M a d a m e S a t ã

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 15:32] all rights reserved

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The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"´É melhor ser alegre que ser triste.
It's better to be happy than to be sad.

A alegria é a melhor coisa que existe.
The happiness is the best thing ever.

É assim como a luz no coração.
It's like light into the heart.

Mas pra fazer um samba com beleza,
But to make a samba with beauty,

É preciso um bocado de tristeza,
It's necessary a bunch of sadness,

Senão não se faz um samba não!
Otherwise you can not make it!

Fazer samba não é contar piada.
To make a samba is not like to tell a joke.

E quem faz samba assim não é de nada.
And who does it is way off.

O bom samba é uma forma de oração.
The good samba is a kind of prayer.

Porque o samba é a tristeza que balança.
Because the samba is the sadness that swings.

E a tristeza tem sempre uma esperança
And inside the sadness there is always a hope

De um dia não ser mais triste não.
Of one day you're not sad anymore.

Pôe um pouco de amor numa cadência,
Put a bit of love into a rhythm,

E vai ver que ninguém no mundo vence
So, you'll see that nobody in the world can beat

A beleza que tem um samba não
The beauty that a samba has inside itself.

Porque o samba nasceu lá na Bahia,
Because the samba was born there in Bahia,

E se hoje ele é branco na poesia,
* And today, if it's white in it's poetry,

Ele é negro demais no coração.
** It's very black deep in the heart.´

(´Samba da Benção´ - ´Samba of the Blessing´ -,
by Baden Powell & Vinicius de Moraes)

[* Making mention of the poet and lyricist (besides essayist and playwright) Marcus Vinicius da Cruz e Mello Moraes (1913 - 1980), who was caucasian. He claimed to be, because of the admiration for our African legacy, ** ´the blackest white man in Brazil.´ O ´Poetinha´ (the ´little Poet´, its sobriquet) was the co-author of ´The Girl from Ipanema´ (being Tom Jobim the composer) and many others songs of great relevance (with various illustrious partners). Vinícius de Moraes was probably the most important lyricist of bossa nova. He served as a national diplomat too. Plus: Baden Powell of Aquino, usually known simply as Baden Powell (1937 - 2000), was a very important, celebrated and influential Brazilian guitarists and guitar composers of his time. He combined classical techniques with popular harmony and swing. Eclectic, performed in many genres.]

I know Brazilian music well and, among the many styles, samba. In fact, in terms of diversity, perhaps Brazil is the country, in its continental proportions, that most has a plurality of musical dialects in the world. Mr. Melgaço, now and then, turns more directly to the culture of his native land, and because he´s an artist who creates in an extremely cosmopolitan way, he could not fail to focus his origins too.

The personality that´s highlighted in his album (´Madame Satã´) was related to samba (the soundtrack that served as background for his marginality) and capoeira (used masterfully for his personal defense but closely linked to the sound universe). The instrument that most characterizes capoeira is the berimbau. Already in the case of samba, there are several ... but especially a suit of percussions. Well, O.M., in fifteen minutes and thirty-two seconds, begets an auscultatable twinkling biography of his honoree. All these mentioned elements are present and thus, Melgaço complies with impeccability the references necessary for the contextualization of this (in the best sense) uncanny work.

But, as always, he goes beyond. Far beyond. For Otacílio, it´s not of interest to merely repeat what has been done (as so many musicians prefer to do), but to contribute to a step forward. And so, besides adopting an innovative rhythmic treatment, he includes vertiginous layers (coming from echoes of previous works) of voices (in solfege) & strings, generating a tension (Apollonian and Dionysian counterpoints, phenomenal ´chiaroscuro´) never before heard when we talk about samba. I repeat: the ethos, the feature that such ´Melgacian samba´ acquired is unique, unparalleled (to the point of deserving an own ´entry´ in the ´dictionary´ of so propagated style).

If there´s an example of a junction between the ´popular´ and the ´erudite´, which is neither proselytizing nor paternalistic nor opportunistic nor condescending nor vulgarizing nor stereotyped nor schizophrenic or ...; we, Ladies and Gentlemen, are, privileged, facing one." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"Madame Satã. João Francisco dos Santos (1900–1976) was a Brazilian drag performer and capoeirista better known by the artistic name Madame Satã.

He was born into a family of ex-slaves in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Having been accused with conspiracy of murder, spending 27 years in prison, being a former gangster and father of 7, he found refuge in the dark Bohemian culture of Rio de Janeiro amidst a lively world of pimps, prostitutes, deviants and samba composers.

João is most commemorated as a figure who fought to redefine himself while battling the stigmas of being a son of former black slaves, illiterate and homosexual. João is quoted for once saying ´I was born an outlaw, that's how I'll live.´ In between his drag performances, his days as a hustler and his convictions of murder, his image as the legendary cabaret performance artist Madame Satã meaning Madam Satan having been influenced by the 1930s film by Cecil B. DeMille about a woman disguising herself as a notorious temptress to win back her errant husband. João's infamous character represented an expression of endurance in this post abolitionist era in Brazil where black people, prostitutes, drug users and addicts and other 'deviant' outcasts were deemed useless to society. He was a skilled street fighter trained in the style of capoeira, and his battles against the police forces were legendary. He routinely fought barehanded against quartets of policemen armed with wooden clubs. Also, it's said he once faced a twenty-four-man platoon and battled them to a stalemate, forcing them to fly away after leaving seven of them badly wounded, two with broken arms and two with split livers.

