Download 2006 INTERVIEW
BMM - Brazilian Music Mag
2005
The band Tonton Macoute left a mark on a generation of artists in the capital of Brazil and further. They had an amazing track record of radio hits. The songs Electric Light and A Pele reached numbers one and two, respectively at Fluminense FM radio, in the summer of 1987, in Rio de Janeiro, the cultural capital of Brazil. This radio exposure led to a consistent following on their performances. They also made hits in many radio stations across the country, many of these stations, such as Radio Cidade and Transamerica, would normally refuse to play independent bands, which made their achievement quite a unique feat for the time.
The appeal of the band was such that fans would not stop calling asking for songs and the press was overall stunned by the originality of the music. In retrospect, that shouldn't have been a surprise. Joao was young and the less experienced musician of the band, but I could already sense in him the traces of a master composer with a deep insight into collective emotions. He was a natural band-leader, he wrote the songs and programmed the beats on cheap electronic instruments, but the combination of melodic ideas and the fusion of acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as the brilliant trumpet playing of Famarion Mossri and odd percussion sounds by Tida Couto, made for a combination which was an eye catcher and also revolutionary for the time. The unusual rhythm patterns with inspired melodies resulted in a sound that was at the same time avant-garde, but also easy enough to grasp by major Brazilian audiences.
Being myself a contemporary to his work, I am proud to acknowledge that he was composing pieces that would sound like “acid-jazz” and even “drum n bass” in 1986, five to ten years before any of these styles were actually named by the media.
In 1989, on the verge of a major recording contract, the band broke-up, each of the musicians went on to lead distinguished musical careers of their own. Tonton Macoute still has a following to this day, and it is often mentioned in retrospect articles and in Internet rants of fans who insist that the band should get back together for more concerts. Joao MacDowell went on to develop one of the most interesting careers in our music, sometimes hard to follow, always a challenge to classify.
Joao is a shy person, one who transforms on stage and does not feed on the pop scene or the glamour of Brazilian celebrity life. Over the years he has disguised himself under a number of identities: Kau MacDowell, Joao Kahuna, jKau, Joao do Mar, Claudio Mattos and his own name: Joao MacDowell. Just to name a few identities under which he has released some musical output. I know he has come up with band ideas, written down the biography of the members and the songs, recorded all the instruments and showed it to friends, trying to see if they found out who did it. Some of these recordings are precious to the most fanatic followers. After the end of “Tonton”, Joao was commissioned a couple of soundtracks for film and theater.
The documentary “Fessoas”, directed by Mauro Giuntinni resulted on a couple of prizes for him, but more than that, it became an iconic film that is studied today at Brazilian Universities as a turning point in the movie idiom of the country. A first time director, Mauro had some problems with his direct sound from the footage, so he decided to use no dialog in his final cut, just the music and the images. The movie resulted in a poem about poverty and faith in the dry rural areas of central Brazil. The melodic theme emerges from the sound of hammers, an idea that links a reenactment of the passion of Christ and the plowing of the land. It is the Brazilian equivalent of Koyanisquatsi or Poyaquatsi, with music by Philip Glass.
Joao continued to perform, though for some time he seemed to be happy just producing other artists and writing soundtracks. In 1992 I heard songs that he wrote with Bebel Gilberto, she later would become the best selling Brazilian singer in the world today. He also produced artist such as Claudia Otero, Fabio Lobo and Rubao Sabino. Each one of these albums bears the mark of his signature, unbearably light touch and refinement.
In 1999 he released his first solo album “Parece que Existo” which granted him a nomination to the Latin Grammy, for the song “A Chuva”, a track that also made into Brazilian and European MTV, the song even reached the unlikely number one in the World charts of Australian radio. Songs from this album were somehow broadcast in four of the five continents, Joao created a following in Europe, the USA, and not surprisingly, in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
For one year Joao toured every major Brazilian city, as a solo performer, totaling over two hundred performances in more than one hundred venues. Joao was a guest on every major TV show, including “Xou da Xuxa” and “Jo Soares”. He became a demanded guest in talk shows and popular events.
In a peculiar Brazilian practice, Joao would get different nicknames in different towns, adding to the myriad of identities that he has personified. He would also interact with local musicians and have local guests to his solo performances, often writing new material to suit the characteristics and different styles of the individuals he was interacting with. He incorporated touring as part of his creative process and his performances never became stale, there was always something fresh and exciting about it.
As Brasilia was in the beginning and the end of his tour, I got a sense of how much these travels had been important to him, and he was able to bring together a large number of guest musicians of diverse styles and backgrounds to play together in the last few performances of this tour. A feat that few artists would have dared to try. It is no wonder that his next album came to be entitled “The Traveling Man and His Music Box” (2002).
His second solo album took him further, in an attempt to document his solo tour in Brazil, Joao came up with an intimate recording of an unpredictable variety and always a mesmerizing fine touch. Nevertheless, as the Cds went to the factory, Joao chooses not to tour, limiting his performances to a select number of theaters and dedicating his time to his production and composition work as well as expanding the reach of his music to Europe and the USA. In Brasilia and Ro de Janeiro he only performed at the Teatro Nacional and Teatro Nelson Rodrigues, the Brazilian equivalents of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
“Quarteto” (2004) is his most recent solo release, featuring a Brazilian-Jazz band from Rio de Janeiro, a city that adopted the composer as its own. It is a different sound from the previous recordings, a live album, under produced and honest. I hear a special moment of connection between the Guitar of Mr. MacDowell and the piano of Fernando Corona. It was an unequivocal sign that his mind has been turning away from the overwhelming Brazilian Pop market and reaching into the deeper layers of his instrumental music.
Joao has become one of the most requested composers of soundtracks in Brazil. Sometimes I would listen to an interesting melodic moment on Brazilian TV, only to find his name in the credits. He wrote the score for “Baldes” a contemporary dance performance by Tabula Rasa Dance company, choreographed by Henrique Shulle, an audience smash hit at the International Contemporary Dance Biannual (2001). For this performance, Joao captured the sounds of the dancers over a couple of inches of water, on a three tons structure that reverberated as buckets and bodies hit the floor. A myriad of splashes and bangs became the source of his melodic fugue, performed live with the help of electronic samplers and microphones on stage.
He had his electronic composition “Lanterna” selected for the Lucky Strike Lab, contemporary music festival (2002). His soundtrack for the multimedia event and CD Rom “A Deusa” by Cila MacDowell, his sister and video-artist collaborator, was selected for the International Electronic Language Festival (2002). Joao MacDowell is not only one of the very best in his field; he is an innovator and a trendsetter.
His score for “Tecido Marinho” won a well-deserved first prize at the International Circus Festival. I was one of the curators for the competition, and it was then that I understood the deep emotional impact of his music, and how it connects with children of all ages. This show went on to tour seventeen countries in Europe, with the “Circus Chen” and it has been on for five years now.
Right after that festival, his music was chosen to be broadcast on a Children's Day TV Special of Rede Globo, “O Circo do Huck”. It is difficult to find an American equivalent, maybe the Super-ball, a moment when most people of the country have their eyes on the same TV show. I do not have precise numbers, but it is safe to assume that he had at the very least some seven million people listening to his music on that day.
Once I wrote that Joao MacDowell is one of these musicians who you might not remember who he is, but you certainly know his music, and that still holds true to a number of Brazilians.
In the last few years he has been splitting his time between New York and Philadelphia, as well as Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. His talent as composer and record producer has been in demand in the USA. Furthermore, he has not limited himself to the studio work, he put together a group of musicians/songwriters to perform together as “The Mamaluco Collective Project”; a union of artists, musicians and songwriters, with common interests in World Fusion and ideals of tolerance, self esteem and integration. They have been performing regularly for the past year, in the Northeast of the USA.
Joao always seems to find the time to do more than we expect, in the USA he has produced recordings of Wayne Hsu, Lydia Witman, BB, Noel Garcez, and an album of World music with various Ethiopian vocalists over his instrumental arrangements, co-produced by Mengistu Melese. He's also produced soundtracks for Graham Elliot's documentary “Grayhound to Cuba”, Debra Solomon's animation “777, 6 th Ave.” and Oscar nominated director John Dilworth's “Cartoon Physics”. Topping it all, a breathtaking participation on TV personality, singer/songwriter Jane Norman's seventeenth solo album, “With Love”; together, Joao and Jane deliver a stunning performance of the Jobim standard “Quiet Nights”, featuring a full orchestra, conducted and arranged by Grammy Award-winning arranger Richard Rome.
