Brazilian singer/songwriter Lenine calls himself a journalist. Except on the days when he’ll say that he’s really a medieval troubadour. Either way, his songs are compelling vignettes that reveal multiple meanings — and, sometimes, different worlds — beneath a simple surface.
Lenine’s “Lavadeira Do Rio,” is about women who wash clothes in the river. But as it reveals a rural domestic tradition that goes back 300 years, the story becomes a reflection on maintaining customs. But he also writes such narratives as “O Dia Em Que Faremos Contato” [The Day We Make Contact], which he describes as “retro-futuristic science fiction.”
These stories are reaching a growing worldwide audience. Lenine recently released a self-titled compilation (on Six Degrees Records), which targets North American listeners. While talking from his home in Rio de Janeiro a few weeks ago, he was preparing for an international tour that brings him to Chicago for the first time on Saturday (a scheduled visit for the 2000 World Music Festival was canceled because of a last-minute visa problem).
All of which is a long way from the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife where Lenine, now 45, was born (as Oswaldo Lenine Macedo Pimentel) and raised. Although his prominent second name came from his Communist father’s admiration for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Lenine formed his own tenets early on.
“I would rather have been named after [19th Century Russian anarchist] Mikhail Bakunin,” Lenine said. “He provided a more interesting ideology.”
Access to global influences
This part of Brazil is known for a form of music called forro, which features the accordion and sometimes sounds similar to zydeco. Another northeastern rhythm, maracatu, derives directly from African drum ensembles. Jackson Do Pandeiro, a singer/percussionist, developed a syncopated music called coco and he would become the subject of Lenine’s tribute, “Jack Soul Brasileiro.”
Lenine adds that along with these strong regional genres, he had ready access to global influences.
“Recife wasn’t a big metropolis, but it was a port,” Lenine said. “Forro influenced me as much as Led Zeppelin and The Police did.”
When it came time to make the inevitable move to a large city, Lenine chose Rio (as opposed to the bigger Sao Paulo) in the early 1980s because he wanted to remain close to the sea. With his open-minded artistic interests, and a growing reputation for cultivating orchids, Lenine was not quite committed to a single direction.
“I was very interested in being a filmmaker,” Lenine said. “But it’s cheaper to be a musician.”
Once Lenine began composing in earnest, he faced indifference from the general Brazilian public, according to Rio-based record producer Bruno Levinson. But Levinson said Lenine’s perseverance eventually became inspirational.
“In the 1980s, Brazilian musicians wanted to be like American bands,” Levinson said. “In the 1990s, we started to be proud of our culture and artists, especially from Recife, wanted to be Brazilian. Lenine has been a part of this.”
Still, Lenine says that doesn’t mean there is a purely Brazilian culture.
“Brazilian culture is fresh in terms of influences, because it absorbed from all different cultures,” Lenine said. “The only really Brazilian thing, which has survived since indigenous times, is this cannibalistic attitude of absorbing, eating, everything around you.”
This atavistic tendency was noted on Lenine’s 2002 disc, “Falange Canibal” [Cannibal Legion], and he implies that it will continue far into the future.
“As long as there is bamboo,” Lenine said, “There will be arrows.”
Inspires younger musicians
For Lenine, this absorption resulted in such discs as “Na Pressao.” Electronic effects give way to forro accordions and rock guitar lines are broken up with maracatu ensembles. All of that serves his succinct, and instantly recognizable, pop songs. In 2004, Lenine performed with Cuban bassist Yusa and Argentinian percussionist Ramiro Musotto, captured on the live “In Cite” DVD, which emphasizes his widening pan-American worldview.
“There are similar situations with black music in the U.S. and Brazil, and how in both countries it becomes part of the larger culture,” Lenine said. “Which is interesting because the U.S. and Brazil are so far apart in economics and demographics.”
Back in Rio, Lenine has become an inspiration to younger Brazilian musicians. Accomplished guitarists, such as Pedro Sa and Junior Tolstoi, had their first regular jobs working for him. Last year, Lenine co-produced popular singer Maria Rita’s “Segundo.” Bassist/producer Kassin, who performed in Chicago as part of the collectives Moreno +2 and Domenico +2, says he learned a lot from performing with him early in his career.
“The way Lenine plays guitar is unique,” Kassin said. “It has a lot of bass lines, so it was a great fit for myself. It was also my first time playing northeastern rhythms.”
Usually, it’s convenient to discuss Brazilian music through its historic movements. In the past few years, the 1960s Tropicalia musicians who cheerfully mixed psychedelic rock, a unique take on bossa nova and theatrical political dissent, have received considerable attention in the U.S. and Europe. Lenine — reflecting his early adherence to anarchism — would rather ally himself with individuals who he calls “odd numbers, people who weren’t part of a school.”
“This sort of music comes from a single mother, but has many fathers,” Lenine said.
That he traces his ancestry to a French explorer who had 20 children in a polygamous arrangement with four indigenous Brazilian sisters remains an oblique, unstated irony.
Although Lenine disdains the notions of movements, it is noteworthy that his visit to Chicago coincides with an upcoming local performance of the reunited Brazilian Tropicalia group Os Mutantes (as part of the Pitchfork Music Festival on July 30). Kassin, who owns a bass used on Os Mutantes’ landmark recordings, is unsure if the current generation of Brazilian musicians will be as influential as its predecessors.
“It’s hard to say if we’ll be the next step for what Os Mutantes created,” Kassin said. “I just hope so.”
Lenine will appear at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo, Saturday at 10 p.m. Admission: $17 advance, $20 door. Call 312-362-9707.
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Brazil is awash in great musicians
Along with Lenine and ascending star Seu Jorge, Brazil has become a crucial hub for creative popular music in the Americas. Here are some key releases from the past few years:
CeU, “CeU” (Six Degrees): This 20-year-old singer/songwriter knowingly blends bossa nova with electronica and dub. But the most surprising moment is when she gives a sultry spin to Bob Marley’s ghetto survival plea “Concrete Jungle.”
Thalma de Freitas, “Thalma de Freitas” (Cardume/EMI): Traditional small-group samba is thriving through the voice of this talented young singer.
Domenico +2, “Sincerely Hot” (Luaka Bop): The trio of vocalist/percussionist Domenico Lancellotti, vocalist/guitarist Moreno Veloso, and bassist/producer Kassin never let rapid, often hilarious shifts from trip hop and metal to samba get in the way of its infectious melodies.
Fernanda Porto, “Fernanda Porto” (Trama): Porto, a classically trained pianist, uses her smooth and stunning voice to balance the rapid programmed drum ‘n’ bass backing tracks, which she arranged herself.
Totonho & Os Cabra, “Sabotador De Satelite” (Trama): This stunning disc mixes sounds from Brazil’s countryside with inspiration from somewhere in outer space.
Tom Ze, “Estuando O Pagode” (Luaka Bop): Now 70, the most musically subversive of the Tropicalia dissidents has not lost his sense of adventure. His most recent release is an operetta/electronic collage touching on feminist themes.
— Aaron Cohen
