Patrao, painting and poetic Portuguese

June 13th, 2007 Posted by Dougal

Romulo Froes met up with King Creosote and his band of merry men in our hotel. We’d met Kenny, Johnny, Gavin, Nathan and Christian the previous day just as they arrived. Ben went for food with them while we went to work. We didn’t see them for the jazz that night and only briefly at the Four Tet and Open Field Church gig so we took the band to the market during the day to gaze at offal and sample pure melted chocolate. We all decided to go out this evening. Bruno and Romulo took us to the football themed Sao Christavo bar and restaurant where Tiff had watched the Champions League final and we had all enjoyed some liver and jazz (and who wouldn’t?).

I didn’t know what to expect of Romulo, a contemporary bossa nova artist based in Sao Paulo. Perhaps someone like Tom Jobim. But in real life he’s much more contemporary than that. A big, friendly, immediately engaging, funny, talented man, Romulo took us all to the bar and we set about some snacks and cold Brahmas. He asked Tiff what he, Tommy, Claire and I were doing as part of the project. Tiff explained that we were making a documentary series and managing the online community side of TrocaBrahma, in Portuguese. He indicated that I was the patrao: the boss or leader. Romulo laughed and explained that patrao was an old fashioned word. Perhaps cheife or maestre would be more appropriate. Tiff kept repeating that I was the patrao so much so that Romulo now refers to me as nothing else. This is the first nickname I’ve ever really had. And not a bad one at that!

Kenny (King Creosote) Anderson started to learn some Brazilian Portuguese from Señor Froes. We left the musicians to bond and retreated to the hotel to take it easy and upload hundreds of pictures to Flickr. Although we agree with Bruno that there are no early nights in Sao Paulo, we had been up late and live the past few nights in a row and thought a little downtime was in order.

The following day we met up with Ben and Tita again to spy on their rehearsal. We’d been to see them the previous day. They were working on some nice samba-inspired jazz grooves in a loose lazy style. Ben was feeling the general vibe and working on some lyrics with Tita. He even did a guest spot (she introduced him as Ben Westwood, which we thought was hilarious but he wasn’t overjoyed about) in the Grazie a Dio in Villa Madalena club before the Four Tet and Open Field Church gig. Tommy and Tiff took the two singers for some feijoada and did a fashion-style photo shoot against local graffiti walls while Claire and I sorted some of our hours and hours of recorded audio and video and various photos.

In the evening Claire, Kathy, Neil, Louise and Anne (our Brahma representatives who flew in on Sunday from the UK, via Rio) herded all of the artists together and took them for drinks in the Italia Tower downtown. It’s the tallest building in Sao Paulo and you can eat and drink on the 41st floor. A perfect place to enjoy a cocktail while marvelling at the megapolian view of the city below.

Tiff, Tommy and I had a more grounded, street level experience as Julio took us to the opening party of the Graffiteria gallery in Pinheiros. Tiff and I had visited at the beginning of May, while we were hanging out with Bonde, Amanda and Radioclit. The gallery had since moved to a bigger, higher profile space and was staging a primetime party to mark the occasion. Julio’s friend Patricia was hosting the night. Seeing what a great job she had done and enjoying the hot cachasa drinks she offered us, we forgave her everything for the lack of blagged drinks during our first ever night in Sao Paulo.

Tommy interviewed several of the artists exhibiting work in the gallery. Paulo Ito had the honour of the first exhibition. His sensual, at times erotic, broad brush strokes mostly depicting naked women were obviously inspired by graffiti but definitely belonged in the gallery. The other artists we spoke to had varying styles, from abstract paintings to graphic design. Their approach to visual art varied but all of them shared in a passion for painting on the streets.

Sao Paulo displays a diverse and dynamic range of street art. Although there are many buildings painted in bright colours, the majority of the city resembles a choppy sea of undulating concrete buildings. Thus street art is not only tolerated, it’s encouraged as it brings the walls to life. If only UK cities were the same.

Back in the UK street art will form a key part of TrocaBrahma as UK artists in Glasgow, Liverpool and London exchange ideas and paint with Sao Paulo artist Speto. We will document the art exchange in due course, and present the audio and video from the Graffiteria opening. The gallery itself is inspiring, as is the attitude towards street art in Sao Paulo, a city that as one explores appears to be more vibrant and interesting with every turn.

We followed our visual stimulation with a bite to eat in a Mexican restaurant that Julio recommended and then headed back to the hotel to upload some content and have a nightcap. That nightcap became quite a hat as the others returned from the Italian Tower and made a party on the roof. Louise demanded that I fetch my laptop and DJ for everyone so I set about compiling a playlist of TrocaBrahma-inspired music. (I’m working on a more refined version of that mix, which I’ll make available online soon.) We enjoyed more great views from the roof of our Perdizes hotel, everyone in great spirits. The prospect of sunrise over the tower blocks of Sao Paulo was mesmerising but the most memorable part of the night was Times journalist Sophie Hayward deliberating about stripping off and jumping into the rooftop pool too long so that KC drummer Gav stole the show and pushed her in. Poetic justice perhaps? It had painted quite a picture and certainly had Patrao laughing.

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