I was not too surprised when I heard that Mr. MacDowell has recently written an opera. Of course, like everyone else who follows his work, I was expecting a new studio album, and I knew that if he had left us waiting, there would be a reason an a compensation - recently I talked to him on the phone and I heard that the studio album is in the making, it should be his first American album.
I had known that he could write for orchestras and he has written for classical ensembles in the past, I had also received the press releases from his performances with virtuoso Brazilian baritone Claudio Mascarenhas, so it was easy to put two and two together. The thing I could not have predicted was the magnitude and the scope of such work. The performance should be a celebration of Brazilian cultural and religious diversity, assimilation and tolerance. I have looked at the score, for full orchestra, choir, solo singers, ballet and even a stew that is cooked on stage and served to the audience. I know that the spirit behind the project has already attracted the attention of major investors, both in Brazil and the USA. This will be a major cultural event, creating hundreds of jobs and promoting the cultural integration of both countries. I am looking forward to watching it on stage and I am also curious on how different the two productions will come out.
O Diario de Maringa
2003
The Sound of Joao MacDowell.
The best music that's been released today is certainly not to be found in the major music industry releases. But in this instance, that's a good thing. This CD comes ready to spin at top speed in all directions, and it's spinning the name jKau. It's the latest artistic undertaking of Joao Claudio MacDowell.
The CD "The Traveling Man and His Music Box" is the third solo release from this Brasilia-born independent musician. Subtle electronic beats utilizing both Bossa grooves and the more traditional Forro beats, as in the national favorite, the Xote, catapult the listener into another dimension. Though that is not all. Joao's wanderings have carried him into a mature style where harmony prevails, finding the best means to express deep, innate musicality.
In an interview to O Diario , between the eastern and western legs of his USA tour, Joao spoke of his travels and his search for renewal.
If you haven't heard this album, go out and find it. "The Traveling Man and His Music Box" is a rare album, a precious jewel, a jewel to the ears.
DM - You have searched for something new, and you have found it. Your electronic beats fit harmoniously with everything from Baiao to Bossa Nova. How did you get to that?
JK - I grew up with this technology, so I guess it's all pretty natural and it kind of had to happen. My generation was really the first to have guys who started out professionally as DJs, and then become producers and musicians. I was DJing disco beats in the 70s when I was twelve. I was playing Donna Summers and Giorgio Moroeder, disco music. It was the first money I ever made in my life, myself. Pretty much everyone who's really out there now went through a similar story, from disco to Kraftwerk, from Fellini to the Gilbertos, starting out with four track tapes and cheap drum machines - those Casios have a place in history. I have old recordings, the first experiments with tape I ever did. It's kids stuff, I think it's funny, the quality is what it is, but the musical ideas are there. Sometimes the music feels like it's still the same, though it is not really ever the same song. The elements, the parts in the machine and the notes, they are there from the start, and it's the material, I guess. I used to listen to my friends from the “Rock-Brasil” movement I come from the same group as bands such as Plebe and Legiao, I used to listen to their sounds, and it was very influential. They were shaking up the icons and bringing the rock vibe in and it was poetically and politically meaningful. Still, I felt that there was something that wasn't being approached, and I felt comfortable taking up that position - it's as if you are on a soccer field, you have to cover for your teammates. We could sense that there was something that had to happen in the music.
DM - How is it going in the USA?
JK - I spent a month and a half in New York and played in a few small places, always solo, just the guitar and the voice, very Bossa Nova - I can play around with the chords. It is great for me as a musician to perform songs of Jobim. In The USA I came to realize what a privilege it is just to be able to play his music, as it deserves to be played. Everyone loves Jobim, he is like Motzart, Satie, Debussy, Gershwin, his melodies are always beautiful and it swings. So I throw in some of my own songs and I test how well I am doing, it's great practice, working against high standards. Also, I can be very free and one song leads to the next. The audience in NY is intelligent and very educated about music, and then there's the world outside NY. They like it. It is interesting: when we are abroad we become the icon of our nation and culture, so a Brazilian becomes more Brazilian once he or she crosses the border. I keep thinking of Joao Guimaraes Rosa, the writer, who was a diplomat and who wrote most of his novels while he was abroad. In each of his books he would become more embedded in the backlands of Brazil, its mysticism, its mythology and the torn speech of the dry lands. I feel very attached to his words and because I grew up in Brasilia, I always feel that he is talking about the Sertao, the backlands, as they were before my city was there. You can also feel that in the works of Tom Jobim - the further from home, the more attracted by the memory of home. One's roots become exposed to fresh air.
DM - Where do all the different influences in your music come from? Brasilia is a town that caught the attention of the music industry because of it's rock in the 80's, and there's been some good samba and MPB (Brazilian Pop Music) from there.
JK - You are right, there are whole generations of great samba players and instrumentalists from Brasilia, Gabriel Grossi is a kid I saw growing up, playing soccer in the street, I was a good friend of his brother, Murilo, who used to play saxophone and became an actor for Globo TV. Music is boiling, you go to the Clube do Choro and these cats are playing music that would be banging in any concert house in the world, it's deep and sophisticated, but it's also danceable and fun. Well, Brasilia was like that, a city of immigrants, people from the four corners of the nation who came to build the new capital. Their music was inescapably in the air. Before I was a musician, I was an avid listener. I remember when a friend would come over with a new album and we would sit and listen to it. It was a ritualistic thing, we would listen from the first to the last track. This is something of the past, it seems that people are not as patient anymore, it's too easy to change tracks on a CD, and Mp3, forget about it, it's always this fragmented thing, always smaller bits of things, it's got to do with the moment somehow, our times. Some A&R (Artist and Repertoire) of a major label said that in the first track of my album, "Drops of Blood," the introduction is too long; that the vocal should come in earlier. He got me thinking about it. I timed it: 52 seconds, less than a minute, wow, his experience teaches him that no one has a minute to wait, but I am covering some serious topics in the song, so I figured, it's good to have the time to let someone delve into the music before we start to take them somewhere else.
DM - What about the reggae?
JK - You see, the Brazilian Xote is the favorite rhythms for Brazilians, there are more songs in xote format than sambas in Brazil, but it is a style that is rarely known abroad. But the xote is similar to the reggae, minus the instruments. Some of the new forro bands are doing that: playing reggae with accordion and the zabumba drum. The baiao beat also has the same rhythmic accents as another variety of reggae. I am going to be performing with an American drummer here in San Francisco, and when I want the baiao I tell him, play that Dance hall thing, and he plays the beat that I call baiao, it's great. I guess because they are in the Caribbean, and that's special already, Jamaicans went through this modernization in their music sooner than we did. I know we had Tin Maia, Jorge BenJor, and the Tropicalists, but I am talking about the deep sound of the kick drum. You know, they speak English and they had the fundamental Bob Marley. Though Jamaica is an Island, and Brazil is a huge country, it's all connected really, different manifestations of the same common feelings and thought that go around at different times. We have Coco, Frevo, Maracatu; a myriad of different beats and if you bring into the pot the various forms of Samba, and complex composers like Hermeto Pascoal and Pixinguinha, it's a thick stew. The drawback is that we all speak Portuguese, which is a linguistic island, though even against this tide, the melodies and the rhythms are universal, they speak to deeper layers of the heart where the brain does not need to quarrel with words. I am for translation and adaptations of lyrics so that more people with understand what you are talking about. Of course, ii am singing Tamandua, there's no way I am going to try to put that into English, it's a very specific chant, but if I am singing a song like The Headlines, I try to rewrite that to a person with a different background to whom these words could make sense.
DM - I always notice a lot of attention into the words of your songs, there's also something remarkably urban and everyday like, as if I am walking in Copacabana or New Your, and then all of a sudden, it's universal, human and emotional.
