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Star Time: Brazil´s Seu Jorge moves beyond Bowie covers
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Hartford Advocate, Star Time: Brazil´s Seu Jorge moves beyond Bowie covers >>
By John Adamian
Seu Jorge is star material. The Brazilian actor and musician was practically the coolest thing in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic, which had a lot of other cool and worthy tricks stowed away in its ship tale of a washed-up oceanographer. Jorge played a guitar-toting member of the marine biology crew. Jorge's main role was to provide soulful samba and bossa versions of David Bowie tunes sung in his chocolaty Portuguese. Excellent music usually characterizes Anderson's films (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums). Even those who didn't think much of The Life Aquatic (and there were many) had to concede that the Brazilian interpretations of Bowie were a stroke of genius. For a glimpse of Jorge's versatility on screen, rent City of God, the 2002 Brazilian film about a group of young friends trying to escape the life of crime, drugs and poverty in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Jorge played the criminally insane Knockout Ned, and he captured the goggle-eyed homicidal drug kingpin. Jorge has a bio that sounds ready for the big screen. Homeless for a time in a favela outside of Rio, at age 10 Jorge helped support his family by repairing tires.
Jorge (pronounced Say-ooh Zshorjee) is now making a bid for all-around renaissance-man actor/singer mega celebrity, in a low-key art-house kind of way. This shouldn't be confused with the musical dalliances of actors like Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey or Kevin Bacon. Jorge's new record, out this week, is called Cru, which means "raw," and it's good.
Jorge's music is more in line with the breezy eclecticism of Brazilian Tropicalia than the current rowdy electronic club music known as baile funk. Cru opens with the funky, fast strumming of a ukulele-like cavaquinho. Cru bumps with familiar samba percussion, the deft tambourine-like rhythms of the pandeiro, the braying of the cuica, and the ringing of agogo bells. But the record is by no means a strictly traditional affair. Clubby synth creeps in on his cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Chatterton," on which Jorge exercises his skills at mimicry, doing an admirable impersonation of the rakish Frenchman, he also takes Elvis Presley's lovely "Don't" and gives it a Rio twist. But Jorge is at his best when it's just him, his rich voice and spare guitar playing, like on "Fiore de la Città" "São Gonça" and "Bola de Meia."
Jorge is booked to perform in only about a dozen cities in the U.S., so his Sept. 9 performance at Pearl St. in Northampton, Mass. is something of a rare chance to see him live. The next time he's in the region Seu Jorge might be a household name, one that's very hard to pronounce. 09/08/05 >> go there
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