By Jack Arnhold, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – From Wednesday, July 18th to Thursday, September 6th, the ‘Espaço Cultural BNDES’ (Cultural Space BNDES) will be exhibiting ‘Passo a Compasso,’ (step by step) a tribute to the 60th anniversary of the bossa nova movement.
In an interview with Jornal do Brasil, the music critic and curator of this exhibition, Tárik de Souza, describes the show as “conceptual.”
While having listening posts throughout the exhibition space, the visitor will also have contact with the lyrics that changed the language of Brazil; they can follow a chronology of bossa nova, from its beginning to the present day, while also exploring the parallels to the urbanization of the country.
Furthermore, they can see how bossa nova created a new vocal language for Brazilian music, and observe the influence of the movement on music from around the world.
Tárik explains that the exhibition delineates “a timeline, with the main episodes of bossa nova and a segmented view of its manifestations. There are exposed lyrics to highlight the poetic changes introduced by the movement, comparative recordings of changes in interpretation, plus melody, harmony and rhythm.”
While at the same time, he says, “there are sections for bossa nova where it became political, erudite, afro-samba, samba jazz, its spread abroad and a section called ‘Bossa-always-Nova,’ where classic and recent bossanovistas are found.” The exhibition has been produced by Valéria Machado Colela, designed by Ruth Freihof and with sound design by Framklim Garrido.
This would be the perfect exhibition with which to follow the current ‘O Rio do samba: resistência e reinvenção’ (Samba’s Rio de Janeiro: resistance and reinvention) exhibition at Museu de Arte do Rio (Rio’s Museum of Art).
What: “Bossa 60, Passo a Compasso”
When: Wednesday, July 18th to Thursday, September 6th; opening hours 10AM-7PM
Where: Galeria BNDES, Avenida República do Chile 100 – Centro
Entrance: Free