JK - There are different places, cities, everyone seems to live in some kind of city these days. Even the country now, it's city life, in Xingu(Native Brazilian community in the backlands) there are TV sets and iron pans... I grew up listening to songs that I believe were really well crafted like poems, the lyrics were the first thing that made it easier for me to remember songs. I believe a song can be prettier and stronger if the lyrics are good. I still believe that pop music has a purpose in life, a subtle calling in human society, it creates new mantras, new ways of looking at the world. For instance, the song "Ta Vendo Demais/I've Seen Too Much" is a Samba that tries to be like the things that Chico Buarque used to write in the seventies. I ordered myself to work on the craft of the words and the chords, it's a lot of labor evolved. Sometimes it's different, sometimes it's like I'm just channeling some spirit of the planet who whispers the whole music into my ears; then it is important to be aware, with an open mind, and be able to write it or record it. Then it's always good to light up a candle for the entity.
…
Track by track by Joao MacDowell.
Mixing different genres, such as Bossa Nova, Rock, Reggae, Forro, jKau manages to always achieve a remarkable result. The arrangements give prominence to orchestral, contemporary and popular sounds. The album was recorded between march 2002 and march 2003 and it brings to light a mature sophistication in the art of reconciling MPB (Brazilian Popular Music), rhythms from the Northeast, Samba, and Jazz with electronic beats, moving ahead of every other attempt that is known in the music marked today. Now, Joao talks about each one of the songs:
Gotas de Sangue – (Drops of Blood) The lyrics talk about the inherent contrast that exists in making love enveloped by the reality of a violent city. Throughout the text we get acquainted with different characters and their stories, the song flows over a contemporary Baiao beat.
Enlouqueceu – (She Broke Down) when the song started to be played by Djs in Brasilia, as of the release of the single, most people I talked to had the impression that it was just about a woman dancing and enjoying a party, but if you pay closer attention to the lyrics, you'll realize that she is a suicidal, who steps out of life and jumps through the window. I wrote the song thinking about my aunt who did that in fact. I decided to produce it with a very danceable beat, a bit Drum'n Bass, a bit eighties, so I would leave the door open to the possibility of transforming sadness into something else, as we dance; an alternative to despair, the healing power of dance as in tribal xamanism.
A Chuva – (The Rain) It is a song about hope and transformation, it is about letting the rain wash the past away, about the moment when one walks out free, under the rain, immersed in the flow of life. I wrote it so that it would be an easy song to sing, a pleasurable vocal melody. It works. Everybody learns it quickly. There's something a bit Broadway, American Musical, kind of Gershwin and Cole Porter melody, but at the same time it is totally Brazilian, Xote, Luis Gonzaga, Jackson do Pandeiro, Ze Ramalho, Alceu valenca.
Tamandua – (The Ant-Eater) It is a cannibalistic tribal celebration. I was listening to our greatest composer, Villa Lobos, a lot at the time, also thinking about Mario and Oswald de Andrade that week. Then it kind of came to me, the whole melody, finished, polished, as if someone had whispered it into my ear. I was out for the whole day and I kept singing it to myself, then I wrote it down. As they say: spirits do not come back to charge for their royalties.
Ta Vendo Demais – (I've Seen Too Much) This is samba, pure samba. I grew up listening to it, so I had the duty to keep on writing it. It's my way of trying to do something like the early sambas of Chico Buarque in the seventies. The lyrics have a bit of the street-wise wisdom of our times, a bit journalistic, indicating more than revealing. Rodrigo Maranhao and Andre Bava from Bangalafumenga band helped me to lay down the beat and Quito Pedrosa did the sax solo.
Depois da Curva – (Beyond The curve) It is a love song, inspired in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. It has bits of desire, dream and madness. The melody is easy, whispered over the strong samba-funk beat; it grows to accommodate gibberish words and the expansion of the electronic raves.
Kaleidoscopic Eyes – It is a baiao song with English lyrics. I wrote it under the influence of someone who used to speak English with me all the time. I love the melody, it starts on a minor mode and then it modulates to a major scale and grows; just the way love should be.
O Mercador/Headlines – This one feature lyrics in both English and Portuguese, though the verses differ somehow. It was written as a bossa nova song, with those deep beautiful chromatic chords that are so associated to the style. The lyrics were always heavy, in contrast with the lightness of the melody; the imagery is a bit too radical for the average radio song. There are things that need to be said. When I wrote the English lyrics I changed the “exploding cars” into “exploding towers” and added a whole new verse, the one that starts with ”My tears are falling, I've read the Headlines(…)” like everyone else, I was still under the impact of the 9/11 tragedy, so I felt the need to express my feelings somehow.
Acende Essa Vela – (Light up the Candle) I did write it thinking about my surfer friends. It is a song about hope and changing paths. “There's so much suffering in the world, there's no need for that as I've been told”. My friends from Bangalafumenga also helped me to establish the groove on this one.
Saudade – (I Miss Her) I wanted to write something totally instinctive, as one of those songs of unknown author that are passed on orally from one generation to the next. I was playing my Jembe drum and improvising vocal lines to it. I must have been in that mode for a few days, and the song appeared. In the recording I only used voice, percussion and a synth bass.
Lanterna – I decided to throw it into the album as a bonus track. It was originally an instrumental written as part of a soundtrack for an art exhibit. I meant it as an example of what I call “Zabumba n Bass”. It went on to gather a few prizes, so it gained a life of its own. I find it interesting that Djs of the most varied styles have played it on their sets. It kind of fits in a number of moods, and it is always a good track to start the night with.
Tribuna Da Imprensa
1999
In the Beat of the Truck Spring.
Joao MacDowell, aka Joao Kahuna, will be performing tonight at the Museu do Telephone Theater. In this concert Joao will be presenting songs from his upcoming solo album to the audience of Rio. The album, entitled "It seems that I exist" is in its last recording stages. In this concert, besides singing his own compositions, the artist will be playing his hypnotic guitar and odd instruments such as old synthesizers and even a truck spring. Joao mixes samba, xaxado and urban themes, the newest fad among hipster crowds.
Jornal do Brasil
1988
Tonton Macoute, The Scary Monster from the Capital.
If you didn't know about these guys, you might have been led into the "oh, no another band from Brasilia" kind of reaction. It is true that we have been bombarded with an overwhelming number of new bands coming out of the capital in recent times, but the crowd can relax this time. Tonton Macoute is a special and unique band, and their concert turned out to be amazing. Tonton Macoute made their Rio de Janeiro debut last Friday at Crepusculo de Cubatao. The nightclub, owned by the English thief and legend Ronald Biggs has become the main barometer of the new music in the country. Tonton does not fit under the "band from Brasilia" label. Their sound is much larger than that. They are not really a post-punk band, like most other bands from the capital that have tried to follow the successful career paths of Legiao Urbana and Plebe Rude. Their musical belief lies in the neurotic, obsessively rhythmic electronic players, a bit like Kraftwerk, with fragmented and synthetic lyrics and a slightly more melancholy version of the Carioca band Saara Saara.
The press from their debut concert, by Correio Brasiliense, is intriguing at least: "Besides the massive disorienting wall of sound that they delivered, we know very little about this new band, their members would not talk about the work they are doing." Maybe that's because the music of Caudia Otero (piano, synths and voice), Joao MacDowell (voice and electronic beats), Mauricio Lagos (bass) and Flama Mossri (trumpet) speaks for itself. It's worth remembering that Tonton Macoute was the name given by Haitian citizens to the praetorian guard of Baby and Papa Doc, a militia responsible for countless atrocities with a childish nickname, a scary monster.
In the concert they played a set of nine songs, traveling from arabesques of O Circo (The Circus) to the smattering brain waves of
Electric Light. All the songs are blessed with a Miles Davis kind of sound coming from the trumpet of Flama and the mesmerizing vocal presence of Mr. MacDowell. Minimalist titles, that bring to mind the early days of the Talking Heads, include “A Pele” (The Skin), “Olhos” (Eyes), “Ruas” (Streets), “O Sino” (The Bell), “Animais” (Animals), “A Casa” (The House) – many of these have become instant radio hits at the intelligent Fluminense FM radio station, one that seems to shape tendencies in the music scene leaving labels just trying to catch up. The cream of the crop seems to be the song “Dois Amantes” (Two Lovers). The lyrics are desperate and dark, excellent: "Two lovers do not reach/ They do not talk/ They don't exist for one another/ No communication/ No speech/ Neither will they ever hold their hands/ Nor will they ever walk side by side." Even classics like “Love Will Tear us Apart” by Joy Division don't come close.
