PO: I might add that the composition is very cinematic too. A song is like a videoclip where I imagine or construct a song. I think I see a movie with those words . This association of images is not need with the potential that music has, but I think it is necessary for a very simple reason, the music plays all that is on earth, sometimes do not get much for it, because it is something that not seen with the eyes , but it is reach with the eye of the soul , which is something deeper , are song in all the feeling, has to do with it, there are sound in all.
Both make fusion music .
PO : I 've been doing this since my first album. Now it was discovered fado, in all my records I sang fado since 1998, already six , for me is not something new . Maybe I do not sang in a traditional way , but that lives inside, is very organic , this quest for fusion and an identity in my Lusitan registry is something that I try a lot. I have my muses in Brazilian music, those voices, those interpretations as in the 70s, 80s and some in the 90s . This decade , however, has nothing to do with the music, for me, is disastrous, because it all trivialized, is a given for people to use as a stick of gum, this is the dilemma in this beginning of this century, understand how we clean the house, because it is not all the same, not all serves the same. Currently everything is done in Africa, Japan , and America is fusion music. We are influencing each other, is something widespread , although it is necessary to realize that there is something that pleases me when I sing out, foreigners who know our sound , through fado, I am told that I am very Portuguese and this is the best compliment they can give me. Feeling this identity, they do not come to talk about art, which to me is superfluous, they speak of my country and feels like I have this root, can sound nationalistic, but it is not.
Luiz Avellar the last 10 years or more , in "motion " and " contrasts " fetched several musical mixed styles.
LA : That's interesting and goes along with what Paula said , I see in "motion " and "contrasts " that everything is Brazilian music. Are the feelings that exist in Brazil , that arrangment, the way to play, aldo people say is focused more on a classical approach. But it is not , I keep playing Brazilian music and she also has a lot of European music , always had. Modern music when entered in Brasil was brought from Europe, with the Italian and French. Bossa nova is jazz, was a group of people who enjoyed playing jazz themes that took the beat of samba that was João Gilberto and then made different tunes for those songs that was done at the time, but that the U.S. has already made. I also do the same thing, of course that you hear can give the idea of other things .
But in your solo concerts there is a great mix.
LA : Well , it's Brazil !
I became aware of the influences of classical and other concert in one of almost thirty minutes.
LA : But it has to do with the Villa- Lobos and other Brazilian classics composers that I grew up listening to. And all this joined with European music, I always thought Chopin was Brazilian .
DB : Is there a theme in E minor, Jobim was even inspired by this prelude .
LA : And Brazil has much more, this great mix , in which they put everything in the same bag , balled and done our way . Everything that happened in my life was just that , I'm taking everything.
Hence coming to Lisbon in search of that musicality , but this time the Portuguese ?
LA : Oh, it started with a weariness of Brazil, as politics took music, as people were directed to think in a retrograde way, cut from of a modernity of thought , I was very sad and went to live in France. I was in Paris three and half months , but felt no identity, I find it beautiful, but to stay five days then I came to Lisbon for a week , stayed in the house of a friend of mine who is a great songwriter, who is Fernando Girão. And the two made a record with our compositions, never come out, is a very beautiful work and in that process I fell in love with Portugal. I am among the first to defend the country, I think Portugal is an oasis in the world as ancient nation. Lack adjust some things, after those adjustment might not be the largest country in Europe , it will never be, but it will be the best place for people to be, because of the food and drink is fantastic and the people may be grumpy, but they are funny, intelligent and knowledgeable .
But , have no desire to return to more democratic Brazil ?
LA : The Brazilian lost its identity and is a little orphan, there were completely irresponsible and murderous governments did what they wanted and the Brazilian are lost .
But it has always been a major exportation of its artists .
LA : Yes, but no longer, it fell the same thing that 's happening here now, the songs became a banality, because class C is what is most important. People must have culture, you cannot base the culture of a country in such agents. Have to give people value for what they do and teach others how to do it. You can ot put a nurse to be a doctor , happens in science as in the arts, now we value to things that have a sectorize importance. That country has already done amazing things musically , has wonderful people, but must be put in place .
