Mysterious Traveller

YOUR JORGE

“With just an acoustic guitar at Momo’s bar in London, Jorge entranced the audience, revealing the full range of his extraordinary voice”. Sue Steward, The Observer, 20/02/2005

Sue Steward’s article was published a few weeks after the show at Momo’s, to coincide with Seu Jorge’s album ‘Cru’ UK release. The concert for the press had been organised at the last minute. We had done a few shows at Momo’s with some of the artists brought to the UK by Ady Harley, at the time director of the record label Ether Music that specialised in music from Brazil. I was thrilled when Ady called to say that Seu Jorge was coming to the UK for a short visit and asked if we could do an intimate show with him. I knew Seu Jorge’s first solo album and loved his music but I had actually never met him or seen him performing live. I knew he had just recorded a new album in Paris with Rosanne and Jerome of Fla-Flu records.

Ady didn’t want to promote the show too much. Seu Jorge had a show scheduled at the Royal Festival Hall in April and also, Momo’s was too small to accommodate all the Brazilians of London! Momo’s was meant to be a showcase for professionals, almost a private event. We did a small announcement though: “So far no one has manage to bridge the gap between the old and the new Afro-Rio life. No one has managed to touch black and white, rich and poor, young and old. Seu Jorge has. Come and discover him. He is performing for the first time in London”.

With just a guitar and his extraordinary voice indeed, Seu Jorge got the attention of all of us at Momo’s. What a magical moment. (not filmed at Momo’s!) gives an idea of what it sounded like. Here is the same song, : , played years later, with his full band, on a big stage. Seu Jorge has a fantastic stage presence. A special charisma. Maybe because, like his voice, his story is extraordinary. He was born and raised in the favela (shanty town) in the north of Rio de Janeiro. A slum where poverty, crime, drug trafficking and gangs are the daily score.When he was 19, he became homeless, which he remained for 3 years. This is what Jorge says about his upbringing and encounter with music in an Interview with CNN:  “Ever since I was 10 years old, my dream was to be a musician. My father was a musician, a percussionist who played tambourines and drums… I used to go and see him play. After my brother was murdered, I ended up living on the street because my mother needed to sell our home.While I was on the street I met Gabriel Moura, who was playing guitar and singing in bars and I learnt to play from him. Two years later I joined a theatre company in Rio. After my brother died I was very, very angry, very, very sad and I wanted revenge. I found a friend with the music and this friend put hope in my heart. I started playing guitar for the people. With our first band, Farofa Carioca, we played on the beach for free”.

From 1993 until 1998, Farofa Carioca, a mix of samba and rock, became very popular in Rio. The debut album Moro no Brasil was released in 1998. Seu Jorge wrote most of the songs. He cites the samba school Estação Primeira de Mangueira, composers Nelson Cavaquinho, Zeca Pagodinho, and Stevie Wonder as major musical influences. Soon after, Jorge released his solo debut, Samba Esporte Fino. And Brazil fell in love with him. In 2001, the album was renamed Carolina and released in the United States and Europe. It was around this time that Seu Jorge got a call from the director Fernando Meirelles asking him to play the part of Ned in City of God, a thriller taking place in the favelas of Rio. The film was a massive success in Brazil and later on, abroad.

But in 2004-2005, the UK and most of Europe had not yet ‘discovered’ Seu Jorge. His second album ‘Cru’ (Raw) was confidentially recorded in Paris, just after Jorge had finished shooting the movie directed by Wes Anderson The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, alongside Bill Murray, Angelica Houston, Willem Dafoe and Cate Blanchett. In this film, Jorge plays a singing deckhand who re-interprets David Bowie’s songs in Portuguese. The result is so great that Bowie went on to say: “Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs acoustically in Portuguese, I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with.” (Album’s liner notes). Watch the movie scene where here.