Gazeta Mercantil
2001
An Alternative for the MPB (Brazilian Pop Music).
The Musician from Brasilia, Joao MacDowell, releases his first solo CD tonight at the Gates Pub.
If you put together the good old MPB (Brazilian Pop Music), chords from instrumental music and a touch of electronic beats, the result has a name: Joao Kahuna. “But isn't he the same Kau MacDowell from Tonton Macoute” some might inquire. Well, let's just say this sound has many names, since this artist seems determined to entangle us in his multiple identities and varied personalities.
Joao has already left his mark on the pop scene, and has been widely acclaimed in the alternative circuit. Joao is one who we can safely call a "multimedia artist." A few minutes of conversation are enough to make one realize that his talents far outreach the musical limitations of the instruments themselves.
He is now using junk metal parts such as truck suspension springs, iron bars and washing machine tubes to create some of his sounds. It is the perfect sonic setup for today's music, bridging the gap between electronic addicts and the blind innovations of the contemporary scene. These are his analog sounds.
This musician's development started as a teenager in Brasilia. Being an innovator in the eighties was a tough job, tough maybe even tougher if you were in the rock capital of the country. "People would either hate it or love it, there was no in between," recalls Joao. Tonton was the band, and interestingly enough, there were no guitars, only a trumpet to balance things out. The idiom was original and the concept was highly spontaneous. "Nowadays, the media has already absorbed the concept of having electronic beats mixed with live instruments on stage, but at the time it was a big change. The technology was fresh and new and inaccessible, it was quite a complicated set-up," says Joao. Since then the quest for the unheard sound has not left his path.
From early in his career, Joao has kept his grounding influences in Brazilian traditional beats and great friends, including such names as vocalist, Mario Salimon, who will be joining other guests of different styles, to play a special set for tonight's concert with Joao. One of the surprises reserved for this evening is a vocal score written by Joao during his last visit to the city. It is a tribute to his hometown, with peculiar references to the local scene, a working song for the musician from Brasilia. We also know there will be quite a few major vocalists joining him on stage for that moment.
Joao is in a very good moment in his career, performing three or four times a week, spreading his music from town to town in the vast
Brazilian territory. "Right now I am enjoying performing more than working in the studio, I can feel the audience, know how they react to the music, it's very special and important," Joao says. Joao uses his status as a radio and television phenomenon, to title his first album: "It Seems That I Exist." "It is kind of funny, but it seems that the music only starts to exist once it is broadcast and promoted by the media...” His mind seems to always be at work, establishing connections and bringing things to light.
For a long time Joao was not performing, dedicating his time to recording studio activities, producing new artists in Rio de Janeiro for his label, Qualquer Nota Records. Nevertheless, even as he piles long hours, dedicating his talent to the development of other songwriters, he still maintains his own creative output. "Sometimes it is more fun to produce other artists, because there is always a person who is ultimately responsible for the creation of the music. I just try to put my best creative energy into it, and sometimes a crazy suggestion here and there. When I'm producing my own music, I'm the toughest boss, and I often want to hear the sonic image that I have in my mind. I always try to go all the way, to get want I want and move forward so I don't have to go back to the same song, which I always end up doing anyway...though I am in a different mode now, I got tired of the close environment of the recording studio, just like any other artist, I need to feel the response from the audience."
Besides his continuous performing stretch, Joao also plans to boost his internet presence - a space that has been very generous to Joao, where he connects with fans from the four corners of the world. Make sure you check out www.joaomacdowell.com where you can preview and buy his music on line.
Tonight's concert is a rare opportunity to check out this exceptional composer and performer from Brasilia who has already changed the shape of our music and will certainly leave his mark in the history books.
Correio Brasiliense
2001
Electronic Zabumba.
Joao MacDowell, aka Joao Kahuna, was a forerunner in the mixing of Brazilian beats and electronic music. In the midst of the 1980's, as he proposed this fusion to his band mates in Tonton Macoute - which was a landmark band for the BSB Rock movement - he couldn't have known that this same combination would become hugely popular almost twenty years later.
Singer, composer, performer and instrumentalist, Brasilia-raised and now adopted by Rio de Janeiro, Kahuna is now spending some time in his hometown and using this opportunity to promote "Parece Que Existo," his first solo album, released last year. Recently Joao took part in concerts of Mario Salimon, at the Teatro Nacional, Sala Villa Lobos, and Spirituals de Porco at the Feitico Mineiro Theater. He also did a few performances at the Conjunto Nacional, as part of the Cultura em Conjunto project. Tonight he is finally landing at the historic stage of the Gate's Pub.
Tonight and Sunday Joao will be at the legendary Pub, with the show
"Grande Nha Gui Dum," presenting songs of his such as "A Chuva/The
Rain", a hit on Brazilian and Portuguese MTVs and number 1 in the World Music charts of the Australian Live Radio International Network. In New York, songs from the album are heard at WKCR and in Brasilia they are all over the Cultura, Atlantida and Tansamerica FM radios.
Most of the songs in the repertoire are his originals, and they represent different moments in the trajectory of this artist. "Dois Amantes"(Two Lovers) is from the times of the Tonton Macoute band while others were written in the last couple of years. "I am proposing a fusion of Pop, World beats, electronic hints and experimental elements, you can call it "zabumba n'bass", "bossa-core" or "forro-trance" the choice of how you want to approach the music is in each one's ears, it's up to you really."
In Rio de Janeiro, where Joao has been living for the last few years, he wrote a lot of songs, first with his ex-partner, the singer Bebel Gilberto, then as the lead vocalist for bands such as Tatanka Dandara and Uisque Disque Blues, he performed with the experimental percussion group GRMJ and produced many albums and soundtracks, including the first solo release of Claudia Otero - who used to be the keyboard player at Tonton Macoute. In Copacabana Joao has put together his own recording studio now. That's where he does his own sound experiments and where he produced the soundtrack “Meia Lua de Pano” for the Rio Circus Group which is currently touring Europe with the world famous Circus Chen.
Joao has been an active participant in the current International Music festival, conducting his own chamber music group in performances at the School of Music auditorium. Tonight his concert will be enhanced by a number of special guests, including Mario Salimon, Indiana (lead vocalist of the BSB Disco Club), Lula and Bianca (from The Tuba Antiatomica), the groups Spirituals de Porco and Percussao, plus DJs Andre X (bass player from Plebe Rude) and Level Little Box. It will be a night to remember.
Keep your eyes open for extra performances, tickets were sold out before the release of this one.
O Tempo
2001
Joao MacDowell Plays at The Utopica Marcenaria.
The singer, composer, performer and instrumentalist from Brasilia is tonight's attraction at the Utopica Marcenaria. Baptized as Joao MacDowell, this exquisite artist has already gained a place in the heart of the people from Belo Horizonte with his previous performances. He brings to us the show "The Traveling Man and his Music Box", a concert featuring songs from his first solo album, "It Seems I Exist" released in 2000, and also new compositions that are being recorded on a new CD, to be released next year.
The musician explains that it is in fact a solo concert, but he tries to keep the audience entertained with a diverse palette of sound. "I bring in a couple of synths, a guitar, and some percussion. I then start recording loops of myself playing these instruments, jam on top of that and then sing whole complex songs using that method. It's tricky and dangerous sometimes, but there's always room for improvisation and the unexpected, usually from the environment or the audience. I once caught a falling tray and I made a loop and improvised some chant on top of it, the waiter was a bit embarrassed, but it was a cool moment. And I can record my own voice too, multiple times, non stop, I can make a big choir tribal sound of myself, there's this feeling of being the last member of a lost tribe, and having all these ghosts to speak through me. I have been performing a lot with this setup, it is tougher for me, in many ways, from an artistic viewpoint, than if I was touring with a band, but the result is always interesting, different somehow, single, unique.”
Joao says that the repertoire of the show should be mostly of his own compositions. "The way I've been doing this, I sometimes make a quote, play a piece of another song, but these are mostly themes for improvisation, part of a bigger piece. I really have been writing a lot of music, so it's starting to accumulate, and there are always these songs that people want to hear again and again, so I try to fit as much as I can into the set list.”
Parallel to this tour, before Belo Horizonte he went through Sao Paulo,
Campinas, Curitiba and Brasilia. - Joao is in the middle of the writing process of his new CD. "From Minas I'll go back to Rio, and then I should spend next October totally focused on new recordings." he says. He is now investing in his new work, after obtaining respect from the media and audiences all over the country. "It Seems I Exist" is already in its third batch and is the best selling independent album this year.
