Mario Castro-Neves interviewed by Relax magazine

Mario Castro-Neves' interview on Relax magazine (Japan, September 2004 issue)
Translation of the interview conducted on July 7, 2004

Curiously, the questions were done in Portuguese by the Japanese journalist, but answered by Mario in English

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Tradução da entrevista realizada com Mario Castro-Neves, em 7 de Julho de 2004, para a revista japonesa "Relax", e publicada na edição de Setembro de 2004.

Curiosamente, os jornalistas japoneses Kepel Kimura, Masanori Koyama e Takashi Horiuchi, apaixonados por bossa nova, fizeram as perguntas em português e Mario respondeu tudo em inglês.

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- Onde você nasceu e quais as suas influências?

I was born in Rio, on November 12, 1935, and I am 68 years old.
Classically, I love Debussy, Stravinsky and Ravel. As an arranger, Radamés Gnatalli was my favorite Brazilian influence, as well as the Americans, Gil Evans and Don Sebesky. As a composer, Brazilian composers, Ruy Jacobina (my uncle), Garôto and Tom Jobim, as well as the Americans Billy Strayhorn, George Gershwin and Cole Porter. As a pianist, I have always been influenced by Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk.

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Como surgiu a idéia de "On A Clear Bossa Day", trinta e sete anos após o primeiro disco do grupo Samba S.A.?

My producer, Arnaldo DeSouteiro, who is the founder of JSR, one of the best jazz labels in the world according to Down Beat magazine, had been insisting with me for some time to do a recording based on an updated format of “Mario Castro-Neves & Samba S.A.;” an opportunity presented itself in January 2004 when I went to Rio to do some concerts with Brazil’s top jazz vocalist Ithamara Koorax at “Partitura”, a new jazz venue in Rio.

- Sabia que suas obras são negociadas a peso de ouro por colecionadores no mundo inteiro, inclusive no Japão e na Inglaterra? O que você acha disso?

I knew about that, but to be perfectly honest, I’ve never looked back on my musical accomplishments, I have always strived to create something new, something that would present new facets in composition, arranging and harmonic structure. Though it pleases me a lot that, during all these years, people still buy and collect my old recordings. And I am very thankful to them for that.

- Por falar em formação de piano-trio e duas vocalistas femininas, o qrupo do Sergio Mendes fez sucesso mundial. O Samba S.A. levou isso em consideração? E na época, quais eram os grupos que se davam bem ou competiam com seu grupo?

As I wrote, in 1967, on the back cover of the debut album by Samba S.A., “the idea of forming this quintet was to obtain new effects of sound and rhythm for Brazilian music, maintaining, however, its basic characteristic of samba.” There was no connection to Sergio Mendes’ group, which was very good, but which used a more Americanized version of Brazilian music. In Brazil, there were great trios at that time, but no groups with the same structure of Samba S.A., so there was really no competition. Besides the fact that, some time after the release of the album, I had to travel to Italy, Spain, France and Portugal to do a series of concerts with a sixteen-piece band; so I dissolved the group and never really had a chance to have it perform live.

- Escutando novo disco seu, me surprendi muito por não sentir um salto comparado com seu disco de 37 anos atrás. Na verdade, imagino que o público do Japão esperava esta música mesmo, mas suponho também que produzir este som no mercado brasileiro de hoje seja difícil. Nesse sentido, quais os cuidados para fazer o disco? Me explique incluindo os lados como composição, equipamentos e gravação.

As I previously explained, the primary intent of the present recording was to do something inspired by the 1967 Samba S.A., with an updated version for 2004. That is to say that the harmonies and compositional lines are more advanced, within a mixture of samba and Brazilian jazz.
Also, I decided, following advice of my producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro, to give more exposure to my piano solos. Personally, I consider “On a Clear Bossa Day” a better record than the old 1967 Samba S.A., due not only to its content but also to all the musicians who participated in it, whose great talent and enthusiasm inspired very lively and exciting recording sessions. It is also a historic album, since one of my songs, Mamadeira Atonal, cited in several books as one of the most to influence the whole beginning of the Bossa Nova era, has never been previously recorded. I was playing a Yamaha acoustic grand piano and the CD was digitally recorded live in three nightly sessions.

- Conte sobre os atuais membros do grupo Samba S.A. e a origem do nome do grupo.

