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.