Besides the concerts at the Marcenaria, Joao is in town for the presentation of his soundtrack for Meia Lua de Pano, that 's a strong contestant at the International Circus festival, next week.
Jornal de Brasilia
2003
The Traveling Man.
The musician from Brasilia, Joao MacDowell, ex-leader of Tonton Macoute, releases his second solo album, matures the experimental traits of music and reaches out for the North-American market.
Musical Chameleon, experimentalist and courageous, pioneer of the fusion of Brazilian rhythms and electronics, the singer and instrumentalist is back with an excellent new album. Joao Claudio MacDowell, who was already writing Drum'n Bass tracks ten years before the style had a name, decided to pack up and hit the road, to try out his luck in the most competitive market in the world, the North-American. A daring mutant, Cao, as he was known at the time of Tonton Macoute, the favorite band of Renato Russo (most famous Brazilian singer in the eighties, died in 1997), had already printed his name as one of the most influential musicians to emerge from the capital in the last decades. After the breakup of the legendary band, Cao disappeared for some time, while he lent his talents to the production of other artists and writing soundtracks. Then he surfaced again, with a solo project under the identity of Joao Kahuna, to release his album “Parece Que Existo/It Seems I Exist”, the album sold out instantaneously and granted the musician a nomination to the Latin Grammy. Joao had a taste of major success and now is back with a fresh new collection of remarkable songs. This week the second solo album of the singer and instrumentalist who is now signing as jKau hits the stores all over the Federal District (Destrito Federal). “The Traveling Man and His Music Box (O Caixeiro Viajante e a Caixa de Musica) includes a repertoire of ten tracks plus four bonus tracks and it was released in Brazil, Europe, Japan and The United States. The album already has one song, “Drops of Blood” playing in radios throughout the world. From San Francisco, California, where he will be performing in the next week, Joao spoke yesterday with O Jornal de Brasilia.
JB – How was the transition from Tonton Macoute to this new work?
Joao – I feel that in Tonton was the seed to everything I have done since. It's really about the songs, with lyrics saying something, but on a very specific musical context, mixing diverse influences, the multiple possibilities that the electronic technology opens once we mix it with the roots of Brazilian music. In the beginning it was the desire to experiment, to go beyond; at the time everything we did was quite daring but nowadays everyone understand s the music, audiences are happy to follow the musical journey I propose to take them into through the concert.
JB – Why do you keep changing names?
Joao – It is king of fun, to play around with different identities, sometimes I change the style to fit the personality I am trying to convey, sometimes I just change the ideas the voice is singing about. It's like being a playwright and being able to talk through all these characters, but it is also something that relates to our times, a search to demystify the icons, fool the audience into a new product… other artists are doing this, you see it a lot in the English DJ scene, and in older artists such as David Bowie, who created Ziggy Stardust and always comes back with a new personality. We have Fernando Pessoa who wrote under all these identities, and it's easy to identify the style of each of his personas, just from the style of the poetry. It's all over the Internet too, where people try to be someone else all the time. A rapper from the West Coast, D-Trump, gave me the nickname I am using now. (jKau)
JKau, I think it's cool. I signed my first solo album “It Seems I Exist” as Joao Kahuna, but everyone seemed to know who I was… I released that album in 200, and it is sold out now, I am not authorizing any more official copies of it. It should become a collector's item… That album opened any doors for me, it took my music to places I never dreamed of. Then I put the solo concert together, with a guitar and some electronics, but it's all live, I play the loops and then I perform on top of it, and I am always changing the format. Anyhow, all these performances led me to the concept of this new album: “The Traveling Man and His Music Box”. Bianca, the lead singer for A Tuba Antiatomica do Planalto was the one who gave me the idea for the title, maybe she doesn't know she gave it to me, but she said it after a concert I did at the Conjunto Nacional and I put it together.
JB – Where else did you play this music before you recorded it?
Joao – Wow, I played in a lot of places. It was a very busy year. I was traveling every week, sometimes two or three times a week. If there was a small Theater or nightclub, I was there. It was not an easy routine, but I was feeding from the audiences and the musicians I met along the way. I played on most Brazilian capitals, Rio, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Vitoria, Blumenau… and then I also performed in the USA, in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. I travel by myself, so that enables me to cover a large territory. Many great things happen in these trips, I always meet local musicians and invite them to participate in the last few songs of the concert; sometimes it turns into a full jam afterwards. Interacting with different audiences is very stimulating, I often teach them songs and have them sing harmony parts and there are always people who want to talk about the experience afterwards. I get a lot of great feedback from that.
JB – Your music has always had a space in the radios stations from Brasilia. How is the audience reacting to it now?
Joao - I got a few e-mails and phone calls form people who heard it in the radio. They seem to like it, it's a departure from the sound of the last album, it's much more intimate, personal, but I guess there's an inner core that is always there, and I hope that's what people relate to. It is also playing in most major cities in Brazil, like Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte. And in far away places like Australia and Hong Kong, for some reason they seem to like my music there, I guess it's the Internet making the world a smaller place. Here in the USA it is playing in several independent and college radios, this week I did interviews to KUSF and KPOO here in San Francisco, in the last one I played for a good hour, live, just the guitar and the voice. There are people in Brazil who heard it, through the Internet. I also placed the song “Drops of Blood” on a show that plays on more than two thousand radios, all over the USA. It's one step and then the next. But you can find my music now on several websites, so that makes it possible for people to buy songs even in remote places, where there is no official distribution.
JB – Have you been acting as DJ as well?
Joao – Sometimes I'll do the DJ thing. It can be fun. I often do what they call “Live PA” which means I am recording loops from my live performance and interacting with the audience. It works for the Lounge environments in Rave parties; I can get into a kind of trance while doing it.
JB – Why did you make the option to mix Brazilian rhythms? (Northeastern and Samba)
Joao – Brazilian music is very natural for me. I grew up listening to it. Each day I try to thing less about the composition process. I try to just sing a lot and write as if it was just a register of a whistled melody, delivered by some anonymous soul from the street. That's when I am most happy about the melodic lines; they are easy; everybody can learn them, even if they don't get the lyrics. But I am also translating a whole bunch of things and writing in English too: samba, baiao… It can be cool, and the audience is allowed to focus in the story for a moment, and they perceive that I am not only talking about coconuts and beaches. There's something more substantial behind it.
JB – I found the CD to be rather minimalist, sometimes it reminds me of sound that Laurie Anderson used to do in the Eighties.
Joao – I heard that. It must have influenced me somehow. You know, we were teenagers at the time when these things were arriving in Brazil and Brasilia especially had that hunger for culture. I have some Ballet soundtrack that I wrote that are definitely influenced by Steve Reich, Philip lass, these things. Though it is always different, each artist has his/her own personality.
JB – Will you be moving to the USA?
Joao – I don't have any plans regarding that. At this moment I am by the San Francisco Bay, in California. It makes me think of the San Francisco River, in the backlands of Brazil, for some reason I made this connection, and it seems to make sense. I am playing the music and moving on to the next place, really. Next week I'll be performing the last few concerts I have booked in the West Coast, so I'll return to the East Coast where I have a few more gigs booked before I return to Brazil. I'll be giving a seminar on Contemporary Brazilian Music in a college in Pennsylvania, there are a lot of great people I met over this trip and the USA is beautiful country, full of possibilities. I believe I am planting seeds and leaving my footprints in the ground.
JB – Are you selling the new CD over the Internet?
Joao – Of course, visit www.jkau.com, you will find lyrics, audio, videos, news, and a guestbook so you can leave a message. You can order a physical copy of the CD there, or you can go to iTunes and many other digital stores, and get the MP3 version of it. I am really happy about the album; it's good music.
O Estado do Parana
2000
"It Seems I Exist."
The composer Joao MacDowell opens tonight at the Emporio Sao Francisco Theater a series of concerts in Curitiba, presenting the repertoire from his album "It Seems I Exist". The musician will be in town until September eighth, his next concert will be at the Cicarino Theater, next Friday.
