Tropicalia

Having a lighter student load in the last couple of days has afforded me the opportunity to focus on an upcoming project that I'm really excited about.  The band is called Killbossa and our first show will be on Easter Sunday evening at Amnesia in San Francisco.  The lineup includes fantastic musicians on noise makers such as viola, clarinets, voice, guitar, bass, and percussion.  We have all agreed to transcribe & arrange a couple of songs from the rich and varied world of Brazil's 60's Tropicalistas:  Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, and more.  

As a guitarist with an ear for psychedelic sounds, I wanted to make sure that we had a ripper, so I first set to work on 'O Relogio', a haunting piece by Os Mutantes that eventually breaks down into a classic 60's psych jam.  I can't wait to do this one!  I dropped the Portuguese into a translator and here's what I got:

My clock stopped 

Always be dropped for 
Antimagnético 
Twenty-two rubies 

I gave thought and rope 
The clock would live 
To tell the time 
To reach you 

Not been and I cried 
Two pointers stopped to laugh 
They are waterproof 
Twenty-two rubies 

What I took advantage 
To have a clock 
What is Swiss or English 
Without floor 

What time will you arrive? 
And I shot at sea 
With the clock hands I thought 
It is waterproof 

Twenty two rubies 

Since I've long been a fan of Tom Zé and his Dadaist concoctions, I knew where I needed to go next. When I first heard 'Dor E Dor' from the Album "Todos Os Olhos" I was immediately hooked by it's killer beat and the phrasing of the call and response vocals.  But suddenly it takes a left turn and sounds like the cops are pursuing some mariachis in a Bollywood feature.  You've gotta love it.  Tom starts moaning at one point and I only wish I knew what the words meant!

This transcribing has given me an opportunity to become more adept with Finale - the music notation software.  Although I'm still much faster writing out scores by hand, there are sufficient advantages to make it worth the extra time.  So I will get more proficient.  It is nice to be able to transpose instantly and email drafts off to others. Less paper too.

Here's the jam.