Seu Jorge is a prolific artist! He has also recorded the live duo album “Ana & Jorge” with Brazilian singer Ana Carolina (released in 2005) and the album América Brasil O Disco (released in 2007). He has formed a project called Seu Jorge and Almaz with drummer Pupillo and guitarist Lucio Maia from Brazilian rock band Nação Zumbi, along with bassist Antonio Pinto, the composer of the soundtrack of City of God. The band plays psychedelic samba and funk, covering some of their favourite songs, including some performed in English like ‘Everybody loves the sunshine” of Roy Ayers or ‘Rock with you’ by Michael Jackson. here. Seu Jorge is now deservedly, a massive star in his country. .

He doesn’t often come to Europe, enjoying his life in Brazil with his wife and two daughters and being very busy in the Americas. He had a traumatic experience at the UK border in May 2005 when he was detained for 9 hours at the border  office, missing his recording for Later with Jools, (Jools Holland TV show). When he was finally given authorisation to enter the UK he was so upset he decided to immediately get on a plane and left England vowing never to return. Fortunately for us, in October 2010 he came back to play at the Roundhouse with Almaz. On August 12, 2012, he performed at the Olympics closing ceremony during the handover section which introduced Rio to the world. has released a new album called ‘Musica para Churrascos’ in 2012. Samba-funk will never die! The sun is shining!

FAT FREDDY’S DROP

Fat Freddy’s Drop made their international debut in August 2002 with the release of their single ‘Midnight Marauders’ on the German label Sonar Kollektiv, soon followed by a second 10-min long single  ‘Hope’. Live improvisation is the basis for their music. The band had been playing live in their home country New Zealand for a good decade before getting out of the island.

“Fat Freddy’s Drop are purveyor’s of a freaky nu Pacific soul train, smothered in bottom heavy funk, jazz, deep dub and skanking roots reggae, they are a 7 piece band hailing from Wellington, Aotearoa (New Zealand)”, wrote the editor of the New Zealander online dance culture web platform Obscure in April 19th 2004, ahead of FFD’s first European tour in 2004. The title of the article was: 

The group’s founders are Chris “Mu” Faiumu a.k.a. DJ Fitchie and two friends, trumpeter Toby Laing and vocalist Dallas Tamaira. “Mu” is a first generation Samoan New Zealander. Tamaira, Gordon (keyboard) and Kerr (guitar) are native Maori, and the remaining members are descendants from European immigrants.

The band started in Mu’s home studio, located by the sea. Free and independent, it feels like a family business. “The whole digital thing has allowed us to be able to produce our music at home and not have to go to big studios and fork out big production dollars and that. Everything we’ve done has totally been on the DIY. If we do it that way we can do it exactly how we want it… Things have picked up in the last couple of years and it’s quite exciting,” . “Here in New Zealand we don’t have any rules to play by, we just do whatever.”  he adds.

Since I got sent their first single in 2003, Fat Freddy’s Drop has been one my favourite bands. On the 5th of May 2004, they just rocked Momo’s. ‘Transported’ would be a better way to describe it. The band were having fun playing together and they drew the audience into their trip, it’s a powerful groove. Their sound is laid-back and heavy at the same time, quite incredible. DJ Fitchie and his guys were never aware that they were making the tables shake upstairs! “It’s a mystery to me why they are not already world famous, wrote music guru Charlie Gillett in his weekly bulletin in May 2004. I’m confident they will be in due course”. Indeed.

The gig at Momo was not exactly their first UK show, but it almost was. The band got invited to play five dates in the UK: two small bars in Shoreditch, a club in Southampton and another one in Leeds. They were also booked on the BBC radio show of Charlie Gillett, and for the recording of a session with Gilles Peterson, a huge fan too.

This next Autumn 2014, Fat Freddy’s Drop return to England to play at Alexandra Palace, their biggest UK show ever with a 8,000 capacity. They have become a national treasure at home in New Zealand and they sell out all the European shows they play. Fat Freddy’s Drop released their third studio album, Blackbird in 2013.