Joao delivers a fusion of African-Brazilian rhythms and Electronic Pop with spices. Kahuna fits in the same pot analog synthesizers, traditional drums and the experimental sound of percussion instruments such as the truck spring, freezer box, washing machine tubes, and iron bars.
At some moments one can feel the influences of composers such as Tom Ze, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque; in others, we can hear echoes of Prince, Tom Waits, Kraftwerk and Beck. Joao was born in Brasilia and became famous in the eighties as the leader of the band Tonton Macoute. He was the real pioneer of Brazilian Electronic Music.
Joao is a versatile musician; in recent times he has lent his hand to a number of soundtracks for movies, TV, Theater, Dance and even Circus. The Circus show "Meia Lua de Pano", featuring star teachers from the National Circus School (Escola Nacional de Circo). The show includes a full original score by Joao, composed, produced and performed by the artist himself, and it has a busy agenda ahead, touring most Brazilian capitals and starting the European tour next January, with performances in Italy.
Correio Brasiliense
1988
Tonton Macoute - An Inspiring Sound in the Night.
An experimental group, minimalist, who makes electro-acoustic music, rock, pop, Brazilian beats? Even the musicians from the band have a hard time to define the style of their music. Independent from definitions, preconceived concepts, political positions, labels, the work of this band from Brasilia, who came out into the scene last year, has been achieving major repercussion from the media throughout the country.
The concept behind the music of Tonton Macoute is definitely inspired and inspiring. They seem to be in a search for peculiar sound textures, as the combination of Drum Machine, Synthesizers, Bass Guitar, Percussion and Trumpet layered with the deep moving voice of Cao MacDowell, results in an original sound in the midst of our pop scene. Setting them apart from the average bands and other works of experimental characteristics, their music reveals deeply crafted architecture and complex poetic constructions to any one who will stop to listen.
Their concerts have been raising a growing interest. Towards the end of last year, when they took part in the Sarau Project, they brought a record audience to the main stage of the Sala Villa Lobos, National Theater (Teatro Nacional Brasilia). A rare event of a local band that pulled of sold out night at the biggest venue in the capital. Before that, they had stunned the audience in a polemic concert at the Arena Theater, during the FLAAC (Latin American Festival of Arts and Culture).
The Macoutes are easy to catch in radios in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Two of their songs, A Pele and Electric Light, have reached to number one in the charts of Fluminsense FM during the Summer, one of the main thermometers for the new music in Brazil.
Tonight at 10pm, Claudia Otero on Piano, Synthesizers and Voice, Mauricio Lagos on Contrabass, Cau MacDowell on Percussion, Electronic Beats and Voice and Flama Mossri on Trumpet and Fluguelhorn will be back on stage for the opening of their season at the Othello Porao Theater.
Correio Brasiliense
1988
Macoutes in the Basement.
At the Gilbertinho they are ultra-popular. We can still hear comments about their first concerts there last year, at the extinct nightclub "Le Club". The crowd that made the place's notoriety was comprised of segments from the artsy community, including “darks”, “punks”, and related tribes; this was also the majority of the following of the band Tonton Macoute, an interesting bunch that crowded the Villa Lobos stage at the National Theater last year, when they packed the room in a record audience for the Sarau Project.
Nowadays the music of the band has been spread to further frontiers, through live performances and the radio waves. Radio stations from Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro (mostly the Fluminense FM, always ahead of it's times!) and Sao Paulo, everyone seems to have become addicted to their music and they are reaching an ever increasing number of listeners.
If you still don't know about the new sound of Tonton Macoute, based in the electro-acoustic experimentalism, but delivering precious melodic anthems and instant hits, don't waste your time: tomorrow at 10pm Claudia Otero on Piano, Synthesizers and Voice, Mauricio Lagos on Contrabass, Cau MacDowell on Percussion, Electronic Beats and Voice and Flama Mossri on Trumpet and Fluguelhorn will be back for another season at the Othello theater, 107 North.
Go check the Macoutes, before they become too big.
Pagina Sete
1986
The audience, predominantly young, displayed great respect and remarkable breadth of judgment. Tonton Macoute, a local band, absolutely experimental, with a singer intoning chants like Captain Beefhart, a drum machine and a trumpet phrasing above the voice. The band was receive with respect and there were some in the crowd who were daring enough to dance. In Argentina it would be difficult to imagine a similar situation.
Tribuna da Imprensa
2002
New Canibalism! Now!
Most established names of the so-called Brazilian Popular Music (MPB) insist in the repetition of successful formulas. It is the dangerous swamp of the “search for the true cultural roots of our music” or the “recovery of lost traditions”; fortunately, there are artists who flow in the opposite direction. For these most developed souls, karma free and independent thinkers, the key words are fusion, mix, the melting pot.
When I received the newest album of jKau in my hands, I had already an idea of what it was about. I already knew jKau, or Joao Kahuna, or, better yet Joao Claudio MacDowell – this guy has the habit of changing identities. I had been thrown off my feet by his previous album, “It Seems I Exist”, a landmark in our music; so, I was already expecting his incredible mix of rhythms over electrified beats. I was ready for the intelligent lyrics, urban poetry taken to its highest level. All these expectations were not enough to prepare me to the mesmerizing musical impact I was about to go through once I pressed “play” and started listening to “The Traveling Man and His Music Box.”
After leading the cult band Tonton Macoute and polishing his skills as a soundtrack composer, Joao has finally managed to crystallize his multiple sonic ideas in his “Traveling Man”. Most of what had been rehearsed in his previous release, the honest but, in perspective, still a bit crammed with ideas, “Parece Que Existo”, now comes back in spellbound crystal clear form.
Written, arranged performed and produced by the artist himself, “The Traveling Man and his Music Box” is, without a shade of doubt, the work of a mature author. It is like an art film, where the director made a point of impregnating each frame, each touch of light, with his background influences, life experiences and concepts.
Joao is well versed in the clichés of the contemporary scene - Drum'n Bass, Trance, House, HipHop, R&B – and he makes full use of the almost infinite possibilities of the urban and regional Brazilian rhythms. Hadn't it been so subtle and self contained, this album would be said to be an outpour of “everything at the same time, now”, echoes of David Bowie and his collaboration with Brian Eno resonate in the distance. A diary of his wanderings by the most varied musical structures, and, why not, linguistic structures, since it is an album with a cosmopolitan bilingual nature. From Kraftwark to Luiz Gonzaga, it is pure musical cannibalism, in its highest form.
The songs range form the fine taste of lightly seasoned plates with delicate electronic spices as in the delicious entrée “The Rain” (The rain falls on me/ The rain tells me tales about the soul of the city/ Lips in the Xerox/ I photocopied the drops upon the city…) as well as with unclassifiable plates as in the cyber-tribal chant “Tamandua” or even in tasty flavors of home-made food, as in “Ta Vendo Demais/I've Seen Too Much”, with it's traditional, laid back Samba beat, Jobim like song structure and the participation of the percussion experts of Bangalafumenga band. Joao creates a palette of tastes that is at the same time rich and diverse, in the right balance to please both the most popular and the most sophisticated tastes. An esthetic position that is only possible because it is an independent release, which means free; free from the dummying-down pressure of the major labels.
Recently Joao has been performing in Uncle Sam's territory – San Francisco, New York and other hot spots – where he is also requested as record producer. He recently made a HipHop album with a Chinese Rap duo (!). jKau says he can't wait to come back to Brazil, the motherland; until then, he fulfills his fate of Traveling Man and tenacious creator of sonic sculptures. Our starving ears are saying “thank you”.
Folha Dirigida
2003
Rhythms and styles are mixed in the second solo release of jKau.
From the melting pot of Brasilia, there comes a peasant surprise. A city, which is often thought of only in relation to the political life, has already granted us with quite a significant contribution to our national music. In the eighties, Brasilia was the cradle that nourished bands such as Capital Inicial, Legiao Urbana and Tonton Macoute.
From the mix of tendencies that boils in the capital, there comes one significant name: jKau. A career that sprawls over two decades, Joao MacDowell releases this month his second solo album, “The Traveling Man and His Music Box”. The artist aims at the highest goals in his musical journey.
Different styles find their place in the album, from Bossa Nova to folk rhythms from the backlands, Xote and Baiao, intermingled with instrumental sections, Reggae and Electro-Acoustic music. The album features ten tracks, written, produced, arranged and performed by Joao himself, are added by four additional bonus tracks of equal interest. The production work for the CD lasted a whole year and the artist had the goal to please ears that are used to different kinds of sound. “There is a rich melodic path that can be treaded, enabling emotion to be captivated from listeners with the most diverse background”, says Joao.
