A project turned into a band
Along three years, Bossacucanova followed an unpredictable trail: from the Albatroz studios to European stages with a stop at dance floors
Silvio Essinger
09/03/2001
"Bossacucanova is a project that has become a band", sums up Alexandre Moreira, keyboardist, producer, mastering technician and groovebox expert. It all started at the Albatroz studios, where Márcio Menescal, Alexandre and Marcelinho da Lua where studio technicians and in charge of recording sessions for remarkable bossa artists, such as Os Cariocas, Carlos Lyra and Wanda Sá, besides Roberto himself. "We loved those songs, but we were also listening to funk, hip hop and acid jazz.', says Márcio.
One day, someone thought of remixing Os Cariocas' Só Danço Samba. "We wanted to check out the artists' reactions. The receptivity was excellent", he says. They repeated the process with recordings from Menescal (Barquinho), Carlos Lyra (Influência do Jazz and Maria Moita - whose Bossacucanova version is the soundtrack for a Spanish telephone company's commercial ad), Wanda Sá (Meditação), Sylvio César (Consolação) and Cláudia Telles (Samba de uma Nota Só). All of a sudden, they had enough material for a full album, which was released in 1997 and did not cause much of a fuss. "We did not have big plans", Márcio admits. "We recorded everything into a pre-Pro Tools software, using only four tracks", adds Alexandre. Nonetheless, the discouraging technical limitations forced Bossacucanova to create a method that the trio still uses.
Things started to happen in 1998, when rapper Marcelo D2 (from Planet Hemp) went to New York to mix his solo album (Eu Tiro é Onda
) and showed a copy of Bossacucanova Vol.1 to producer Béco Dranoff, of the Red Hot Organization - he was fascinated and decided that the disc should be the first release from his label, Ziriguiboom (whose main release, so far, has been Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo ). That same year, Da Lua went to France, to play the Transmusicales festival, and took Alexandre and Márcio with him - there, they gave interviews that helped promoting the album throughout Europe, and distributed some BCN copies among DJs.
As a result, in 1999 Bossacucanova was invited by Six Degrees to tour around the US and Canada, along with the electronica project Banco de Gaia and DJ Cheb I Sabbah. "It was ten flights in 25 days", says Da Lua. Halfway through the promotional tour, they were asked to do a live performance at a radio station in California (on the show Morning Becomes Electric, on KCRW). "They told us to come up with something right there and then", laughs Márcio, who immediately grabbed a bass guitar. With Alexandre on the keyboard, Marcelinho on the pick-ups and guest musicians playing percussion and guitar, Bossacucanova not only did a good job, but also left the Six Degrees moguls salivating. They would ask: if they could play music and Barquinho was a hit, why not make an album with Márcio's dad? And that is how Brasilidade was devised.
Today, besides its own discs, Bossacucanova has produced a version of Canto de Ossanha made by saxophonist Léo Gandelman and remixes for Rita Lee, Paulinho Moska, for the Dutch trip hop band Zuco 103 and for new age musician Paul Horn. Marcelinho has recently helped putting together a samba/soul compilation for the label Crammed. The story is only beginning for Bossacucanova.
One day, someone thought of remixing Os Cariocas' Só Danço Samba. "We wanted to check out the artists' reactions. The receptivity was excellent", he says. They repeated the process with recordings from Menescal (Barquinho), Carlos Lyra (Influência do Jazz and Maria Moita - whose Bossacucanova version is the soundtrack for a Spanish telephone company's commercial ad), Wanda Sá (Meditação), Sylvio César (Consolação) and Cláudia Telles (Samba de uma Nota Só). All of a sudden, they had enough material for a full album, which was released in 1997 and did not cause much of a fuss. "We did not have big plans", Márcio admits. "We recorded everything into a pre-Pro Tools software, using only four tracks", adds Alexandre. Nonetheless, the discouraging technical limitations forced Bossacucanova to create a method that the trio still uses.
Things started to happen in 1998, when rapper Marcelo D2 (from Planet Hemp) went to New York to mix his solo album (Eu Tiro é Onda
) and showed a copy of Bossacucanova Vol.1 to producer Béco Dranoff, of the Red Hot Organization - he was fascinated and decided that the disc should be the first release from his label, Ziriguiboom (whose main release, so far, has been Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo ). That same year, Da Lua went to France, to play the Transmusicales festival, and took Alexandre and Márcio with him - there, they gave interviews that helped promoting the album throughout Europe, and distributed some BCN copies among DJs.As a result, in 1999 Bossacucanova was invited by Six Degrees to tour around the US and Canada, along with the electronica project Banco de Gaia and DJ Cheb I Sabbah. "It was ten flights in 25 days", says Da Lua. Halfway through the promotional tour, they were asked to do a live performance at a radio station in California (on the show Morning Becomes Electric, on KCRW). "They told us to come up with something right there and then", laughs Márcio, who immediately grabbed a bass guitar. With Alexandre on the keyboard, Marcelinho on the pick-ups and guest musicians playing percussion and guitar, Bossacucanova not only did a good job, but also left the Six Degrees moguls salivating. They would ask: if they could play music and Barquinho was a hit, why not make an album with Márcio's dad? And that is how Brasilidade
was devised.Today, besides its own discs, Bossacucanova has produced a version of Canto de Ossanha made by saxophonist Léo Gandelman and remixes for Rita Lee, Paulinho Moska, for the Dutch trip hop band Zuco 103 and for new age musician Paul Horn. Marcelinho has recently helped putting together a samba/soul compilation for the label Crammed. The story is only beginning for Bossacucanova.
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