Milton Nascimento at the Barbican: Exploring the magic realism of Clube Da Esquina

Auteur: Milton Nascimento
AFP/Getty Images
Jochan Embley17 June 2019

In Santa Tereza, the bohemian neighbourhood in the undulating sprawl of Belo Horizonte, two roads intersect: Rua Divinópolis and Rua Paraisópolis. Here on the street corner, a group of musicians used to gather and play music.

It was the 1960s. As locals wandered by, the musicians would weave a tapestry of their favourite musical styles: the bossa nova of their forefathers would mingle alongside the jazz of Davis and Coltrane, the rocking psychedelia of the Beatles and the classical symphonies of the European greats. As the years went by, a collective known as Clube da Esquina — Portuguese for “the corner club” — gained momentum. By 1972, they had released an album regarded as one of the finest to ever come out of Brazil.

The record, also called Clube da Esquina, was a startlingly ambitious two-disc LP, with 21 songs packed into 64 minutes. The project was led by Milton Nascimento, whose pioneering artistry changed the way that Brazilians – and later the rest of the world – would write songs and produce music.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1942, Nascimento was adopted at 18-months-old following the death of his biological mother. He grew up in Três Pontas, a city in the state of Minas Gerais, and at the age of 21 moved to take a job as an accountant in the region’s capital, Belo Horizonte. After finding a flat in Edificio Levy, a looming tower block in the city centre, he became friendly with the Borges family, who lived in the same building – especially two of the brothers, Márcio and Lô.

Bound by a mutual love of music — Nascimento played samba with various bands around the city’s bars and clubs, the brothers likewise — the trio began jamming and writing together. A short while later, the Borges moved a couple of miles east and settled in a house on that fabled street corner, which would soon become the de facto HQ of Clube da Esquina.

In the second half of the 60s, Nascimento rose to national attention for his songwriting brilliance. In 1966, his song Canção do Sal was reinterpreted by the renowned vocalist Elis Regina, and the next year, his works were lauded at the International Song Festival in Rio de Janeiro. He was entered by a friend — an early sign of his reluctance to spend too much time in the limelight, even at the height of his Clube da Esquina fame.

But it was as part of the fledgling corner club that he was doing the most intriguing work. An ever-growing list of collaborators became involved, turning it into a fluid collective of songwriters, session musicians, vocalists, producers and arrangers. Eumir Deodata, the friend that entered Nascimento in the festival and who would go on to win a Grammy in the 70s, was involved, as were the likes of Beto Guedes, Toninho Horta and Flávio Venturini.

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This was all happening amid a backdrop of political upheaval and cultural shift in Brazil. The country was aching in the grip of an oppressive government, which inadvertently sparked an explosively radical scene: tropicalia. Led by musicians such as Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the music blazed a new path for the country’s musicians, fearlessly fusing traditional Brazilian styles with bold Western sounds — not least the electric guitar, an entirely alien noise to most of the country’s listeners. It infuriated the authorities, who soon exiled the progenitors. Within the span of 1968, tropicalia had pretty much come and gone.

Its impact, however, was ground-breaking. Emboldened and inspired, the Clube da Esquina musicians continued to innovate and, in 1971, gathered to start writing their first album.

The resulting record glimmered with a kind of magic realism. The whole thing was rooted in human emotion, but it also delivered sounds that seemed otherworldly. It was a marvel of songwriting and production, an album that could only have come from Brazil, but that also sounded like it had been sent from another planet.

There are few better examples than Trem De Doido, one of the album’s high points. Led by Lô Borges, it’s a swirling, intoxicating voyage of a song, with a rhythm guitar that sounds more like a crashing wave than a strummed instrument, and an overdriven lead that wails with a burning agony. The final 40 seconds of the song are transcendent.

Borges excels elsewhere too, like on Paisagem Da Janela. It’s a beguiling example of the paradoxical times the musicians were living through. The music is breezy and joyful, but the lyrics are pained — in the chorus, he sings of “morbid things” and “sordid men”, a jab at the cruel ruling elite.

Despite the starring role played by Borges, Nascimento shines brightest. On the opening track, the brooding groove of Tudo O Que Você Podia Ser, his astounding vocals are brought to the fore. At first they are gentle, then commanding, then unchained, and they continue to morph throughout the album.

Each track is succinct without seeming abrupt, richly imagined without being overblown, and forever surprising. There are moments of elegant melancholy, like on Clube Da Esquina No 2 and Um Gosto De Sol, and of bursting excitement, with songs such as Cravo E Canela. Each track has its own secrets, revelatory moments that keep on revealing themselves even after the umpteenth listen.

It's an album rich with complex wonder and, as if often the case with the most pioneering works, the initial reaction to it was mixed. The hawk-eyed censors took issue with some lyrics, especially on Paisagem Da Janela, and tried to suppress them, while many music critics in Brazil viewed it with perplexion. In the US, it was largely ignored until Nascimento collaborated with Wayne Shorter on the 1974 album Native Dancer, and even after that it took years for Clube Da Esquina to be fully appreciated. These days, however, it counts Herbie Hancock, Björk and Floating Points among its varied admirers.

In 1978, Nascimento would helm a second edition, Clube Da Esquina 2, which brims with invention. But it was that first album that remains his masterpiece. Tonight, June 17, he comes to London to play a concert celebrating Clube Da Esquina, as well as the rest of his glittering career. Tickets for the show at the Barbican are still available — don’t miss out on the chance to see first-hand the genius of Nascimento.

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