The origin of the name Samba S.A. (which means Samba, Inc.) was my idea to name my group as a corporation that would spread Brazilian music internationally. Regardng the new members of Samba S.A., Ithamara Koorax is a key figure. In my opinion she is the best Brazilian singer in the current scene. She was also voted No.4 best jazz singer in the world by Down Beat Magazine, in 2002. And I took part on Ithamara’s latest album, “Love Dance” (voted one of the best albums of 2003 by Down Beat and Independent Weekly magazines), for which I arranged and composed a new song, titled “Someday”. We have also performed many concerts together, so it was a natural choice to have her as the leading singer in my new Samba S.A. album. The second singer, Ana Zinger, who was recommended by my producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro, studied harmony and voice in the USA, and also has released solo albums. Bassist Manuel Gusmão, originally one of the participants of the pre-Bossa Nova movement and the singer in several of my first groups, took part in legendary albums by Jorge Ben, Dom Um Romao, Conjunto 3D, Wanda Sah and Flora Purim. Drummer César Machado, who has played and recorded internationally with Ithamara Koorax, Hendrik Meurkens and Maria Creuza, also leads his own group.

- Com que imagem você compôs a música “Tokyo Waltz” que está incluida no novo álbum?

There’s an interesting image concept for “Tokyo Waltz.” To me Japan is a country that became a nest of good taste for international music, especially Brazilian and jazz; thus, I decided to dedicate the waltz to Tokyo, honoring it as the musical capital of the world, which it is in many senses.

- Sendo o irmão mais velho dos “Castro-Neves”, quando e como é que você começou a tocar piano?

I was influenced by the fact that my whole family was, and still is, a musical one, starting with my grandmother, a concert pianist. I started playing a small Brazilian guitar called “cavaquinho” when I was 5 years old, then changed to the standard Brazilian acoustic guitar, taught to me by my mother and uncle. When I turned seven years old I switched to piano, initially taught by my aunt, an arranger and pianist; then, when I grew up, I enrolled in the music university “Seminários de Música Pro-Arte”(which, by the way, belonged to my grand cousin), studying piano with Hans Graf and Heitor Alimonda, composition and orchestrating with Roberto Schnorrenberg, and conducting with Ernst Schuler.

- Me conte sobre a época que você estava no grupo formado por três irmãos e você? E seus irmãos ainda continuam as atividades musicais?
Poderia me contar sobre o Conjunto Jovem Brasa do qual Chico Feitosa participou?
Tem algumas lembranças sobre grandes artistas pernambucanos Normando e Novelli?
E tem algumas recordações sobre duas vocalistas femininas Thais e Biba, que era componente de Quarteto en Cy?

My brothers and I formed a group called “Brazilian Jazz Combo” in which I played piano and did the arrangements, each one of my brothers playing a different instrument--drums, bass, guitar, soprano sax—with my sister sometimes singing; we started by playing parties, then radio, then TV. Nowadays I just have two brothers who still remain professional musicians, Oscar, who lives in L.A. and Pedro Paulo, my youngest brother, who is a singer and lives in Paris.
My father had a garage in our house he didn’t need, so he gave it to us brothers as a place to rehearse and it became the official hangout for musicians to play and exchange ideas, which resulted in being the place where the Bossa Nova was born; that was long before musicians started going to Nara’s apartment. Musicians like Tom Jobim, João Gilberto, Carlos Lyra, Ronaldo Bôscoli, used to get together with us and play there every night until “the wee small hours in the morning”(using the lyrics of a song I like). It was a great time, which I’ll never forget.
Jovem Brasa was a group that I formed when Chico Feitosa started writing lyrics for my songs. It was very short lived, although we recorded an album for RCA in 1966. As to Normando and Novelli, they were good young musicians, particularly Normando, a great drummer with a great feel; and unfortunately, I haven’t seen them since the recording of Samba S.A., as I was traveling all around the world, with little time left to go back to Brazil and see the people I grew up with. Regarding Thaís, she never belonged to the group Quarteto em Cy. Both Thaís and Biba were singers who had just started musically and their first “gig” was with my band. Thaís, besides being an excellent singer, was also a good composer.

- Como era a época , especificamente o ambiente no Rio, quando surgiu a Bossa Nova? Ouvi falar que você participou de um movimento cahamado Musicanossa que durou pouco tempo depois da Bossa Nova. O que você fez nesse movimento?

Rio always was Bossa Nova’s capital. In the beginning there was a lot of opposition from the old samba composers to accept the new style but as it started to spread through universities around the country, where great concerts were performed, and with the International Festivals in Rio drawing thousands of people, the recording companies, noticing how much profit could be achieved by recording the new music, it subsequently became a national and international hit.
The Musicanossa was a movement that gathered a bunch of composers together in order to produce as much music as possible, regardless of style. I was one of them.

- Por volta de 1957, os músicos jovens se reuniam na casa de Nara Leão para tocar e conversar sobre música. Poderia mencionar como foi a casa da Nara na época?

Nara’s apartment was a later extension of what took place in my father’s garage. As it faced Copacabana beach, it was a very pleasant place for musicians to get together and to exchange ideas. Another reason was that Ronaldo Bôscoli, the lyricist who invented the term Bossa Nova, was Nara’s boyfriend and was practically there all the time.

- Quando foi a estréia de sua carreira profissional?

