Marisa Monte

Here is her discography info and some excerpts from her site. PLEASE SUPPORT THIS ARTIST IF YOU LIKE HER WORK!!! I have bought 90% of her albums and I’m sure you will help to make every effort possible for us to do our part to sustain the artists making the music we so dearly love…

--Infojerk

I began on stage. The arc of my career was built on direct contact with the public in live performances. In the fifteen years since I began I have not recorded often because of long tours that have kept recording periods far apart. Five records in fifteen years without counting the Tribalistas and the ones I produced for other artists. In 2001 after I finished the tour for “ memories and chronicles” which lasted almost two years I decided to spend some time at home...[+]
Universo Ao Meu Redor

Infinito Particular

Recorded between Rio, Salvador and NY, Memórias, crônicas e declarações de amor fspeaks of the several manners of feeling love. In the production, Marisa e Arto Lindsay guide a repertoire of 13 songs. Besides new works with Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes, and pearls by Benjor, Nelson Cavaquinho and Paulinho da Viola, the cd presents a new partner, Lucas Santana (in Abololô) an original song by Caetano Veloso (Sou seu sabiá).

Eleven studio songs recorded between Recife and Rio de Janeiro, and seven songs recorded in studios in NY and Rio. From the stage warmth there are Give me love, by post-Beatles George, Panis et circenses, by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and her own compositions, such as Beija eu. From the studio, the minimalism of verses from Blanco, poem by the Mexican Nobel Prize Winner Octávio Paz put into music by Marisa, Lulu SantosÆ pop verve of Tempos modernos and one of the most beautiful melodies by Brown, Maraçá.

The title of this cd comes from Seo Zé,a song by Carlinhos Brown that ended up not included. By Brown, the cd carries Maria de verdade and Segue o seco. All Letras are joined by his harmonies, like Dança da solidão with Gilberto GilÆs guitar, and De mais ninguém, with the magnificent æsupportÆ of Época de Ouro. The never ending flirtation with Velha Guarda da Portela closes the work with Esta melodia.

The composer is born. Marisa signs the melody and the Letras of Eu sei (na mira). And the partners appear: Ainda lembro was created with Nando Reis and displays a duo with Ed Motta. The greatest hit of this phase is Beija eu, by Marisa, Arnaldo Antunes and the new producer Arto Lindsay, who by then on became titular of all studio sessions.

(We’re just missing MM—can anyone help out with this? If so PM me @ jackassed on Demonoid.com)

The premiére MM was almost in its totality recorded on the stage of Teatro Villa-Lobos, Rio de Janeiro, in September, 1988. Through this album Marisa opens her way towards the large public, exposing her identity via a repertoire with no frontiers. Here one finds the Portela samba schools Candeia (Preciso me encontrar); the Tropicalist Mutantes (Ando meio desligado); and even the Gershwin brothers (Bess, you is my woman now), besides one of her major hits, Bem que se quis, a version made by Nelson Motta of the composition created by the Italian musician Pino Daniele.

BIO:

SINGING . . . Marisa does not remember when she began singing. We know that at the age of fourteen she began to study bel canto. From there on she, at the same time, participated in plays presented by Colégio AndrewsÆ amateur theater group (specially ôRocky Horror Showö), offered pop shows with friends (in the circuit Viro do Ipiranga/ Manga Rosa/ Robin Hood/ Jazzmania/ Double Dose etc), recorded demo tapes, did the backing for the rock band Laranja da Terra, saw all shows of Morro da UrcaÆsgolden phase (Blitz, Ritchie, Lobão, Lulu Santos et al).
Already appreciating Maria Callas and Billie Holyday, Marisa was part of a generation that began to cook Brazilian rock. She entered college at Escola Nacional de Música (National School of Music) passing tests on specific skills and all. "Also because there is no other way, itÆs the only technique available. If you want to study singing, thatÆs how it is, itÆs like exercising, there is a respiratory,

muscular and posture education.ö
FATHER . . . Carlos Monte, Marisa's father, was one of Portela's directors in the beginning of the Seventies. Today, his name is written on a bronze plaque in a Portelão wall. "It is written: 'Homage to all Portela fans who helped to build PortelãoÆ. Then there is a list of names, and his is of them", she says.
INVITATION . . . While Marisa was making the Rio de Janeiro's circuit in the beginning of the Eighties, performing different roles in the pop scene, she caught the attention of the recording industry. At 16, she received an invitation from Roberto Menescal, then PolyGram's art director, to record what could have been her first CD. She declined, though, not only because she thought she didn't have at the time a work worth of recording, but also because she had already taken the decision of going to study in Italy.

