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Actors who also sing get a bad press . . .
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The Observer, Actors who also sing get a bad press . . . >>
Actors who also sing get a bad press. This boy from Brazil is different, though, says Sue Steward. His voice is superb - and he does a great 'Rebel Rebel'
On the sleeve of the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's latest film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Bill Murray is driving a sea-mobile, flanked by Anjelica Houston and Cate Blanchett. Behind him stands an unfamiliar actor in a red beanie hat, who sings bizarre versions of old David Bowie songs - in Portuguese - throughout the film. This is Seu Jorge, who grabbed the minor part of Pele dos Santos in the movie following his role as Knockout Ned in the favela thriller City of God.
On The Life Aquatic soundtrack, the real Bowie sings 'Life on Mars', but he is outshone by Jorge's visionary reworkings of 'Rebel Rebel', 'Rock'n'Roll Suicide', 'Life on Mars' and 'Starman'. Although Wes Anderson couldn't understand a word, he has been full of praise for Jorge's 'unquestionably beautiful performance.'
When I spoke to Jorge during his recent brief visit to London, he expressed his thanks to Anderson for introducing him to Bowie's records because they never reached the favelas - it was 'a great present', which put him 'closer to England's rock'n'roll, with its special voice and melody and guitar'.
The lanky 32-year-old is already a key character on Brazil's explosive new music scene, which has harnessed nu-jazz, drum'n'bass tricks, and funk fusions to traditional rhythms and instrumentation and the templates of samba and bossa nova. Unlike his contemporaries Otto or DJ Dolores, Jorge comes from a Rio favela, and significantly, from a favela drama school (which explains a vocabulary peppered with references to Shakespeare and dramaturgy).
His debut solo album, 2002's Carolina, revealed his debt to Seventies samba-funk pioneer (and fellow Afro-Brazilian) Jorge Ben Jor, while his sweet electro-funk arrangements transformed Chico Buarque's 'Cotidiano' on the recent compilation Brazilian Beats Vol.6. But it is with the film soundtrack and this second solo album, Cru, that his reputation will really spread in this country.
Recorded in Paris, Cru is a magnificent record, packed with references to Rio samba in the squeaky cuica drum which talks and wails throughout, together with earth-shaking bass beats from a carnival drum. 'Da Parada' is an erotically slow version of Elvis's 'Don't' while a nervy re-make of Serge Gainsbourg's 'Chatterton' is shattered by a cuica scratched relentlessly like vinyl on a turntable.
With just an acoustic guitar at Momo's bar in London, Jorge entranced the audience, revealing the full range of his extraordinary voice. On the album, he flies soulfully free to a falsetto's top range, and drops to gritty, smoky depths. Though he occasionally falls foul of pitch, Jorge is redeemed by those luscious tones.
Closing the album, Jorge sings, 'Eu sou favela' ('I am Favela'). 'The song is a manifesto,' he told me. 'People in the favelas are abandoned, completely marginalised by society, but dignified and proud. They have a right to humanity as well: they can also be chic.'
This album proves as much. 02/20/05 >> go there
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