Thus, João Francisco dos Santos became a living myth that supported and represented the values and lives of such outcasts becoming himself a revolutionary icon for the marginalized.

Exactly. What Otacílio Melgaço does through this intriguing sound Piece is to bring to the proscenium a Brazilian icon of Resistance. João had a series of, so to speak, conditions to suffer reproof and repudiation from an unequal, hypocritical, racist, prejudiced society: he was Afro-descendant, poor, unlettered, homosexual, transvestite, and so on. [You can check out as O.M. made a magnificent depiction (by means of album cover) of both the makeup (the same - symbolism - happens with the worn dress) of the cross-dresser (ambiguously remarkable - still present on the skin but fragmented, being undone; its remnants are a beautiful metaphor) as well as the satanic factor - from the pseudonym, the nickname of João Francisco dos Santos, having nothing more than a cinematographic comedy as a source. However, underlining an imposing person, and if provoked, worthy of being feared. Added to this, the term refers us to its relation with mystical beliefs and other conduits of ´supernatural´ empowerment.]

He had a series of conditions to suffer reproof and repudiation from an unequal, hypocritical, racist, prejudiced society: was Afro-descendant, poor, unlettered, homosexual, transvestite ... and never let anyone make him feel like an inferior human being, on the contrary. Refuted castrations of any kind and, much more than that, he challenged the status quo (of course, the limits he extrapolated may be debatable but the medium in which he was created/forged was no less questionable). Under any circumstance, he did not bow to the oppressor establishment and, much more than that, was someone who exercised his combative self even with glamor. He defined himself as ´Son of Iansã and Ogum, devotee of Josephine Baker´.

A propos, it was Josephine who said: ´To realise our dreams we must decide to wake up. I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.´ (Yes, he thought about it!) Such remark could have come from the mouth of Madame Satã, I have no doubt. It was demoiselle Baker who also stated that ´art is an elastic sort of love´. This time, I hear it through the inimitable voice of Mr. Melgaço." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - Madam Satan or Madame Satan is a 1930 American Pre-Code musical comedy film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth and Roland Young. Madam Satan has been called one of the oddest films DeMille made and certainly one of the oddest MGM made during its "golden age." The film originally featured Technicolor sequences that are now lost. Thematically, this marked an attempt by DeMille to return to the boudoir comedies genre that had brought him financial success about 10 years earlier;

II - Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music. It was developed in Brazil mainly by Angolans, at the beginning of the 16th century. It is known for its quick and complex maneuvers, predominantly using power, speed, and leverage across a wide variety of kicks, spins and techniques.

The most widely accepted origin of the word capoeira comes from the Tupi words ka'a ("jungle") e pûer ("it was"), referring to the areas of low vegetation in the Brazilian interior where fugitive slaves would hide. A practitioner of the art is called a capoeirista.

On 26th November 2014 capoeira was granted a special protected status as "intangible cultural heritage" by UNESCO;

III - The berimbau is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, from Brazil. Originally from Africa where it receives different names, the berimbau was eventually incorporated into the practice of the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira, the berimbau (the soul of capoeira) leads the capoeiristas movement in the ´roda´—the faster the berimbau is playing the faster the capoeirista moves in the game. The instrument is known for being the subject matter of a popular song by Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell, with lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. The instrument is also a part of Candomblé-de-caboclo tradition;

IV - Iansã and Ogum are orixás. An orisha (spelled òrìṣà in the Yoruba language, orichá or orixá in Latin America) is a spirit that reflects one of the manifestations of the Supreme Divinity (Eledumare, Olorun, Olofi) in Yoruba religion. Orisha are said to have existed in the spiritual world, or Astral plane (òrun) or lived as human beings in the planetary world, or physical plane (ayé). Others are said to be humans who are recognized as deities due to extraordinary feats. Many orishas have found their way to most of the New World as a result of the Atlantic slave trade and are now expressed in practices as varied as Santería, Candomblé, Trinidad Orisha, Umbanda, and Oyotunji, among others;

V - João Francisco dos Santos had published in 1972 the book "Memoirs of Madame Satã";

VI - In 1974 was released the film Rainha Diaba (Antônio Carlos Fontoura, director), that tells the life of a marginal drag-queen freely inspired in M.S.;

VII - In 2002 a movie about his life was filmed in Brazil, which also bears the name of Madame Satã (Karim Aïnouz, director) nationally and internationally awarded;

VIII - In 2015, M.S. was honored at Carnival by GRES Portela, that presented the 450 years of the City of Rio de Janeiro;

IX - Madame Satã is also an underground music club located in the Italo-Brazilian district Bela Vista, central region of the city of São Paulo.

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

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Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.