BIJOUX . . . Partner of the artist Jeff Svoboda, Marisa was the owner of a fashion factory of women's articles. She created purses, belts, agendas and other leather articles; hair pins, earrings and rings from prosaic materials such as light switches, old bottoms from jackets found on used clothesÆ stores, and teddy bear eyes. The business flourished in a rented room in Rio de Janeiro's Lapa district, next to the transvestites quarters. It even survived the Cruzado Plan. "We created the pieces and took the samples

to places like Company and Yes Brazil, and they ordered them like 'two hundred of this, three hundred of that'. Our costs were extremely low, so much that we sold the stuff with unbelievable profit and it was still quite cheap". The company never had a name and closed the doors when she began to sing seriously. Marisa still wears today some of the pieces she created then.
MOTHER . . . ôI learned to sew early on in life, and my mother always gave me

something to do in our home, things to give for Christmas and stuff like that". In a house full of women ( besides the sisters Marisa, Letícia and Lívia, there were maids and relatives) the so called ôfeminine skills ö were cultivated and carefully passed on. And not only that: Letícia studied piano; Marisa, singing. ôOne day, my teacher, Dona Alda, called my mother and said 'Perhaps the Spiritualists can explain this, but I can't'. It was Sílvia who gave to Marisa her first musical instrument, a set of drums, when

she was only 9. And she learned a variety of rhythms such as fox and baião with her teacher Sut Chagas.
ITALY . . . Living in Europe in 1986, Marisa says she saw Brazil from outside, or rather, she saw herself "outside Brazil". Such situation provoked a curious encounter with national culture. "I only listened to Brazilian music" she recalls. "I had many friends and offered night shows in Rome and sang with them". While Brazilian Rock (Brock) exploded in the country, Marisa heard and studied opera, and, at the same time, sang Djavan, Caetano, Milton and Gil on Italy's small stages.
MISSING BRAZIL . . . She started missing Brazil after about ten months away. Marisa had gone in order to study bel canto, to go away, to "check out". Devotion to classical study was the first thing to fall. "As a single form of expression, that was not enough for me. There is an old-fashioned technical format, coming from a pre-microphone world. I kind of liked it, but missed contemporary production."
NELSINHO . . . In the way to Rome, Marisa looked for Nelson Motta, a friend of her mother. He, gave her hints and contacts of people and places via telephone. "I met journalists, musicians, very interesting people". Some months after, somehow by coincidence, half willing, Nelsinho saw one of hers pocket-shows in a crowded Venetian small bar. In her first month back in Brazil, Marisa offered a show in Jazzmania produced by her sister Lívia and closely watched by Lula Buarque de Hollanda, her sister Letícia's boyfriend. Nelsinho was there too, among the audience.
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
AVANT-GARDE . . . Marisa went through everything on stages of all sizes. Including a show of contemporary musicin Rio de Janeiro's ModernArt Museum. The whole show, signed by Luigi Irlandini, was simply Marisa singing a single note, a Sanskrit letter, accompanied by an instrument that mixed a water-pipe tube with a bull's horn. This show was sponsored by an oil company, Hans-Joachin Koellreuter saw it, and it was effusively described in a review as a "fusion between music from the East and the West, between classical and popular musicö.

URCA . . . Marisa family's house, in Urca, was the stage for the rehearsals of several bands. Andrews' group rehearsed ôRock Horror Showö there. The several bands that accompanied her, before and after Italy, also. For the first shows after returning from Europe, the group rehearsed on the apartment's living room, just in front of Urca Square, a closed piece of the Bay, used as harbor for small boats. People gathered there to hear, and some even shouted asking for their preferred songs.

"Play the Mermaid one again!", they would shout.
RETURN . . . Marisa remember that when she just arrived from Italy, she was very curious about Brazilian music. She went back to study at Escola Nacional de Música (National Music School) and began to search for things in used booksÆ stores, the National Foundation of the Arts - Funarte's archives, the Museum of Image and Audio - MIS, small recording companies and old collections,

including her family's. She listened all she would find, and offered shows singing Marvin Gaye and Kurt Weil, plus Tim Maia, Assis Valente, Lupicínio, Lamartine, Pixinguinha, Gil etc. What she did was to offer "little concerts to an audience of family and friends". And so the profile of an "eclectic listener" began to get defined.
PREMIERE . . . The first really great show, produced by Nelsinho and Lula Buarque de Hollanda and with a repertoire of songs Marisa ôliked to hearö, took months of rehearsal. ôThat I learn: time and work go hand on hand. We worked a lot every arrangement, form and harmony". The show took place in Jazzmania, and went to other venues in Rio, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte; always bigger and more crowded". "It was the first time I did a work that was really mine. "It was the first time I did a work that was really mine. I had never dealt with the public, the press and the musicians in that way,I didn't know very well what to do. I felt I had the right to learn bit by bit by practicing, in a natural and organic manner. And nobody pressured me, neither Lula nor Nelsinho.”
MM . . . A year after that first night in Jazzmania, the show's success brought the invitation of making a TV special for Manchete. It was accepted under one condition: that it would be done in cinema.) Lula and Nelsinho called Walter Salles (ôI didn't even know himpersonally", says Marisa) to edit it, manage to find a sponsor through a friend, and found out they needed a partner in order to tape the sound as it had to be, in 24 channels. Finally, a recording company was chosen: Emi-Odeon. ôI didn't think of the market, I had no industrial perspective, at this point who really gave the shots was Nelsinho.ö They requested nothing, besides the recording of her work, and Marisa even declined any advanced payment. The songs of that show, with few studio

