Jorge Mautner, the MPB oracle
Songwriter makes a new album and gets ready to go international with a little help from Keith Richards and Ron Wood
Tom Cardoso
14/02/2001
Keith Richards, Mano Brown, Chico Science, Caetano Veloso and Lobão are, all of them, fans of Jorge Mautner's. But he couldn't care less. At age 60, the musician, poet and writer keeps the subversive spirit within and wastes no time. The Khaos philosophy ("don't forget that we spell khaos with a K!", he always says), strongly supported by him for over 40 years, is still fuel for polemic issues, as well as his compositions, admired by a bunch of musicians who wore diapers when Mautner already spoke to Caetano Veloso's and Gilberto Gil's hearts by the late 60s.
Mautner gave an interview to AllBrazilianMusic over the phone, from a hotel in Recife. Helped by his faithful and long time partner Nelson Jacobina (maestro, arranger and co-writer of hits like Maracatu Atômico, recorded by Gilberto Gil and made eternal by Chico Science & Nação Zumbi), the songwriter is slowly working on a new album. The two have written a few songs, such as Lá Vem o Rabecão (or Here Comes the Funerary Car), an ironic view on violence and big cities.
Most of the repertoire, however, is being written with Kid Abelha saxophonist, George Israel, with whom Mautner has been making music since the early 90s. "I have written four songs with Israel and one with Paula (Toller, Kid Abelha vocalist). The contact is very pleasant, even because I had always been too distant from the 80s generation", says the musician, recalling that Titãs singer Sérgio Brito has recently recorded Mautner's Cinco Bombas Atômicas in his solo album (A Minha Cara
).
Regret
In fact, Mautner has been a lot more connected to the 90s generation. Reggae band Cidade Negra, for instance, has recently included Mobatalá, written with Jorge, in the album Enquanto o Mundo Gira. Since he enjoys talking with the audience and reciting poems during his shows, Mautner has decided to turn all of his poetry into rap, a style that he genuinely likes. There will also be space for the samba in the new album, though, through versions of obscure songs written by Assis Valente and Gasolina. "But I can't tell you which songs are these, or someone might outsmart me and record it, too".
Forró with Ron Wood
Just like Tom Zé being rediscovered by David Byrne, chances are that Jorge Mautner will be turned famous by the hands of two illustrious rockers: Rolling Stones guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood. The poet explains: "We have a few friends in common and more than once I have been in parties with the two of them. In one of those parties, during a Ron Wood exhibit (who is also a painter), I played a forró and he enjoyed tremendously. I am also aware that André Midani (manager and producer) handed two tapes to Keith Richards. Maybe they will release my albums abroad", he says, rather aloof. "I get plenty of homages in Brazil; that's good enough for me".
The repertoire made available to Wood and Richards was written when Mautner was in exile, between New York and London. In the USA, he worked for writer Robert Lowell and wrote a song with jazz singer Carla Blay (Olhos de Gato). In London, he fascinated Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil with his libertarian ideas(Veloso claims that Mautner had tropicalist insights long before him). In the English capital, the poet wrote the lyrics for three Gil songs - The Three Mushrooms, Babylon and Crazy Pop Rock - and one Caetano song, From Far Away. If non-Brazilians were amazed with Tom Zé's experimentalism, they might as well be astonished upon discovering Jorge Mautner.
Mautner gave an interview to AllBrazilianMusic over the phone, from a hotel in Recife. Helped by his faithful and long time partner Nelson Jacobina (maestro, arranger and co-writer of hits like Maracatu Atômico, recorded by Gilberto Gil and made eternal by Chico Science & Nação Zumbi), the songwriter is slowly working on a new album. The two have written a few songs, such as Lá Vem o Rabecão (or Here Comes the Funerary Car), an ironic view on violence and big cities.
Most of the repertoire, however, is being written with Kid Abelha saxophonist, George Israel, with whom Mautner has been making music since the early 90s. "I have written four songs with Israel and one with Paula (Toller, Kid Abelha vocalist). The contact is very pleasant, even because I had always been too distant from the 80s generation", says the musician, recalling that Titãs singer Sérgio Brito has recently recorded Mautner's Cinco Bombas Atômicas in his solo album (A Minha Cara
).Regret
In fact, Mautner has been a lot more connected to the 90s generation. Reggae band Cidade Negra, for instance, has recently included Mobatalá, written with Jorge, in the album Enquanto o Mundo Gira
. Since he enjoys talking with the audience and reciting poems during his shows, Mautner has decided to turn all of his poetry into rap, a style that he genuinely likes. There will also be space for the samba in the new album, though, through versions of obscure songs written by Assis Valente and Gasolina. "But I can't tell you which songs are these, or someone might outsmart me and record it, too".Forró with Ron Wood
Just like Tom Zé being rediscovered by David Byrne, chances are that Jorge Mautner will be turned famous by the hands of two illustrious rockers: Rolling Stones guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood. The poet explains: "We have a few friends in common and more than once I have been in parties with the two of them. In one of those parties, during a Ron Wood exhibit (who is also a painter), I played a forró and he enjoyed tremendously. I am also aware that André Midani (manager and producer) handed two tapes to Keith Richards. Maybe they will release my albums abroad", he says, rather aloof. "I get plenty of homages in Brazil; that's good enough for me".
The repertoire made available to Wood and Richards was written when Mautner was in exile, between New York and London. In the USA, he worked for writer Robert Lowell and wrote a song with jazz singer Carla Blay (Olhos de Gato). In London, he fascinated Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil with his libertarian ideas(Veloso claims that Mautner had tropicalist insights long before him). In the English capital, the poet wrote the lyrics for three Gil songs - The Three Mushrooms, Babylon and Crazy Pop Rock - and one Caetano song, From Far Away. If non-Brazilians were amazed with Tom Zé's experimentalism, they might as well be astonished upon discovering Jorge Mautner.