As promised, I'm back with the "Thought Clouds Radio," hosted by your favorite dj's favorite DJ, Mikestyles... With special guest and queen of the Brasilian Beat, Tita Lima. This broadcast gets deep into Brazil and the culture...
Here's an Interview By Cazembe Abena (07-13-07)
I met the Brazilian artist Tita Lima, through Garth Trinidad at the KCRW studios during a broadcast of ‘Chocolate City’. Garth’s musical taste is impeccable, so when he endorsed Tita with four stars, I knew I had to interview her. OK, I’ll admit it – the voice and the smile hooked me too. While in the studio, I remember glancing in a mirror once and seeing ‘sucker’ on my forehead. But, luckily for me, Tita is a chanteuse of tremendous talent and sensual soul. Musical acumen has surrounded her since birth. Her father is an accomplished bassist and breathed the Samba muse into her that gave birth to a skillful bass player. Tita learned to play piano from her grandmother. São Paulo’s musical scene has sharpened Tita as an adept singer, composer, and musician. She has shared the stage with genre greats such as Bocato, João Donato and Luz de Carolina to name just a few. She has been given respect by DJs world wide from the UK’s Gilles Peterson, to the US’s Garth Trinidad, to Brazil’s Patricia Palumbo and Rafael Moraes. Her first solo album ’11:11’ is a shining accomplishment of songwriting and an outstanding collection of world-class musicians. The Bossa Nova, Hip-Hop, and Samba grooves cover you like palm tree shade on Concha Beach. Ms. Lima is of a new breed of Samba artists whose musical palette includes Jazz, Hip-Hop, Funk, Reggae, Electronica and a host of disparate musical styles that influence their music. The result is an artist who can amass a broad audience through infectious compositions. If Tita’s music doesn’t make you smile, you’ll at least be thinking pleasant thoughts. And, it doesn’t matter that the lyrics are in Portuguese because from the sound of the first note you know that the vibe is coming from the right place – straight from Tita’s heart. Her unpretentious, pure and simple resonance defies any language barrier. To meet her is to experience the palpable warmth of sensuous positivity that lives in her music. We decided to conduct the interview over sushi in Venice – how very LA of us. During our conversation I learned about her inspirations, the meaning of ‘11:11’… and… well… how it feels to get punked doing a wasabi toast. Cazembe Abena (LA2DAY) – So, you were saying that you’ve been running away from music for a long time? A pregnant pause and then a recoil. Tita Lima – …Ouch. (Laughter) Tita Lima – Not the last four years, but yes… I did for a while. Cazembe – Because you didn’t see much of a future in it? You saw other musicians struggling? Tita Lima – Yes I did, and that was kind of discouraging. But… it’s my passion. Cazembe – How long have you been together with the members of your band? Tita – Five years. I have a big jazz band. Cazembe – How many members? Tita – Seven. I can’t travel with them, so what I’m doing is I’m meeting musicians from every city and forming bands there. I’m going to have a band in New York... I’m going to have one in LA… one in Portland… Seattle… London… Because I don’t have the money to afford travel for members of my band yet, I have to do it this way. Cazembe – How do you categorize what you do? Tita – I do a lot of old classic Sambas and Samba Jazz – stuff from thirty years ago. I listen to a lot of Flora Purim, João Donato, and Astrud. I also listen to a lot of Jazz. I love Shirley Horn. I always wanted to sing like her. I also listen to Chet Baker. I mix it… I listen to the stuff from my generation – Hip Hop. I love Hip-Hop. I love Reggae. I love Dub. I love bass. I’m also very into horns. I love horns and I try to keep everything raw. I try to keep things simple and raw, but with energy. When it gets too complicated – too many keyboards, too much stuff - you lose something. I try to cut it a little bit. But, there are some things that we did with programming the MPC, and noises with synthesizers. Cazembe – So, a little Electronica is in there? Tita – A little bit, yeah. Cazembe – What does the title ’11:11’ mean? Tita – It’s kind of a personal thing, but I have to talk about it because everyone always asks me. I didn’t know what it meant when I started seeing those numbers. It started to happen about six years ago. I would see them every morning and every night. Cazembe - You would see the number on a clock? Tita – On clocks, hotel rooms, the number would