INTERVIEW: Baby Do Brasil brings her celebration of Brazilian music to NYC
Photo: Baby Do Brasil comes to New York City’s City Winery on Saturday, Sept. 23. Photo courtesy of Victor Affaro / Provided by Cindy Byram PR with permission.
It’s not too often that Baby Do Brasil makes an appearance in the United States, so her special concert scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 23 at New York City’s City Winery is a welcome treat for her fans looking to enjoy her unique brand of Brazilian music. That night, Baby will play host to a celebration of sounds that have catapulted her as a solo performer and member of the influential band Novos Baianos.
For the unbeknownst, Baby Do Brasil, formerly known as Baby Consuelo, refers to the powerful singer of such hit tunes as “Menino do Rio” (“The Boy From Rio,” which is a response to “The Girl From Ipanema”), according to press notes. She’ll bring that song and others to her NYG gig; audience members should expect to hear “Telúrica,” “Sem Pecado and Sem Juízo” and “Masculino e Feminino,” among others. Her music over the years has blended many different styles, including everything from samba to rock to soul to bolero. The results of her multi-decade journey has been a unique concoction that is 100 percent Baby, and at City Winery, she’ll be aided by three guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and percussion.
Baby’s music career stretches back decades. Her seminal band, Novos Baianos, unleashed their first recording in 1970, but success wouldn’t come until 1972’s Acabou Chorare. Baby stayed with the group for six more years, but then struck out for a solo career, which became equally successful. Today, her concerts are an amalgam of solo and Novos Baianos tunes, plus some Brazilian standards, a welcome combination of her earliest days in the industry to her more recent compositions.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Baby Do Brasil about her City Winery concert. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How do you feel about embarking on your first American concert in 9 years? Excited, nervous?
A feeling of finally starting a new cycle! I feel very confident, strong, musically mature, very inspired and super happy to bring this new show, “Baby do Brasil In Concert,” to NYC. This is the beginning of an international project that I have wanted for years, but would only be possible if supported by a competent, structured team. And I now have that, with my manager, Nilson Raman, who brought the great Bibi Ferreira three times to perform in NYC, taking care of all the details and advance work.
I’m also very happy to be in NYC at the start of this new chapter for me, a city that I love and where I’ve had wonderful moments. I’m very happy, inspired and with a lot of energy to sing, accompanied by my super band, which I am bringing from Brazil. Can’t wait to go on stage at City Winery and do a great show!
What can your fans expect from the show at City Winery?
Lots of quality music, with a lot of groove, a lot of rhythm, mixing Brazilian music styles like bossa nova, samba, chorinho, with other styles of music, such as R&B, rock, blues, jazz and classical music — by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Vivaldi, Ravel, and the Brazilian classical composer Carlos Gomes. I’m also doing songs written by me that became hits in my solo career, such as “Sem Pecado e Sem Juízo,” “Cósmica,” “Telúrica,” and songs that were composed for me, such as “Menino do Rio” by Caetano Veloso; “A Menina Dança” and “Tinindo e Trincando” by Moraes and Galvão; “Todo Dia era Dia de Índio” by Jorge Bem Jor, among other wonderful songs. I’ll of course include “Acabou Chorare” and “Brasileirinho,” classics of Brazilian music and some special surprises, such as a tribute to Tina Turner!
Do you look back fondly on your time in Novos Baianos?
Absolutely! In 2016, I got the group back together again, and we had a historic meeting and a super tour. It was wonderful, very special and very important to relive with my brothers from Novos Baianos everything we created together. This brought us back all the energy from the beginning and all the subtlety of our music.
When did you realize you had the skills of a vocalist?
I was that child who discovers early on that they love to sing and put on improvised shows for people to watch. Then I learned the guitar and began to develop my singing with ease, and I never stopped. The music was just flowing inside me! In 1969, at the age of 17, I became a singer in the group Novos Baianos, and, after 10 years in the group, I took on my solo career.
Would you say a lot of your music has tried to honor the past but also find new directions for Brazilian music?
Yes, I would say I really love my Brazilian music influences! It is one of the most beautiful on the planet, like for example, the music of João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim. I also was influenced by the music that my parents exposed me to: jazz, classical music, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and much more!
Throughout my life I have absorbed many of the songs that touched my heart and made my musical understanding expand. All these influences, combined with my feelings, inspirations, creativity, and the gift of composing that God gave me, created a new music within me.
What is it like to sing “Menino do Rio”? What does this song mean to you?
“Menino do Rio” [“The Boy from Rio”, written by Caetano Veloso as an answer song to “The Girl from Ipanema”] became a classic of in Brazilian music. And I had the honor of achieving this with my interpretation and with Pepeu Gomes’ virtuoso arrangement. I was finishing up recording a new album when I met with Caetano Veloso and told him how much I would love to have one of his songs in my repertoire. To my surprise, he sent me the song two days later, and it hit all the charts in Brazil. And, to this day, it is one of the most played songs from my repertoire.
That was in 1982 (when I was Baby Consuelo), and it is a milestone in my career as a singer, as it was my first big national success as a solo artist.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Baby Do Brasil will play Saturday, Sept. 23 at the City Winery in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
