try to cut to the chase]
As you could have guessed, in short order became the musical director of the Radio Nacional, too
He studied “erudite music” with Cesar Guerra-Peixe and Hans-Joachim Koellreuter
While also suffusing his works with the collective experience of folk and popular traditions, including afro-brazilian
By the late 50s, he’s basically the man
He’s running the arguably most influential musical institution in the country
Doing arrangements for everybody and their mama
And teaching
He’s considered the “patron of bossa nova”
Cuz he taught Roberto Menescal, Carlinhos Lyra, Joao Donato, Baden Powell, Nara Leao, etc etc
Baden Powell (perhaps the greatest brazilian guitarist) said he basically learned everything from Santos
(btw, yes he was named after Robert Baden-Powell; his dad was a big fan of the whole boy scout thing)
Powell described his teaching as extremely structured, covering all aspects of harmony, counterpoints, scales, rhythms, etc
But also had a “metaphysical” bent
He remembers that Santos described the relationships between notes, the spaces between them, and their resonances and dissonances, as a kind of cosmological system
He reviewed notes and chords using the stars and constellations as analogic reference
He defined an entire generation of brazilian musical formation
Not just bossa
Mestre Marcal, the famed head of the “bateria” — giant drum rhythm section — of the samba schools of Imperio Serrano and Portela, was also a disciple
He also partnered with Vinicius de Moraes on many compositions
Coisas is the culmination of his studies and teachings
He never gave names to his songs
He just called them “things”
His pedagogy included the “MS rhythms”
which were little “rhythmic cells” that could be combined to create layered melodies and harmonies
They are very much on display in Coisas
There are 10 “things” on the album
But oddly enough, they don’t appear in numerical order
The LP starts with Coisa #4
Then 10, then 5…
#5 would later get its own name – Nana
It was given lyrics by Mario Telles, and appeared on Nara Leao’s debut album
And in hundreds of other versions since then
Btw, this is Nana~ (i can’t put the til over the a on this keyboard)
Ie, the orisha, not nana as in grandma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Buluku
But all of the Coisas are jewels
Today’s dose (#6) reminds me of another of my favorites: Grao de Areia from the Clarke-Boland Big Band
Which it precedes by 3 years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHWDa3P9RpY
(It appears as “Graso” but that’s gotta be a typo – grao de areia is grain of sand in Portuguese)
Similar percussion and orchestrations
#8 is also amazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9jd6T2tF-8
Incredibly haunting minor melody
The exchange of reeds and brass
#9 sounds similar to me
But instead of guitar coming in, it’s big orchestral strings
Listening to #9, it comes as no surprise that during this period, he was also doing a lot of soundtrack work
For both brazilian and foreign movies
In fact, these caught the attention of hollywood execs
And as the military dictatorship began to take its toll on political freedoms and musical creativity
He was in touch with Gary Foster and Henry Mancini
And moved to the US in 1967
The dictatorship had done a number on the Radio Nacional
So he was eager to move on
He went first to NY, then to Cali
Whoops, just realized i didn’t link to Thing #9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aATcRe37e3A
In the US, he was part of Mancini’s team
And also worked with Lalo Schiffrin
(He worked on the Pink Panther soundtrack and Mission Impossible, though I’m not sure if he’s credited on either)
In Cali, he met Horace Silver, who actually knew his work and helped get him signed to Blue Note
They put out “Maestro” in 72
Worthy of its own thread
But I’ve obviously gone on long enough!
One last plug for Coisa #1
Which doesn’t kick off the album, but easily could have
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDmOyBFHyx4
Is this jazz? Is it latin? Is it chamber music? Is it MPB? Is it bossa?
It’s its own thing
They asked him why he didn’t name his creations
He said: “well, I was a student of classical music
“Many musicians liked to call their compositions ‘Opus #1, Opus #2, etc”
“But I was a black orphan from the northeast of brazil
“So I didn’t have the audacity
“I just called them “things”
