Liver, language and the love of jazz

May 31st, 2007 Posted by Dougal

Nice bit of liver, nice bit of jazz. This is my response to Ben Westbeach’s observation that this was pretty much the perfect night out for him.

A jazz band is playing a low-key but high quality set in the cozy Sao Christov bar in downtown Sao Paulo. I’m sitting with a group of people (artists and producers of Trocabrahma) who have probably heard more quality jazz bands in their time than most people and we’re all in agreement that this band is one of the best we’ve ever seen.

Add to that the food and endless small glasses of Brahma Chopp and Ben’s right, this is pretty much the perfect evening. The band play fairly standard form jazz following the sequence of head tune, round of solos and recapitulated head tune to finish but they do it with such effortless flair that they remain captivating throughout their two hour long sets. All of the players are great: drums, double bass, keys, trumpet and sax but it is the latter, on tenor and soprano, who steals the show with his evolving development of motifs, beautiful chromatic progressions and distinctive technique of swaying and sliding between modes. One could easily say, with no hint of irony, that he had the ginga. So too, though, did all of the musicians, who took it in turn to have their moment. The drummer’s solo during the last piece built steadily throughout and blew us all away.

What about the liver? Well, that was handed to us on a plate. Ben, Claire, Kathy and Tommy ordered liver before Neil, Tiff, Bruno and I arrived. They mistook liver for olives on the menu, not being very familiar with Portuguese. The language difference does present something of a barrier to some of our party but not one that we can’t climb over with a certain amount of style using the few words we’ve learnt, many gestures and winning smiles. Tiff’s Portuguese is coming on well. Most Paulistanos have stopped accusing him of speaking like a Carioca. Now he speaks with Brasilian Portuguese, or proper Portuguese as Romulo Froes told us last night. Having no prior knowledge of Portuguese (proper or not) but a passable bluffers guide to Spanish, Italian and French, I concentrate on picking up as much slang as I can.

This is in the mode of what I call disposable language learning. Shamefully, I have never progressed to fluent or even reasonable conversation level with a language. I’ve approached it in the past but require the impetus of being in a country to make me learn. For that reason I think I should spend a lot more time in Sao Paulo. Perhaps I can persuade Trocabrahma that this is essential for my own personal development (which will make me more valuable to them)… Valao, I would say (literally “value” but used as a colloquial thanks). I’ve tried to learn enough to get by in some places with more challenging languages, such as South Africa (challenging depending on what language you go for) Indonesia (actually quite easy), Hungary (tricky but worth getting into and manageable once you get the pronunciation), Vietnam (extremely hard) and now Brasil. Tiff’s friend said of speaking Portuguese, oh, I get it, it’s like speaking Spanish with a Russian accent… Interesting interpretation but I can kind of see what she means. Learning syntactically or from text books can be more like practising law than engaging in banter. I like listening to people and picking up words where I can. Legal (literally “legal” but used when something is cool), I say when I learn a new word. I think the band tonight are definitely tazao (literally “horny” but used when something is really cool, so cool it’s hot…).

Anyway, back to the liver. When we enter the bar Tiff and I give everyone a big yaie, or “wassup”, just learnt from Bruno on the way here. We give the waiters a nod and opa as we arrive too (a more old fashioned way of saying hiya). Then the liver arrives. It’s quite funny to watch the faces of the four who ordered it, and nothing else. Now, I like liver as much as the next man but I’m not sure I would want to feast on it and nothing else. Kathy and Claire try a little, somewhat tentatively, while Ben gets right into it, enjoying mouthfuls with bread and Tabasco. Served hot with onions and enjoyed with a little spice, it really is pretty good. Bruno helps order a more rounded meal which includes salad, bean soup and our old favourite frango this time breaded with an extremely good spinach sauce. Ben agrees whole heartedly with the notion that tonight, with its combination of music and food has it all (as demonstrated in the photos). Kathy suggests setting up jazz and liver bars in the UK. We could do one in Glasgow and Ben can open one in Bristol. Later, during his first rehearsal with Tita Lima’s band, he suggests we start a Liver Foundation to get kids into jazz and liver from an early age. It’s a great ambition. I’m behind it 100%.

As the band take it home with a crunchy upbeat final number and show-stopping drum solo, we agree that tonight’s performance has been life-enrichingly good. Sao Paulo keeps amazing and surprising us all. Yes it is colossal, crowded, concrete and crazy (all assets, I think) but it is also charming, passionate, friendly and constantly entertaining. Tonight at Sao Christov is no exception. And after all, when it comes down to it, there’s nothing like a nice bit of liver…

… and a nice bit of jazz!

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