Clube da Esquina was the inspiration for Bituca as he prepared for his birthday with a stellar concert performance.
Milton Nascimento’s clear, passionate voice represents the true spirit of Brazil. Through the course of his long career, this Brazilian’s music has spanned continents and crossed cultures on a global scale.
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Bituca celebrates his 77th birthday after an exciting Friday night performance at Araújo Vianna Auditorium in Porto Alegre where he revisited his Clube da Esquina albums from 1972 and 1978.
Although the combination “wheel of friends + guitar” does not usually work very well, this is how Milton Nascimento refers to one of the greatest events of Brazilian music. For him, Clube da Esquina was a simple “meeting of friends”. The group formed in the 1960s in Belo Horizonte included Lô Borges, Wagner Tiso, Fernando Brant, Beto Guedes and Flavio Venturini, among other big names.
“It could only have happened to our class, from my beginning together with Wagner Tiso still there in Três Pontas (MG), until my arrival in Belo Horizonte. Without these friendships, there would be nothing” said Milton in an email interview.
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That’s the mood of the show that the composer brought Friday night to Porto Alegre, in honor of the two homonymous albums of 1972 and 1978.
Incidentally, the singer ensures that he has never been “so happy doing a tour”. The project debuted in March and was the first dedicated to the two albums of the Club. The idea came from his son, Augusto, who is the artistic direction of his father’s shows.
Wilson Lopes, who plays guitar and guitar, was responsible for setting up the band, that is, calling up friends: Widor Santiago (brass), Lincoln Cheib (drums), Alexandre Ito (bass), José Ibarra (vocals), Ronaldo Silva ( percussion) and Ademir Fox (piano).
Looking back, Milton recalls the informal mood of the first album recordings for Clube da Esquina:
“Just before recording, we went to live in Niterói (Rio de Janeiro), at Piratininga Beach. First it was Lôm Borges, Beto Guedes and I, and then all the friends, family and households came. And the house was always full, never empty, and in this climate we made pretty much the whole album. And by the time we got to the studio we had the whole thing sort of going on. And the same people who attended the house are also on the record.”
Our thanks to Gauchazh and Luiza Piffero for the original article, parts of which were transcribed in English.