show up a lot and I didn’t know what it was. It has a different meaning to each person… after I started seeing it… to me it means synchronicity. When you start to doubt something… this tells you that it’s OK… where to go… it’s like a light shining. But it means synchronicity, when things are supposed to work together. And it’s a lucky number. I would see it after making good decisions. Cazembe – Eleven is considered a very powerful number in metaphysics. Tita – Yes, it is. I have a book my mother gave to me called ‘The Portal of 11:11’ - it’s an intense book. I’m still studying, so I can’t really talk too much about it without knowing the numerology behind it, you know? Our waiter brings our food. Cazembe – I understand. Ahhh… the sushi has arrived. We decide to talk and eat. I decide to try and do something macho. Cazembe – OK, let’s do a ‘wasabi toast’. I got this from a good friend of mine. Have you ever done it? Tita – No. What is it? Cazembe – You take your chopsticks and scoop up a good amount of wasabi. We both do this. Tita’s got way too much. Cazembe – Whoa. Ok, you’ve got too much – more than me. You better scrape some of that off or your head will explode. Tita takes her wasabi portion down to a workable amount. Cazembe – OK, now we toast and eat it. Cheers. We tap our chopsticks together and down the wasabi straight, right off the sticks. wa·sa·bi (wə-sä'bē, wä'sə-) n. Wasabia japonica, Cochlearia wasabi, or Eutrema japonica) is a member of the cabbage family. Known as Japanese horseradish, its root is used as a spice and has an EXTREMELY strong flavor. Its hotness is more akin to that of a hot mustard than the capsaicin in a chili pepper, producing vapors that irritate the nasal passages more than the tongue. The plant grows naturally along stream beds in mountain river valleys in Japan. OR Hydrochloric acid nose candy. Tita and I stare at each other for a moment while the wasabi hits our nasals like a smooth explosion of acid. I try my best to stop my eyes from watering. I fail. Miserably. Tita – Mmmmm… mmmm… I love it. Cazembe – (Cough) Good flavor… (Cough) huh…? (Cough) So much for my manhood. Tita – Mmmmm… I love it. I want to do more. Cazembe – You want to do more…?! Tita – More. Cazembe – You want to do it again? Wow. We scoop again. This time I make sure that she gets ‘enough’ wasabi… dammit. The explosion again… Tita – Oooooo… now I got it… Tita shows me that she’s human after all as her eyes water while she twitches her nose. I think that perhaps my manhood has been salvaged. Cazembe – It got you that time. (Laughter) I thank the wasabi gods. Tita – It got me that time. It didn’t before. Cazembe – It got you… Tita – Oooooo… that’s better. Now I can breath. (Sniffle) Cazembe – Do you like to take chances? Tita – I do. I used to worry too much. Now, I don’t worry anymore. I just do what I want to do. If I want to play the keyboards live – I’ll do it. I don’t play it that much, but… I make good melodies… I can go with a vibe… it’s all intuitive. Cazembe – What do you sing about? Tita – It really depends. I’m all over the place. One day I’m in love, one day I want to kill somebody… one day I’m OK and life’s beautiful… (Laughter) Tita – That’s how it is. I have one good song that I wrote when I was depressed, but that really doesn’t work for me. I only write when I’m happy. Cazembe – So, you’ve found that you’ve written your best work when you’re in a good space… when you’re happy… because that’s what you want to communicate? You don’t want to communicate any negativity? Tita – That’s right. Not at all. No negativity. The world is already too negative. But, I do have a few strong lyrics in a couple of songs. Because I was upset with behind the scenes stuff. There’s a song I wrote called ‘Esquizofrevo’, it’s about people who want to be stars, and they are all struggling and trying to find their way in the market. And at the same time they are very frustrated and they put down other people. They talk behind your back, they try to steal your fame, you know? I have a song about that. It’s very strong. But I’m going to work on the translations for my songs because everybody asks me about them. And most of the time they are stories and situations that have happened, that’s what I sing about. It’s hard to translate, but I will. And we will be waiting. Until then, however, we’ll let Tita continue to touch our hearts through the most powerful language known to man – music. By Cazembe Abena Discography 11:11 (Kajmere Sound 06/07) www.titalima.com
Listen
No comments:
Post a Comment