PO : The problem of trivializing of things happen because it is given the chance to people to opinate in areas that do not dominate and have no tools to give a thorough opinion. That is the danger , because if a person is successful selling fritters, for example, they make money and are rich, they become important, so they are smart enough to give an opinion, but that does not mean they can speak outside their area and what confuses people is that it is a seemingly educated person, but who does not know nothing of music, just as there are uneducated people who know nothing and talk . Everyone should have access to art , there is a phrase from Nietzsche that says that art exists so the reality does not destroy us. Everyone should be an artist, should learn painting, singing, or music, this is good for people . What happens is among all this artists there are the genius and professionals , who devote their whole life to art, develop techniques, study eight hours a day and an engineer cannot have that artistic dedication, but what is so bad in him learning how to play Mozart ? None, everyone should learn about art, must be accessible to everyone .
But back to the music, to where you want to take this project ?
PO : The most fascinating of life is there is not a prediction of the future. I see it like this, my condition of life, my way of being is to be a singer, I'm a musician, that's what 'll be all my life and what I do, maybe it is the one certain that I have, it is that. While Luiz wants to play with me, this will happen to us, but nothing stops me who suddenly do other projects and it was good we find each other, the opposite also happens .
But , there is a closer forecast?
PO: In the medium term, we want to make a record , for a long time, we think of doing it , maybe this year it will materialize. This goal was never far from our site. The availability to see what happens next is also important. My interest in making music with Luiz is not connected to anything else that has to do with the both of us. It is a link that only has to do with this and is very strong . It has to do with my way of being an artist, this true, this delivery, demand and friendship. None of them exist without the other .
Tell me of thy new musical project.
PO : It's a project born of a reflection on who I am now, I picked memories and wondered what am I as a Portuguese jazz singer ? This record reflects that moment when I decided to launch a challenge to a great friend, Bernardo Moreira, father, told him I wanted to record an album with the musicians of his time . I needed to record with people who were linked to the 50s when music was that was happening . That generation lived those song before they were the standards we know, they lived those songs. And this was very interesting process. When I spoke of this project to other people, on the Hot Club , the institution of which I am part, said it was interesting, found beautiful and said let's do this with the label which we hold, will appear for the first time with this musical work. We noted then that they had nothing recorded until today, are the first generation of jazz musicians in Portugal . Are the first musicians who played in festivals abroad, but had no albuns and this my project, reflection, of this standarts, which was something almost private, went to the outside as a project about this magical world of a generation which today allows me to be a jazz singer and live from music .
What led you to this reflection, that seek of the origins right now?
PO : Whenever I make a record I think what I will do and why I do it. I do not sing certain theme and another and do a cocktail. Just spoke to my identity as a Portuguese singer, but this repertoire '50s were my musical training, one of the strongest . It is important to make this revisiting of a musical memory, now when recording standarts there is a contemporary component, the musical wrapping is this, the orchestration , how to arrange the songs, because they are already people who have learned this song after it being recorded. These musicians with whom I recorded lived that moment did not evolve for this contemporary side and what it brings to the performance ? A genuineness, a truth .
It has many themes ?
PO : It is a record with just 10 themes, turned a double CD , with 12 guests, the cream of Portuguese musicians and made a DVD with the making off with testimonials of these people. Not only is the visit of this standarts, this is the reason , the rest is their story, we recorded this work live at the club as they were used to playing, we recorded two takes ofr each song and choose one of them later in the studio . It is a pure and simple editing and then the DVD is the whole process of tests, the times when we are discussing the music, because nowadays we have the sheet music, but they had no access to any of that, it's also fun to see how they do this dialogue, everything is there raw. Very politely the film crew captured incredible moments . The work is called " just in time" suggested by one of them. It is a very exciting work, I do not know what will happen with the record, but the prize I got it , it was selfishly play with them , it was wonderful .
And Luiz Avellar in parallel with this project of Paula , must have others, you are a very prolific musician.
LA : I've lived the golden age of Brazilian music, lived with great artists and in a certain point I left it all , looked at me and went back to the piano. Now there is only this project with Paula I'm really enjoying it and it is very pleasurable. The music goes only exist when people hear . And another thing I want to do is making 20 , 30 , 40 pieces are sheet music I'm playing. I have a wonderful piano at home, I'm writing and then put it out and see what goes. I want to make something and has to do with the whole world , but it is also Brazilian. Nowadays we are a mix of everything and I 've been wanting to just play, I'm not worried about the kind of music I want to do , what cames out, cames out.