My professional career started very early, first playing in jam sessions at several friends’ homes (including the home of my old friend, Manuel Gusmão) and then with the group that I formed with my brothers. I was very lucky to be accepted as a serious musician at such an early age, since the environment of that time was one that just respected older musicians.

- Você tem vivido no exterior desde 1968. Se mudou por causa da ditadura militar?Concretamente tinha alguma pressão dela?
Vivendo fora da sua terra há muito tempo, já sentiu saudade do Brasil?

I didn’t move from Rio because of the military dictatorship, though obviously there was pressure and I was very open speaking against it. The reason I moved was the tour I’ve spoken to you about, when I went first to Italy with a sixteen-piece band, and decided to stay working the European circuit. I lived in Rome, where I started working for RAI Uno and also for film producer, Vittorio de Sicca. Then I lived in Paris and later moved to Cannes, where I had a house and would commute to my apartment in Rome, which afforded me more time to concentrate on composing, rather than only playing live concerts and writing film scores. Of course I’ve always missed Brazil, mainly Rio, where I was born, and regret not going back as often as I would have liked to visit my family, my friends, and to do concerts.

- Poderia comentar sobre os discos que você gravou com seu próprio nome na Inglaterra, Canadá e na França nos anos 70?

The album, “Brazilian Mood,” that was recorded for Decca Records, while I lived in London, was a way to express my ideas on Brazilian rhythms through orchestral arrangements. The same with “Un Brésilien a Paris,” also for Decca. As for “The Latin Band of Mario Castro-Neves,” recorded in Canada for CTL, this one was more of a “commercial” release, due to pressure from the Canadian producer, who thought my ideas were too far out for the album to sell. Still, I was able to introduce some new songs of mine.
The record “The Wonderful Latin American Sound of Brazil,” released by RCA USA, contained some of the songs that were recorded during the Samba S.A. sessions but were never released in Brazil until 2003, when Arnaldo DeSouteiro produced the CD reissue with the complete material we had recorded in 1967. After all, it has been a long time, I don’t remember any other record that I made under my name in the USA, only many records in which I participated as an arranger and/or piano player or produced in my studio.

- Entre os anos 1980 2000, o que você fazia?

Initially, I started a band in the USA called “Subtle Chemistry,“ the same name of the band I had in Canada, which gave me the opportunity of meeting and playing with great musicians such as jazz guitarist Pat Martino, and singer Carmen McRae. Later on I entered a partnership with record producer, Tony Camillo, winner of four Grammy awards, producing, composing and orchestrating records and film scores for different companies at the studio, which I still do. I was also a teacher at Princeton University for many years.

- Agora morando nos EUA, objetivamente como é que o Brasil se reflete pra você?

Though Brazil has changed during all these years, it is still my favorite place on earth, mainly because of the naturally friendly, happy people, as well as its rich culture and music.

- O que seria a Bossa Nova pra você?

Bossa Nova wasn’t just a different style of music, but one that influenced a myriad of musicians and musical patterns all around the world. I would like to emphasize here that when I say Bossa Nova, I mean the real one that was born from samba and other Brazilian rhythmic styles, not the Americanized version of it.

- Qual o grande barato de você ter continuado sua atividade musical até hoje?

Music is my first and greatest love. I couldn’t be or do anything other than musically oriented. The thrill of creating something new, discovering new musical worlds to explore, sharing my ideas with different kinds of people, and using my music as an international language that can bring the whole world together, for me, there’s nothing comparable to those feelings.

- Neste outono, o João Gilberto vem fazer um novo show no Japão, depois de ter vindo no ano passado. Se tem alguma história com ele, conte por favor.

I met João Gilberto a long time ago and we’ve been good friends since. I always considered him the real creator of the definitive bossa nova rhythmic pattern, more than anyone else, with the incredible melody phrasing and harmony counterpoint he did while singing and playing the songs he performed. It is a pity we were always in different places at different times, without being able to see each other and get together. But next time I go to Brazil I’m planning on visiting him, make up for the times and share our memories.

- Realmente gostaria de assistir o show de Mário Castro-Neves & Samba S.A. no Japão. Alguma possibildade?

According to what I was informed by Rambling Records, they plan to have the very first live worldwide concert of Samba S.A. in Japan, which I would be pleased to do, mainly because of the way I feel about the eclectic musical freedom in Japan.

- Alguma história especial daquela época da Bossa Nova para você contar?

There are so many stories to be told. For instance, once upon a time Jobim and his lyricist, Vinicius de Moraes, were leaving a nightclub, where they were having a good time. When they got into the car and started driving, Tom Jobim told Vinicius, “You better slow down because we had a little too much to drink” to which Vinicius replied, “That’s okay, but you are the one who is driving!!!”

- Por último, por que é que escolheu o cais para a capa do primeiro disco do Samba S.A.?

That was RCA’s idea, as they were interested in an international release for the album, they figured a picture with ships in the background would infer that the album was an export item.