|
 The campus of Montclair University became a big open-air "gafieira" (the name given to the old-school samba houses in Rio de Janeiro) as Orquestra Imperial - an 18-piece ensemble that includes Moreno Veloso, Wilson das Neves, Alexandre Kassin, Domenico Lancelotti and Rodrigo Amarante (of Los Hermanos) - took the stage in its U.S. début with its mix of samba, boleros and other rhythms.
Within the first few songs, most of the audience at Montclair's amphitheater was up and dancing as the band played song after song without giving much of a pause in between tunes.
Most of the show was led by Veloso, whose voice has an uncanny resemblance with his father (his stage persona is pretty much the same to a certain degree), but other vocalists, such as veteran Wilson das Neves, Amarante and Nina Becker also had their chance to show their chops at the microphone.
Despite its lineup, Orquestra Imperial has no star attitude. The band members are not introduced (except when das Neves took the lead and was said to be "their mentor"), and everyone seems to have an equal status in the group. They are not "Veloso and the band," but a completely unified group whose members apparently check their egos at the door.
The set list was composed mostly of classic Brazilian songs, such as Chico Buarque's "É Bom Acabar Com Isso" (You'd Better Stop It) and "Aos Pés da Santa Cruz"(Before the Holy Cross), and others, mixed with Latin songs and some more contemporary sounds.
When das Neves took the lead, he took the audience through "O Samba é Meu Dom" (Samba Is My Gift) and Ivone Lara's "Sonho Meu" (My Dream a hit for Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa in the 80s) , which he shared with Moreno Veloso and Nina Becker.
In between songs, he cracked a few jokes, but had little response as the audience was formed mostly by non-English speakers. Unfazed, he went on and delivered the songs with sincerity.
One surprise during the set was the inclusion of an instrumental version of Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", which had a Latinized beat with the inclusion of several elements of electronic sounds - think of a Carlos Santana song without the trademark guitar.
A strange moment was when the band took an 80s disco groove and included "Vem Fazer Glu-Glu", an obscure song composed by former kiddie show host Sergio Mallandro. The band played without a bit of irony, and seemed to have fun with it.
One of the best moments came during the Latin section of the show, when Veloso took the lead on the classic bolero "Piel Canela". He made the song his own, sounding incredibly comfortable with the Spanish-language lyrics. The band followed him well, and the audience felt as if we'd been jetted from Rio to a club in Havana.
The only singer that sounded a bit out of place was Rodrigo Amarante - as a vocalist with a rock band (he did not sing lead on their unstoppable hit "Ana Júlia", though), he sometimes didn't sound too comfortable belting out sambas - even his tentative tries at dancing looked as if he was just trying too hard.
After two hours of non-stop music, the band closed with "Eu Bebo Sim" (Yes, I Drink), an ode to those who happily imbibe while others don't and end up dying too soon. Ironically, there was no alcohol to be had at the show - the menu at the concert site only included water, soft drinks and some food, so the fun of the song was a bit lost to the audience, who didn't seem to understand why they all sounded drunk all of a sudden.
I must confess that I was surprised by the set list. Having heard the conceptual albums by Veloso, Lancelotti and Kassin on their + 2 series, I expected to hear more experimental stuff from them.
Instead, my ears welcomed songs that I hadn't heard in years - and that seems to be the orchestra's self-appointed mission: to bring to audiences music that hasn't been heard for some time, given the dominance that Axé music and pagode have over the Brazilian airwaves.
It is a very interesting project, and I hope to see them again very soon.
Concert Review:
Orquestra Imperial
Montclair State University
Sept. 17th, 2005
Ernest Barteldes is an ESL and Portuguese teacher. In addition to that, he is a freelance writer whose work has been published by The Greenwich Village Gazette, The Staten Island Advance, The Staten Island Register, The SI Muse, Brazzil magazine, The Villager, GLSSite, Entertainment Today and other publications. He lives in Staten Island, NY. He can be reached at ebarteldes@yahoo.com.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Thanks!