Some songs from the album, such as “Enlouqueceu/She Broke Down”, have already become hits in radio stations and dance floors. The time has come for Brasilia to share the talent of jKau with the rest of the world.
Jornal da Tarde
1988
The Fury That comes from the Capital.
Brasilia, ten year after the successful explosion of Legiao Urbana, their punk legacy seems stronger than ever. The Mane Garrincha Stadium, packed, is destroyed during a concert of the first band from the city to establish itself in the national music market. What is it that is left in Brasilia from this peculiar brand of rock? Is it just the stories and legends from its leaders, about its birth in the hill of Colina? Some data that comes from the capital is quite impressive, the Culture Department of the Federal District has more than 400 bands in their files.
Most of these bands are just disposable copies of Legiao and Capital Inicial. Nevertheless, there are other tendencies: the ultra-heavy Trash Metal, the lightness of the New-Bossa, the Techno Beat with dark vocals. In every microphone persists the desperate sound of the voice of this city that grew up under our darkest dictatorship. “No city/ No place to live/ City lights/ Block my vision” (Electric Light by Tonton Macoute).
Tonton Macoute was the name given to the cruel guard of Baby Doc and Papa Doc in Haiti. They were responsible for so many deaths and violence in the terror regimen of that country that they ended up receiving a sweet nick name. In the local Patua idiom, Tonton Macoute means a scary monster. In Brasilia the name stands for a band: Claudia Otero (Piano, Synthesizers and Voice), Mauricio Lagos (Contrabass), Cau MacDowell (Percussion, Electronic Beats and Voice) and Flama Mossri (Trumpet and Fluguelhorn). They decided to take up this name to represent the fusion of electronic and acoustic sounds and the feeling of contrast that their music represents. “There are people who call our music ‘Contemporary Pop', which I find rather pretentious; others say it is ‘Experimental Music', which I don't like, cause I think it is very limiting and only expresses the fact that the sound is different, but not what is peculiar about it.” The quote is from the band leader Cau MacDowell, who points some influences: Miles Davis, and his trumpet sound, vibrating between Jazz and Pop, the German Techno of Kraftwerk or the English Joy division, their synthesizer sounds.
In the third world, the synthesizers these musicians are using are old and cheap: a Poly 800 totally reprogrammed, or the Alpha Juno 2. Their music is not programmed in computers; it is all played live, with the notable exception of a Roland Drum Machine where MacDowell writes his hypnotizing rhythms. Though the beats are not necessarily bright or danceable. Brasilia might be the Brazilian city that is most influenced by Peter Murphy, vocalist of the British band Bauhaus. Cau brings his voice out from the depth of his soul, for who could bear to dance with so much weight on his shoulders?
Can Tonton Macoute's music be classified as Rock? “I believe our thing leans more towards the Pop. We haven't even been using a guitar,” says MacDowell. The entrancing beat holds listeners spellbound, once you hear it, it cannot be mistaken by something else. A lysergic sound to take you on a long trip, this music seems somehow related to the ambitious and experimental rock of the seventies and yet it is unmistakably Brazilian, drunk from the well of our folk beats. A good deal of the courage and originality that lies behind this music comes from digging into the roots of our traditional music and bringing it into the future, though not just as an esthetic exercise, but through a meaningful construction, at the same time heartfelt and intensely emotional.
Tonton Macoute sees the national politics with bleak eyes, as if looking at the Moon with a spyglass. Some of the songs of the band are being played daily at Fluminense radio, in Rio de Janeiro and have become instant hits. One of them, the song Dois Amantes (Two Lovers) comes with some of the most pungent lyrics of our times. A direct descent from the British ultra-romantic poetry, it depicts a picture of impossible love in the dry backlands of Brazil, in a city where the most important decisions are made behind closed doors.
Are you ready? Here it goes: "Two lovers do not reach/ They do not talk/ They don't exist for one another/ No communication/ No speech/ Neither will they ever hold their hands/ Nor will they ever walk side by side/ They will not kiss over the green grass/ They will not touch over white sheets/ Not on the bed/ No/ Facing a wall/ They feel alone/ Facing each other/ Their eyes are drifting/ There is nothing that would make them less/ Enveloped by this wall/ Sweaty lovers/ Not from love/ But from their day to day lives."
The third generation of bands from the capital comes with a power and a sound that had not being present yet in their predecessors. The originality of this music teaches that there is a time for each moment in life, and this is the time to listen to what the Tontons have to say. There is a time to pray and a time to destroy stadiums, a time to play Angels or Demons. In time: the government of Brasilia is suing the band Laegiao Urbana for the damage caused to the Mane Garrincha Stadium last 18 th , they are asking for a compensation of ten million cruzados.
Correio Brasiliense
1987
At The Arena Theater, from a Cold Reception to Enthusiastic Ovation.
The misinformation about the events and the threats of rain were not enough to scare the audience away from The Arena Theater, at The University of Brasilia, last Friday, to watch another great concert that took place as part of The First Latin-American Festival of Art and Culture (I FLAAC). This concert had the participation of the bands Choro Livre, Invoquei o Vocal and Tonton Macoute from Brasilia, and the Argentinean singer/songwriter Victor Heredia with his band.
The clouds that had been haunting the concert all through the week seemed to be giving in to a starry night, as the band Choro Livre entered the stage and the crowd started to pack the open theater. The band, led by mandolin player Henrique Filho had a hard time warming up the audience with their traditional versions of roots Brazilian music. At the end a selection of Frevos succeeded in warming up the crowd a bit. Their performance was very competent as usual and they are doing a good job of bringing to light unknown songs of our traditional repertoire.
Performing to a larger crowd, the vocal group Invoquei o Vocal, managed to warm up the audience, playing to a larger crowd and performing a variety of well-known songs from all corners of the stylistic spectrum. (..) The crowd was pleased and asked for more.
Tonton Macoute, a new local band that has build its following with the alternative crowd of the Gilbertinho, seemed at first to be fated to divide the audience. Their sound mixes elements of the so called electronic music, minimalism, traditional Brazilian Beats and acoustic sounds. The first song, “Ruas” (Streets) starts with a melodic progression in the electric piano, accompanied by a hypnotic beat on low drums and hand drums. Tre trumpet starts off softly while the voice builds on a text of complex urban density also in a low key. Tida Couto strikes a metallic drum sound from a street sign that says “Cidade” (City) and points its arrows to the starry sky. As the song progresses the confusion of echoes and words that seem to invade the night from all sides built into a screaming orgasm, while the trumpet, absolutely melodic dialogs with the bass and keeps the ground for absolute madness in the interaction of the voice and the piano. The rhythm remains steady, it is just multiplied and then it comes to a sudden stand still, as a dissonant fall of clusters marks the end of the song. Was it a song? It didn't really have the usual structure of a song, but more of a mantra that progress, as if Ravel had re-written the Bolero, on acid and in the middle of a psychic depression, dying of thirst and religion, facing the long roads of central Brazil.
A small group in the audience got up and left, another five or six traditionalists tried to boo them out; nevertheless, half of the audience that packed the Arena Theater was ecstatic in applause, the other half, not knowing what to do, clapped indecisive, trying to figure out what had passed through them.
In the next songs, the band gained the confidence of the crowd, with interesting grooves and memorable songs that established a link with a musical context more familiar to the crowd. As the audience connected with the band, there were enthusiastic applauses for trumpet solos of Flama Mossri and the strangely powerful voice of Joao MacDowell. Dance songs were mingled with powerful urban mantras like the tune “O Sino” (The Bell). At the end, a song called “Electric Light” proved an instant hit, with the audience learning the words and singing along the chorus in a frenetic movement of bodies that pounded through the structure of the open theater.
The band only came back for one encore, though some were still asking for more. There was still the Argentinean guest Victor Heredia who closed the night with an excellent concert. (…)
O Fluminense
1999
The Musician Presents Tracks from his Solo CD in Rio.
Joao MacDowell is the ex-leader of the band from Brasilia “Tonton Macoute”.
