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In music and movies, Brazil's Seu Jorge makes presence felt
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Chicago Tribune, In music and movies, Brazil's Seu Jorge makes presence felt >>
By Aaron Cohen
Summer has been frenetic for Brazilian musician Seu Jorge. After touring Europe and Japan, he had only two days to visit his family in Sao Paulo before coming to the United States on a trek that will bring him to the World Music Festival--and Chicago for the first time.
The manic schedule, combined with his own intense energy, makes Jorge effusive in talking about how he wants to bring his observations from these global travels back home.
"We need to discuss with a new generation ideas that we can gather outside of Brazil that can really help to provide a better quality of life," Jorge says via telephone from a hotel in Miami. "Discussions of technology, the economy, how to really grow the country."
Jorge is equally eloquent in his music. He expresses different musical ideas within a distinctively Brazilian vision through his terrific disc, "Cru" (Wrasse Records). An emphasis on his sparse acoustic guitar playing and Pretinho da Serrinha's cheerfully squeaky cavaquinho (akin to a ukulele) could be why the disc's title means "raw." Occasionally, he embraces breezy electric funk--yet it's a playful reverence for traditional samba that's at its heart.
"When you need to put tiles on your roof and you don't have any money, you get people together to have food," Jorge says. "And then everybody starts beating on a tin can or an empty pail and the samba just comes out spontaneously. It's a medium to get people together and offer them happiness."
Even though Jorge's delivery initially seems lighthearted, he is forthright in dealing with social injustice in his songs, such as on "Eu Sou Favela"
("I Am Favela"). The piece describes life in urban Brazil's slums (favelas) and it's not hard to hear him reaching into his own background as he sings it.
As a child in the favelas outside of Rio de Janeiro, Jorge worked such
menial jobs as fixing flat tires to help support his parents and siblings.
When he was living on the streets of that city at the age of 20 in the early 1990s, a local theater group wanted his voice in the chorus for a
production. Jorge not only joined the company--he lived in its theater for four years.
"Black people in Brazil often don't believe that they're going to find a
successful place for themselves," Jorge says. "But the theater gave me that confidence and some social graces and it was really crucial to break down the complexes of where I was coming from."
From singing and acting in musicals to learning the guitar and making music of his own, Jorge went on to join Farofa Carioca. That multimedia performance group featured a unique mixture of samba, reggae, and hip-hop, as well as dancers and circus acts. He began receiving more attention outside Brazil and his solo debut disc, "Carolina" (put out on Mr. Bongo, a British label) was released in 2001.
But--as it could've been with Presley--Jorge's acting gigs have brought him about as much attention in the U.S. as his songs. A few years ago he portrayed the gang leader Knockout Ned in the brutal Brazilian tale, "City of God," which led to his American film debut in the quirky "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou."
Director Wes Anderson says that Jorge's presence in "City of God" made him determined to cast the Brazilian performer in "Life Aquatic." The role, of sailor Pele Dos Santos, called for Jorge to sing David Bowie songs in Portuguese and infuse them with hints of bossa nova.
"I didn't know he was a musician," Anderson says via e-mail from Paris. "I thought somebody would have to teach him to play the guitar."
Jorge's renditions of those 1970s English glam-rock anthems are the reason to rent Criterion's double-DVD special edition of the film, which includes his musical segments in their entirety. Anderson adds that Jorge "became a much more important part of the movie as we were going along.
"He is a very poetic kind of presence on a movie set," the director says. The feeling was mutual, as Jorge still sounds amazed recalling his road from the favelas to Hollywood.
"Everyone in the [`Aquatic'] cast and crew was so interested in Brazilian music and culture," Jorge says. "I was so happy to be able to give a little bit of it to the people I worked with."
Jorge also appears with Orquestra Imperial 6:30 p.m. Monday at Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, near Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. Free; 312-742-7529.
At 12:30 p.m., Monday, Jorge appears at Borders, 830 N. Michigan Ave. Free; 312-573-0564.
09/16/05 >> go there
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