TROPICALIA CHAPTER ONE: The Beginning: Os Panis Et Circenses

The movement is called Tropicalia.  Here is a brief explanation about the movement and music of that era;  In the late 1960s, Brazilian artists forged a watershed cultural movement known as Tropicalia. Music inspired by that movement is today enjoying considerable attention at home and abroad. Few new listeners, however, make the connection between this music and the circumstances surrounding its creation, the most violent and repressive days of the military regime that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985. With key manifestations in theater, cinema, visual arts, literature, and especially popular music, Tropicalia dynamically articulated the conflicts and aspirations of a generation of young, urban Brazilians.

Focusing on a group of musicians from Bahia, an impoverished state in northeastern Brazil noted for its vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture, Artists including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Ze created this movement together with the musical and poetic vanguards of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most modern and industrialized city. This shows how the tropicalists selectively appropriated and parodied cultural practices from Brazil and abroad in order to expose the fissure between their nation's idealized image as a peaceful tropical "garden" and the daily brutality visited upon its citizens.

My education did not really start with this album, but it lead to further exploration with it.  I was handed this right after I picked up a copy of Everything is Possible: World Psychedelic Classics Vol. 1. Os Mutantes. I listened to that album and I thought that this was too good to ignore.  I asked around and people had no idea what I was talking about.  I even looked around record stores, book stores and other places that the liner notes made reference to.  Nothing was found, and I had to ask for help.  I worked at the library and since Wikipedia was not a source yet, I had to do some serious digging.

It was just about a lost cause until a friend had a four CD box set of artists who were part of this movement.  This box set included a Various Artists album called Ou Panis Et Circenses, Caetano Veloso (1967) (he had a few self titled albums that be put out)  Gilberto Gil (1968) (Also had two albums with the same self titled album)  Gal Costa S/T album and a self titled album by the same band Os Mutantes that I got their compilation previously.  This set was the golden treasure.  I was in awe that this was around as a recorded document.  What was more interesting was I saw a book at the local book store called Brutality Garden: Tropicalia and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture. So things were getting clearer now and I had the text and and the music to soak up.  It was an period of Brazil that to this day has always fascinated me.

At the peak this music crossed the concert stage in the form of a $5.00 show (for students and friends) at the local university.  Caetano Veloso was playing and the friend who had the Box Set got two tickets to see this Brazilian icon.  I was so overwhelmed with all this music flooding my ears at the same time.  I had a crash course in Portuguese and also decided to learn the lyrics as well. It did not help.  I could only get a few words and then I just hummed the melody anyway.  Oh well, at least I tried.

So in conclusion, you will find out more about the music then the historical period of this era.  I wish I could explain more about what the historical, but there is more to the story then my knowledge will allow.  It was an interesting period for Brazil, it was also some of the most fruitful music and not most widely talked about in some circles of music aficionados. but for me it's my passion of of this great era I love talking about.  These artists like Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Ze, Jorge Ben, Rita Lee, and Os Mutantes still make me grin from ear to ear when I hear them.  Just the other day O heard Os Mutantes on the radio and still love how forward thinking and their influence still effects musicians today.  The album Os Panis Et Circenses (Bread and Circus) is the best way to dive into this wonderful period of music.  Dive in and I will talk about some albums of this period in future posts.  You may not know the words, but the music is quite beautiful that you really don't need the lyrics to understand.  Enjoy!!!!