Ex-leader of Tonton Macoute, the musical explosion of Brasilia, Joao Kahuna is introducing the repertoire of his up-coming new CD to the audiences of Rio de Janeiro. Tonight at 18:30, at the Telephone Museum Theater, anticipating the sound of his first solo release, “Parece Que Existo” (It Seems I Exist). Kahuna plays guitars, synthesizers, and an experimental percussion set, with extravagant and different instruments, such as a truck spring and a freezer box. His striking musical personality mixes in its pot Brazilian beats such as samba, xaxado, and lyrical urban themes over memorable melodies.
Joao MacDowell has been performing recently in several venues in Rio de Janeiro. Our city adopted the composer as our own, after the break-up of Tonton Macoute, and there are signs of the influence of his new hometown in the music he has been introducing to the audiences from Rio (Carioca). In tonight's concert, Joao will be accompanied by Flavia Torga (traditional percussion and hand-drums), Jefferson Duende (experimental percussion – freezer box, iron bars, washing machine cylinders), Nob Kupper (drum-set), Pedro Cristiano, (bass) and Victor Goncalves (keyboards).
The Telephone Museum Theater is a historic place, where many legends of Brazilian music have threaded their footsteps. This December Second, Joao puts together a special concert, one that may define the bridge between what was and what can become in Brazilian music. It will be a night to remember.
Correio Brasiliense
2000
Kahuna Exists.
At this point we should be familiar with the music of Joao MacDowell. When he lived in Brasilia, the time when his career boomed, people use to call him Kau MacDowell and he was the leader of Tonton Macoute band. Then he moved to Rio de Janeiro and there he developed his very personal style. Recently, he recorded the CD “It seems I Exist”. The album, already released in Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro, will be introduced tonight to the audience of the capital, at 20hs, at the Conjunto Nacional.
In this solo concert, Kahuna sings and plays guitar over live loops, recorded as he performs several different instruments, including some unique percussion and analog synthesizers from the first generations of electronic music. One of the songs from the album, the hit single “A Chuva” has been nominated to a Latin Grammy and was listed this week in the 19 th place at the World Undergroung Music Charts of Ison Live Radio International Network.
Correio Brasiliense
1991
The Harmony of Images and Music in the Celebration of the Via Sacra of Planaltina.
A memorable soundtrack by Joao MacDowell.
The reenactment of the Passion of Christ that takes place every year in the rural and isolated town of Planaltina, perpetuated by local peasants as a celebration of their faith and their sufferings, is the theme of a new documentary film “Fessoas”; to be released tonight, in a special session, at the Alberto Nepomucemo Theater, part of the National theater Complex. The director's credits go for Mauro Giuntinni, with original soundtrack by Joao MacDowell.
Giuntinni has become successful with titles such as Brasiconoscopio and Visao Acaiaca, works that have tantalized the audiences of the capital in the past. A style that has brought him comparisons to Godffrey Regggio, author of movies such as Koyaniskatsi and Powakatsi, both with original soundtracks by the minimalist composer Philip Glass.
“Fessoas” was filed in 1989, as part of a project by the center of Cultural Production of the University of Brasilia, to trace a cultural map of the Federal District. The final Cut had been produced by May 1990, which made the director wait almost one year for the release of his movie. For the first cuts, MacDowell provided Giuntinni with a choice of bits from the Missa Sollenis of Beethoven, as a guide to the mood and pace for the visual editing. Once Mauro had the poetic imagery in place, he sent that back to Joao, for the final soundtrack. Joao or Cao MacDowell was responsible for the establishment of the mood and the emotions in this film where there is no dialog and the music leads the narrative by itself, with sole support of the images of the dry faces of the people and the magic landscape of the backlands. If you don't seem to know it, Joao was the vocalist of the extinct Tonton Macoute band, who used to be referred to by the media as Cao MacDowell.
Ritual – The reenactment of the passion of Christ has been taking place in Planaltina for over 15 years, under the leadership of a small group of local citizens, with ties to the local church. As years go by, the whole community started taking a part in it. The ritual now mobilizes thousands of persons each year, between spectators and participants. The production has been becoming more and more sophisticated, with the recent construction of a long cobblestone road that leads to the main hill, massive stone walls and a couple of castles. Besides that, there are a number of props and sceneries that are put together by the community each year.
“Fessoas” is a very peculiar reading of the ritual: “It is a film of impressions about the way people mobilize around an idea and a ritual that speaks to something that happened two thousand years ago. The use of slow motion comes as an effort to increase the dramatic content of the images, whose focal point is the facial expressions and gestures of the peasants. The fascinating music created by MacDowell brings to light the emotions and the depth of the faith, in a musical narrative that takes the audience to a place where words are no longer important. I had been editing the film for some time, listening to the Beethoven Mass that he had selected, Once the composer brought the actual music that was to be used all aspects of the narration fell into place, it was like a stew that gets cooked to the right point.” Says the director. The film got prizes for Best Soundtrack and Best Cut categories in the XXIII Guarnice de Cine Video de Sao Luis do Maranhao.
Giuntinni considers this moment in his career as a filmmaker, and theorizes about the relevance of dialogs in a narrative. “Words are often redundant when the images are strong enough and when one works with a composer with complete control over the emotion of the audience, it is easy to develop a movie where the experience reaches into deeper levels of awareness in the audience. I was not surprised by the orchestral achievement of MacDowell in this soundtrack. I can relate it to the experimental side of the music on Tonton Macoute. Also, I noticed his name in the recent release of the only recording of the “Symphony of the Pots and Pans” by internationally known composer Jorge Antunes, also from Brasilia. In that singular symphonic work that mimics the sounds of popular protest and changes after our dictatorship; Joao MacDowell can be found playing the unlikely horn of his car.
I would say that the exposure of the musician to the quest of contemporary serious music comes from an early age and it should not surprise those who only know the more popular side of his output.
The next film of Mauro Giuntinni is going to be called “Those Without a Screen” (Os Sem Tela). The script has won financing through a contest held by the Brazilian Association of the Popular Image.
Jornal do Brasil
2004.
People.
The Girl From Ipanema.
Ethernal.
An Enchanting Voice.
Singer and composer Joao MacDowell is back to Brasil after more than a year working in the United States. Those of us who have been missing his performances and his charming personality on TV talk shows, can be out for a treat. The performer is back to release his new CD in a small number of theaters in a select number of cities. While in The United States, he played in New York, at The Red Bear, in Philadelphia, at the Dragon Fire and the South by SouthWest, and in San Francisco at The East Bay. He also lent his talent to produce recordings of American opera star Jesus Garcia and Chinese R&B duo Marks. This weekend, the artist from Brasilia presents his new CD, The Traveling Man and his Music Box, at the Hideway Theater, in Laranjeiras. The CD features some very special guests from music scene, such as his friends from Bangalafumenga Band: Rodrigo Maranhao, Andre Bava, Dudu and Thiago, in the song “Acende Essa Vela” (Light this Candle) and the samba song “Ta Vendo Demais” (I've Seen Too Much).
O Globo
2003
Betting in the Mix.
Ex-vocalist of the legendary band from Brasilia “Tonton Macoute”, now splitting his time between the United States and Brazil, the singer, composer, instrumentalist, arranger and performer Joao MacDowell (joao kahuna, jKau) is back with his ambitious pop style in his most recent solo album “The Traveling Man and His Music Box” ( www.joaomusic.com ) Some of the songs from the ablum are already radio hits, like the surfers anthem Acende Essa Vela (Light The Candle) and the soothing samba “Ta Vendo Demais” (I've Seen Too Much). The references are broad and range from each corner of the Brazilian spectrum and beyond, from Samba to Baiao, from Fox to Xote. It's a fusion that works.
Correio Brasiliense
2001
Electronic MPB (Brazilian Popular Music)
You can get a double dose of the concert “The Traveling Man and His Music Box” this weekend. The singer from the extinct band from the eighties Tonton Macoute, Joao MacDowell presents his mix of Electronic Pop with Brazilian Beats and Experimental elementstonight, at 10:30, at the Feitico Mineiro Theater (303 North), and tomorrow at 8pm, at the Conjunto Nacional. From Brasilia, the legend goes to Belo Horizonte where he will be performing a few solo concerts and a special live performance for the soundtrack of the Circus show “Meia Lua de Pano” at the most competitive night of the International Circus Festival.
INTERVIEW
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