A revolution in sound

HIGH NOTES

As protests became a way of life for youth around the world in the late 1960s, it was art "" and within art, music in particular "" that would be used to communicate impassioned anti-establishment ideals.

This was the stage on which the Brazilian artistic movement popularly known as Tropicália would first make its appearance in 1968.

Lead by musicians Ceatano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (currently Brazil's minister for culture), the beginnings of Tropicália can be traced back to north-east Brazil where the former capital, Salvador, is to be found.

Salvador is also home to the University of Bahia, built in 1946, a university that quickly became a hotbed of avant-garde creative activity in the region, giving rise to a number of musicians, playwrights, poets and film directors.

The university also holds much relevance in the birth of Tropicália. It was here that Veloso, Gil and fellow Tropicália musician Tom Ze passed through and first interacted with a group of people who called themselves Bahia musicians.

Tropicália as a cultural movement grew to include artistic endeavors across mediums (literature, art, film and theatre) while its core remained musical. It came after the internationally popularised Bossa Nova style led by musician Jão Gilberto whom the Tropicálistas respected greatly but whose music they dismissed as being introverted.

It was also a reaction to Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) that held poet Oswald de Andrade's concept of cultural "cannibalism", taken from his "Cannibalist Manifesto" (1928), in high regard. The concept was that Brazilian culture should absorb from other international cultures in order to enrich itself.

The Tropicálistas rejected the traditions of commercial Brazilian music and through their music wanted to highlight the serious implications of the dictatorial military rule that held Brazil captive.

They rejected the military dictatorship that ruled their country but even so could not bring themselves (especially Veloso) to align with the left-wing groups that opposed the repressive government. This is what led to the defining and eventual creation of Tropicália as a movement.

The aim was to create an altogether re-defined, truly modern and internationally identifiable Brazilian cultural identity through music and art. The Tropicálistas had as much to owe to The Beatles as to traditional Brazilian roots music and experimental European musician Stockhausen.

Greatly influenced by the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever", Gil began to see the relationship between the musical traditions of the Bahia's and psychedelic rock. This musical vision combined with Veloso's critique of the dictatorship and the left-wing came to define Tropicália. But then when Gil tried to explain this idea to a few Bossa Nova artistes, they were met with confused reactions.

Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Ze and Os Mutantes were the key musicians involved in the Tropicália movement and their 1968 album, 'Tropicália ou Panis et Circenses' (Universal) was a manifesto dedicated to the movement.

While Tropicália artiste Rogerio Duarte designed the colourful album art, musically the album bridged American and British popular rock with European influenced experimental sounds and traditional Brazilian rhythms. It was an effort filled with socio-political references and musical experiments that can only be described as a complex combination of various artistic and intellectual elements

Tropicália came to an end in 1969 with Veloso and Gil being deported to England by the dictatorship that had by then tightened its stronghold on civilian life to the point where all music released had to pass through a censor process. Still, all of the Tropicália musicians went on to successful careers as musicians.

Although the movement only lasted about a year, the impact that it had on Brazilian arts and culture and even global music was to be tremendous.

Prominent latter day artists like Kurt Cobain, Beck and Nelly Furtado are also known to have called the Tropicália movement a great influence. The movement has been well documented on the compilation "Tropicália: A Brazillian Revolution In Sound" (Soul Jazz Records, 2006)

(craig_fernandes@hotmail.com)