touches, were transformed into the CD ôMMö.
HIT . . . Trying to include one of the CD's songs in the soundtrack of some TV soap opera, Nelsinho went after Mariozinho Rocha, in Globo. He offered ôBem que se quisö, his version of an Italian song by Pino Daniele, They were declined. Meanwhile, the actress Lúcia Verissimo asked Marina Lima for a song for one character she would play in one of Globo's soap operas. Marina did not

have a song to offer then, and suggested that she looked for Nelsinho and Marisa. Through Lúcia Verissimo's hands, ôBem que se quisö became part of ôO Salvador da Pátriaö, a 8pm Globo soap opera, a month before the CD arrived at the stores.
ARTO . . . Lula Buarque went to study cinema in New York and let Marisa under the cares of Leonardo Netto. But he often sent letters "telling us what was going on". That's how the bridge

connecting Marisa and the so called "international circuit" began to be built. "It was Lula who brought my CD to Arto", she says, ôand kept trying to make my mind, talking to me about him. I had never done a studio CD, and wanted a producer for that. I had to come up with a second CD, had no intimacy with studios, had never worked with an original repertoire... after the success of the first CD, I had many expectations... I knew I had to conquer a lot of things...ö That's how Arto Lindsay entered the story.ARNALDO . . . In São Paulo, Marisa was performing in Aeroanta the show that would later become ôMMö. To work with the 'thinking head' Arnaldo Antunes was a fan's dream, and, for one of those nights, Lula Buarque invited the Titãs. Arnaldo came and Lula decided to arrange a meeting between them. He told Marisa that the poet had agreed on entering the stage for a song or two if she called him. He lied. "When was time to sing 'Comida', I cried 'Arnaaaldooo.... Arnaaaldooo...' can you imagine, I calling someone I didn't even know... I couldn't imagine that Lula made it all up..." Arnaldo entered the stage, sang, came down and left as a very close friend of Marisa. They became partners. subiu, cantou e desceu do palco íntimo de Marisa. Viraram parceiros.
NANDO . . . Always a Titãs' fan, Marisa found in Nando Reis the most steady partner in the phase initiated by ôMMö, the show, and, after, the CD. It was intensely living next to Nando that

Marisa made "a lot of music". The partnershipÆs chemistry brought many successes to the careers of both. "Since we were always together, we had the change to invest in an excellent partnership."
COMPOSER . . . In her oldest memories, Marisa says she began to compose music as a young child, creating songs for her puppet theater, at home. Songs created when she was 15 and 16 are kept until today. ôBlancoö, created from a poem

by Octavio Paz, is from this epoch, and ended up being recorded.
ôNelsinho used to say: you will be a great composerö, she says. ôReal songs, with lyrics and everything, I have done since before my trip to Italy".
MAIS . . . The production of ôMaisö was for Marisa her first deep dive into the universe of studios. "It's great, there you have resources you don't have live". Through the CD, Marisa made the

contact between Arto and Titãs, who, on their turn, introduced her to Sakamoto, John Zorn, Bernie Worrell and Naná Vasconcelos.
BYRNE . . . Always connected to whatever is new and good in world music, and specially found of Brazilian music, David Byrne, the cerebral major poet of New York's new wave and leader of the Talking Heads, “discovered” Marisa early on. She invited her to be part of the ôRei Momoö Project. Marisa wasn't able to do so at the time, and Margareth Menezes. replaced her. The new opportunity came through the ôRed, hot in Rioö Project, in which both form a duo in his version of ôÂguas de março.ö ôHe follows my work since the first CD. He is a great artist, it was great to be with him in a studio.”
STAGE . . . In spite of creating pieces that work well in both recording and stage, Marisa believes that these two things are completely different;nothing is created in the studio with the stage on mind, and, on the other hand, on the stage everything can and should be recreated.
ATTITUDE . . . Marisa recognizes that with her second CD she took a, let's say, "more incisive" attitude. Or, as she puts it "it was an affirmation CD". Even the photo on the cover has something to do with this. It was as if I was saying, 'look, I'm not only a singer, not only that, look here, it's MORE". And it raised some controversy: the reviews alternated in calling it a "masterpiece" and "the worst junk in the universe". But no one was indifferent. ôMaisö sold more and faster than ôMMö.
GENERATION . . . Talking about her creative process, how often she begins to conceive a new CD in the midst of a tour, Marisa recalls her partnership with people like Arto Lindsay, Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes. ôWe see each other often, we talk, we miss each other, but we do not share much time together. It's a privilege when we are together, for each other. In the rare times it happens, Arto, Arnaldo, Carlinhos and I together, our subject is this: creation, creation, creation. We are able to make two or three songs in a single day". But the scope of her relationships is wider: she mentions Cássia Eller, Pepeu, Moraes Moreira, Lucas Santana... What Marisa really likes to do is to promote this great dialogue between styles, epochs and people...