A BRAZILIAN COUNTER-CULTURE REVOLUTION, REVISITED

lthough those who participated in the creation of the Tropicalia movement in the 1960s would rather not talk about it anymore ("I'm tired of talking about this", Gal Costa told me during an interview for another publication), there is no denying that the movement changed the face not only of music but of arts in general in Brazil.

The Tropicalismo years  of 1967 to 1972 are  being revisited at the Bronx Museum (1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx NY – 718 681 6181  http:/www.bronxmuseum.org   ) in New York City in a show entitled "Tropicalia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture", which features panels discussions, exhibits , movies and other features.

Tropicalia, some might argue, had its roots in the bossa-nova crowd that internationalized samba in the late 50s, incorporating elements of West Coast cool jazz into the simple music made by composers of places like Rio and Sao Paulo (mostly Rio, in this case). At the time, the country was enjoying an unseen political freedom under president Juscelino Kubitchek,  who took the country's reins after the chaos generated by the apparent suicide of Getulio Vargas in 1954.

That freedom would not last, as the country sank into yet another political crisis ten years later (with the election and renouncement of Janio Quadros in 1961 after only 6 months in power,  and the brief presidency of leftist Joao Goulart, who would be toppled in March of 1964). A cruel military dictatorship took hold, and most of the liberties enjoyed by the students and intellectuals of the country would soon be gone. Free thinkers  were  seen, in the eyes of  the U.S.-backed, self-appointed new leaders of the land  as "communist" and "subversive" individuals who did not have a place in the new regime.

Numerous luminaries from Brazil were suddenly forced to live in exile, such as Rio Grande do Sul governor Leonel Brizola (who would return in the late 70s and become governor of Rio de Janeiro during the 80s), Goulart and many others.

All of a sudden, there was little place for songs about flowers, love and smiles, which had been a recurrent topic during the Bossa Nova boom. Bob Dylan was writing protest songs against the war in Vietnam, and the Civil Liberties movement led by The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was in full bloom. Brazil's minds were  being subdued into silence – who had the time to listen to Joao Gilberto sing about the beauties of the Corcovado with a climate like that?

In retrospect, apparently many did-- the audience loss in Brazil was replaced by Global stardom abroad, which the bossa nova crowd's survivors still enjoy to this day --- there are more records made in the genre in the U.S., Europe and Japan than in Brazil today.

In 1967, influential artist Helio Oiticica installed an art exhibit with the title "Tropicalia" – the name would be forever associated as being Brazil’s response to the psychedelic movement of the Beatles, The Beach Boys (via Pet Sounds)  and the Rolling Stones. As Veloso wrote in his 2003 memoir Tropical Truth: A Story Of Music And Revolution In Brazil, Gilberto Gil would listen repeatedly to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, influencing the members of this circle of singers and songwriters to blend their bossa-nova roots with the kind of music that was going on in Europe.

All this experimentation would result in a collective  landmark album of the same name (released in 1968) , which featured Veloso, Gil, Gal Costa,  Os Mutantes, the late Nara Leão (who had been considered "the muse of the bossa nova" almost 10 years earlier),  the enigmatic Tom  Zé and the maestro Rogério Duprat.  The disc is contains an odd mix of sounds, with lyrics ranging from the romantic to the political and other weird tunes clearly written under the influence of mind-enhancing drugs, such as “Panis Et Circenses,” written for Os Mutantes by Veloso, and Tom Ze’s “Parque Industrial.”

A year after that, both Veloso and Gil were arrested and sent into exile in London by the military dictatorship. By the time they were allowed to return to Brazil in 1972 (with the help of Joao Gilberto) , the  scene there had radically changed. Tropicalismo was over, and artists were looking into new influences – Ney Matogrosso was emerging with his Secos e Molhados, a band inspired by Glam Rock (Kiss, Alice Cooper, etc);  Veloso himself went on to make more melodic music based on his original Bossa roots, and Gilberto Gil began his relationship with reggae and other rhythms.

The  movement might have been over, but the sweeping changes it brought were felt throughout the country, and its influence was never forgotten. At The Bronx Museum, you can get a taste of  what took place in those brief years,  reliving Brazil's ability to absorb  something completely foreign, transform it to their benefit and emerge with  something new.